The _hunter-tribes_, at first, wild beasts pursued, And then to chase mankind they left the wood; Became Banditti, Captains, Chieftains, Kings, And Tyrants, by the natural course of things! As he that ravaged most could rule the best, So he grown King that first subdued the rest, By fraud and force his _guilty power_ maintains, Wheedles mankind to please themselves with chains, With selfish Kingcraft calls it Right Divine,* And subtle Priestcraft sanctifies his _line_. *Priestcraft n. s. [priest and craft.] Religious frauds; management of wicked priests to gain power.--Johnson. Kingcraft n. s. [king and craft.] Royal frauds; management of wicked kings to gain power. {151} "Kings are as Gods."--Indeed!--why then they must Like God be _sacred_,--but like God _be just_. If in a King a vicious lust prevails, The people see it, and the Godship fails. * * The time has been when rulers have actually claimed the title of _God's vicegerents,_ and have been literally worshipped as gods by the servile crew of courtiers;--men gradually bowed down by despotism from the erect port of native dignity, and driven, by fear, to crouch under the most degrading of all superstition, the political idolatry of a base fellovv-creature.--After all the lan-guage of court adulation, the praises of poets and oiators, the statues and monuments erected to their fame, the malignant consequences of their actions prove them to have been no other than conspirators against the improvement and happi- ness of the human race. What were their means of conduct-ing their governments, of exercising this office of Heaven's vicegerents? Crafty, dishonest arts, oppression, extortion, and, above all, fire and sword. They dared to ape the thunder and lightning of Heaven, and, assisted by the machinations of the grand adversary of man, rendered their imitative contrivances for destruction more terrible and deadly than the original. Their imperial robe derived its deep crimson colour from human blood; and the gold and diamonds of their diadems were accumulated treasures wrung from the famished bowels of the poor, born only to toil for others, to be robbed, to be wounded, to be trodden under foot, and forgotten in an early grave. How few, in com- parison, have reached the age of three score and ten, and yet, in the midst of youth and health, their days lifive been full of labour and sorrow. Heaven's vicegerents seldom bestowed a thought npon them, except when it was necessary either to inveigle or to force them to take the sword and march to slaughter. Where God caused the sun to shine gaily,