too close and rigid an investigation into their vices and crimes. In fact, the influence, power, and wealth of the clergy were immeasurably increased by the doctrine, widely and most industriously circulated, from the church, the chapter, and the bench, that punishments for the wicked, in a future state, might be commuted for donations to God, the saints, the bishops, and the monks.

The church, too, gained no small degree of wealth and influence in lands by the contract called Precaria; for, by this contract*, whoever gave lands to the church were entitled not only to the profits of them during life, but to twice the amount; and in case they would give usufruct also, they received three times the value of other estates belonging to the church in exchange. And this regulation seems to be as old as the time of St. Augustine t.

CXL.

BAD MEN WHO HAVE DONE GOOD ACTIONS.

MENTOR'S advice to Idomeneus was exceedingly eloquent. It is time,' said he,' that you should learn, 'that a man may perform good acts, and be still wicked; that men of the worst principles and dispositions do good, when it serves their purpose, with 'the same facility as evil.' May not this act as a commentary on the characters of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Mazarin?

* Council of Meaux, canon xxii., a.d. 845.
† Paul Sarpi, Eccl. Ben., ch. xix.

Henry VIII., after the battle of Flodden, could have reduced Scotland entirely to subjection; but he refused to do so out of regard to his sister, Queen Margaret, who was appointed regent after the death of her husband (James IV.), slain in the battle. Henry was, in fact, an example to prove, that a man may have many of the worst vices of which our nature is susceptible, and yet possess one at least of those virtues which most dignify our nature.

Amongst those bad men who have had some fine qualities, may be ranked Cardinal Mazarin. Envy, ingratitude, deception, ignorance of legislation, obliquity, hypocrisy, insatiable avarice; these are some of the qualities by which he was dishonoured. 'Alike insensible to in'juries and to favours,' says Deformaux, 'he knew not how to punish or to reward. Hence favours, the best deserved, were only forced from him by threats, or by 'working on his fears.' Yet had this very cardinal many virtues, arising from grace of action and sweetness of temper.

Even Louis XI. did many good things:- -' He 'lowered the power of the great vassals,' says a celebrated French historian, raised that of the majesty, ' and made the nobles subject to the laws.' Charles IX., too, is said to have had many great virtues; and the assertion is made even by De Thou*.

For my own part, I have seen men of bad character do what no one could have expected of them; and men of good fortune and fair reputation act such meannesses, as none but actual witnesses could credit!

6

* Princeps præclara indole, et magnis virtutibus ; nisi quatenus

eas prava educatione, et matris indulgentia corrupit.'

CXLI.

WHO HAVE INNOCENTLY COMMITTED BAD ACTIONS.

WHAT a paradox am I about to assert! Many atrocious actions have been honestly committed. Yet on this ground, and this only, can the entire history of religious persecution be, in the slightest degree, justified. Fanaticism is more cruel than ignorance; and more lofty in moral pretence, but more detestable in practice, than even military tyranny itself; since it renders the human mind capable of any thing; nor is it confined to one religion. It embraces all.

Religio peperit scelerosa, atque impia facta.'

Sir Everard Digby, who was executed in the twentyfourth year of his age, for misprision of treason in regard to the Powder Plot, was governed by this delusive species of virtue. He was the handsomest man of his time, and accounted the finest gentleman in England; and being asked at his trial, how he could hazard his life and estate in such an infamous transaction, he answered, 'If I thought there had been the smallest 'sin in it, I would not have engaged in it for all the ' world!'

My position is still better exemplified by another instance of innocent atrocity. It is cited by Montesquieu from Father Bougerel, of a Jew, who, having been accused of blaspheming the Virgin, was, in consequence, condemned to be flayed alive. On the day of execution, several gentlemen of Provence rushed upon the scaffold in masks, drove away the executioner, and

commenced the dreadful operation, under an impression, that they were avenging the cause of the Blessed Virgin. Thank Heaven, such times are past; never, let us hope, to return! The printing press will save the world. Let us place the inventor of it, then, at the head of mankind, after Memnon, the inventor of letters.

CXLII.

WHO FORM CLASSES OF THEMSELVES.

SOME men, like the camel, the camleopard, the bear, the badger, the ant-eater, and the sloth, in the kingdom of quadrupeds,-form classes of themselves. They are unlike all others. Don Diego de Mendoza was an instance, and a very remarkable one; for he was a successful warrior, a man of gallantry and intrigue, an historian, a translator of and commentator on Aristotle, the possessor of a large library, a lover of Greek MSS., a courtier, a negotiator, an ambassador, a cruel administrator, a base minister, the author of • Lazarillo de Tormes,' a poet, and a villain of the first and darkest order. He stands, in the midst of mankind, solitary.

It is very certain, and Longinus makes an analogous remark in respect to the Greek language,-that common expressions have frequently more strength and meaning than laboured ones. It is true, also, with men; but curiosities are still worthy of observation; and few men of his order deserved more to be gazed at, as such, than Paracelsus and Edward Wortley Montague.

Paracelsus was one of the most remarkable exemplars of knowledge and nonsense, wisdom and folly, science and ignorance, credulity and incredulity, honesty and dishonesty, religion and atheism, with which biography has made us acquainted. I say this, however, without any obstinacy, or attempt at accuracy. For his friends have been so lavish in his praise, and his enemies so unmeasured in their censures, that to acquire a true knowledge of his tenets, philosophy, morals, discoveries, and irregularities, would require more time than the subject is worth, and a skill that were better appropriated to other purposes. We may safely assert, however, that he was a quack of the first order, though his quackery did not command the greatest success.

Edward Wortley Montague, also, was a personage exceedingly difficult to estimate. Son of a man of fortune, he became a chimney-sweeper; a fister-boy in the streets; a cabin-boy in a vessel; a muleteer in Spain; a labourer in Switzerland and Holland; a horse-jockey in Germany; and in England a member of the House of Commons. He lived afterwards in Italy, wrote Reflections on the Rise and Fall of ancient Republics, and turned Catholic. After this he embraced the Mahometan faith, and kept a harem.

We may, I think; safely assert, that these three persons formed classes, not only different from each other, but equally different from all the rest of the world.