BOOK III PART II
fect must cease also. For there is a principle of
human nature, which we have frequently taken
notice of, that men are mightily addicted to
general rules, and that we often carry our max-
ims beyond those reasons, which first induced
us to establish them. Where cases are simi-
lar in many circumstances, we are apt to put
them on the same footing, without considering,
that they differ in the most material circum-
stances, and that the resemblance is more ap-
parent than real. It may, therefore, be thought,
that in the case of allegiance our moral obliga-
tion of duty will not cease, even though the nat-
ural obligation of interest, which is its cause,
has ceased; and that men may be bound by
conscience to submit to a tyrannical govern-
ment against their own and the public inter-
est. And indeed, to the force of this argument I
so far submit, as to acknowledge, that general