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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12)"


"They willed that this education should render him worthy, by his
knowledge and by his virtues, both to receive _with submission_ the
dangerous burden of a crown, and _to resign it with pleasure_ into the
hands of his brethren; that he should be conscious that the hastening of
that moment when he is to be only a common citizen constitutes the duty
and the glory of a king of a free people.
"They willed that _the uselessness of a king_, the necessity of seeking
means to establish something in lieu of _a power founded on illusions_,
should be one of the first truths offered to his reason; _the obligation
of conforming himself to this, the first of his moral duties; and the
desire of no longer being freed from the yoke of the law by an injurious
inviolability, the first and chief sentiment of his heart_. They are not
ignorant that in the present moment the object is less to form a king
than to teach him _that he should know how to wish no longer to be
such_."


HEADS FOR CONSIDERATION
ON THE
PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.


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