Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/538

 *tion of argument. Yet it has too frequently happened, that those who either feel their wishes restrained, see their fortunes wearing away, or imagine their merit neglected, and their abilities employed upon business unworthy of their attention, desire times of tumult and disturbance, as affording the fairest opportunities for the active and sagacious to distinguish themselves, and as throwing open the avenues of wealth and honour, to be entered by those who have the greatest quickness of discernment, and celerity of dispatch. In times of peace every thing proceeds in a train of regularity, and there is no sudden advantage to be snatched, nor any unusual change of condition to be hoped. But when sedition and uproar have once silenced law, and confounded property, then is the hour when chance begins to predominate in the world, when every man may hope without bounds, and those who know how to improve the lucky moment, may gain in a day what no length of labour could have procured, without the concurrence of casual advantage.

This is the expectation which makes some hasten on confusion, and others look with concern at its approach. But what is this other than gaining by universal misery, supplying by force the want of right, and rising to sudden elevation, by a sudden downfal of others?

The great benefit of society is that the weak are protected against the strong. The great evil of confusion is that the world is thrown into the hands, not of the best, but of the strongest; that all certainty of possession or acquisition is destroyed; that every man's care is confined to his own interest; and that general negligence of the general good makes way for general licentiousness.

Of the strife, which this day brings back to our remembrance, we may observe, that it had all the tokens of strife proceeding from envy. The rage of the faction which invaded the rights of the church and monarchy, was disproportionate to the provocation received. The violence with which hostility was prosecuted, was more than the cause, that was publickly avowed, could incite or