66
Are not the congregated clouds of WarBlack all around us? In our very vitals Works not the king-bred poison of rebellion? Say, what shall counteract the selfish plottings. Of wretches, cold of heart, nor aw'd by fears Of Him, whose power directs th' eternal justice? Terror? or secret-sapping gold? The first Heavy, but transient as the ills that cause it, And to the virtuous Patriot rendered light By the necessities that gave it birth: The other fouls the fount of the Republic Making it flow polluted thro' all ages; Inoculates the state with a slow venom, That once imbib'd must be continued ever![1]Fall of Robespierre.
Thus from the influence of the understanding they continued to do what the heart sickened at; but a course of action, which the heart disapproves, will vitiate the heart and make it callous: and when the heart is vitiated, the understanding will not long remain pure. But Terror intoxicates more than strong wine; with the which, who forcibly drenches another man, is the real cause and sole responsible agent of all the excesses,which
- ↑ A Tragedy, of which the First Act was written by S. T. Coleridge.
