borough, if I imagined your Lordship had entertained the least doubt of that friendship which I profess to have for you. My habits, at court, have neither taught < me to show what I do not feel, nor to hide what

6

I do; and my love and my hate are so far from not appearing in my words and actions, that they generally 'sit in my very face.' 'There is no manner of heed,' he writes to Lord Raby, which your Excellency makes ' to the account, you give of the detail of the several con'ferences. These minute circumstances give very great light to the general scope and design of the persons negotiated with. And I own, that nothing pleases me 6 more in that valuable collection of the Cardinal D'Ossat's Letters, than the naïve descriptions which he gives of the looks, gestures, and even tones of voice of the persons he conferred with.'

6

In consequence of this letter, Lord Raby (afterwards Earl of Strafford) continued to give Lord Bolingbroke a descriptive account of the looks, gestures, and manners of the various persons, with whom he transacted business; a circumstance which reminds me, every now and then, of the first edition of Drayton's Polyolbion, which was illustrated by maps, in which cities, forests, rivers, and mountains were represented by the figures of men and women.

The plan recommended by, and so agreeable to Lord Bolingbroke, was, also, greatly affected and esteemed by the Regent Duke of Orleans. In him were united splendour of accomplishments; qualities suited to an eminent statesman; military genius; and so great a taste for the arts, that his talents for music and paint

ing are said even to have surpassed those of professed artists; while his mental resources were increased by a knowledge of various languages.

With all these qualities and capabilities, however, the Duke kept pace with the most profligate of his age in all manner of vicious excesses. In fact, there was never a more curious example of contrasted capability and practice than in him; and he seems to have lived in a perpetual state of internal warfare.

Walpole insists that, previous to the death of Louis the Fourteenth, he had entered into a plot to place the Spanish crown upon his own head; and that he was only saved by his wife and Madame de Maintenon from dying on a scaffold. Yet there are two speeches of his which must always command our admiration. Thus, when about to be appointed Regent, he insisted on receiving the power of pardoning. You may tie my ' hands, gentlemen,' said he to the members of the council, from mischief; but I must have them free for ' good.' The second speech I allude to is this. Some one complained to him of devoting a great deal of money to the maintenance of Stanislaus, who had been driven from the throne of Poland: Sir,' answered the Regent, the court of France has always been, and 'will, I hope, always continue to be, an asylum for ' unfortunate princes; and would you have me vio'late so honourable an observance, when a prince, so ' excellent as the King of Poland, comes to claim it?'

CCXLIII.

GREAT MEN HUMBLE.

TILLOTSON lamented, that true humility, plainness, and sincerity of nature, were, in a great degree, lost among us. I marvel at it; for those qualities produce more homage, happiness, and delicious respect than all that art can purchase.

Newton was so plain, modest, and simple, that no one, however illiterate, could perceive that Newton thought himself a greater man than he. The wider the circle his mind embraced, the more humble and devout he was. Buffon and Linnæus were not quite so modest. The former called himself (or I mistake) 'Nature's Secretary.' Linnæus, however, often humbled himself. 'If my names of plants,' he would say, displease you, choose others more agreeable to your 'taste.'

Herodotus of all historians, Virgil of all poets, Raphael of all painters, and Fox of all orators, seem to have understood how much real grandeur springs out of simplicity. Fox, indeed, was the most winningly modest of all statesmen :

- On his rugged brow

Sat young simplicity.'

He gave himself up to society with the artlessness of a child. Sheridan told me,' said Lord John Townshend, 'that he was quite lost in admiration of Fox on the

day they first dined together; and that it was a puzzle to him to say what he admired most;-his command

'ing superiority of talent and universal knowledge, or 'his playful fancy, artless manners, and benevolence of 'heart, which showed itself in every word he uttered.'

A want of simplicity makes Butler's Analogy much less agreeable, and, therefore, much less effective, than Wollaston's Religion of Nature. Both, however, yield, in point of effect, to Paley's Natural Theology.

No writer,- -even a poet,—should cease to remember, that simplicity of expression gives as much lustre to thought, as simplicity of setting gives to pearls and diamonds.

CCXLIV.

GREAT MEN QUACKS.

In all stations, supported by the public, nothing succeeds so amply and so surely as quackery, judiciously exercised. Even great men resort to it. 'We often 'feel tempted to say, in these disingenuous days,' says a powerful critic, when we have been in company 'with any distinguished person, he is a great man, no 'doubt; but he is, evidently, a great quack also.'

How many inordinate quacks do politics raise up every day!

Sir Joshua Reynolds knew the effects of quackery well, or he had never set up a carriage with wheels partly carved and gilt, with panels representing the four seasons of the year. This carriage was a species of advertisement.

Quackery, indeed, has become so general and so * Edinburgh Review, Sept. 1828.

effective, that even Lord Byron felt obliged to resort to it; and Zimmermann went even so far as to define a wise man, availing himself of other men's

a quack

• follies*.'

CCXLV.

WHO TAKE CARE NEVER TO EXCEL THEIR MASTERS.

- He has good nature,

And I have good manners;

His sons, too, are civil to me, because

I do not pretend to be wiser than they.'-Otway.

If it is a maxim, that we should never engage with one who has nothing to lose, it is equally wise to guard against any desire to out-do our masters. This is a canon strongly inculcated by Graciano, a Spaniard of some shrewdness; and every one, who acts in hostility with this precept, will find, in the end, that he has acted against one essential canon in the courts of prudence and discretion.

Parmenio advised his son Philotes to adopt this policy; and Volumnia said to Coriolanus- Make thy'self less.'

With wise men, if we would rise, we must, if possible, engender a high opinion of ourselves;-with superficial ones, and with mere men of the world, it were more politic to indicate a higher opinion of them. Racine seems to have been alive to this species of worldly policy. 'Do not think,' said he to his son,

am sought after by the great for

*Tissot, p. 28.

my

' that I

dramas. Cor