Where’er oppression rules, fell Wolves devour;
And the worst crimes are want of strength and pow’r.
They who do not feel the sentiments of humanity, will seldom listen
to the voice of reason; and when cruelty and injustice are armed with
power, and determined on oppression, the strongest pleas of innocence
are preferred in vain, and nothing is more easy than finding pretences
to criminate the unsuspecting victims of tyranny. How many of the
degenerate, corrupt, and arbitrary governments with which the civilized
world has been disfigured, have exercised their vengeance upon the
honest and virtuous, who have dared in bad times to speak the truth;
and how many men in private life are to be met with, whose wolfish
dispositions, and envious and rapacious tempers cannot bear to see
honest industry rear its head!
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