There Is Nothing Perhaps More Adverse To

The Distinctions Of Personal Merit And Influence, So Conspicuous In A Republic, So Feeble And Obscure Under A Monarchy, Were Abolished By The Despotism Of The Emperors; Who Substituted In Their Room A Severe Subordination Of Rank And Office, From The Titled Slaves Who Were Seated On The Steps Of The Throne, To The Meanest Instruments Of Arbitrary Power.

The Pathetic Almost Always Consists In The Detail Of Little Events.

Persuasion Is The Resource Of The Feeble; And The Feeble Can Seldom Persuade . . .

The Fabric Of A Mighty State, Which Has Been Reared By The Labours Of Successive Ages, Could Not Be Overturned By The Misfortune Of A Single Day, If The Fatal Power Of The Imagination Did Not Exaggerate The Real Measure Of The Calamity.

Unprovided With Original Learning, Unformed In The Habits Of Thinking, Unskilled In The Arts Of Composition, I Resolved To Write A Book.