Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/199

 "The high-priests of this grotesque cult were usually tolerant of a whole pantheon of deified phrases, though naturally reserving their special homage for the pet platitude or catch-word of their own invention, in the worship of which they sometimes played strange antics. No devout Romanist ever believed more implicitly in the virtues of some favorite relic than did the followers of this new sect in the efficacy of high-sounding phrases for the regeneration of mankind. Phrases were to eradicate ingrained vices: the magic power of phrases was to change the nature of human wolves. If the maltreated sheep complained that the said wolves showed small sign of the promised change, the complainers were either silenced by an eloquently phrased denial of the facts, or were comforted by the assurance, that wolves would at last cease to rend if not irritated,—would lose their taste for mutton if allowed time to satiate their appetites.

"Their patronage was an injury, even to what was intrinsically valuable. Liberty of the Press, Trial by Jury, Popular Government, had the misfortune to be placed among the idols of the Phrasolators. All associated with these phrases, or asserted to be so, was too sacred for discussion: criticism was sacrilege. No matter though the press became a poisoned fountain, the jury system a mere convenience for facilitating the escape of criminals, the suffrage the cogged dice of political tricksters: no change was to be tolerated, except in the direction of further degradation.

"These phrasemongers were frequently themselves of pure life and character, though the more or less indirect abetters of vice, of much culture though little common