Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/93

Rh casualty of the throne being graced by so placable an ornament to it, was owing that we hear no mere of this premeditated indignity (for it has the appearance of being such) shown to "the King's most excellent Majesty." In fact, though clumsily masked with "an escutcheon of pretence," for which Cromwell would have kicked them down stairs. History teaches that these beneficial constraints of temper, are of rare occurrence among distinguished men. Socrates and Washington, were remarkable for practising self-command, even against the discoveries of the physiognomist; and Themistocles, when struck with a cane by his colleague, in the heat of argument, had the presence of mind to recollect that the common cause of Greece was of