第83章 Letter XIX(8)

This would be to cast black and odious colours on the Revolution,indeed;more black,and more odious than any than it was in the power of a vain,forward,turbulent preacher to cast,by his frothy declamations.But the Whigs are so far from opposing the endeavours to preserve our constitution,that they co-operate to promote the success of them;and that,however personal prejudices,personal partialities,and old habits,that are daily wearing off,may be still entertained by some amongst them,all the independent men,who pass under that name,unite in the common cause of liberty and their country.--It remains therefore that no national party can be formed in opposition to those,who endeavour to secure the independency of Parliaments against the new influence of the crown,and against corruption;nor any strength be exerted,except that of a faction,composed of the refuse of all parties,gleaned up by one who hath none for him.--I would willingly carry this farther;and,in doing so,I shall not advance a paradox,unless it be supposed,which I think would be a greater paradox,that a man may have abilities to destroy the constitution,and yet not sense enough to see his remote,as well as immediate,his family,as well as personal interest.I say then,that if a design of raising the power of the crown above any pitch of prerogative,and of reducing Parliaments to an absolute dependency,as well as a faction to support this design,be formed;the very man who forms such a design,and such a faction,must be infatuated,if he can with very sincerely his own success.His first design,we are sure,will be that of raising a great family,and heaping upon it riches and honours.Shall his second design be that of rendering these riches and honours precarious and insecure,and of entailing servitude on his own race;for it will be impossible to exempt them from the common calamity?Nothing but despair,that is fear void of hope,arising from a consciousness of guilt,can drive any man into such a design.But,in this case,there will be fear opposed to fear,and one of these fears may be allayed by hope.The fear of being called to a severe account may be mitigated by the hope of escaping.

Where is the insolent,rapacious,odious minister,that may not entertain some hope,as well as fear,when he sets before his eves the examples of those who have gone before him?Pallas was the favourite of Agrippina.He governed like the master of the empire,and supported her pride and ambition by his counsels and services,as he had been raised to power and was maintained in it by her credit,whilst her credit lasted.Nero dismissed him;and seeing him go from court with a crowd at his heels,said pleasantly enough,as if it had been spoken of a dictator,that he went to abdicate.But Pallas carried off the spoils of the empire with him;all scores were quitted between him and the public;and,according to the bargain he had made,he was called to no account.Many such examples might be cited to comfort with hope the most guilty minister,who is wise,if not honest enough,to stop in the career of iniquity,before the measure of it be entirely filled,pressed down,and running over.

But if one of those bubbles of fortune,who thinks he always shall escape,because he always hath escaped,not content to wound a free constitution of government,should resolve to make it expire under his administration;the condition of such an one,however he may flatter himself,or be flattered by others,must be ten times more wretched and forlorn than the worst of those to which his cruelty hath reduced multitudes --For what?--If he succeeds in his sacrilegious designs (they are of as deep a die,at least),he may hope for impunity,perhaps,to his grey hairs,and be suffered to languish through the infirmities of old age,with an inward remorse more pungent than any of them;but he is sure to entail servitude on his whole race,and indelible infamy on his memory.If he fails,he misses of that impunity,to which he sacrificed his country;he draws triple vengeance on his own head;and exposes his innocent family to a thousand misfortunes,of which it will not be the least,whether he succeeds or fails,that they descended from him.--But whatever ministers may govern,whatever factions may arise,let the friends of liberty lay aside the groundless distinctions,which are employed to amuse and betray them;let them continue to coalite;let them hold fast their integrity,and support with spirit and perseverance the cause of their country,and they will confirm the good,reclaim the bad,vanquish the incorrigible,and make the British constitution triumph,even over corruption.

I have now gone through the task I imposed on myself,and shall only add these few words.There was an engagement taken,in the beginning of these discourses,not to flatter.I have kept this engagement,and have spoken with great freedom;but I hope with the justice and moderation,and decency that I intended,of persons and of things.This freedom entitles me to expect that no parallels,no innuendoes should be supposed to carry my sense farther than I have expressed it.The reasonable part of mankind will not disappoint so reasonable an expectation.But there are a set of creatures,who have no mercy on paper,to use an expression of Juvenal,and who are ready to answer,even when they are absolute strangers to the subject.Unable to follow a thread of fact and argument,they play with words,and turn and wrest particular passages.They have done mine that honour,as I am told,and have once or twice seen.They may do the same again,whenever they please,secure from any reply,unless they have sense enough,or their patron for them,to take for a reply the story I am going to tell you,and which you may find related a little differently in one of the Spectators.The story is this.

A certain pragmatical fellow,in a certain village,took it into his head to write the names of the squire,of all his family,of the principal parish officers,and of some of the notable members of the vestry,in the margins of the Whole Duty of Man,over against every sin,which he found mentioned in that most excellent treatise.The clamour was great,and all the neighbourhood was in an uproar.At last,the minister was called in,upon this great emergency;a pious and prudent divine,and the same,for ought I know,who was a member of the Spectator's club.He heard them with patience;with so much,that he brought them to talk one after the other.When he had heard them,he pronounced that they were all in the wrong;that the book was written against sins of all kinds,whoever should be guilty of them;but that the innocent would give occasion to unjust suspicions by all this clamour,and that the guilty would convict themselves.They took his advice.The Whole Duty of Man hath been read ever since,with much edification,by all the parishioners.The innocent hath been most certainly confirmed in virtue,and we hope the guilty have been reformed from vice.

I am,sir,etc.