An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/438 page 24
    SECT, IIL Of the principles of Union among Mankind. jVlANKiND have always wandered or fettled , agreed or quarrelled, in troops and. companies. The caufe of their affembling, whatever it be , is. the principle of their alliance or union. In colle&ing the materials of hiftory, we are feldom willing to put up with, our fubjedl merely as we find it. We are loth to be embarraffed with a multiplicity of particulars * and apparent incon- fiftencies. In theory we profefs the inveftigation of general principles; and in order to bring the matter of our inquiries within the reach of our comprehenixon , are difpofed to adopt any fyftem. Thus, in treating of human affairs, we would draw every confequence from a principle of union, or a principle of diffenfion. The ftate of nature Is a ftate of war or of amity, and men are made to unite from a principle of affe&ion, or from a principle of fear , as is moft fuitable to the fyftem of different writers. The hiftory of our fpecies indeed abundantly ihews, that they are to one another mutual obje&s both of fear and of love; and they who would prove them to have been originally either in a ftate of alliance, or of war, have arguments in ftore to maintain their affer- tions. Our attachment to one divifion , or to one feeffc, feems often, to derive mlich of its force from I
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