| Citation |
BEP(F.771.017
4 Mar 1771:21 (1849)
What mighty things from little causes flow!
How fleeting empire! So revolves the scene;
So time ordains, who rolls the things of pride
From dust to dust again.
Of all the various scenes which human folly has erected to
feed its own vanity, I know none more apt to dazzle weak and
little minds than the bustling grandeur and unwieldy pomp of
Kings. The common eye, removed far from the centre of
royalty, makes large allowances, and mistakes the tawdry
tinsel of parade for solid gold and diamonds; and perhaps
there is nothing wanting to give us a more unfavourable idea
of Kingly state, than of any other in life, except the
experience of it.
We view the outward glories of a crown,
But, dazzled with the lustre canot see
The thorns which line it, and whose painful pricking,
Embitter all the pompous sweets of empire. [signed] Hill.
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