opportunity and the power of satisfying it! If such a man hath
ambition, how happy is it for him to be seated so on high, that
every act blazes abroad, and attracts to him praises tainted with
neither sarcasm nor adulation, but such as the nicest and most
delicate mind may relish! Thus, therefore, while you derive your
good from me, I am your superior. If to my strict distribution
of justice you owe the safety of your property from domestic
enemies; if by my vigilance and valor you are protected from
foreign foes; if by my encouragement of genuine industry, every
science, every art which can embellish or sweeten life, is
produced and flourishes among you; will any of you be so
insensible or ungrateful as to deny praise and respect to him by
whose care and conduct you enjoy these blessings? I wonder not
at the censure which so frequently falls on those in my station;
but I wonder that those in my station so frequently deserve it.
What strange perverseness of nature! What wanton delight in
mischief must taint his composition, who prefers dangers,
difficulty, and disgrace, by doing evil, to safety, ease, and
honor, by doing good! who refuses happiness in the other world,
and heaven in this, for misery there and hell here! But, be
assured, my intentions are different. I shall always endeavor
the ease, the happiness, and the glory of my people, being
confident that, by so doing, I take the most certain method of
procuring them all to myself."--He then struck directly into the
road of goodness, and received such a shout of applause as I
never remember to have heard equaled. He was gone a little way
when a spirit limped after him, swearing he would fetch him back.

This spirit, I was presently informed, was one who had drawn the
lot of his prime minister.