congratulations, which may be soon turned into complaints.  Prudence would dictate this in the case of separate, insulated, private men.  But liberty, when men act in bodies, is power.  Considerate people, before they declare themselves, will observe the use which is made of power,—­and particularly of so trying a thing as new power in new persons, of whose principles, tempers, and dispositions they have little or no experience, and in situations where those who appear the most stirring in the scene may possibly not be the real movers.

All these considerations, however, were below the transcendental dignity of the Revolution Society.  Whilst I continued in the country, from whence I had the honor of writing to you, I had but an imperfect idea of their transactions.  On my coming to town, I sent for an account of their proceedings, which had been published by their authority, containing a sermon of Dr. Price, with the Duke de Rochefoucault’s and the Archbishop of Aix’s letter and several other documents annexed.  The whole of that publication, with the manifest design of connecting the affairs of France with those of England, by drawing us into an imitation of the conduct of the National Assembly, gave me a considerable degree of uneasiness.  The effect of that conduct upon the power, credit, prosperity, and tranquillity of France became every day more evident.  The form of constitution to be settled, for its future polity, became more clear.  We are now in a condition to discern with tolerable exactness the true nature of the object held up to our imitation.  If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify us in speaking our thoughts.  The beginnings of confusion with us in England are at present feeble enough; but with you we have seen an infancy still more feeble growing by moments into a strength to heap mountains upon mountains, and to wage war with Heaven itself.  Whenever our neighbor’s house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.  Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.

Solicitous chiefly for the peace of my own country, but by no means unconcerned for yours, I wish to communicate more largely what was at first intended only for your private satisfaction.  I shall still keep your affairs in my eye, and continue to address myself to you.  Indulging myself in the freedom of epistolary intercourse, I beg leave to throw out my thoughts and express my feelings just as they arise in my mind, with very little attention to formal method.  I set out with the proceedings of the Revolution Society; but I shall not confine myself to them.  Is it possible I should?  It looks to me as if I were in a great crisis, not of the affairs of France alone, but of all Europe, perhaps of more than Europe.  All circumstances taken together, the French Revolution