These are the gratifications only of honest minds; but there is a time, in which hope comes to all.  From the present happiness of the publick, the patriots themselves may derive advantage.  To be harmless, though by impotence, obtains some degree of kindness:  no man hates a worm as he hates a viper; they were once dreaded enough to be detested, as serpents that could bite; they have now shown that they can only hiss, and may, therefore, quietly slink into holes, and change their slough, unmolested and forgotten.

THE PATRIOT. [30]

ADDRESSED TO THE ELECTORS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1774.

  They bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
  Yet still revolt when truth would set them free;
  License they mean, when they cry liberty,
  For who loves that must first be wise and good.

  MILTON.

To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.  Many wants are suffered, which might once have been supplied; and much time is lost in regretting the time which had been lost before.

At the end of every seven years comes the saturnalian season, when the freemen of great Britain may please themselves with the choice of their representatives.  This happy day has now arrived, somewhat sooner than it could be claimed.

To select and depute those, by whom laws are to be made, and taxes to be granted, is a high dignity, and an important trust; and it is the business of every elector to consider, how this dignity may be well sustained, and this trust faithfully discharged.

It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in parliament, who is not a patriot.  No other man will protect our rights:  no other man can merit our confidence.

A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest.

That of five hundred men, such as this degenerate age affords, a majority can be found thus virtuously abstracted, who will affirm?  Yet there is no good in despondence:  vigilance and activity often effect more than was expected.  Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.  Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court.