ere reviewed, the principle of toleration was developed, and
the revolutions of opinion were discovered.

A noble thought of VITRUVIUS, who, of all the authors of antiquity, seems
to have been most deeply imbued with the feelings of the literary
character, has often struck me by the grandeur and the truth of its
conception. "The sentiments of excellent writers," he says, "although
their persons be for ever absent, exist in future ages; and in councils
and debates are of greater authority than those of the persons who are
present."

But politicians affect to disbelieve that abstract principles possess any
considerable influence on the conduct of the subject. They tell us that
"in times of tranquillity they are not wanted, and in times of confusion
they are never heard;" this is the philosophy of men who do not choose
that philosophy should disturb their fireside! But it is in leisure, when
they are not wanted, that the speculative part of mankind create them, and
when they are wanted they are already prepared for the active multitude,
who come, like a phalanx, pressing each other with a unity of feeling and
an integrity of force. PALEY would not close his eyes on what was passing
before him; for, he has observed, that during the convulsions at Geneva,
the political theory of ROUSSEAU was prevalent in their contests; while,
in the political disputes of our country, the ideas of civil authority
displayed in the works of LOCKE recurred in every form. The character of a
great author can never be considered as subordinate in society; nor do
politicians secretly think so at the moment they are proclaiming it to the
world, for, on the contrary, they consider the worst actions of men as of
far less consequence than the propagation of their opinions. Politicians
have exposed their disguised terrors. Books, as well as their authors,
have been tried and condemned. Cromwell was alarmed when he saw the
"Oceana" of HARRINGTON, and dreaded the effects of that volume more than
the plots of the Royalists; while Charles II. trembled at an author only
in his manuscript state, and in the height of terror, and to the honour of
genius, it was decreed, that "Scribere est agere."--"The book of
Telemachus," says Madame de Stael, "was a courageous action." To insist
with such ardour on the duties of a sovereign, and to paint with such
truth a voluptuous reign, disgraced Fenelon at the court of Louis XIV.,
but the virtuous author raised a statue f