Othello, A&t iii.
Sc. iii.

Bp. Berkeley,
The Minute
Philofopher,

Dial. i. Vol. i.
330.

Girdleftone on
Acts xvii. 12-

31.

Vol. vii. 303.
Rofcoe.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The great Allowances to be made for Ignorance,
and the deep-rooted Prejudices of the

People.

"Where's that palace, whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breaft fo pure, But fome uncleanly apprehenfions

Keep leets and law days, and in feffion fit

With meditations lawful?"

"Oh! faid Euphranor, I am never angry with any man for his opinion: whether he be Jew, Turk, or Idolater, he may speak his mind freely to me, without fear of offending. I fhould even be glad to hear what he hath to fay, provided he faith it in an ingenuous candid Whoever digs in the mine of truth I look on as my fellowlabourer; but if, while I am taking true pains, he diverts himself with teafing me, and flinging duft in mine eyes, I fhall foon be tired of him."

manner.

"He gets accustomed to read of mifery without confidering that he
ought to be relieving it. And the woes which ought to agonize his
heart with fympathy, minifter rather to the amusement of his mind."

MONG Pope's Thoughts on
Various Subjects are the two
following.

"There never was any party,

faction, fect, or cabal whatsoever, in which

1

the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a bufier animal than a blockhead. However, fuch inftruments are neceffary to politicians; and perhaps it may be with ftates as with clocks, which must have fome dead weight hanging at them, to help and regulate the motion of the finer and more ufeful parts.

"To endeavour to work upon the vulgar with fine fenfe, is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor."

I would not wish to say that such sentences and apophthegms do not contain truth, for they certainly do; but he that fhould endeavour to turn them to account in every-day life would get little benefit from them. To benefit the people, the people must be met openly and freely, and the greatest allowances must be made for their Ignorance, and their deep-rooted Prejudices. To say that they have not a fine fenfe in difcerning what you are about is a popular fallacy, and the politician who would venture clumfily to meddle with them, as with the weights of a clock, would foon have the weights upon his own feet. Whereas, properly manipulated (to use the pet word of the day), they are a great means to

Effays, Of
Empire.

Park's Heliconia, i. 225.

2 Epift. ii. 39. Catus is a

Sabine word,acutus, 'cute.

a great end,—that is, to their own happiness and that of the community. And Lord Bacon faid very wifely, "It is the folecism of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the means." Once let the barriers of ferfdom be taken down, and let the people know themselves to be free, and then those who hope the moft from the lower ranks will do the most for them, and the old faw will pafs into forgetfulness,

"It is a fport to see a clown

How he can play the knave."

I have more than once alluded in these pages to the great mistakes people make continually on this head, not being alive to the fact that fhrewdnefs and much ignorance are quite compatible. Horace gives the exact defcription of the Boor by the SEA-BOARD AND THE DOWN in his inimitable description of the foldier of Lucullus, when he styles him, "Catus, quantumvis rufticus ;"

and a stranger, who fhould have to deal with.
any
of the race, and having bought experience,
might, if a scholar, be reminded of the Italian
Proverb,

"Chi ha dafur con Tofco

Non bifogna che fia lufco,"

thus tranflated by the well-known Author of the Litera Ho-Eliana, a quick observer of mankind, and whofe Letters ftill repay the time and trouble of reading:

"Who dealeth with a Florentine,

Muft have the use of both his Eyn!"

Letters, Book I. Sect. i. xli. p. 76. 10th Edit.

Ib. Sect. ii.

Letter xv. p.

104.

His defcription of the Hollander in a later 1737.
Letter is not at all unfuitable to many a
worthy South Saxon. "There is no part of
the earth, confidering the fmall circuit of
country, which is eftimated to be but as big
as the fifth part of Italy, where one may find
more different customs, tempers, and humours
of the people than in the Netherlands. The
Walloon is quick and sprightful, accostable
and full of compliment, and gaudy in apparel,
like his next neighbour the French; the
Fleming and Brabanter fomewhat more flow
and more fparing of fpeech; the Hollander
flower than he, more furly and refpectlefs of
gentry and strangers, homely in his clothing,
of very few words, and heavy in action, which
may be well imputed to the quality of the
foil, which works fo ftrongly upon the
humours, that when people of a more
vivacious and nimble temper come to mingle
with them, their children are obferved to

Æn. ix. 603.

Pope, Prologue

to Satires.

partake rather of the foil than the fire; and fo it is in all animals befide." "It was the remark," said the Old Vicar, "of my lamented friend William Woodward, that the clay of the Weald was stiff, and that the people moft unmistakeably partook of it,' Durum a ftirpe genus! Eh?"

Good, excellent man! he did all he could to better all around him,-and I can never forget his sweet smile when I used to reply, "I am getting quite fond of the South Saxon, -heavy he may be, but there is much to like in him,—befides, if the clay be as stiff as you fay it is, it produces fome of the finest wheat in England, and, during the long war, the oak of the Weald brought a penny a foot more than any other in the market. Educate the people, and bring their faculties out, and they will be of the fame stamp with the oaks and the wheat!"

"It may be fo," he would reply, "but it will take time. They may fay of themselves, as I fay when I fee a good deal done by the hands of educated men which I cannot approve of,

'I was not made for courts, or great affairs,

I pay my debts, believe, and fay my prayers.""