"The tints of the hills are confounded in the distance, As the traveller views them, to the end of his daily journey: The shapes of their peaks and ridges alter with every change of place, Until the lonely wanderer ceases to know their names.' CXXX. WHO FORM STUDIES. THERE are some persons, who form studies, as it were, of themselves. These are not the best, nor are they the worst of mankind. They are men of virtue and vice; blended with all the eccentricity of which the human character is susceptible: Alcibiades, for instance, in former times; the Duke of Buckingham and the Duke of Wharton, in more recent ones. Had either of these persons left a faithful record of their acquirements, hopes, wishes, disappointments; deeds done, and deeds attempted; with the actions and characters of those with whom they associated, or against whom they were arrayed; the biographies of Plutarch, and all those in Bayle's Dictionary and the Biographia Britannica, had, perhaps, furnished no studies so entirely acceptable to a true man of the world. CXXXI. IN WHOM EXTREMES MEET. 'Vitium extremis nam semper inhæret.' Du Fresnoy, de Arte Graphica, v. 415. SOME men are vicious in the extremity to which they would carry those qualities which ought to be virtuous; as some plants, which are exquisite in the air, give a perfume so strong in a drawing-room, as to fatigue the olfactory sense altogether. St. Paul said well, when he enjoined his hearers not to be righteous over much.' There is, undoubtedly, great vice in it. Some persons are valued or undervalued more largely than justice warrants; and of this Cardinal Retz may be cited as an example: for of him Tenhove* says, that it was impossible to esteem him, to fear him, to love him, or to hate him, except to excess. A feather and a piece of gold fall, in an exhausted receiver, in the same period of time. Some trees and shrubs have a peculiarity, of which, I believe, there are few analogies in any other region of Nature. Plant them in an inverse position, leaves will grow from the roots, and roots from the upper branches of the trunks. These are not the analogous consequences of extremes in worldly characters, or in worldly affairs. Women are, frequently, not only in extremes; but, if the solecism may be allowed, in the extremity of extremes. It is for this reason, with many others, that Swift said, as they are like riddles, in being unintelligible, so they generally resemble them in this; 'that they please us no longer, when once we know 'them.' Swift had courage for any thing! The character of Dionysius the younger would not be worth dwelling upon, were there not, in his fate, remarkable extremes. He had been tyrant of Syracuse more than twenty years; but, being conquered by Ti * Mem. House of Medici, ii. ch. xi. 米 moleon, and sent to Corinth, he kept a school: and there he exhibited a curious spectacle. For he was sometimes seen conversing in a butcher's shop; now sitting in that of a perfumer; now drinking in a tavern; now squabbling in the streets with women of the town; and now instructing young female musicians to sing at the theatre! This is one of the most curious contrasts, in regard to condition, exhibited in history. Men pass easily, readily, and rapidly, from love to hate; from confidence to distrust; from hope to fear; from pity to indifference. The transitions, however, are not so rapid from hate to love; from mistrust to confidence; from fear to hope; or from indifference to pity. The facility of transition is all, or, chiefly, on one side. Thus The poets exhibit very curious extremes. there are many passages in Dante and Wieland, that make us laugh and shudder at the same moment. Nations, too, occasionally, bound from one extreme to another. In France the transitions have been from cruelty to humanity; from despotism to anarchy; from bigotry to atheism; from atheism to cant; from cant to religion, wise institutions, public freedom, and, I hope, public happiness. There is one good in resorting to extremes; and Cardinal Retz alludes to it † ;-they are wise, when necessary; and they settle subjects one way or the other. All extremes of sensation, however, are dangerous, whether of pleasure or of pain. For if the one lead us to lassitude and disgust; the other, but too often, drive us to melancholy and mental ruin. *Plutarch. † Mem. vol. i. p. 178. CXXXII. WHO, BEING INNOCENT, HAVE NO REGARD TO APPEARANCES. AMELIA is a beautiful creature, and an innocent creature; but she has no regard to appearances. She fancies she may do all things that are innocent. She is unconscious, that from the highest glow of virtuous feeling, some one silent enemy may give a shrug,— "That though she were the snow itself, new fallen, Men would believe her spotted *.? CXXXIII. WHO ARE WRONG IN SENTIMENT; YET RIGHT IN ACTION. SOME mathematicians reason justly on false foundations. Analogous orders are more numerous than I choose to calculate. The principles and sentiments of many, for instance, are right; and yet their actions appear to be wrong. They are led, driven, or they glide into conditions, which they would never have experienced, had they stooped more solicitously to consult expedience. 'Thus we may gather honey from the weed, Some men's conduct is regulated less by their sentiments than by circumstances; while many act almost entirely by compulsion. The argument of Erlach was morally wrong; and yet, practically right. Being * Knowles. 'The Wife.' Act iii. sc. 1. . elected to the chief command of the army of Berne, he thus addressed the people: Six battles have I been engaged in, in which the smaller number have preI vailed over numerous armies. Strict subordination ' alone can insure success. You, who are born free, ⚫ are naturally impatient of control; but you will cease to be free, if you refuse to yield, when obedience becomes necessary. With God's aid and yours, I will C dare any multitude; as we did in the days of my father: but of this be well aware; I will not be your commander, unless I am invested with absolute autho'rity.' In difficult times republics may admit the existence of dictators. One man may be erected into a giant, because the majority of persons are little. But the occasion must be urgent, and the period short. CXXXIV. WHO ARE GOOD AT ONE TIME, AND BAD AT ANOTHER. Nor only men are so, but things. Charles, commonly called the Wise, built the Bastile as a castle of defence. What it afterwards became is too faithfully on record. Learning was introduced to support the cause of Christianity; but in the hands of the subtle it afterwards became an engine of perplexity and confusion. In good hands it again became advantageous; for it was the greatest accessory for the obtainment of reform from the time of Wickliffe to that of Luther, Huss, and Jerome of Prague. We may extend examples to sovereigns. Nero and Constantine are instances of sovereigns who were good |