It's a salutary thought that if you were in London around the year 1800 and looking for someone of genuine depth of thought you would have found him not in the Palace of Westminster, or any other palace for that matter, or any of the haunts of the great and good, but in the run-down shop of a dirt-poor engraver, generally regarded as half-mad. This thought came to me as I was watching various politicos score points off each other in the so-called debate over Britain's place in Europe earlier this evening.
Here's something the half-mad engraver wrote: I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If they were wise the most arbitrary prince could not hurt them. If they are not wise the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny.
Funnily enough after a life-time of reading stuff from the half-mad guy, today was the first time I came across the gem above. There's always something new to discover in the words of the truly wise.
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