Have the power still
To banish your defenders'; till, at length,
Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)]
_Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your
undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the
city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction._
It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative
Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech.
_The people_, says he, _cannot see, but they can feel_. It is not much
to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of
stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our
authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private
and civil.
IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle
wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick
reading. The modern editors have, for _gentle wounded_, silently
substituted _gently warded_, and Dr. Warburton has explained _gently_ by
_nobly_. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about
to explain their meaning.
The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and
yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness
_cunning_, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy.
Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man
differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better
regulated by precept and instruction.
_They bore as heroes, but they felt as men_.
(see 1765, VI, 577, 9)
IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false
tricks, and treason.