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Biographical, literary, and philosophical essays
Biographical literary and philosophical essays Author:John Foster Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JOHN HORNE TOOKE. Memoirs of John Home Tooke, interspersed with Original Documents. By Alexander Stephens, Esq. That eager desire which the decease of ... more »very distinguished men so commonly excites among the inquisitive part of the community, to obtain ample memoirs of their lives and illustrations of their opinions and characters, must have been greatly repressed with respect to the very extraordinary individual who is the subject of these volumes. There cannot but have been a very general conviction, that it was as much in vain to expect a really faithful history and impartial estimate of him as of Oliver Cromwell or the French Revolution. Even if such a book were to appear, it is probable it would have but few approving readers. In the minds of a very large proportion of reading Englishmen, the name of Home Tooke awakens ideas of almost every thing hateful or dreadful in politics and morals. A more moderate class, though giving him some considerable credit for honesty of intention, and superiority to the lowest sort of self-interested motives—adopting too, to a limited extent, the principles on which he waged his political wars, and regarding him with something of that kindness which we are disposed to indulge toward men in adversity—feel nevertheless such disgust at some of the connexions in which he acted at some periods of his career, at the incon- sistency of his character with his spiritual profession while he exercised it, and at that later licentiousness of which his irreli- gion tended to secure him from being ashamed, that they cannot with any complacency hear him praised, while they see and despise the injustice of that undiscerning and unmixed opprobrium with which they hear him abused. There may be a small party ready to make light of all his faults and vices,...« less