Page:The Carcanet.djvu/71



Occasional absence and moderate distance are strong cements to mutual affection; they cover those little failings which when the parties are continually together are apt to interrupt the most heartfelt attachment; and they seem to improve all those good qualities upon which that attachment is grounded.

MR. BURKE SPEAK1NO OF LOKD CHATHAM, SAID,

" Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his splendid qualities, his superior eloquence, his eminent services, the vast space he fills in the eye of mankind, and more than all the rest, his fall from power, which like death canonizes and sanctifies a great character, will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him: let those who have bi'trayed him by their adulation, insult him by their malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure, I may have leave to lament. For a wise man he seemed to me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims. I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope without offence. One or two of these maxims flowing from an opinion, not the most