Than palace, and should fitting be
For all my use, no luxury.
My garden, painted o'er
With Nature's hand, not Art's, should pleasures yield,
Horace might envy in his Sabine field."

H. M.



OF LIBERTY.



The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which
they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of
government; the liberty of a private man in being master of his own
time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of
his country. Of this latter only we are here to discourse, and to
inquire what estate of life does best suit us in the possession of
it. This liberty of our own actions is such a fundamental privilege
of human nature, that God Himself, notwithstanding all His infinite
power and right over us, permits us to enjoy it, and that, too,
after a forfeiture made by the rebellion of Adam. He takes so much
care for the entire preservation of it to us, that He suffers
neither His providence nor eternal decree to break or infringe it.
Now for our time, the same God, to whom we are but tenants-at-will
for the whole, requires but the seventh part to be paid to Him at as
a small quit-rent, in acknowledgment of His title. It is man only
that has the impudence to demand our whole time, though he neither