rietta; between whom he was employed in carrying messages and answers, which he frequently wrote himself, particularly for the princess. By this double confidence he made his fortune; for he managed his diplomacy with such discretion, that neither suspected he was the confidant of the other. Pope managed to keep friends with Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Harcourt, the heads of the Tories; as well as with Craigs and Halifax, the heads of the Whigs. I can pray,' said he, in a letter to a friend, not only for men of opposite parties, but of opposite opinions.' In this he resembled Atticus, who preserved friendship with Pompey and with Cæsar, with Brutus and with Anthony, with Hortensius, Clodius, and Cicero. Sir William Temple, giving full credit to Cornelius Nepos, therefore, calls Atticus the wisest and best of the Romans*. But a knowledge of man, in the abstract, will, I rather suspect, teach us to fear, that he, who could live familiarly with all the heads of the various factions, from Sylla to Augustus, must have been a man of more policy than probity t. His fortune, at the death of his uncle, was immense. He would never accept a post, though he might, no * Judge Hale translated Nepos' Life of Atticus; but I cannot accord with many of his political and moral observations. + The Abbé de St. Real criticises Atticus with no small degree of justice.—Cesarion, ou Entretiens Divers. Bolingbroke is, also, particularly severe on this person. 'His talents were usury and trimming,' says he; and had he lived at Athens, he would have 'been branded with infamy for keeping well with all sides, and ' venturing upon none.' doubt, have been consul. He was artful enough to see that his fortune and his peace were best secured by living privately. Yet he had sufficient ambition to marry his daughter to Agrippa, and thence became (accidentally) grandfather to the emperor Tiberius. The great objects in life of Atticus were tranquillity and security. Hence, when he might have been an actor on a great scene, he preferred safety in the humility of a spectator; thinking, and perhaps not without some negative justice, that "The post of honour is a private station.' This maxim, however, is a dangerous one, if generally applied, since it would give to tyranny a permanency of power. Were all good men to act thus, when would the wicked cease their sway? A person of large fortune has this to be expected from him;-that he shall largely partake in the public danger. Neutrality is better than complying with bad men's passions; but as it conciliates no friendship and prevents no enmity*,' it must be well managed, or it will end in danger, if not punishment, from a victorious. party. Neutrality, however, in the cause of our country, can only be agreeable to the taste of that unreflecting, unfeeling, unforeseeing race,-to adopt the language of the Marchmont Papers †,-none of whom have any true sentiments concerning duty, interest, or honour. *De la Houssaie. Hist. Govern. of Venice, p. 56. XIII. LOVERS OF POWER. To a love of power have been ascribed not only avarice, the love of liberty, the pleasure of virtue, and every exertion of the mind; but even * the love of tranquillity and solitude. It would require some trouble to establish this: but three things are certain; viz. that to possess power is to abuse it; that to increase power is to purchase malevolence; and that the persons most to be feared in times of tumult, are the ambitious, the indigent, the daring, and the desperate. To this may be added, that as power must rest somewhere, it is as injurious to restrain it injudiciously, as it is to let it descend into capability of licence. Plato, even the divine' Plato, sometimes writes strange inconsistencies. For instance, he represents Socrates, in his Republic, asserting, that those souls, which descend from heaven, as choosing a commanding and magnificent life,' esteem power and authority as the only desirable ends of existence. He is much more correct in the greater Hippias. Having ability ' in public affairs, and power in the state, of which we are members, are, of all things, the most beautiful ; ' and want of such power, with a total defect of such ' ability, has, of all things, the meanest aspect.' 'In 'the name of the gods, then,' answers Socrates, 'does it not follow from this, that skill and knowledge are, of all things, the most beautiful, and want of them 6 * Cic. de Off. i. c. 20, 21. 'the contrary? But softly, my dear friend, for I am under fears about the rectitude of our present con'clusions. These appear beautiful only to the—mul'titude.' Xenophon speaks of a law, which forbade any one who had a horse, to travel on foot. Conquerors, and even mere warriors, seem to act in the same spirit of legislation. As fall the dews on quenchless sands, And yet ambition is only vicious in a vicious mind. Is it not shameful, then, for enlightened societies to flatter men with a glory which belongs equally to Greek, Roman, and Barbarian? Tacitus calls the love of power the most flagrant of all the mental affections. Power is no evidence of merit at any time; not even when it has been acquired; hence arbitrary power is as intolerable to a prince as it is to a people. It makes that, too, transitory, which we would fain wish to be permanent. Power changes the purposes of men, and turns even their virtues into crimes : Having plots on all, No tree, that shades the prospect, but must fall.' For power not only elicits cruelty and tyranny; it engenders and produces them. There seems no fire in flint. Strike it, and apply it,-a city blazes and crumbles into ashes. Men of princely stations too often regard the sword more than the balance. Their deeds are, therefore, like spiral movements round a corrupt and ever-decaying centre. The consequence? - Imperial spoiler ! Give me back my father; give me back my kindred; Give me the sons, in whom thy ruthless sword Has left our widows childless.'-Brooke. Some men have argued, and in fact do, by their practice, argue every day, as if, having the power to wrong others, the very possession of that power gives them a right. Sir Ralph Sadler was of this order. At least, he appears to have been so in one instance, and that not an unimportant one. 'As for 'the Queen of Scots,' said he to Queen Elizabeth, in privy council, on the subject of the restoration of Queen Mary to the throne of Scotland,—' as to the Queen ' of Scots, she is in your owne hands. Your Majesty may, therefore, use her, as she shall not be able to 'hurte you and to that end surely God hathe deli'vered her into your handes; trusting, that your 'Majestie will not neglect the benefite by God afforded unto you in this delyverce of such an enemie into your ' handes.' How often,-but 'I will not bolt this matter to the bran, As Bradwardine and holy Austin can.'-Dryden. Horace Walpole draws a curious distinction in respect to the love of power, which actuated his father, Sir Robert Walpole, and Mr. Pelham. The former loved ' it so much,' says he, 'that he would not endure a rival; 'the latter so vehemently, that he would endure any |