'free access to him, and was heard with all the ease 'possible. They dined at his table as at a private gen'tleman's. In short, he got over every body's head at ' a time, that every body imagined they walked by his 'side.'

CCLIII.

WHO CAN GOVERN THEMSELVES.

THIS is the first of masteries.

He who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king;
Which every wise and virtuous man attains;
And who attains not ill aspires to rule
Cities of men, or headstrong multitudes,
Subjects himself to anarchy within,

Or lawless passions in him, which he serves.'

Milton; Paradise Regained.

Servants govern their passions better than their masters. Their patience and forbearance under reproach and anger is, indeed, wonderful. We all see astonishing instances.

Poor men live with each other in a state of equality. While they remain so, they do not often presume to be dictatorial with each other. But, from the moment in which they become masters, their habits and manners undergo so great a change, that the worst of overseers would, perhaps, be a man who had himself once been in danger of receiving parochial relief.

CCLIV.

WHO DETEST OPPOSITION.

DR. PARR and Warburton (Bishop of Gloucester) seem to have resembled, in some measure, the Cleon of ancient times; for Cleon is described as having been boisterous, vehement in utterance, rash, arrogant, of violent gesture, obstinate, and contentious. But they differed from him in this; viz., that, though they required unconditional submission, they were both placable to prostrate enemies and repentant antagonists; and then 'glowing with kindly feelings.' Both, however, carried their hatred of opposition to a very extravagant height.

Louis XI. hated opposition almost as much; but he differed, in this part of his character, from most men*; for he never took offence at any declared opposition, if he thought he discovered the motive for it to arise either out of interest or a principle of justice.

Men of noble minds thrive by opposition :

'E'en the oak

Thrives by the rude concussion of the storm.
He seems indignant, and to feel

Th' impression of the blast with proud disdain,
Frowning, as if in his unconscious arm

He held the thunder; but the monarch owes

His firm stability to what he scorns ;

More fix'd below, the more disturb'd above.'-Cowper.

Most men of rank and consideration, however, have

* Boulainvillers, ii. 236.

a vehement dislike even to the shadow of opposition. They encounter it but seldom; and are therefore unused to it. Other persons hate it equally, but, meeting with it often, they learn to endure it. No, sir,' said Johnson; great lords and great ladies do not love to have their mouths stopped.' 'For my part,' answered Boswell, I am happy to hear you, beyond what I can. 'express.' Yes, sir,' returned the lexicographer;

but if you were Lord Chancellor, it would not be so: you would then consider your dignity.'

CCLV.

WHO FORESEE NATURAL RESULTS.

In the seeds of the tulip-tree may be seen the leaves of the future tree; and in the buds of the hepatica we may behold, a year before the time of expansion, a perfect plant of the future.

How many thousand persons are there even in what is called civilized societies, who see it rain, hail, and snow, feel the winds, and hear the thunder, and yet know no more, and care no more, in respect to the causes of those phenomena, than the beasts that roar in the desert, or the kine that graze in the woods. There are some, however, who behold these effects with wonder and delight; and even venture so far into the regions of Nature as to foretel consequences, unimagined by any but themselves.

Seneca appears to have predicted that another world must necessarily exist beyond the Atlantic. Julian

predicted, that comets had periodical returns; Galileo foresaw, that the phases of Venus would, one day, be found to vary; and Columbus imagined the existence of a new route to the eastern part of the old world.

Newton predicted that the diamond would be found to be an inflammable substance; Leibnitz foretold the necessary existence of the polypus; and Franklin imagined, and afterwards proved, the identity of lightning with the electric fluid.

Darwin predicts a period, when the tract of land on the west of the gulf of Mexico may be worn away, the current of the gulf stream cease, and all the West India islands, by the subsiding of the waters, be united into one, or joined to the continent. Certain it is, that the corallina work so incessantly in the Pacific, that it may not require a multitude of ages to form a series of continents in the vast area of that sea.

CCLVI.

WHO LOVE TO SEE THE PROGRESS OF THINGS.

:

THE four lines in Thomson's tale of Palemon and Lavinia did not stand thus in the original edition :The fields, the master, all, my fair, are thine, If to the various blessings, which thy house On me has lavish'd, thou that bliss will add, That sweetest bliss,-the power of blessing thee.'

In the first edition we read thus:

'With harvest shining, all the fields are thine!
And if my wishes may presume so far,

Their master too, who then indeed were blest,
To make the daughter of Acasto so.'

From a love of seeing the progress of things arises no small part of our pleasure, when examining the various readings in the late editions of Shakspeare, Pope, Akenside, and Gray; Byron, Crabbe, and Scott.

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Great pleasure, too, may be derived from examining early specimens of painting and sculpture; the tracings of architecture, the dawn of art, and the early ages of history. By this process every thing becomes simple. 'What I have known,' says Dr. Priestley, with re'spect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my 'admiration and my contempt of others. Could we have entered into the mind of Sir Isaac Newton, and have traced all the steps by which he produced his 'great works, we might see nothing very extraordinary ' in the process.' The truth of this supposition has been lately proved by Dr. Brewster in his perspicuous memoir of that illustrious person.

What pleasure, too, may be derived from watching the course of planets, satellites, and comets; successive developments in the economy of vegetation; and, above all, the openings of the mind of man in children, delighted with instruction!

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The pleasure arising from the progress of perspectives may even be extended to a future state. I do not 'imagine,' says a celebrated writer, far from being remarkable for the indulgence of his imagination, that 'all things will be made clear to us immediately after ' death; but that the ways of Providence will be ex'plained to us very gradually.' Happy will be the hour, when we shall be able to exclaim, Italia! Italia! 'Italia!