When men in power lose sight of justice and mercy, and cruelly and
unjustly tyrannise over the people under their sway, they never will
gain sincere reverence or respect from the rest of mankind. The
injuries they inflict in the hey-day of their wicked career, will be
remembered with detestation through life; and when age and impotence
lay hold of them, they must not expect to meet with friends they
never deserved; but may be certain of being treated with neglect and
contempt, and the baser their enemies are, the more insolent and
intolerable will be the affront. It will then be discovered, with
bitter remorse, that the days have passed away, in which virtue and
dignity ought to have laid the foundation of a reputation which would
have been the solace of old age, and also extended a good name to
posterity with feelings of veneration; instead of which the remembrance
of past crimes will haunt the guilty mind, and the unjust man will at
last be thrown into the grave with the common dust, amidst the whispers
of “Let him go,” and he will be no more remembered than the animals on
which he feasted, or the herbage which was cut down when he was a child.
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