Letters from Paris on the causes and consequences of the French revolution

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Coale, 1822 - 390 pages
 

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Page 131 - Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?
Page 51 - Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides, Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood...
Page 62 - Harrington thought himself so sure of his general principles, that the balance of power depends on that of property, that he ventured to pronounce it impossible ever to re-establish monarchy in England : But his book was scarcely published when the king was restored; and we see that monarchy has ever since subsisted upon the same footing as before.
Page 335 - The press, however, has left the understanding of the mass of men just where it found it ; but by supplying an endless stimulus to their imagination and passions, it has rendered their temper and habits infinitely worse. It has inspired ignorance with presumption, so that those who cannot be governed by reason are no longer to be awed by authority.
Page 230 - ... people, great enough, who had all the wishes for the king which he entertained for himself. But they were so divided and disunited by private quarrels, factions, and animosities; or so unacquainted with each other ; or, which was worse, so jealous of each other; the understandings and faculties of many honest men were so weak and shallow, that they could not be applied to any great trust; and others, who wished and meant very well, had a peevishness, frowardness, and opiniatrety, that they would...
Page 270 - ... for tyranny and slavery do not so properly consist in the stripes that are given and received, as in the power of giving them at pleasure, and the necessity of receiving them, whenever and for whatever they are inflicted.
Page 131 - All this is true, if time stood still, which contrariwise moveth so round that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new.
Page 211 - ... regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws and the safety of the State.
Page 335 - But false as it is, ignorant and self-contradictory even to absurdity, its impudence and its perseverance must inevitably prevail—if the laws are not vigilantly enforced. Oh folly to believe that the press, like the spear of Telephus, possesses a virtue which can heal the wounds it makes! Oh madness to suppose that the press can counteract the evils which the press is producing ! As well might you hope to remedy the effects of habitual drunkenness by medicine, while the patient continues in the...

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