m thence may be dated a new aera in the history of
mankind. As by the diffusion of general knowledge, both of
the arts of taste and of useful sciences, the public mind has
become improved to so great a degree, that though new
impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of
detecting them have improved with greater rapidity. Hence
since the introduction of printing, superstition has been
much lessened by the reformation of religion; and necromancy,
astrology, chiromancy, witchcraft, and vampyrism, have
vanished from all classes of society; though some are still
so weak in the present enlightened times as to believe in the
prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic tractors; by
this general diffusion of knowledge, if the liberty of the
press be preserved, mankind will not be liable in this part
of the world to sink into such abject slavery as exists at
this day in China.]

"Ye patriot heroes! in the glorious cause
Of Justice, Mercy, Liberty, and Laws,
Who call to Virtue's shrine the British youth,
And shake the senate with the voice of Truth;
Rouse the dull ear, the hoodwink'd eye unbind,
And give to energy the public mind;
While rival realms with blood unsated wage
Wide-wasting war with fell demoniac rage; 280
In every clime while army army meets,
And oceans groan beneath contending fleets;
Oh save, oh save, in this eventful hour
The tree of knowledge from the axe of power;
With fostering peace the suffering nations bless,
And guard the freedom of the immortal Press!
So shall your deathless fame from age to age
Survive recorded in the historic page;
And future bards with voice inspired prolong
Your sacred names immortalized in song. 290

"Thy power ASSOCIATION next affords
Ideal trains annex'd to volant words,
Conveys to listening ears the thought superb,
And gives to Language her expressive verb;
Which in one changeful sound suggests the fact
At once to be, to suffer, or to act;
And marks on rapid wing o'er every clime
The viewless flight of evanescent Time.

[Footnote: _Her expressive verb_, l. 294. The verb, or the
word, has been so called from its being the most expressive
term in all languages; as it suggests the ideas of existence,