Religion, to have any force on men's understandings, indeed to exist at all, must be supposed paramount to laws, and independent for its substance upon any human institution,--else it would be the absurdest thing in the world, an acknowledged cheat.
Burke asserts that true religion must exist independently of human laws to maintain its validity.
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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
The body of the people must not find the principles of natural subordination by art rooted out of their minds.
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
They have not more notes in their song than the cuckoo; though, far from the softness of that harbinger of summer and plenty, their voice is as harsh and as ominous as that of the raven.
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