Every Man promised himself to return with certain Victory, and enriched with Spoil; with the like pleasing Fancies, which now turned their Heads. But if he be truly an Exile, then I must own, that it is only Manlius, a small Centurion, who has encamped the Forces in the Territory of Edition: current; Page: [104] Fesulæ; it is this Centurion, who, acting for himself, hath, in his own Name, declared War against the Roman People; that these Forces by no means await the Arrival of Catiline to assume the supreme Command; for that he, they say, thus thrust out as an Exile, will retire to Marseilles, without entering that Camp. But Cæsar corrupted Rome more by his Liberality, than Crassus did, or could, by Avarice; since Avarice only corrupts the Heart that entertains it, and therefore avaricious Men cannot be terrible to a State, otherwise than by plundering it, which they seldom have Credit enough to do. When they have once persuaded their Dupes, that such an Event will happen, it is easy to put them upon Expedients to bring it to pass; and in doing it, such as believe it to be God’s Decree, will thence be notably animated to fulfil it; nay, be proud of being his Instruments. Sir Samuel Garth coming one Morning to visit the late Duke of Argyll, with a Book in his Hand, the Duke asked him what it was. ‘The People, says Plutarch, were so far from growing more tractable by such Indulgence, and false Courtesy, (as these Princes hoped they would) that the Government fell under popular Contempt.’ The great Task, and great Merit, of Lycurgus, was to recover its lost Authority; since every Government without Authority must be lost. No Man is abler than You to compare the Original and the English together: Yet, for this very Reason, I am far from inviting, or even encouraging you to take that Trouble. His moral and political values are traditional; they commemorate the past to castigate the present. It was exceeding hard, and even barbarous, that They, who exerted so much Bravery, and ventured their Lives, to accomplish it, should still be in a worse Condition than before; possessed of less Liberty; exposed to more Severity and Insults; nay, enthralled by those whom they had rescued from Thraldom. They assembled the People, harangued, governed, and inflamed them; commanded the Senate to meet, controuled, interrupted, and insulted it; arraigned the highest Patricians, and ordered the Consuls (the supreme Magistrates of the State) into Custody. What was this but adding one Wickedness to another, and perpetuating his Cruelty?