POLITICAL TRACTS. Fallitur, egregio quifquis fub principe credit Servitium, nunquam Libertas gratior extat CLAUDIANUS. THE FALSE ALAR M. [1770.] ON NE of the chief advantages derived by the prefent generation from the improvement and diffusion of philofophy, is deliverance from unnecessary terrours, and exemption from false alarms. The unusual appearances, whether regular or accidental, which once fpread confternation over ages of ignorance, are now the recreations of inquifitive fecurity. The fun is no more lamented when it is eclipfed, than when it fets; and meteors play their corufcations without prognoftick or prediction. The advancement of political knowledge may be expected to produce in time the like effects. Caufelefs difcontent and feditious violence will grow lefs frequent, and lefs formidable, as the science of government is better afcertained by a diligent study of the theory of man. It is not indeed to be expected, that phyfical and political truth fhould meet with equal acceptance, or gain ground upon the world with equal facility. The notions of the naturalift find mankind in a state of neutrality, or at worft have nothing to encounter but prejudice and vanity; prejudice without malignity, and vanity without interest. B 2 |