PROFESSOR SMYTHE AND HIS OPINIONS. 163 



They forgot that early reformation is an amicable arrangement with a friend 

 in power. Their conduct resembled that of the savage in his canoe, who 

 sleeps upon the stream till the stream becomes a torrent, and he is precipitated 

 to his destruction." 



AMERICA. " The contest between England and her colonies then came 

 on, and France took the unhappy step of interfering on the American side. 

 But how was an opportunity of humbling her ancient rival to be resisted by 

 the French cabinet or the French nation ? The arrival of Franklin at Paris 

 created quite a sensation. The king, however, had scruples hesitated 

 and when signing the treaty with the North American colonies, observed to 

 the minister ' You will remember, sir, this is contrary to my opinion/ 

 France thus fanned the flame of liberty when it was burning her to the core ! 

 Governments who so comport themselves in the midst of their difficulties, 

 seem rather to earn their destruction than to meet with it." 



ROUSSEAU. " Let the reader pause before he visits at all the unhealthy 

 region of French literature, Above all, let no man, in the absence of every 

 thing that can mislead r inflame, surrounded by the softening influences of 

 domestic life, think himself safe when he ventures into the magic circle of 

 Rousseau. In him intelligence and insanity were united the moralist and 

 the logician the master of the heart and the advocate of infidelity." 



FLIGHT TO VARENNES. " It was a wretched night which the royal fugi- 

 tives passed at Varennes ; and a miserable journey an eight day's journey, 

 for the national guard marched before them from Varennes to Paris. The 

 queen's hair turned gray in the course of it. The queen had a dressing-case, 

 without which she could neither travel nor exist ! Nothing could be more 

 absurd than the conduct of the women about the court. Seated in all the 

 luxurious softness of their boudoirs, what a charming thing, they cried, is a 

 revolution ! What a charming thing to be ever in motion ; to have constant 

 secret meetings at one's house ; to sanction an edict by a smile ; to animate 

 a patriot by a gesture !" 



COURTIERS. "Men who are singularly careless auditors of public ac- 

 counts, and by no means uneasy in the possession of sinecures. 



" ELOQUENCE should attempt one great object, and entirely succeed, or en- 

 tirely fail. Eloquence and wisdom are very different things. They are 

 sometimes united, but seldom. A command of language, retentive memory, 

 and glowing conception will make an orator, but not a wise man. Enthusi- 

 asm te the soul of the one ; deliberating calmness the governing principle of 

 the other. 



" SERVILITY is not loyalty ; nor attachment to liberal sentiments, republi- 

 canism. 



" PRACTICABILITY should always be considered by him who contemplates 

 reformation. He who proposes a change which can never be carried into 

 execution, does nothing does worse than nothing ; because he makes the 

 very idea of improvement ridiculous. 



" TOLERATION is the respecting of a fellow-creature's religious opinions, 

 be they what they may, merely because they are his religious opinions. 



" CIVIL LIBERTY is the first of national blessings. It may sometimes be 

 endangered, not by the strength, but by the very weakness of the executive 

 power. Civil liberty is, of all things,' the most frail and perishable : arbi- 

 trary rule, the most hardy and indestructible. 



MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. " There are many who are mere debaters in 

 parliament, not statesmen." 



PARTIES. " You must have parties, or there will be no freedom of 

 thought as in Turkey and Persia, where no parties exist." 



