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stroyed. Thus one faction operates as an engine with which to annihilate another.

No prince ever knew better than Louis XI. how to discover the secrets of his enemies; to divide those who were united; and to overwhelm those with perplexities, who, but for his sowing the seeds of suspicion, would have lived in unity and peace. But what was the result of all this? for we must always look at results :—a life of inconceivable trouble, an age of anguish, a death-bed of despair.

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Louis IX. disdained a system of this kind. ployed, on the contrary, all his influence to heal the quarrels of his vassals, and even of his enemies; and by this policy, assisted by his other virtues, extended the power of his crown far beyond the crafty Louis VIII., or his still more insidious and cruel predecessor, Augustus Philip.

But Charles V.! 'Divide' was the practical motto he adopted in all his conduct during the religious divisions and civil and military negotiations in which he was engaged in Germany. He excited hopes in some to disconcert the projects of others; he sowed the seeds of discord to reap the benefits of authority; he strengthened this to weaken that; and, by this means, enabled himself, for a time, to usurp rights and to encroach on privileges. By exciting divisions among his Spanish subjects, giving these places and those pensions, the Cortes yielded up their privileges; and on those fragments he established a despotism, which, in subsequent times, has been the ruin and degradation of the country.

Happy will the time be when all governments shall reign for the good of the community at large! Those who reign otherwise are no sovereigns; but mere masters of willing or reluctant slaves. To be the chief magistrate of a free people is the finest station, the fortune of the earth presents.

Some sovereigns carry the maxim of ' divide' even into their cabinets. They believe it to be for their interest to set one minister against another, that they may watch over each other, and communicate results. There may be some policy in this during a usurpation; but it is a folly, even to extremity, in a regularly constituted monarchy.

Frederic the Great confesses, that hope and fear were the engines he invariably employed to regulate the conduct of all his servants. Cromwell listened to every thing; and Napoleon had no objection to witness jealousies among his officers. Their quarrels gave him intelligence he could in no other manner possess. Their war was his peace; their solicitude his safety.

He fettered, too, in another way. He compelled them to adopt a luxurious mode of living. Their rapacity could, therefore, insure no enrichment. They fought; they conquered; they plundered; they acquired large sums. They dissipated* those sums in luxury and voluptuous indulgences, and then felt compelled to turn their eyes to their master, to carve for them new conquests, that they might pursue the same jaded, worthless, and disgraceful course over again.

He excited the fear of his ministers and attendants

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upon calcu.ation. It was thus he arrived at some knowledge of their respective habits and characters. 'Besides,' said he to Las Cases, ' I was obliged to surround myself with a halo of fear; otherwise, having risen, as I did, from amidst the multitude, many would ' have made free to eat out of my hand, or to pat me on the shoulder. Man is naturally inclined to fami'liarity.' The imperial spoiler might have also added, to an utter detestation of tyranny.

II.

WHO NEVER ATTACK EQUAL ENEMIES.

THERE is no small disgrace in this; and yet the lion and the eagle act upon the principle. They never attack equal foes.

Some men resemble the black-capped titmouse, which attacks young and sickly birds, incapable of resistance; aiming its blows invariably against the skull. Others bear a similitude to the bustard; a bird which, though strong and active, is so destitute of courage, that even a sparrow-hawk can cast it to the ground. Some never fight, but in positions where no rampart can be erected against them. Others lie down, as it were, upon the sea-shore, and let the waves roll over them; as the white partridge of North America sits upon the snow, and suffers itself to be killed without attempting to move.

Plants, of course, can know no fear; but some exhibit curious instances of irritability. The yellow hoary mullein, for instance; a plant which, if two or three blows be given to the stem, loses its corollas; all separating from their bases, as if the calices round the

germens pushed them off. May we not here trace an analogy?

III.

WHO LOOK ON WHILE THEIR ENEMIES ARE DESTROYING EACH OTHER.

MACHIAVEL, in his discourses upon Livy, has a chapter to prove, that to assail a city, torn by factions, is not the way to conquer it: and he instances many examples, particularly that of Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan, who spent two millions of gold, to no one practical purpose, in endeavouring to avail himself of the quarrels that so constantly divided and disgraced Florence. When a city is thus situated,' says he, ‘the wisest plan is to let them alone; they will destroy themselves but if you see one party in danger of being 'totally destroyed by the other, assist the weak against 'the strong; become an umpire between them; for the 'probability is, they will cast themselves at your feet.'

This line of conduct would be indicative of strength at one time, but of weakness at another. There are no parallel cases.

To remain at peace, when enemies are tearing each other to pieces, would remind us of the advice given by some of the Spanish chiefs to the Emperor of the West*.

* Tu cum omnibus pacem habe, omniumque obsideo accipe ;— 6 nos nobis confligimus, nobis perimus, tibi vincimus; immortalis " vero quæstus erat reipublicæ tuæ, si utrique pereamus.'-Orosius, Histor. Augsbourgh. 1471. Fol. ed.

IV.

WHOSE INTERESTS ARE PROTECTED BY THE PASSIONS OF THEIR ADVERSARIES.

MEN frequently appear to touch the interests of others, when they do not touch; as oil is supposed not to come in contact with water when poured upon it, but to be suspended over it by the influence of their mutual repulsion.

Men's interests, too, are often protected by the passions of their adversaries; as snow, frigid in its own nature, protects vegetables from the intensity of cold; and as restraints, in respect to property, increase, by preventing contests, the produce of the earth; and securing rewards to inventors improve the conveniences of life, and give essential impulses to the exercise of human ingenuity.

V.

WHO NEVER LEAD; BUT FOLLOW.

- That odd impulse, which, in wars or creeds, Makes men, like cattle, follow him who leads.'

MANY men succeed,-admirably! by never attempting to lead. They follow. Burke alluded to a person of this sort, when he said: The gentleman in my ، eye is truly a child of this house. He never thought, said, or did, any thing, but with a view to it. He every day adjusted himself before it, as at a looking-glass.' Some are content to follow all the days of their lives; some follow to-day, that they may lead to-mor

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