[Footnote: 65] Though a great
house is apt to make slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a part of the
artificial importance of a great empire too dear to pay for it all essential
rights and all the intrinsic dignity of human nature. None of us who would not
risk his life rather than fall under a government purely arbitrary. But although
there are some amongst us who think our Constitution wants many improvements to
make it a complete system of liberty, perhaps none who are of that opinion would
think it right to aim at such improvement by disturbing his country, and risking
everything that is dear to him. In every arduous enterprise we consider what we
are to lose, as well as what we are to gain; and the more and better stake of
liberty every people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt to
make it more. These are the cords of man. Man acts from adequate motives
relative to his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the
great master of reasoning, cautions us, and with great weight and propriety,
against this species of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments as the
most fallacious of all sophistry.
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