to them a new world, and while they are seeking
for a parallel they get lost. The talents of Lord
Mansfield can be estimated at best no higher than
those of a sophist. He understands the subtleties
but not the elegance of nature, and by continually
viewing mankind through the cold medium of the
law, never thinks of penetrating into the warmer
regions of the mind."--Crisis, vii.

"Considering the situation and abilities of Lord
Mansfield, I do not scruple to affirm, with the
most solemn appeal to God for my sincerity, that
in my judgment he is the very worst and most
dangerous man in the kingdom."--Let. 68.

The above parallel in regard to Lord Mansfield is most remarkable. Let
us consider it. Whether the statements be true or not, is immaterial.
Mr. Paine said he knew no other influence than corruption; that his
talents were those of a sophist, and that he understood the subtleties
of nature, not its elegance. Reference is here had to the Athenian
sophists, whose art it was "to make the worse appear the better reason."
This art made them talented in a certain direction, and in the
employment of it they became renowned and rich. Paine affirms that the
law had corrupted him. Junius says the practice of the law makes a bad
man, and that Mansfield was, considering the conditions, the worst man
in the kingdom. This is an opinion so singular and prominent, so rare
among men, and expressed so boldly and unqualifiedly, by both Paine and
Junius, that it furnishes a parallel which comes with positive and
telling force. Perhaps Paine and Junius were the only two writers at the
time who held this opinion. And that they should express it in the same
manner, with all the fine shades and attending peculiarities the same,
and be at the same time two persons, is a phenomenon which nature never
exhibited but once, and never will again among mankind. To remove the
weight of this evidence, something positive must be brought forward to
rebut it.

* * * * *

It will be noticed above that Mr. Paine spoke of "precedent" being the
basis of reckoning all their probabilities, and that a new case was a
new world. Here we find another parallel in opinion:

_Paine._

"Government by precedent, without any regard to
the principle of the precedent, is one of the
vilest systems that can be set