ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a Satirical poem: All The Talents. To enlarge on the character of the immortal Statesman would probably vex the Talents, and of course do them no service. The chapter exhibits a portrait of an opposite nature, with the hope that ministers may avoid a bad example, though they may not imitate a good one. The revolutionary mob and the sanguinary despot are objects the immortal Statesman. At length he tramples down the barriers of decorum, and allows not even an appeal from his heart to his head; from inherent atrocity to adventitious error. However paradoxical, it cannot be denied, that the Talents have forfeited importance by coming into power, and that in proportion to their rise in the world, they have managed to fall in its estimation. The Talents were more dreadfully duped in the affair—Credulity on the one side, and duplicity on the other, leaving us little else to admire than a series of polished sentences.
