collected by his friend, a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such
as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been
made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those
passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions
any expressions, quoted from him, ought to have been understood. From a
great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it
only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might
safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to
do a little more. It shall be as little as possible, for I hope not much
is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
make them, to which they are not entitled for their matter. "A man who,
among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of some, and full
of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much greater lengths
in his preference of the objects of his immediate solicitude than Mr.
Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often seems to undervalue,
to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those that are out of danger.
This is the voice of nature and truth, and not of inconsistency and
false pretence. The danger of anything very dear to us removes, for the
moment, every other affection from the mind. When Priam had his whole
thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he repels with indignation,
and drives from him with a thousand reproaches, his surviving sons, who
with an officious piety crowded about him to offer their assistance. A
good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox) would say, that this is a
master?stroke, and marks a deep understanding of nature in the father of
poetry. He would despise a Zoilus, who would conclude from this passage
that Homer meant to represent this man of affliction as hating, or being
indifferent and cold in his affections to the poor relics of his house,
or that he preferred a dead carcass to his living children.