A caution against vaccine swindlers, and impostors / [John Ring].

  • Ring, John, 1752-1821
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A caution against vaccine swindlers, and impostors / [John Ring]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    whipping-post and pillory in their way, come to the gallows.” Such, at least, he observes, is the fate of little villains ; but when great ones act the same part, they break through cobweb laws; and, for a time, escape justice. As to impostors, or those who assume a title and character not their own, like those who are the subject of my present disquisition, the same learned and reverend author tells us, that the grand impos¬ tor, and tutor of all other personages under this denomination is the devil; who transforms himself into an angel of light, in order to deceive and de¬ stroy mankind. His immediate successors,” says the learned and reverend divine, “ are generally the mud and dregs of the people, illiterate, brainsick en¬ thusiasts, and beggarly, ambitious, upstart rebels ; whose pride and vanity, not suffering them to be content in the mean circumstances to which they were born, mount them on the wings of visionary greatness, and set them up for no less than gods, emperors, kings, or inspired prophets ; to the great disturbance and detriment of church, state, and people.” This, he observes, continues, till the giddy ad¬ herents of such impostors, weary of their new toys, or undeceived by dear-bought experience, desert them. Justice overtakes them ; and the hands of the common hangman put an end to the farce.