The theory of moral sentiments: By Adam Smith, ...

and to put into motion so beautiful and so orderly a machine. Nothing tends so much to promote public spirit as the study of politics, of the several systems of civil go|vernment, their advantages and disadvan|tages, of the constitution of our own coun|try, its situation, and interest with regard to foreign nations, its commerce, its defence, the disadvantages it labours under, the dan|gers to which it may be exposed, how to re|move the one, and how to guard against the other. Upon this account political disquisi|tions, if just, and reasonable, and practicable, are of all the works of speculation the most useful. Even the weakest and the worst of them are not altogether without their utility. They serve at least to animate the public pas|sions of men, and rouze them to seek out the means of promoting the happiness of the so|ciety.