Edinburgh.
_Passage in Sedley_ (Vol. iii., p. 476.).--
"Let fools the name of loyalty divide
Wise men and gods are on the strongest side."
I much fear your correspondent HENRY H. BREEN suggests an alteration in
Sir Charles Sedley's couplet more favourable to the witty baronet's
principles than facts will admit. It is too probable that he conceived
the sentiment just as it stands; for we must remember that he belonged
to that school of loose wits of the Restoration, who, "Regis ad
exemplar," made a mock of all which tended to place "virtue" above
"interest," or to make men "too fond of the right to pursue the
expedient."
Charles II. and his long train of licentious courtiers now stand at the
bar of history, and the verdict on him must be, that if he had a
principle in latter life it was this,--that he would never endanger
himself for any abstract rule of right; or as Sir W. Scott, in
_Peveril_, accurately says: "he had sworn never to kiss the block on
which his father suffered," when yielding to the current would save him
from it; hence, there is too good reason to think that, in his
estimation, and in the judgment of the school he formed, "loyalty" was
"folly," and to take the strongest side "wisdom."