For her, he did not disdain to stoop to the trade of a wholesale upholsterer for this House,--to furnish it, not with the faded tapestry figures of antiquated merit, such as decorate, and may reproach, some other houses, but with real, solid, living patterns of true modern virtue.
Burke uses a metaphor to illustrate the quality of contributions Benfield made to the House of Commons, emphasizing modern virtues.
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They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
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