d by a spirit of the same nature,--of the same
nature, but informed with another principle, and pointing to another
end. I would persuade a resistance both to the corruption and to the
reformation that prevails. It will not be the weaker, but much the
stronger, for combating both together. A victory over real corruptions
would enable us to baffle the spurious and pretended reformations. I
would not wish to excite, or even to tolerate, that kind of evil spirit
which evokes the powers of hell to rectify the disorders of the earth.
No! I would add my voice with better, and, I trust, more potent charms,
to draw down justice and wisdom and fortitude from heaven, for the
correction of human vice, and the recalling of human error from the
devious ways into which it has been betrayed. I would wish to call the
impulses of individuals at once to the aid and to the control of
authority. By this, which I call the true republican spirit, paradoxical
as it may appear, monarchies alone can be rescued from the imbecility of
courts and the madness of the crowd. This republican spirit would not
suffer men in high place to bring ruin on their country and on
themselves. It would reform, not by destroying, but by saving, the
great, the rich, and the powerful. Such a republican spirit we perhaps
fondly conceive to have animated the distinguished heroes and patriots
of old, who knew no mode of policy but religion and virtue. These they
would have paramount to all constitutions; they would not suffer
monarchs, or senates, or popular assemblies, under pretences of dignity
or authority or freedom, to shake off those moral riders which reason
has appointed to govern every sort of rude power. These, in appearance
loading them by their weight, do by that pressure augment their
essential force. The momentum is increased by the extraneous weight. It
is true in moral as it is in mechanical science. It is true, not only in
the draught, but in the race. These riders of the great, in effect, hold
the reins which guide them in their course, and wear the spur that
stimulates them to the goals of honor and of safety. The great must
submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long
submit to the dominion of the great. _Dis te minorem quod geris,
imperas_. This is the feudal tenure which they cannot alter.

Indeed, my dear Sir, things are in a bad state. I do not deny a good
share of diligence, a very great share of ability, and much public