Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 1).djvu/378

330 the grave. Be fair, open, and you will be terrible to your enemies. A friend cannot defend you, much as he may feel for your sufferings, if you have recourse to methods of which virtue and justice disapprove. No cause is in itself so dear to liberty as yours. Much depends on you, far may your efforts spread, either hope or despair; do not then cover in darkness wrongs at which the face of day, and the tyrants who bask in its warmth ought to blush. Wherever has violence succeeded. The French Revolution, although undertaken with the best intentions, ended ill for the people; because violence was employed, the cause which they vindicated was that of truth, but they gave it the appearance of a lie, by using methods which will suit the purposes of liars as well as their own. Speak boldly and daringly what you think; an Irishman was never accused of cowardice, do not let it be thought possible that he is a coward. Let him say what he thinks, a lie is the basest and meanest employment of men, leave lies and secrets to courtiers and lordlings; be open, sincere, and single hearted. Let it be seen that the Irish votaries of Freedom dare to speak what they think, let them resist oppression, not by force of arms, but by power of mind, and reliance on truth and justice. Will any be arraigned for libel—will imprisonment or death be the consequences of this mode of proceeding: probably not—but if it were so? Is danger frightful to an Irishman who speaks for his own liberty, and the liberty of his wife and children:—No, he will steadily persevere, and sooner shall pensioners cease to vote with their benefactors, than an Irishman swerve from the path of duty. But steadily persevere in the system above laid down, its