"conspires to excite in him a contrary disposition--the melancholy
gloom of the day, the whistling winds, and the hoarse rumbling of the
swollen Liffey, with a flood which, even where I write, lays close
siege to our own street, not permitting any to go in or out to supply
us with the necessaries of life."

After some statements of the rise of the river, he says, "It gives me
pleasure to see nature in those great though terrible scenes; it fills
the mind with grand ideas, and turns the soul in upon herself. This,
together with the sedentary life I lead, forced some reflections on
me, which perhaps would otherwise not have occurred. I considered how
little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master
of all things, yet scarce can command any thing. What well laid, and
what better executed scheme of his is there, but what a small change
of nature is entirely able to defeat and abolish. If but one element
happens to encroach a little upon another, what confusion may it not
create in his affairs, what havoc, what destruction: the servant
destined to his use, confines, menaces, and frequently destroys this
mighty, this feeble lord."

One of those letters mentions his feelings on the defeat of the
luckless Charles Edward, whose hopes of the British crown were
extinguished by the battle of Culloden, (April 16, 1746.) "The
Pretender, who gave us so much disturbance for some time past, is at
length, with all his adherents, utterly defeated, and himself (as some
say) taken prisoner. 'Tis strange to see how the minds of the people
are in a few days changed. The very men who, but a while ago, while
they were alarmed by his progress, so heartily cursed and hated those
unfortunate creatures, are now all pity, and wish it could be
terminated without bloodshed. I am sure I share in the general
compassion. It is, indeed, melancholy to consider the state of those
unhappy gentlemen who engaged in this affair, (as for the rest, they
lose but their lives,) who have thrown away their lives and fortunes,
and destroyed their families for ever, in what, I believe, they
thought a just cause." Those sentiments exhibit the early propensity
of Burke's mind to a generous dealing with political opponents. He was
a Protestant, a zealous admirer of the constitution of 1688, as all
Irish Protestants were in his day, whether old or young; and yet he
feels an unequivocal, as it was a just compassion for the brave men,
who, under an imp