In the one we only penetrate into the barren cave of secrecy, where little can be known, and every thing may be misconceived; in the other, the mind is presented with a wide extended prospect, of vegetative good, and sees a thousand blessings budding into existence.
This passage contrasts the limitations of secrecy with the benefits of openness and understanding.
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More from Thomas Paine
The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.
The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?