Junius Unmasked Part 10

_Junius._

"Women, and men like women, are timid, vindictive, and irresolute."--Let. 41.

"Fact is superior to reasoning."--Rights of Man, part ii., chap. i.

"The plain evidence of facts is superior to all declarations."--Let. 5.

"You sunk yourself below the character of a private gentleman."--Crisis, ii.

"You are degraded below the condition of a man."--Let. 34.

"Now if I have any conception of the _human heart_, they will fail in this more than in any thing they have yet tried."--Crisis, iii.

"I thought, however, he had been better read in the history of the _human heart_."--Let. 27.

Mr. Paine and Junius both reasoned, and this very often, from the nature of man, and especially his pa.s.sions. The following are parallels:

_Paine._

"Spirit of prophecy."

"Man of spirit."

"Air of."

"Strokes of."

"Give color to."

"Tranquillity of."

"Narrow views."

_Junius._

"Spirit of prophecy."

"Man of spirit."

"Air of."

"Strokes of."

"Give color to."

"Tranquillity of."

"Narrow views."

"But the great hinge on which the whole machine turned, is the _union of the States_."--Crisis, xv., note.

"This is not the hinge on which the debate turns."--Let. 16.

"Each individual feels his share of the wound given to the whole."--Crisis, xii.

"I consider nothing but the wound which has been given to the law."--Let. 30.

"Thorn in the flesh."

"Thorn in the king's side."

"As the future ability of a giant over a dwarf is delineated in his features while an infant."--Crisis, xi.

"The features of the infant are a proof of the descent."--Let. 58.

"But from such opposition, the French revolution, instead of suffering, receives homage. The more it is struck, the more sparks it will emit."--Rights of Man, part i.

"Hardly serious at first, he is now an enthusiast.

The coldest bodies warm with opposition, the hardest sparkle in collision."--Let. 35.

"He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird."--Do.

"The feather which adorns the royal bird supports his flight. Strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to earth."--Let. 42.

"The ripeness of the continent for independence."

"When you are ripe, you shall be plucked."--Let.

66.

"Had you studied true greatness of heart, _the first and fairest ornament of mankind_."--Crisis, vii.

"But neither should I think the most exalted faculties of the human mind a gift worthy of the Divinity, nor any a.s.sistance in the improvement of them a subject of grat.i.tude to my fellow-creatures, if I were not satisfied that really to inform the understanding, corrects and enlarges the heart."--Last sentence of Junius.

[This shows a parallel also in the _estimation_ they place upon the human faculties, which is worth more in argument than any parallel of figure or expression.]

"Wounded herself to the heart."

"Stab you to the heart."

"Unite in despising you."

"United detestation."

"We are not moved by the gloomy _smile_ of a worthless king."--Crisis, iv.

"How far you are authorized to rely upon the sincerity of those _smiles_ which a pious court lavishes without reluctance upon a libertine by profession," etc.--Let. 15.

"That which, to some persons, appeared moderation in you at first, was not produced by any real virtue of your own, but by a contrast of pa.s.sions, dividing and holding you in perpetual irresolution. One vice will frequently expel another, without the least merit in the man, as powers in contrary directions reduce each other to rest."--Crisis, v.

"We owe it to the bounty of Providence that the completest depravity of the heart is sometimes strangely united with a confusion of the mind, which counteracts the most favorite principles, and makes the same man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving."--Let. 15.

The last parallel above will bear a moment's thought and study. Paine says: "Without the least merit in the man." Junius says: "We owe it to the bounty of Providence." They were both deeply read in the history of the human heart. The following is of the same nature, showing the same mental philosophy:

_Paine._

"Men whose political principles are founded on avarice are beyond the reach of reason, and the only cure of toryism of this cast is to tax it. A substantial good drawn from a real evil, is of the same benefit to society as if drawn from a virtue; and when men have not public spirit to render themselves serviceable, it ought to be the study of government to draw the best possible use from their vices. When the governing pa.s.sion of any man or set of men is once known, the method of managing them is easy; for even misers, whom no public virtue can impress, would become generous could a heavy tax be laid upon covetousness."

_Junius._

"In public affairs there is the least chance of a perfect concurrence of sentiment or inclination.