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popular assemblies, or in conquered countries by despotic authority.

Idler, vol. 1, p. 60.

In sovereignty there are no gradations. There may be limited royalty; there may be limited consulship; but there can be no limited government. There must in every society be some power or other from whence there is no appeal, which admits no restrictions, which pervades the whole mass of the community, regulates and adjusts all subordination, enacts laws or repeals them, erects or annuls judicatures, extends or contracts privileges, exempts itself from question or control, and bounded only by physical necessity.

Taxation no Tyranmy, p. 24.

Few errors and few faults of government can justify an appeal to the rabble, who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion.

Patriot, p. 7.

As government advances towards perfection, provincial judicature is, perhaps, in every empire, gradually abolished.

Western Islands, p. 100.

In all changes of government, there will be many that suffer real or imaginary grievances; and therefore many will be dissatisfied.

Political State of Great Britain in 1756, p. 44.

GUILT.

Guilt is generally afraid of light; it considers darkness as a natural shelter, and makes night

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the confidante of those actions, which cannot be trusted to the tell-tale day.

Notes upon Shakspeare, vol. 6, p. 377.

It may be observed, perhaps, without exception, that none are so industrious to detect wickedness, or so ready to impute it, as they whose crimes are apparent and confessed. They envy au unblemished reputation, and what they envy they are busy to destroy; they are unwilling to suppose themselves meaner and more corrupt than others, and therefore willingly pull down from their elevations those with whom they cannot rise to an equality.

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Men are willing to try all methods of reconciling guilt and quiet, and when their understandings are stubborn and uncomplying, raise their passions against them, and hope to overpower their own knowledge.

Ibid.

SELF-GOVERNMENT.

No man, whose appetites are his masters, can perform the duties of his nature with strictness and regularity. He that would be superior to external influences, must first become superior to his own passions.

Idler, vol. I, p. 293.

UNIVERSAL GOOD.

All skill ought to be exerted for universal good. Every man has owed much to others, and ought to pay the kindness he has received.

Prince of Abyssinia, p. 41.、

GREATNESS.

GREATNESS.

He that becomes acquainted and is invested with authority and influence, will in a short time be convinced, that in proportion as the power of doing well is enlarged, the temptations to do ill are multiplied and enforced.

Rambler, vol. 2, p. 58.

That awe which great actions or abilities impress, will be inevitably diminished by acquaintance, though nothing either mean or criminal should be found; because we do not easily consider him as great whom our own eyes shew us to be little; nor labour to keep present to our thoughts the latent excellencies of him who shares with us all our weaknesses and many of our follies; who, like us, is delighted with slight amusements, busied with trifling employments, and disturbed by little vexations.

Idler, vol. 1, p. 285 and 287.

GRATITUDE.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge; and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

Rambler, vol. 2. p. 192.

The charge against ingratitude is very general. Almost every man can tell what favours he has conferred upon insensibility, and how much happiness he has bestowed without return; but, perhaps, if these patrons and protectors were confronted with any whom they boast of having befriended, it would often appear that they consulted only their own pleasure or vanity, and re

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paid themselves their petty donatives by gratifications of insolence, and indulgence of contempt. Ibid. vol. 3, P. 259.

H.

HAPPINESS.

WE are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Prince of Abyssinia, p. 108.

Whether perfect happiness can be procured by perfect goodness, this world will never afford an opportunity of deciding. But this, at least, may be maintained, that we do not always find visible happiness in proportion to visible virtue. Ibid. p. 163.

All natural, and almost all political evils, are incident alike to the bad or good. They are confounded in the misery of a famine, and not much distinguished in the fury of a faction. They sink together in a tempest, and are driven together from their country by invaders. All that virtue can afford is quietness of conscience, a steady prospect of a happier state, which will enable us to endure every calamity with patience.

Ibid.

He that has no one to love or to confide in, has little to hope. He wants the radical principle of happiness.

Ibid. p. 210.

It is perhaps a just observation, that with re gard to outward circumstances, happiness and misery are equally diffused through all states of human life. In civilised countries, where regular policies have secured the necessaries of life, ambition, avarice, and luxury, find the mind at leisure for their reception, and soon engage it in new pursuits; pursuits that are to be carried only by incessant labour, and whether vain or successful, produce anxiety and contention. Among savage nations imaginary wants find, indeed, no place; but their strength is exhausted by necessary toils, and their passions agitated, not by contests about superiority, affluence, or precedence, but by perpetual care for the present day, and by fear of perishing for want of common food.

Life of Drake,, p. 211.

Whatever be the cause of happiness, may be made likewise the cause of misery. The medicine which, rightly applied, has power to cure, has, when rashness or ignorance prescribes it, the same power to destroy.

Differtation on Authors, p. 21.

The happiness of the generality of people is nothing if it is not known, and very little if it. is not envied.

Idler, vol. 2, p. 155.

It has been observed in all ages, that the advantages of nature, or of fortune, have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendor of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who

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