From Rome the whole Western world had received its Christianity; she was the asylum of what learning had escaped the general desolation; and even in her ruins she preserved something of the majesty of her ancient greatness.
Burke reflects on the historical significance of Rome in shaping Western civilization and preserving knowledge.
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They rob only to enable them to cheat; but in a very short time they defeat the ends both of the robbery and the fraud, by making out accounts for other purposes, which blow up their whole apparatus of force and of deception.
To tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of their public estate is a cruel and insolent imposition.
This was reserved to our time, to quench the little glimmerings of reason which might break in upon the solid darkness of this enlightened age.
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