Flowery oratory he despised. He ascribed to the interested views of themselves or their relatives the declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, All those men have their price.1
It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature and Natures God; that is, he follows God in his works and in his word.5
Letter to Mr. Pope.
Note 1. All men have their price is commonly ascribed to Walpole. [back]
Note 2. Hazlitt, in his Wit and Humour, says, This is Walpoles phrase.
Note 3. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (quoting Thucydides), Ars Rhet. xi. 2, says: The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides appears to assert when he says history is philosophy learned from examples. [back]
Note 5. Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Natures God. Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, epistle iv. line 331. [back]