'
Had Sheridan never uttered or written anything besides these burning
words, he would have merited immortal fame, and unquestionably obtained
it.
The press is not a thing of yesterday, for it is the slow growth of two
centuries; neither did it burst upon the world armed at all points, like
the fabled Athene. Yet in other respects the comparison holds good, for
the press, like Athene, unites in itself the attributes of power and
wisdom combined; it fosters and protects science, industry, and art; it
is the patron of all useful inventions; it is the preserver of the
state, and everything that gives strength and prosperity to the state;
it is the champion of law, justice, and order, and extends its
protecting aegis over the weak, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. It
has taken two centuries, as we have already said, to make the press what
it is; and a terrible uphill fight has it had to wage. Tyranny,
dogmatism, and intolerance in high places, and ignorance and
superstition in low, have ever been its sworn enemies. It has had its
saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than
many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted,
crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was
indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the
earth, like Antaeus, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous
stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future
greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he
wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties of the people must stand or fall
together.
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