here is nothing
in them. In this sense of the word, Burke must be allowed to have wanted
judgment, by all those who think that he was wrong in his conclusions. The
accusation of want of judgment, in fact, only means that you yourself are
of a different opinion. But if in arriving at one error he discovered a
hundred truths, I should consider myself a hundred times more indebted to
him than if, stumbling on that which I consider as the right side of the
question, he had committed a hundred absurdities in striving to establish
his point. I speak of him now merely as an author, or as far as I and
other readers are concerned with him; at the same time, I should not
differ from any one who may be disposed to contend that the consequences
of his writings as instruments of political power have been tremendous,
fatal, such as no exertion of wit or knowledge or genius can ever
counteract or atone for.

Burke also gave a hold to his antagonists by mixing up sentiment and
imagery with his reasoning; so that being unused to such a sight in the
region of politics, they were deceived, and could not discern the fruit
from the flowers. Gravity is the cloke of wisdom; and those who have
nothing else think it an insult to affect the one without the other,
because it destroys the only foundation on which their pretensions are
built. The easiest part of reason is dulness; the generality of the world
are therefore concerned in discouraging any example of unnecessary
brilliancy that might tend to show that the two things do not always go
together. Burke in some measure dissolved the spell. It was discovered,
that his gold was not the less valuable for being wrought into elegant
shapes, and richly embossed with curious figures; that the solidity of a
building is not destroyed by adding to it beauty and ornament; and that
the strength of a man's understanding is not always to be estimated in
exact proportion to his want of imagination. His understanding was not the
less real, because it was not the only faculty he possessed. He justified
the description of the poet,--

"How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute!"

Those who object to this union of grace and beauty with reason, are in
fact weak-sighted people, who cannot distinguish the noble and majestic
form of Truth from that of her sister Folly, if they are dressed both
alike! But there is always a difference eve