ministers serve him according to the laws and statutes of the realm; had he done this, he had not perished on a scaffold. He had been, in fact, one of the noblest men

of his age.

Pagano insists, that, let the actions of men be what they may, they are subjected to rules as general, and as constant, as the phenomena of the natural world. It is, nevertheless, certain, that the greatness of some arises out of the circumstance that they are compelled to wrestle in collision between their virtues and vices. Thus positive and negative bodies will reciprocally attract each other; but if the intensity be equal, each will remain unelectrified by contact.

Some one, I forget whom,-has said, that men have either no characters at all, or that they consist in being inconsistent with themselves. Onslow the Speaker, however, remarked†, in the character of Sir William Wyndham, that every thing about him seemed great ; all the parts of his character being suited, and a help, as it were, to each other. Not the slightest inconsistency was to be observed. All was in harmony, not only in appearance, but in truth. Such, however, can be no other than the language of romance. For men are so inconsistent with themselves, that man may well be called a little republic; often changing its magistrates.

Mirabeau proposed the enactment of a curious law in the National Assembly; viz., that every one should be excluded from the national and provincial assemblies, and even from the magistracy, who, by the mismanage

* Di Saggi Politici.

† Remarks on various parts of Sir R. Walpole's conduct.

ment of their private concerns, indicated themselves incapable of prudently conducting the business of the public. On this principle, some of the most eminent of modern, as well as of ancient, statesmen would have been excluded from participating in the discussion of public business; amongst whom may be instanced Walsingham, Bacon, Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan. Mirabeau himself would even have excluded himself; for no one can be said to manage his private affairs well who takes: bribes, or participates in public plunder. The fact is, men of very enlarged views can seldom confine themselves to the measurement of a house, an estate, a parish, or a province. They lose by enlarging; like circles in: the water, and sounds in the air.

CLVI.

INCONSISTENCIES OF EMINENT MEN.

SOME persons are of such inconstancy, that they may apply to themselves the following translation from one of Horace's epistles :

'My mind is with itself at strife,

And disagrees in all the course of life;
What now it throws away, it now admires;
And what it hated once, it now desires;
Unsettled as the sea, or fleet as air,

It rages, builds, and changes round to square."

Diderot was one of these; for he wrote things which, were we not assured to the contrary, we should insist were composed by two persons, not only differing in manners and morals, but even in age and country; for, though he aspired to the glory of Plato, as Barrière

was accustomed to say, he did not blush to imitate Petronius.

Poets, too, are but too often as strangely inconsistent as their readers and admirers; yet, perhaps, not more so; though the allusions I shall make would appear to prove otherwise. Guarini, for instance, deserved the title of poet; yet, when he thought his Pastor Fido' was criticised, his anger knew no bounds, though only the most captious of the tuneful race' could have taken the criticism to himself. For when the critique on tragi-comedy was printed, the Pastor Fido' had not been published. Guarini lived at Ferrara, and the critic at Padua; and neither had personal knowledge of the other. What strange caprices take up their habitation in this 'vile anatomy!' When young, was much taken with this poet's 'Pastor Fido.' I would now put it on the back of the fire for half a basket of violets; but I should be little disposed to act thus with the inimitable 'Aminta,'' Comus,' or the Faithful 'Shepherdess.'

I

Shall we turn to other minstrels? Camoëns has blended the Christian and heathen mythology in a very curious way; while Sannazaro invokes Apollo and the Muses instead of the prophets; and even represents the Virgin as intent upon the verses of the Sibyl.

Painters, too, are sometimes curiously inconsistent. Nicholas Poussin, for instance, in his fine picture of Jochebed's placing the Cradle of Moses among the 'Bulrushes,' formed the background from views of Rome, instead of the city of Pharaoh. The spectator, therefore, stands upon the borders of the Tiber, when

when he ought to be pausing on those of the Nile. Rubens was still more careless in respect to costume and anachronisms. In one of the compartments of the Luxembourg Gallery, therefore, Mercury is introduced to Mary de Medici by a cardinal; and her train is supported, at a marriage sacrament, by Hymen, Christ standing on one side of the altar!

Men of genius are inconsistent, too, in other things. They love solitude, for instance, and yet have an ardent desire of fame and public applause. Some are headstrong rather than firm, and perpetually undoing what they have done; and thence are accused of duplicity; when the whole arises from mere want of resolution. This, indeed, is an error many men fall into; and of this even some writers* accuse Pope Pius VI.

We speak and think differently, at different times, of the same things, and of the same persons; yet we speak and think with sincerity. We do not always see through the same pair of spectacles, as it were; and we have but too many reasons to change our opinions of persons, since they themselves change their opinions, manners, habits, principles, and conduct, according to the standard of their interests, passions, and caprices; being constant in nothing but a love of themselves.

'The rogue and fool, by fits, is fair and wise;

And even the best, by fits, what they despise.'

It cannot be denied, that where there is wisdom there is also a portion of folly. Alas! who can associate

* Vide Hist. and Phil. Mem. Pius VI. and his Pontificate.

VOL. I.

T

the author of Utopia* and the dispenser of unbought justice on the woolsack, with him who, in the language of Burnet, became ' a persecutor even unto blood?' Who does not reflect, too, with a melancholy, allied to shame, that the greatest geometrician, that France ever produced,† should have suffered himself to stoop so low as-for years!—to administer to the amours and intrigues of his own mistress? Is it credible?-scarcely credible; yet fatally true!

CLVII.

WHO ARE INCONSISTENT ONLY IN APPEARANCE.

'Can a demeanour so composed, so noble,

And yet so tender, want true innocence ?

It cannot be.'-Digby; Elvira, act iii. sc. 1.

ONE eye is sometimes so different from another, that two different glasses are required to insure a perfect vision. Deeds are regarded not according to their merits, but their consequences: few taking the trouble to convince themselves, that deeds are consequences also; and flow from their causes, as naturally as clouds revolve in shapes according to the different force of the wind.

Historians and biographers are frequently in error from the circumstance of their not considering two important points. Biographers forget, that opinions as frequently proceed from actions, as actions do from opinions and historians too often attribute consequences to the influence of particular persons, which are, in fact, † D'Alembert.

*Sir Thomas More.

L'Espinasse.