“I am not surprised at your giving up all hope of the
country, much less at your intention to withdraw yourself from political
discussion. An author whom I greatly respect has told me ‘that in all
ages the rage of popular violence has been principally directed against the
best friends and benefactors of mankind.’ So, if you are
fortunate enough to escape unpunished from the public service, you must be
satisfied with impunity, and consider it as a reward. There may, probably, be
an exception in your favour, but the general rules of human justice are against
you. The only traveller I know of whose
veracity is not to be suspected, informs us that, in the island of Glubdubdrib,
he had an opportunity of conversing with the spirits of the dead; and he says,
that ‘having read of some great services done to princes and states,
he desired to see the persons by whom those services were performed. On
enquiry, he was told that their names were to be found on no record, except
a few of them whom history hath represented as the vilest rogues and
traitors. As to the rest, he had never once heard of them. They all
appeared with dejected looks, and in the meanest habit; most of them
telling him they died in poverty and disgrace, and the rest of them on a
scaffold or a gibbet.’ Nevertheless, if you believe, as I do,
that great faculties are given in trust, and that duty may survive hope, I
cannot
| 486 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
