Page:Conciones ad populum. Or, Addresses to the people (IA concionesadpopul00cole).pdf/26

 harangues of some mad-headed Enthusiast, and imbibe from them Poison, not Food; Rage, not Liberty. Unillumined by Philosophy, and stimulated to a lust of revenge by aggravated wrongs, they would make the Altar of Freedom stream with blood, while the grass grew in the desolated halls of Justice. These men are the rude materials from which a detestable Minister manufactures conspiracies. Among these men he sends a brood of sly political monsters, in the character of sanguinary Demagogues, and like Satan of old, "the Tempter ere the Accuser," ensnares a few into Treason, that he may alarm the whole into Slavery. He, who has dark purposes to serve, must use dark means—light would discover, reason would expose him: he must endeavour to shut out both—or if this prove impracticable, make them appear frightful by giving them frightful names: for farther than Names the Vulgar enquire not, Religion and Reason are but poor substitutes for "Church and Constitution;" and the sable-vested Instigators of the Birmingham riots well knew, that a Syllogism could not disarm a drunken Incendiary of his Firebrand, or a Demonstration helmet a Philosopher's head against a Brickbat. But in the principles, which this