The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 06 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons by Samuel Johnson
page 121 of 624 (19%)
page 121 of 624 (19%)
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upon the affairs of other countries, any farther than the advantage of
his own made it necessary, we may reasonably conjecture, that he had a full and distinct view of all the negotiations, treaties, confederacies, of all the triple and quadruple alliances, and all the leagues offensive and defensive, in which we were to be engaged, either as principals, accessaries, or guarantees, whether by policy, or hope, or fear, or our concern for preserving the balance of power, or our tenderness for the liberties of Europe. He knew that our negotiators would interest us in the affairs of the whole earth, and that no state could either rise or decline in power, either extend or lose its dominions, without affecting politicks, and influencing our councils. This passage will bear an easy and natural application to the present time, in which so many revolutions have happened, so many nations have changed their masters, and so many disputes and commotions are embroiling, almost in every part of the world. That almost every state in Europe and Asia, that is, almost every country, then known, is comprehended in this prediction, may be easily conceived, but whether it extends to regions at that time undiscovered, and portends any alteration of government in Carolina and Georgia, let more able or more daring expositors determine: "Conversa In rabiem tunc contremet ursa Cynthia." "The bear, enrag'd, th' affrighted moon shall dread." The terrour created to the moon by the anger of the bear, is a strange |
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