Commonplace Book

'...He has not gall enough in his constitution to be inflamed with the rancour of party, so as to deal in scurrilous invectives: but, since he obtained a place, he is become a warm partisan of the ministry, and sees everything through such an exaggerated medium, as to me, who am happily of no party, is altogether incomprehensible. Without all doubt, the fumes of faction not only disturb the faculty of reason, but also pervert the organs of sense...'

from Jerry Melford's letter to Sir Watkin Phillips, dated June 2, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett