defcriptive poetry operates chiefly by fubftitution; by the means of founds, which by cuftom have the effect of realities. Nothing is an imitation further than as it refembles fome other thing; and words undoubtedly have no fort of refemblance to the ideas for which they ftand-Ibid.

PROGNOSTICS.

VAIN are all the prognoftics taken from ideas and paffions, which furvive the ftate of things which gave rife to them. Letter to Sir H. Langrifhe, M. P.

PROSCRIPTION.

Is a ftate fhould be fo unhappy as to think it cannot fubfift without a barbarous profcription, the perfons fo profcribed ought to be indemnified by the remiffion of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being preffed into any military or naval fervice.Letter to an Irish Peer on the Penal Laws.

PEASANTS, (FRENCH.)

THE rich peasants are bribed with church lands; and the poorer of that defcription are, and can be, counted for nothing. They may rife in ferocious, ill directed tumults-but they can only difgrace themfelves and fignalize the triumph of their adverfaries. Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

PROFESSION.

THE degree of eftimation in which any profeffion is held becomes the ftandard of the eftimation in which the profeffors hold themfelves.Reflection's on the Revolution in France.

PASSIONS.

The Rationale of our Passions very necessary.

THE more accurately we fearch into the human mind, the stronger traces we every where find of his wifdom who made it. If a difcourfe on the ufe of the parts of the body may be confidered as an hymn to the Creator; the ufe of the paffions, which are the organs of the mind, cannot be barren of praise to him, nor unproductive to ourselves of that noble and uncommon union of fcience and admiration, which a contemplation of the works of infinite wifdom alone can afford to a rational mind; whilft, referring to him whatever we find of right or good or fair in ourselves, difcovering his ftrength and wifdom even in our own weaknefs and imperfection, honouring them where we difcover them clearly, and adoring their profundity where we are loft in our fearch, we may be inquifitive without impertinence, and elevated without pride; we may be admitted, if I may dare to say fo, into the counfels of the Almighty by a confideration of his works. The elevation of the mind ought to be the principal end of all our studies, which if they do not in fome measure effect, they are of very little fervice to us. But, befides this great purpose, a confideration of the ra tionale of our paffions feems to me very neceffary for all who would affect them upon folid and fure principles. It is not enough to know them in general: to affect them after a delicate manner, or to judge properly of any work defigned to affect them, we fhould know the exact boundaries of their feveral jurifdictions; we fhould purfue them through all their variety of operations, and pierce into the inmoft, and what might appear inacceffible parts of our nature,

Quod latet arcanâ non enarrabile fibrâ.

Without all this it is poffible for a man, after a confufed manner, fometimes to fatisfy his own mind of

:

the truth of his work; but he can never have a cer tain determinate rule to go by, nor can he ever make his propofitions fufficiently clear to others. Poets, and orators, and painters, and thofe who cultivate other branches of the liberal arts, have without this critical knowledge fucceeded well in their feveral provinces, and will fucceed; as among artificers there are many machines made, and even invented without any exact knowledge of the principles they are governed by. It is, I own, not uncommon to be wrong in theory, and right in practice; and we are happy that it is fo. Men often act right from their feelings, who afterwards reason but ill on them from principle; but as it is impoffible to avoid an attempt at fuch reafoning, and equally impoffible to prevent its having fome influence on our practice, furely it is worth taking fome pains to have it juft, and founded on the bafis of fure experience. We might expect that the artifts themfelves would have been our fureft guides; but the artists have been too much occupied in the practice: the philofophers have done little; and what they have done, was moftly with a view to their own fchemes and fyftems: and as for thofe called critics, they have generally fought the rule of the arts in the wrong place; they fought it among poems, pictures, engravings, ftatues, and buildings. But art can never give the rules that make an art. This is, I believe, the reafon why artifts in general, and poets principally, have been confined in fo narrow a circle; they have been rather imitators of one another than of nature; and this with fe faithful an uniformity, and to fo remote an antiquity, that it is hard to fay who gave the firft model. Critics follow them, and therefore can do little as guides. I can judge but poorly of any thing, whilft I meafure it by no other standard than itself. The true ftandard of the arts is in every man's power; and an eafy obfervation of the most common, fometimes of the meaneft things in nature, will give the truest

lights, where the greateft fagacity and induftry that flights fuch obfervation, muft leave us in the dark, or, what is worfe, amufe and mislead us by falfe lights. In an enquiry it is almoft every thing to be once in a right road. I am fatisfied I have done but little by thefe obfervations confidered in themfelves; and I never fhould have taken the pains to digeft them, much less fhould I have ever ventured to publifh them, if I was not convinced that nothing tends more to the corruption of fcience than to fuffer it to ftagnate. Thefe waters must be troubled before they can exert their virtues. A man who works beyond the furface of things, though he may be wrong himfelf, yet he clears the way for others, and may chance to make even his errors fubfervient to the caufe of truth.Sublime and Beautiful.

PAPER CURRENCY.

So foon as a nation compels a creditor to take paper currency in difcharge of his debt, there is a bankruptcy. Whilft paper is taken, paper will be iffued. Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

PERSECUTION.

Ir is injuftice, and not a miftaken confcience that has been the principle of perfecution, at leaft as far as it has fallen under my obfervation.-Letter to an Irish Peer on the penal Laws.

PRUDENCE.

PRUDENCE is the queen of virtues.

Regicide

el

Peace.

PRUDENCE.

PRUDENCE is not only the firft in rank of the virtues political and moral, but fhe is the director,

the regulator, the ftandard of them all, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.

PRUDENCE.

PRUDENCE in new cafes can do nothing on grounds of retrofpect.-Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

PROPERTY AND FRANCHISE.

IF property be artificially feparated from franchife, the franchile muft in fome way or other, and in fome proportion, naturally attract property to it. Letter to Sir H. Langrifhe, M. P.

PROPERTY (TRANSFER OF.)

A great object is always anfwered, whenever any property is transferr'd from hands that are not fit for that property, to thofe that are.Oecon. Reform.

PROPERTY,

Ought to be, out of all Proportion, predominant in the Reprefentation.

NOTHING is a due and adequate reprefentation of a ftate, that does not represent its ability, as well as its property. But as ability is a vigorous and active principle, and as property is fluggish, inert, and timid, it never can be fafe from the invafions of ability, unless it be, out of all proportion, predominant in the reprefentation. It must be reprefented too in great maffes of accumulation, or it is not rightly protected. The characteristic effence of property, formed out of the combined principles of its acquifition and confervation, is to be unequal. The great maffes, therefore, which excite envy, and tempt rapacity,