8o 



fo are its ravages deftruftive. The fame remark may be applied, to the 

 paroxyfms of popular credulity, and its concomitant enthufiafm and agi- 

 tation. When the free circulation of intelligence is checked, when the 

 intercourfe of fociety is rendered ftealthy, fearful, and taciturn, and a 

 faftitious and unnatural criminality is attached to the intercourfe of man 

 with his neighbour ; the general mind will brood, in fullen privacy ; it 

 will be filled with melancholy, engendering gloomy vifions, and ranco- 

 rous hopes. Every rumour, that announces a change, that flatters the 

 fecret defirc, of emancipation, or of vengeance, will be fondly received ; it 

 will fpread abroad with the rapid fecrecy of a fire, in the dead of 

 night ; the rulers of the people will be the lad, to know and mark its 

 progrefs ; their fears, their jealoufies, their very precautions, paradoxi- 

 cal as it may feem, will prove the efficient caufe of their being lulled 

 into a falfe fecurity, by eftablifhing a fyflem of jealous vigilance, on 

 which they will too implicitly rely. The rumour will have fpread un- 

 noticed, and operated its full effeft, before any pains fliall have been 

 taken, to check its progrefs, or counteraft its tendency. They fliall a? 

 laft be awakened from their trance, by fome ruinous explofion, by the 

 burlling forth of fome devouring flame. Governments which are admi- 

 niftered on principles of terror, by keeping the people ignorant, by pre- 

 venting the free circulation of opinion, and the open communication of 

 fafts and matters of intelligence, mufl: give greater force to the artifices 

 of perfons, whofe interefls, or whofe paflions lead them to impofe on 

 the credulity of the multitude. The people, from their ignorance and 

 groflhefs of intelleft, will be incapable of dillinguifliing between truth 

 and falfehood, or detefting the arts, which may be praftifed, to delude 

 them. Befides this, it is probable, that the rumour will have an im- 

 portance and authenticity attributed to it, in proportion to the difficulties 

 which attend its circulation ; and the very idea of learning a fecret will 

 fallen on the natural curiofity, and prying difpoCtion of men. Thus, 

 though the injunftion of the magiftrate may'filence audible voices, it mul- 

 tiplies whifpers and murmurs, and thofe whifpers and murmurs are pre- 

 cifely what he has the moft reafori to fear. It is for the interefl: of 



truth. 



