last. But the former is a torrent that flows forever; the latter only a land flood, that covers the meadows to-day, and disappears on the morrow.

Dr. Price has a passage so applicable to the present subject, that I shall beg leave to close this section by the citation of it: and on the mention of his name, I must pay a trifling tribute to his memory, which is the more necessary, as his character has been scandalously aspersed, by those who are ever busy in discrediting the people. and their friends, and who, pretending a love of goodness and religion, blacken with their foulest calumny those who are singu. larly remarkable for both, for no other reason than that, under the influence of goodness and religion, such persons espouse the cause of freedom, and prefer the happiness of millions to the pomp and pride of a few aspirants at unlimited dominion. Meek, gentle and humane; acute, eloquent, and profoundly skilled in politics and philosophy; take him for all and all, the qualities of his heart, with the abilities of his head, and you may rank PRICE among the first ornaments of his age. Let his enemies produce from all their boasted despots and despotical Satraps, any one of his contemporaries whom, in the manner of Plutarch, they may place by his side as a parallel.

Posterity will do him the justice of which the proud have robbed him, and snatch him from the calumniators, to place him in the temple of personal honor, high among -the benefactors to the human race.

But I return from the digression, into which I was led by an honest indignation against the vilest of calumnies against the best of men. These are the words of Dr.

Price:

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6

Licentiousness and despotism are more ¿ nearly allied than is commonly imagined. They are both alike inconsistent with liberty, and the true end of government; nor is there any other difference between them, than that one is the licen'tiousness of GREAT MEN, and the other 'the licentiousness of little men; or that by one, the persons and property of a people are subject to outrage and inva'sion from a king, or a lawless body of 'grandces; and that by the other, they

are subject to the like outrage from a law'less mob. In avoiding one of these evils, ' mankind have often run into the other. 'But all well constituted governments guard equally against both. Indeed, of the two, 'the last is, on several accounts, the least 'to be dreaded, and has done the least mis'chief. It may truly be said, if licentious'ness has destroyed itst housands, despot

H

ism has destroyed its millions. The ' former having little power, AND NO SYS'TEM TO SUPPORT IT, necessarily finds 'its own remedy; and a people soon get out of the tumult and anarchy attending it. But a despotism, wearing a form of government, and being armed with its 'force, is an evil not to be conquered with⚫ out dreadful struggles. It goes on from 'age to age, debasing the human faculties, levelling all distinctions, and preying on the rights and blessings of society. It ' deserves to be added, that in a state disturbed by licentiousness, there is an ANIMATION which is favorable to the human ' mind, and puts it upon exerting its pow'ers; but in a state habituated to despot'ism, all is still and torpid. A dark and savage tyranny stifles every effort of genius, and the mind loses all its spirit and dignity.'

Heaven grant, that in guarding against a fever, we fall not into a palsy !

SECTION X.

When Human Life is held cheap, it is a Symptom of a prevailing Spirit of Despotism.

THERE is nothing which I can so reluctantly pardon in the GREAT ONES of this world, as the little value they entertain for the life of a man. Property, if seized or lost, may be restored; and without property, man may enjoy a thousand delightful pleasures of existence. The sun shines as warmly on the poor as on the rich; and the gale of health breathes its balsam into the cottage casement on the heath, no less sweetly and salubriously than into the porrtals of the palace. But can the lords of this world, who are so lavish of the lives of their inferiors, with all their boasted power, give the cold heart to beat again, or relume the light of the eye once dimmed by the shades of death? Accursed despots, shew me your authority for taking away that which yenever gave, and cannot give; for undoing the work of God, and extinguishing the lamp of life which was illuminated with a ray from hea

ven.

Where is your charter to privilege murder? You do the work of Satan, who was a destroyer; and your right, if you

possess any, must have originated from the father of mischief and misery.

There is nothing so precious as the life of a man. A philosopher of antiquity, who possessed not the religion of philanthropy, who knew not that man came from heaven, and is to return thither; who never heard the doctrine authenticated, that man is favored with a communication of the divine nature by the Holy Spirit of God; yet, under all these disadvantages, maintained that HOMO EST RES SACRA, that every HUMAN CREATURE IS CONSECRATED to God, and therefore inviolable by his fellow man, without profanation. All the gold of Ophir, all the gems of Golconda, cannot buy a single life, nor pay for its loss. It is above all price.

Yet take a view of the world, and you will immediately be led to conclude, that scarcely any thing is viler than human life. Crimes which have very little moral evil,

if

any, and which therefore cannot incur the vengeance of a just and merciful Deity, are punished with death at a human tribunal. I mean state crimes; such actions, conduct, speeches, as are made crimes by despots, but are not recognised as such in the decalogue; such as may proceed from the purest and most virtuous principle, from the most enlarged benevolence, from wis