The prisoner at your bar, like the hero of the poet, when he attempts to make his escape by one evasion, is stopped by the appearance of some former contradictory averment.
Edmund Burke: “The prisoner at your bar, like the hero of the poet, when he attempts to make his escape by one evasion, is stopped by…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke compares a prisoner to a poetic hero, trapped by their own contradictory statements.
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The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…





