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employ those silly tools that strike the
imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire
respect. Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner, because indeed
their part is the most essential; they establish themselves by force, the
others by show.
Therefore our kings seek out no disguises. They do not mask themselves in
extraordinary costumes to appear such; but they are accompanied by guards
and halberdiers. Those armed and red-faced puppets who have hands and power
for them alone, those trumpets and drums which go before them, and those
legions round about them, make the stoutest tremble. They have not dress
only, they have might. A very refined reason is required to regard as an
ordinary man the Grand Turk, in his superb seraglio, surrounded by forty
thousand janissaries.
We cannot even see an advocate in his robe and with his cap on his head,
without a favourable opinion of his ability. The imagination disposes of
everything; it makes beauty, justice, and happiness, which is everything in
the world. I should much like to see an Italian work, of which I only know
the title, which alone is worth many books, Della opinione regina del mondo.
I approve of the book without knowing it, save the evil in it, if any. These
are pretty much the effects of that deceptive faculty, which seems to have
been expressly given us to lead us into necessary error. We have, however,
many other sources of error.
Not only are old impressions capable of misleading us; the charms of novelty
have the same power. Hence arise all the disputes of men, who taunt each
other either with foll
Eveline
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Linear Mode
