a much greater, not to endure those of our Country, which wise Men have
unanimously preferr'd to their_ Parents. _'Tis indeed the Property of a
wary self-interested Man, to measure his Kindness for his Country by his
own particular Advantages: But such a sort of Carelesness and
Indifferency seems a Part of that Barbarity which was attributed to the_
Cynicks _and_ Epicureans; _whence that detestable Saying proceeded_,
When I am dead, let the whole World be a Fire. _Which is not unlike the
Old Tyrannical Axiom_; Let my Friends perish, so my Enemies fall along
with them. [Footnote: _Me mortuo terra misceatur incendio. Pereant amici
dum una inimici intercidant._] _But in gentle Dispositions, there is a
certain inbred Love of their Country, which they can no more divest
themselves of, than of Humanity it self. Such a Love as_ Homer
_describes in_ Ulysses, _who preferred_ Ithaca, _tho' no better than a
Bird's Nest fix'd to a craggy Rock in the Sea, to all the Delights of
the Kingdom which_ Calypso _offer'd him_.

Nescio qua natale Solum dulcedine cunctos
Ducit, & immemores non finit esse sui:

_Was very truly said by the Ancient Poet; When we think of that Air we
first suck'd in, that Earth we first trod on, those Relations,
Neighbours and Acquaintance to whose Conversation we have been
accustomed._

_But a Man may sometimes say, My_ Country _is grown_ mad _or_ foolish,
_(as_ Plato _said of his) sometimes that it rages and cruelly tears out
its own Bowels.--We are to take care in the first Place, that we do not
ascribe_ other Folks _Faults to our innocent_ Country. _There have been
may cruel_ Tyrants _in_ Rome _and in other Places; these not only
tormented innocent good Men, but even the best deserving Citizens, with
all manner of Severities: Does it therefore follow, that the Madness of
these Tyrants must be imputed to their Country? The Cruelty of the
Emperor_ Macrinus _is particularly memorable; who as_ Julius Capitolinus
_writes, was nicknamed_ Macellinus, _because his House was stained with
the Blood of Men, as a Shambles is with that of Beasts. Many such others
are mention'd by Historians, who for the like Cruelty (as the same_
Capitolinus _tells us) were stil'd, one_ Cyclops, _another_ Busiris, _a
3d_ Sciron, _a 4th_ Tryphon, _a 5th_ Gyges. _These were firmly
persuaded, that Kingdoms and Empires cou'd not be secur'd without
Cruelty: Wou'd it be therefore reasonable, that good Patriots shou'd lay
aside all Care