A thousand motives will excite them thereto the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
The first is a patron, the last a punisher. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution
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