BOOK III PART II
justly thought to maintain a very extravagant
paradox, and to shock the common sense and
judgment of mankind. No maxim is more con-
formable, both to prudence and morals, than
to submit quietly to the government, which we
find established in the country where we hap-
pen to live, without enquiring too curiously
into its origin and first establishment. Few
governments will bear being examined so rig-
orously. How many kingdoms are there at
present in the world, and how many more do
we find in history, whose governors have no
better foundation for their authority than that
of present possession? To confine ourselves
to the Roman and Grecian empire; is it not
evident, that the long succession of emperors,
from the dissolution of the Roman liberty, to
the final extinction of that empire by the Turks,
coued not so much as pretend to any other title