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Gothard; but it is just now nearest my heart. Patterdale. October 23, 1802. I read daily your political essays. I was particularly pleased with "Once a Jacobin;" though the argument is obvious enough, the style was less swelling than your things sometimes are, and it was plausible ad populum. A vessel has just arrived from Jamaica with the news of poor Sam Le Grice's death.
How much surer and sounder is Calvin’s judgment, non aliud fuisse Dei consilium, quam ut interposito obstaculo populum suum a prophanis Gentibus dirimiret?
Whatever might have been the method of electing bishops, in the more primitive ages, it seems plain to me that in these times, and somewhat before, although the election was made per clerum et populum, yet the king always nominated at first, or approved afterwards, and generally both, as may be seen by the style in which their elections ran, as well as by the persons chosen, who were usually Churchmen of the court, or in some employment near the King.
And then again, perhaps I did not like to see men scared or scandalized by unfeeling logical inferences, which would not have troubled them to the day of their death, had they not been forced to recognize them. And then I felt altogether the force of the maxim of St. Ambrose, "Non in dialecticâ complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum;" I had a great dislike of paper logic.
But the Essay never lost the character it borrowed from the conditions under which it was delivered; it was a lay sermon, concio ad populum. We must always remember what we are dealing with. "Expect nothing more of my power of construction, no ship-building, no clipper, smack, nor skiff even, only boards and logs tied together."
And then again, perhaps I did not like to see men scared or scandalised by unfeeling logical inferences, which would not have touched them to the day of their death, had they not been made to eat them. And then I felt altogether the force of the maxim of St. Ambrose, "Non in dialecticâ complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum;" I had a great dislike of paper logic.
Still, for all that, there may be some truth in Bacon's remark that, as in the case of calumny, if you throw enough dirt, some of it will stick, so it it also in regard to self-praise; with the conclusion that self-praise, in small doses, is to be recommended. Haerebit certe apud populum, licet prudentiores subrideant.
Your adversary may reprove you for an argumentum ad hominem or ad populum, when you believe that you are keeping well within the bounds of legitimate persuasion; but in general it is safe to guard your self-respect by drawing a broad line between dodging and unworthy appeals to prejudice and justifiable appeals to feeling and personal interest.
'We cannot rival the luxuries of your English table, Captain Waverley, or give you the epulae lautiores of Waverley-Honour. I say epulae rather than prandium, because the latter phrase is popular: epulae ad senatum, prandium vero ad populum attinet, says Suetonius Tranquillus.
Besides the "severa paupertas" of Camillus and Fabricius, he had something of their primitive integrity; and he declined, with scorn, to be an accomplice in the proposed assassination of Arminius: "non fraude neque occultis, sed palam et armatum, Populum Romanum hostes suos ulcisci." He protected magistrates and poor suitors, against the nobles.
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