Page:Letters of Junius, volume 1 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/250

204 worse than weakness; and if, in favour of the foolish intention, we do not call it a crime, we must allow at least that it arises from an overweening, busy, meddling impudence.—Junius says only, and he says truly, that it is more extraordinary, that it involves a greater contradiction than the other; and is it not a maxim received in life, that, in general, we can determine more wisely for others, than for ourselves? The reason of it is so clear in argument, that it hardly wants the confirmation of experience. Sir William Draper, I confess, is an exception to the general rule, though not much to his credit.

4. this gentleman will go back to his Ethicks, he may, perhaps, discover the truth of what Junius says, that no outward tyranny can reach the mind. The tortures of the body may be introduced, by way of ornament or illustration to represent those of the mind, but strictly there is no similitude between them. They are totally different both in their cause and operation. The wretch, who suffers upon the rack, is merely passive; but when the mind is tortured, it is not at the command of any outward power; it is the sense of guilt