I am no longer patient of the public eye; nor am I of force
to win my way and to justle and elbow in a crowd. But, even in solitude,
something may be done for society. The meditations of the closet have
infected senates with a subtle frenzy, and inflamed armies with the
brands of the Furies. The cure might come from the same source with the
distemper. I would add my part to those who would animate the people
(whose hearts are yet right) to new exertions in the old cause.
Novelty is not the only source of zeal. Why should not a Maccabaeus and
his brethren arise to assert the honor of the ancient law and to defend
the temple of their forefathers with as ardent a spirit as can inspire
any innovator to destroy the monuments of the piety and the glory of
ancient ages? It is not a hazarded assertion, it is a great truth, that,
when once things are gone out of their ordinary course, it is by acts
out of the ordinary course they can alone be reestablished. Republican
spirit can only be combated by a spirit of the same nature,--of the same
nature, but informed with another principle, and pointing to another
end. I would persuade a resistance both to the corruption and to the
reformation that prevails. It will not be the weaker, but much the
stronger, for combating both together. A victory over real corruptions
would enable us to baffle the spurious and pretended reformations. I
would not wish to excite, or even to tolerate, that kind of evil spirit
which evokes the powers of hell to rectify the disorders of the earth.
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