The
Officer Agreed With Him In That; Except The Person Who Ruled Had Really
More Perfections Than All Those He Ruled Over And If So, Said He, And
His Commands Are Always Calculated For The Happiness Of The Subject,
They Cannot Be More Happy Than In An Implicite Obedience.
True, replied
Horatio, I am confident that such a prince as ours knows how to chuse
for his people
Much better than they do for themselves; but how can they
be certain that his descendants will have the same virtues; and when
once an absolute power is granted to a good prince, it will be in vain
that the people will endeavour to wrest it from the hands of a bad
one. - Never can any point be redeemed from the crown without a vast
effusion of blood, and the endangering such calamities on the country,
that the relief would be as bad as the disease. Upon the whole,
therefore, I cannot think Patkul in the wrong for attempting to maintain
the liberty of his country, tho' I do for entering into the service of
the avowed enemy of his master.
It is that, I believe, resumed the other, that the king chiefly resents:
his majesty is too just to condemn a man for maintaining the principles
he was bred in, however they may disagree with his own; but to become
his enemy, to enlist himself in the service of those who aim at the
destruction of his lawful prince, is certainly a treason of the
blackest dye.
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