Can "than" be used at the beginning of the sentence?

I am reading "Eureka - A prose poem", but I find that a strange sentence (for me):

"Than the persons" -- the letter goes on to say -- "than the persons thus suddenly elevated by the Hog-ian philosophy into a station for which they were unfitted -- thus transferred from the sculleries into the parlors of Science -- from its pantries into its pulpits -- than these individuals a more intolerant -- a more intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never existed on the face of the earth.- "Eureka - A prose poem" | Edgar Allan Poe

I do not understand the meaning of "than" in this sentence, especially in "than these individuals a more intolerant". Can "than" be used at the beginning of sentence? What is "than these individuals a more intolerant" exactly meaning?

I believe this flourish is a sentence inversion. A simpler construction of the sentence would be

A more intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never existed on the face of the earth than the persons thus suddenly elevated by the Hog-ian philosophy into a station for which they were unfitted