Burke, Select Works: Four letters on the proposals for peace with the regicide Directory of France. 2d ed., 1878Clarendon Press, 1878 |
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Algiers alliance allies Ambassador ambition amity argument Atheism Austrian Netherlands authority Basle Britain British Burke alludes Burke's called cause civil commerce common conquests consider constitution Crown danger declaration dignity Directory disposition dread duty effect Empire enemy England English Europe existence expence faction favour force France French French Revolution Government Holland honour hope hostility House Increase to 1791 interest Jacobin King kingdom Letter liberty Lord Auckland Lord Malmesbury Louis Louis the Fourteenth Majesty mankind manner means ment mercenary war mind Ministers Ministry Monarchy moral murder nation nature negotiation neighbour never noble object opinion Paris Parliament party persons Pitt political politicians politicks possession present principles Prussia publick reason Regicide Peace religion Republic Republick Revolution Revolutionary Tribunal Robespierre ruin sentiments shew Sir Sydney Smith sort Sovereign Spain speculative spirit Stadtholder territory thing tion treaty usurpation West Indies whilst whole
Popular passages
Page 150 - And turn the unwilling steeds another way ; Benighted wanderers, the forest o'er, Curse the saved candle and unopening door ; . While the gaunt mastiff, growling at the gate, Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat.
Page 292 - In the corrupted currents of this world Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above; There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults To give in evidence.
Page 19 - We are at war with a system which by its essence is inimical to all other governments, and which makes peace or war as peace and war may best contribute to their subversion. It is with an armed doctrine that we are at war. It has, by its essence, a faction of opinion and of interest and of enthusiasm in every country.
Page 370 - O, FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention ! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars ; and, at his heels, Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.
Page 383 - The generous plan of power deliver'd down, From age to age, by your renown'd forefathers, (So dearly bought, the price of so much blood) 0 let it never perish in your hands ! But piously transmit it to your children.
Page 62 - He persevered to expel the fears of his people, by his fortitude ; to steady their fickleness, by his constancy ; to expand their narrow prudence, by his enlarged wisdom; to sink their factious temper in his public spirit. In spite 5 of his people, he resolved to make them great and glorious ; to make England, inclined to shrink into her narrow self, the Arbitress of Europe, the tutelary Angel of the human race.
Page 238 - Indocti stolidique, et depugnare parati Si discordet eques, media inter carmina poscunt 185 Aut ursum, aut pugiles : his nam plebecula gaudet. Verùm equiti quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas Omnis ad incertos oculos et gaudia vana. Quatuor aut plures aulaea premuntur in horas, Dum fugiunt equitum turmae peditumque catervae ; 190 Mox trahitur manibus regum fortuna retortis ; Esseda festinant, pilenta, petorrita, naves ; Captivum portatur ebur, captiva Corinthus.
Page 67 - The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity ; the rest is crime.
Page 6 - They have begun a new course, and opened a new reckoning ; and even in the depths of their calamity, and on the very ruins of their country, have laid the foundations of a towering and durable greatness. All this has happened without any apparent previous change in the general circumstances which had brought on their distress . the death of a man at a critical juncture, his disgust, his retreat, his disgrace, have brought innumerable calamities on a whole nation. A common soldier, a child, a girl...
Page 90 - And is then example nothing ? It is every thing. Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.