They may set up the rule of
patriots by profession, in place of the dominion of those who have
so long pretended that the art of governing descends from male to
male, according to the order of primogeniture, and live to wonder
that love of country should have so many weaknesses in common with
love of itself. They may rely on written charters for their
liberties, instead of the divine right of kings, and come perchance
to learn, that neither language, nor covenants, nor signatures, nor
seals avail much, as against the necessities of nations, and the
policy of rulers. Do we then regard reform as impossible, and
society to be doomed to struggle on in its old sloughs of oppression
and abuses? Far from it. We believe and hope, that at each effort of
a sage character, something is gained, while much more than had been
expected is lost; and such we think will continue to be the course
of events, until men shall reach that period in their history when,
possibly to their wonder, they will find that a faultless code for
the government of all their affairs has been lying neglected, daily
and hourly, in their very hands, for eighteen centuries and a half,
without their perceiving the all-important truth.
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