Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essays On Subjects Connected With History And Classical Learning.
ciplcs not disputed by any detractor of his fame . The whole tenos of his life would refute so gross a calumny . * The act of toleration , his lenity to the papists themselves , His remarkable caution in taking the oath of sovereignty to Scotland , confirm beyond a doubt his liberality on the subject . He refused to concur with James in his attempts to abolish tlie test act , not because he was hostile to toleration , ( for he princile and good senseever as warm a friend to
was . upon p , relig ious as to civil liberty ) but because he was well aware , that by these means the monarch intended , silently and insidiously , to introduce his beloved popery . ' Yet surely the offers that were tendered in return for such a concession , were the most tempting that could be made to a man of an enterprizing spirit , and engaged in the views of William . May we not hence infer , that William would , not grathe which he
tify even his favourite policy at the expence of duty owed to relig ion ? And if he entertained this regard , for religion , how cogent a motive , how powerful an inducement , must it have been for his engaging in the Revolution ! ' William was too wise to be much influenced by the attractions of power . He who is engaged in the pursuit of greatness may , indeed ; Mike the miser in his g-olden views , ' esteem himself for a time supremely blest ; but his pleasure consists not in the rational fruition , but in distant hope and delusive prospects , in fancies which are never
realised , and in glories which fade away in the evening of life , like - the changeful tinges of a western sky . Ambition mig ht be the predominating principle of his heart ; but still , under the controul of his better judgment , power , arrayed in all her gaudy allurements , had few charms for him , but as she ' enabled him to contribute more largely to the welfare of mankind . the
Should a concise enquiry into the blessings attendapt on Revolution be deemed a digression from the subject , let the pleasure we feel in contemplating them , form some excuse for indulg ing in the . pleasing theme . 'We state them , however , because they seem to us to have something more than a mere relevancy to our argument . The characteof our herb'is ' exalted in proportion to the intended
bener fits which either have been , or must have been , derived from that auspicious event . ' We have ever since enjoyed , if not the best system of government , the most entire system of liberty , that ever was known amongst mankind . ' -j- And what is it but this , that enables us thus to boast of our superiority ? What but this , that every action of government is ' subservient to the laws ' and that those laws ensure
; the continuance of our blessings , or the means of recovering them ? Despotism , in the hands of a good and able man , is inferior to a free and enlig htened government , only in the want of secuVity ' which the subject has for its continuing to be so conducted . " And yet of such real importance is this security , that no man , with the feelings of hu >
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essays On Subjects Connected With History And Classical Learning.
ciplcs not disputed by any detractor of his fame . The whole tenos of his life would refute so gross a calumny . * The act of toleration , his lenity to the papists themselves , His remarkable caution in taking the oath of sovereignty to Scotland , confirm beyond a doubt his liberality on the subject . He refused to concur with James in his attempts to abolish tlie test act , not because he was hostile to toleration , ( for he princile and good senseever as warm a friend to
was . upon p , relig ious as to civil liberty ) but because he was well aware , that by these means the monarch intended , silently and insidiously , to introduce his beloved popery . ' Yet surely the offers that were tendered in return for such a concession , were the most tempting that could be made to a man of an enterprizing spirit , and engaged in the views of William . May we not hence infer , that William would , not grathe which he
tify even his favourite policy at the expence of duty owed to relig ion ? And if he entertained this regard , for religion , how cogent a motive , how powerful an inducement , must it have been for his engaging in the Revolution ! ' William was too wise to be much influenced by the attractions of power . He who is engaged in the pursuit of greatness may , indeed ; Mike the miser in his g-olden views , ' esteem himself for a time supremely blest ; but his pleasure consists not in the rational fruition , but in distant hope and delusive prospects , in fancies which are never
realised , and in glories which fade away in the evening of life , like - the changeful tinges of a western sky . Ambition mig ht be the predominating principle of his heart ; but still , under the controul of his better judgment , power , arrayed in all her gaudy allurements , had few charms for him , but as she ' enabled him to contribute more largely to the welfare of mankind . the
Should a concise enquiry into the blessings attendapt on Revolution be deemed a digression from the subject , let the pleasure we feel in contemplating them , form some excuse for indulg ing in the . pleasing theme . 'We state them , however , because they seem to us to have something more than a mere relevancy to our argument . The characteof our herb'is ' exalted in proportion to the intended
bener fits which either have been , or must have been , derived from that auspicious event . ' We have ever since enjoyed , if not the best system of government , the most entire system of liberty , that ever was known amongst mankind . ' -j- And what is it but this , that enables us thus to boast of our superiority ? What but this , that every action of government is ' subservient to the laws ' and that those laws ensure
; the continuance of our blessings , or the means of recovering them ? Despotism , in the hands of a good and able man , is inferior to a free and enlig htened government , only in the want of secuVity ' which the subject has for its continuing to be so conducted . " And yet of such real importance is this security , that no man , with the feelings of hu >