Page:Conciones ad populum. Or, Addresses to the people (IA concionesadpopul00cole).pdf/19

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against these excesses, we shall be more profitably employed In developing the sources of them. French Freedom is the Beacon, which while it guides to Equality, should shew us the Dangers that throng the road.

The Annals of the French Revolution have recorded in Letters of Blood, that the Knowledge of the Few cannot counteract the Ignorance of the Many; that the Light of Philosophy, when it is confined to a small Minority, points out the Possessors as the Victims, rather than the Illuminators, of the Multitude. The Patriots of France either hastened into the dangerous and gigantic Error of making certain Evil the means of contingent Good, or were sacrificed by the Mob, with whose prejudices and ferocity their unbending Virtue forbade them to assimilate. Like Sampson, the People were strong—like Sampson, the People were blind. Those two massy Pillars of Oppression's Temple, the Monarchy and Aristocracy^{[errata 1]},

With horrible Convulsion to and fro They tugg'd, they shook—till down they came and drew The whole Roof after them with burst of Thunder Upon the heads of all who sat beneath, Lords, Ladies, Captains, Counsellors, and Priests, Their choice Nobility! Milton. Sam. Agon.

There Errata

1. Original: Monarchy and Aristocracy was amended to the Monarchy and Aristocracy: detail