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190
OMNIANA.

ment, and that it is prudent to secure the result of the contest by gouging the adversary in the first instance. Alas! the policy of the maxim is on a par with its honesty. The Philistines had put out the eyes of Sampson, and thus, as they thought, fitted him to drudge and grind

"Among the slaves and asses, his comrades,
As good for nothing else, no better service."

But his darkness added to his fury without diminishing his strength, and the very pillars of the Temple of Oppression—

"With horrible convulsion, to and fro,
He tugged, he shook—till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder,
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, and priests,
Their choice nobility!

The error might be less unpardonable with the statesmen of the continent,...but with Englishmen, who have Ireland in one direction, and Scotland in another; in the one ignorance, sloth, and rebellion, in the other general information, indus-