Patrick Henry uses parallelism to illustrate and symbolize that the men of the Virgina Convention are ignorant to the truth of inevitable war with the British. He is trying to convince them to take up arms against British troops in order to preserve the freedom for which the colonists moved to the New World. By pointing out their ignorance, he says the men, who "having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not",are blind to their own reality. In response to them being blind to the truth, the reality of their lives, they do not care about their own "temporal salvation" and unknowingly throw themselves into an illusion of slave life. Ultimately, Patrick Henry tell his listeners that they must sacrifice their ignorance to obtain the freedom they so desperately crave.
