Letters to sir Walter Scott, bart., on the visit to Scotland ... of ... George iv [by J. Simpson].

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Page 134 - We fear God; we look up with awe to kings, with affection to parliaments, with duty to magistrates, with reverence to priests, and with respect to nobility.
Page 123 - Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay ; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
Page 109 - Dr. Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length, the frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He sprung from the sofa, advanced to Johnson, and in a kind of flutter, from imagining himself in the situation which he had just been hearing described, exclaimed, " Well, you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than I should have done ; for I should have bowed and stammered through the whole of it.
Page 117 - That kings are the servants of the people, to be obeyed, resisted, deposed, or punished, as the public conveniency may require, is the doctrine of reason and philosophy ; but it is not the doctrine of nature. Nature would teach us to submit to them, for their own sake, to tremble and bow down before their exalted station...
Page 135 - We have real hearts of flesh and blood bea.ting in our bosoms. We fear God; we look up with awe to kings ; with affection to Parliaments ; with duty to magistrates ; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because, when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected ; because all other feelings are false and spurious, and tend to corrupt our minds, to vitiate our primary morals, to render us unfit for rational liberty...
Page 113 - The man of rank and distinction, on the contrary, is observed by all the world. Every body is eager to look at him, and to conceive, at least by sympathy, that joy and exultation with which his circumstances naturally inspire him. His actions are the objects of the public care. Scarce a word, scarce a gesture, can fall from him that is altogether neglected.
Page 112 - To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it.
Page 118 - ... as their natural superiors. They cannot stand the mortification of their monarch. Compassion soon takes the place of resentment, they forget all past provocations, their old principles of loyalty revive, and they run to re-establish the ruined authority of their old masters, with the same violence with which they had opposed it.
Page 165 - Not all the water in the rough rude sea ' Can wash the balm from an anointed king : The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord.
Page 117 - ... follow from it, as the severest of all mortifications. To treat them in any respect as men, to reason and dispute with them upon ordinary occasions, requires such resolution, that there are few men whose magnanimity can support them in it, unless they are likewise assisted by familiarity and acquaintance. The strongest motives, the most furious passions, fear, hatred, and resentment, are scarce sufficient to balance this natural disposition to respect them...

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