208 FABLES. 



porter of tyranny and arbitrary power. Fraud and 

 oppression follow in his train: the righteous laws 

 of a just government are frittered away, or super- 

 seded: truth and innocence are obnoxious ; honesty 

 is sneered at, and it becomes criminal to espouse 

 the cause of virtue. In this state of things, wicked- 

 ness predominates, and its rapacious abettors give 

 full scope to the exercise of all kind of oppression 

 and injustice, to gratify their own vicious lusts. 

 Then it is that mankind are made to feel the evils 

 of power being in the hands of the worst of their 

 species, who, without hesitation, rob them of their 

 property, and divide the spoils. If there be not a 

 sufficiency of the most spirited and virtuous 

 patriotism to rescue the country from their fangs, 

 then is despotism and degradation near at hand. 



