CXCIX.

FERDINAND I. OF SPAIN.

CARDINAL DE RETZ (though, I believe, the anecdote is not to be found in his memoirs) was accustomed to say, that he once saw a man seize the vane of a windmill, which took him round with it, and left him, after one revolution, on the spot it took him up. An escape like this is not very common; but it is an every-day circumstance to see bad men ride well, and on the best horses too.

Fortune threw a multitude of good things into the lap of Ferdinand I. He seized upon Navarre; he conquered Naples and Grenada; he subjugated Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers; he succeeded in establishing the Inquisition; he expelled the Jews; conquered the Moors; was honoured with the title of Most Catholic Majesty' gained a kingdom by marriage; and, without cost, obtained the empire of a new world *.

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Yet was he a mean, selfish, cruel, and defenceless character; and almost deserved the ignominy of being grandfather to Philip II. Nevertheless, if we may credit many historians, he might have said, and with no small apparency of justice,

-' I deem myself

The child of fortune, in whose favouring smile

I shall not be dishonour'd.'

Sophocles; Edipus Tyrannus; Dale.

One of the most beautiful pieces of biography of the present

day, is that of Columbus by Irving. See vol. i. p. 105.

Well had it been for this prince,-as well as for a thousand others,—had he taken for the text of his government a passage from Antoninus*.

Early to know, that elevation of condition is no security from misfortune, is an admirable inheritance for a prince; and the more so, since the great majority of princes appear to suppose, that before their desires mountains should fall and oceans vanish.

Marmontel has a beautiful passage in his political romance of Belisarius :-' Amid all the brilliancy of his fortune, a sovereign is no more than a mere man ; overwhelmed with splendid cares, distracted with anx'ieties; a self-consuming votarist for the public good;

a victim to his duty, if he be zealous to perform it; an object of scorn if he neglect it; and of detestation 'should he betray it.' The reason why kings and statesmen have disappointed mankind so often is answered by the reply of some one to a person, who had justified Tacitus and Graciano, on the ground that they wrote only for kings and statesmen:- Alas! kings ' and statesmen understand with no greater facility 'than common persons.'

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* Si quid in vitâ humanâ invenis potiùs justitiâ, veritate, temperantiâ, fortitudine, ad ejus amplexum totius animi contendas 'suadeo.'-lib, iii.

CC.

WHO NEVER FORSAKE THEIR SPHERE OF BUSINESS.

:

CLARENDON says of the Lord Keeper Coventry * Though by his place he presided in all councils, and was most sharp-sighted in consequence of things, yet " he was seldom known to speak in matters of state, 'which, he well knew, were, for the most part, con'cluded before they were brought to that public agita

tion; never in foreign affairs; nor, indeed, freely in 'anything but what immediately and plainly concerned 'the justice of the kingdom; and in that, as much as 'he could, he procured references to judges.'

This order may be very useful in ordinary times; but of great hinderance in times of doubt; and of absolute incumbrance in seasons of difficulty and danger; for if we analyze strictly in reference to the testimony of Clarendon, we shall find that this order of character resolves itself chiefly into a mere creature of shiftings and precedents.

CCI.

STRAINERS AT GNATS AND SWALLOWERS OF CAMELS.

BEING some years since in the gardens and shrubberies of Burleigh House, near Stamford, I saw a statue, which, I was told, was that of the celebrated Cecil, Lord Burleigh; and I allude to this now from the circumstance of his having said, one day, to his son, who was hesitating whether or not he should kill a

* Vol. i. 45, 131.

wasp he held in his hand between two twigs-' Boy! 'do not you become one of those blockheads, who strain

at gnats; lest you be, one day, called upon to swallow 'camels.'

Gregory the Great seems to have hated heretics more than he did infidels; for while he persecuted, with great severity, those whom he styled heretics, he would permit no violence to be offered to the Jews. He seems, also, to have loved his creed so well, that nothing could exceed his hatred to every species of learning; an anomaly evident from his writings, more especially his dialogues and epistles.

This straining at gnats is scarcely more confined to one sect than to another. The Puritans had a great objection to many customs; such as set forms of prayer, bowing at the name of Christ, licensing marriages, presenting the ring, and kneeling at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Yet these very pious persons made a law, that every one, who should be seen intoxicated twice, should suffer the penalty of death!

Let us proceed to other stations and persons. Bernis was created a cardinal through the interest of Madame de Pompadour. Through the same interest he had been sent to Venice, then to the Hague, and lastly he was elevated to the ministry. He had already amassed benefices to the amount of 14,000l. a-year. He retained his premiership, however, but a very short time; for, one night, as he was retiring to bed, he was served with a lettre-de-cachet, with orders to quit Paris and retire to his bishopric by the following morning. The cause of this was a curious species of impertinence.

Walpole gives us the key; let him, therefore, state it. The cause was imputed to his own folly. He, who ' had scrupled to receive no benefits from the mistress; nay, whose flatteries had obtained the greatest, and 'whose conscience had stooped to owe to her interest 'the first dignity in the church, grew at once conscientiously ungrateful and arrogantly absurd, refusing to ' wait on her in her apartment, and to communicate in 'the dignity of the purple with a woman of so unsanc'timonious a character. The world laughed at his 'impertinent pretences, and she punished them*.' And this reminds me of Madame de Montespant. Though wife to one person and mistress to another, and still living in that guilty commerce, she was so strict in her observance of Lent, that even her bread was weighed. This inconsistency was alluded to, one day, by the Duchess d'Uzies. 'What, madam,' answered Madame de Montespan, because I chance to be guilty of one crime, must I be capable of all the rest?'

We find this foible operating in a thousand ways. La Mothe le Vayer felt great pleasure in hearing thunder, but could not endure the sound of musical instruments. Mr. Pelham would scruple to give a hundred pounds to one opponent; but to buy off another, we are told, he would not give up a question that might endanger a nation. The Marquis de Condorcet's conscience would not allow him to vote for the death of Louis XVI.; but he wished to propose that he should

* Mem. Geo. II, i. 333.

Memoirs, &c. from the Souvenirs of Mad. de Caylus.