340-348
(_d_) Education of Duty: Letter to Rev. Dr. Wordsworth,
1830 349
*(_e_) Speech on laying the Foundation-stone of the New
School in the Village of Bowness, Windermere, 1830
350-356

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 357-360

I. POLITICAL.

I. APOLOGY FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1793.

NOTE.

For an account of the manuscript of this 'Apology,' and details on other
points, see Preface in the present volume. G.

APOLOGY FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1793.

MY LORD,

Reputation may not improperly be termed the moral life of man. Alluding
to our natural existence, Addison, in a sublime allegory well known to
your Lordship, has represented us as crossing an immense bridge, from
whose surface from a variety of causes we disappear one after another,
and are seen no more. Every one who enters upon public life has such a
bridge to pass. Some slip through at the very commencement of their
career from thoughtlessness, others pursue their course a little longer,
till, misled by the phantoms of avarice and ambition, they fall victims
to their delusion. Your Lordship was either seen, or supposed to be
seen, continuing your way for a long time unseduced and undismayed; but
those who now look for you will look in vain, and it is feared you have
at last fallen, through one of the numerous trap-doors, into the tide of
contempt, to be swept down to the ocean of oblivion.

It is not my intention to be illiberal; these latter expressions have
been forced from me by indignation. Your Lordship has given a proof that
even religious controversy may be conducted without asperity; I hope I
shall profit by your example. At the same time, with a spirit which you
may not approve--for it is a republican spirit--I shall not preclude
myself from any truths, however severe, which I may think beneficial to
the cause which I have undertaken to defend. You will not, then, be
surprised when I inform you that it is only the name of its author which
has induced me to notice an Appendix to a Sermon which you have lately
given to the world, with a hope that it may have some effect in calming
a perturbation which, you say, has been _excited_ in the minds of the
lower orders of the community. While, with a servility which has
prejudiced many people agai