'it through all difficulties in the season of manhood; · and lived to consummate in the wisdom of age.'

The duty of all appears to be this: we should analyze measures unregardful of men; and cling to plans which the wisest of our age believe to be essential to the public good. To insist upon those, which cannot be carried, is useless. There are, also, so many views to be taken of great national questions, that to make up our minds in the spirit of obstinate retention of what we wish, is to prove our incompetence to the general affairs of state. To know what and when to retain is equally important with the knowing what and when to bestow.

CXCI.

WHO ARE UNEQUAL.

ALL men are unequal. Tintoret,' said Annibal Caracci, rises beyond Titian; sometimes he sinks ' beneath himself.' Neither Homer nor Virgil exhibits any very great inequalities; but Tasso does, and so do Shakspeare and Milton. The latter could not fail to be unequal; the Deity and the ' concourse of heaven,' being beyond the limited faculties of man.

CXCII.

WHO WILL NOT SEE TILL THE LAST MOMENT.

MANY can see, if they will; but they will not.

Oh, my dear friend,' wrote Galileo to Kepler, how I 'wish that we could have one hearty laugh together!

،

'Here, at Padua, is the principal professor of philo'sophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What 'shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious 'folly! and to hear the professor of philosophy at Pisa labouring before the grand duke with logical arguments, as if, with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky.'

It certainly is mortifying to be compelled to see when we think it is our interest to be blind. Some, however, will see; but then they will not see till the last mo

ment.

Had the Duke of Wellington consented to make but à small reform, he would not have been compelled to see a reform asserted by law, greater in extent than some friends of reform had ever dared to dream of.

We e may apply this to Lord North and his unfortunate compeers in respect to the American war. They miscalculated every thing. 'Recourse was had to 'force,' said Mr. Burke; and we saw a force sent out enough to menace liberty, but not to awe resistance; tending to bring odium on the civil power, and contempt on the military; at once to provoke and encourage resistance."

Had Lord North conceded to justice; or had he even yielded a small right, the revolted colonies had not insisted on a great one.

It must, nevertheless, be confessed, that no colonies can long be retained as subjects, after they have attained

sufficient strength to govern themselves. Lord North's war was, therefore, perhaps,-after all-a mere anticipation.

CXCIII.

WHO CARRY EVERY THING TO EXTREMITY.

LOUIS XI., for instance. Execrable as the man assuredly was, he had some virtues; and he ran both virtues and vices to the utmost extreme. La Mothe le Vayer says of him, that he wore his coats till they were threadbare; his hats, till they were greasy; and sleeves, tacked to his doublets, as if they did not belong to them such was the sordid nature of his avarice in some things, though in others he was prodigal to extremity, more particularly to his mistresses, and to subjects belonging to his hunting establishments. Some writers †, however, insist, that he dressed in this manner, the more effectually to ridicule the pomp and splendour of other kings. But this could have been no excuse for making his tailor herald-at-arms, or his barber an ambassador. X

What curious extremes, too, governed Anniceris of Athens! His love of philosophy induced him to redeem Plato, when Dionysius sold him to slavery; and yet so attached was he to the art of driving chariots, that he arrived, at last, to such perfection, that he drove round the academy twice, and the wheels of his chariot, as he went the second time, never once deviated from the track he made on the first.

*Tom. viii. 83.

† Bossuet, &c.

If they were fitted for trese ments, the not?

This exploit was useless enough; but, at least, as far as my knowledge on such subjects extends,-it was never done before, nor has it ever been done since.

CXCIV.

MARPLOTS.

THUS, Titania to Oberon in Midsummer's Night's Dream:

- Never

Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,

By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or by the beached margin of the sea,

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,

But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.'

How many thousand persons are there of this sort ! They act as perfect Marplots on every occasion: now by accident; more often from ignorance; and still more frequently by design. It matters not one straw what the subject in hand may be; whether an affair of state, a matter of gallantry, a subject of business, or a party of pleasure. They are present; the success, or the comfort, therefore, of the whole is marred! This order of men was known in ancient Greece, as well as to modern nations. Theophrastus alludes to them :They put a stop to business and pleasure,' says he. 'When they sit on a bench, they distract their col

leagues when at the theatre, they prevent those who 'sit near them from seeing the spectacle; and at table 'they almost prevent their neighbours from eating.'

Marplots resemble one of those narrow defiles, in

which the overturning of a carriage, or the breaking of a trace, stop the progress of the whole army.

-Whate'er their doubtful hands

Attempt, confusion straight appears behind,

And troubles all the work.'-Akenside, iii. 228.

Cæsar acted the part of a self-marplot, after he had obtained the dictatorship. Pride ruined him; yet Napoleon having followed the example, both serve to remind us of what a French writer* says in regard to Danton:- He was destroyed by his own contrivance, ' like a child playing with gunpowder.'

James II., also, was his own Marplot: and this the Pope, then reigning, knew well. Hence, when Lord Castlemaine was sent ambassador to Rome, his Holiness received him in a very contemptuous manner. Wherefore? Because he knew that James was overturning his own throne, without effecting anything for that of the papal hierarchy. To succeed against Protestantism, the Pope thought the best way was, not to attack openly, but to sap and undermine.

Mirabeau † lets us into a secret:- The best way is 'to ask too much.'

It is in the power of the most contemptible of mankind to inflict injuries, which the best and most discreet are never able to repair. We inflict injuries, equally irreparable, not unfrequently on ourselves. Nothing could exceed the rage of Napoleon when he marched to the borders of Russia, and found no enemy with whom to contend. He had calculated on deciding the conquest of that empire by a single blow. On pass*Tableau des Prisons sous Robespierre,

Lettres à Mauvillon, 469.