In numerous instances, the precedent ought to operate as a warning, and not as an example, and requires to be shunned instead of imitated; but instead of this, precedents are taken in the lump, and put at once for constitution and for law.
Paine argues that many precedents should serve as warnings rather than examples, yet they are often blindly adopted as law and constitution.
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The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.
It has nothing to dread from attacks; truth has given it an establishment, and time will record it with a name as lasting as his own.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?