CLXXVII.

ORDERS OF MEN IN RESPECT TO DEXTERITY.

THERE are men of address, men of dexterity, men of capacity, and men of ability; all different. Some are keen in searching their interests, in detecting flaws, in making retorts, and in penetrating characters less worldly than themselves. Some are acute in adapting arguments to occasions, and in the discovery of truth and error. Others are shrewd in the observance of folly, and in finding out the more dubious motives of other men's actions. Some are in the habit of combining and comparing; of illustrating, analyzing, and decomposing; and some are chiefly active, not in directing others to do what is right, but in enabling them to justify whatever may be wrong.

Knowledge of the world chiefly consists in having the skill to discern character, and the facility of detecting the arts, which influence what are called men of the world ;-men, who think that all persons are to be used; not trusted. Judging others by themselves, they estimate truth and untruth, vice and virtue, only by the profits and the benefits with which they are attended.

'A life, all turbulence and noise, may seem
To him that leads it wise, and to be praised;

But wisdom is a pearl, with most success

Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies.'-Cowper.

CLXXVIII.

LOVERS OF UNCERTAINTY.

BOUHOURS thought that nothing can be beautiful which is not just, and founded on the real nature of things. This is a truism; hence we ought to appreciate the axioms which teach, that nothing goes so far in the happiness of our lives as to know things as they really are; that the best thing in the world to make men honest and wise is affliction; and that disappointment is the surest and most effective of tutors to bring men to their senses and themselves.

There is another point we ought to consider: it is this; that pain and pleasure are proportionable to the perceptions of persons, and not to be judged of in others by what we feel in ourselves. Where was the wisdom, then, in 's assertion, that must be much

was not

more miserable than he was, because certain of any thing two days] together? I confess 'myself,' answered

when I told him of this,

to be one of those who would lose half the enjoyments ' of life, if I felt them to be certain. Uncertainty to me ' is as sauce to the salmon.'

CLXXIX.

LOVERS OF FINESSE.

FINESSE is a mean, diminutive, and contemptible dwarf. Men (and women, too) succeed by it in little matters; the whole value of which is lost in one affair of magnitude. What says the Earl of Oxford, in re

spect to Doddington?-That he was vain, fickle, ambitious, servile, and corrupt; that he had a knowledge of business, much wit, and great parts; but that, by a disposition to finesse, he threw himself out of all the great views which his large fortune and ability could not but have promoted, had he preserved the least shadow of consistency.

The lesson to be inferred from this needs no illustration.

CLXXX.

WHOSE LIVES ARE PERPETUAL SERIES OF STRUGGLES.

-One sanguine tide scarce roll'd away,

Another flows in regular succession.'

Eschylus; Agamemnon; Potter.

THERE are some, whose lives are series of perpetual struggles. They are bounded from a whirlpool to a hurricane; from the banks of a torrent to the edge of a precipice. To all men, thus insulted by fortune, and to those turned suddenly adrift, I would recommend the perusal of Herriott's Struggles through Life.' He resembled a thistle, blown from one part of a heath to another. At one time he seemed to associate even with the Chiquère of South America; an animal which becomes a prey to the crocodile in the water, or to the tiger on land.

'Me howling winds drive devious, tempest tost,

Sails ripp'd, seams opening wide, and compass lost;
And, day by day, some current's thwarting force
Sets me more distant from a prosperous course.'

Cowper.

That fortune is not to the wise is exemplified by the industry of Mr. Fox. He laboured with earnestness, and with almost superhuman power; but he could neither prevent the war with America, nor the still more disastrous war with France. It is happy, however, for the constitution of society, that obstacles and difficulties give keener edge to exertion.

'The waggon,

It roll'd so proudly, that a passenger

Curiously asked-" Now, what may that contain ?"

Nothing but bladders, sir.”

Khemmitzer; Bowring.

CLXXXI.

WHO TURN ON THOSE WHO SUCCESSFULLY CONTINUE THEIR OWN GAME.

SOME there are, who, being the first to set a stone rolling, are also the first to upbraid those who continue the game, should the stone chance to roll to an effect different to the one intended. Thus acts the Duke of Suffolk when Cranmer shows the royal ring. It is the sign of royal favour. On seeing it, the duke instantly turns round upon his fellows in council:

'Tis the right ring, by Heaven! I told ye all,
When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling,
'Twould fall upon ourselves.'

CLXXXII.

WHO ARE EVER IN HASTE ABOUT NOTHING.

‹ This moment hurrying with impassion'd soul,
The next in nothing lost.'-Thomson.

MANY men are perpetually, as it were, turning upon a pivot. They are in a constant fidget from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.

In triple chess, the party who plays contrary to rule, or too hastily, loses his move.

I knew a gentleman (a member of parliament), who frequented a seaport town every market-day. Speak to him ;—he was so busy, he had no time for any thing. It is no sleepy business I'm upon :

*

It must be look'd to speedily and strongly *

He bustled to the bridge, the quay, or the marketplace; looked calmly, yet vacantly, round; turned upon his heel, and then-bustled back again! He was the busiest man of his times.

CLXXXIII.

WHO ARE ALWAYS DEFENDING.

DEFENDING Other persons was one of the distinguishing characteristics of Mrs. Barbauld. She spoke of every one, not merely with candour and forbearance, 'but with interest, with kindness, with an indulgence, 'which sometimes appeared too comprehensive. She

*Cymbeline, iii., 4.