He remonstrated under his roof by the jealous government. with energy beyond his years, but in vain. bewilder and unnerve the weak, but call forth all the strength of the strong. LORD MACAULAY 238. Certainly, somewhat like that which Plutarch says of the Roman auguries, 'that Octavius lost his life by trusting to them, and that Marius prospered the better because he did not altogether despise them,' may be said of popularity: though he that too immoderately and importunately affects it, will hardly continue innocent; yet he who too affectedly despises or neglects what is said of him, or what is generally thought of persons or things, and too stoically contemns the affections of men, even of vulgar (be his other abilities and virtues as great as can be imagined), will in some conjuncture of time find himself very unfortunate. POPULARITY NOT TO BE SOUGHT NOR DESPISED. LORD CLARENDON 239. THE ARTS AND SCIENCES CANNOT ATTAIN TO PERFECTION EXCEPT UNDER PERMANENT AND FREE GOVERN MENTS. As the arts and sciences are slow in coming to maturity, it is requisite, in order to their perfection, that the state should be permanent, which gives them reception. There are numberless attempts without success, and experiments without conclusion, between the first rudiments of an art and its utmost perfection; between the outlines of a shadow and the picture of an Apelles. Leisure is required to go through the tedious interval, to join the experience of predecessors to our own, or enlarge our views, by building on the ruined attempts of former adventurers. All this may be performed in a society of long continuance; but if the kingdom be but of short duration, as was the case of Arabia, learning seems coeval, sympathises with its political ́struggles, and is annihilated in its dissolution. But permanence in a state is not alone sufficient; it is requisite also for this end that it should be free.-Fear naturally represses invention, benevolence, ambition; for in a nation of slaves, as in the despotic governments of the East, to labour after fame is to be a candidate for danger. O. GOLDSMITH 240. ANTIQUITY OF THE JEWS, A GREAT PREROGATIVE. A strange passion possessed the European nations of deriving their origin from the thrice-beaten Trojans. Even the Greeks caught the infection. So enamoured are mankind of a dark antiquity—so averse to consider themselves the creatures of a day-that, not content with the hope of a future immortality, they would fain extend their existence backward through the dusk abysm of Time, and claim a share in the very calamities of past generations. How great then the prerogative of the Jew, who needs not to seek his origin amid the dust of forgetfulness, but finds it recorded in the Book that teaches to live and die! H. COLERIDGE 241. ADVICE GIVEN TO ELIZABETH QUEEN OF ENGLAND IN FAVOUR OF HER ACCEPTANCE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, PROFFERED TO HER A. D. 1585. Other counsellors of Elizabeth maintained a contrary opinion. They asserted, that the Queen had not even from the beginning of her reign, but certainly had not at present, the choice, whether she would embrace friendship or hostility with Philip: that the provocations which she had already given him, joined to his general scheme of policy, would for ever render him her implacable enemy; and as soon as he had subdued his revolted subjects, he would undoubtedly fall, with the whole force of his united empire, on her defenceless state: that the only question was, whether she would maintain a war abroad and supported by allies, or wait till the subjection of all the confederates of England should give her enemies leisure to begin their hostilities in the bowels of that kingdom: that the revolted provinces, though in a declining condition, possessed still considerable force; and by the assistance of England, by the advantages of their situation, and by their inveterate antipathy to Philip, might still be enabled to maintain the contest against the Spanish monarchy: that their maritime power, united to the Queen's, would give her entire security on that side from which alone she could be assaulted, and would even enable her to make inroads on Philip's dominions, both in Europe and the Indies that a war which was necessary, could never be unjust; and self-defence was concerned, as well in preventing certain dangers at a distance, as in repelling any immediate invasion: and that since hostility with Spain was the unavoidable consequence of the present interests and situations of the two monarchies, it was better to compensate that danger and loss by the acquisition of such important provinces to the English empire. D. HUME 242. NORMAN CONQUEST, EXTRAORDINARY FACILITY OF. The night was spent in a manner, which prognosticated the event of the following day. On the part of the Normans it was spent in prayer, and in a cool and steady preparation for the engagement; on the side of the English in riot and a vain confidence that neglected all the necessary preparations. The two armies met in the morning; from seven to five the battle was fought with equal vigour; until at last the Norman army pretending to break in confusion, a stratagem to which they had been regularly formed, the English, elated with success, suffered that firm order in which their security consisted to dissipate: which when William observed, he gave the signal to his men to regain their former disposition, and fall upon the English, broken and dispersed. Harold in this emergency did every thing which became him, every thing possible to collect his troops and to renew the engagement; but whilst he flew from place to place, and in all places restored the battle, an arrow pierced his brain; and he died a king, in a manner worthy of a warrior. The English immediately fled; the rout was total, and the slaughter prodigious. The consternation which this defeat and the death of Harold produced over the kingdom, was more fatal than the defeat itself. If William had marched directly to London, all contest had probably been at an end; but he judged it more prudent to secure the sea-coast, to make way for reinforcements; distrusting his fortune in his success more than he had done in his first attempts. E. BURKE 243. CHARACTER OF CAIUS MARIUS. The obscurity of his extraction, which depressed him with the nobility, made him the greater favourite of the people, who, on all occasions of danger, thought him the only man fit to be trusted with their lives and fortunes, or to have the command of a difficult and desperate war; and in truth he twice delivered them from the most desperate with which they had ever been threatened by a foreign enemy. In the field he was cautious and provident; and while he was watching the most favourable opportunities of action, affected to take all his measures from augurs and diviners; nor ever gave battle, till by pretended omens and divine admonitions he had inspired his soldiers with a confidence of victory: so that his enemies dreaded him, as something more than mortal; and both friends and foes believed him to act always by a peculiar impulse and direction from the gods. His merit however was wholly military, void of every accomplishment of learning, which he openly affected to despise; so that Arpinum had the singular felicity to produce the most glorious contemner as well as the most illustrious improver of the arts and eloquence of Rome. He made no figure therefore in the gown, nor had any other way of sustaining his authority in the city, than by cherishing the natural jealousy between the Senate and the people; that by his declared enmity to the one, he might always be at the head of the other; whose favour he managed not with any view to the public good, for he had nothing in him of the statesman or the patriot, but to the advancement of his private interest and glory. In short he was of a temper and talents greatly serviceable abroad, but turbulent and dangerous at home; an implacable enemy to the nobles, and ready to sacrifice the republic, which he had saved, to his ambition and revenge. C. MIDDLETON 244. CONSTITUTIONS, WHEN MOST TO BE COMMENDED. If it be said that this may sometimes cause disorders, I acknowledge it; but no human condition being perfect, such a one is to be chosen, which carries with it the most tolerable inconveniences: and it being much better that the irregularities and excesses of a prince should be restrained or suppressed, than that whole nations should perish by them, those constitutions, that make the best provision against the greatest evils, are most to be commended. If governments were instituted to gratify the lusts of one man, those could not be good that set limits to them; but all reasonable men confessing that they are instituted for the good of nations, they only can deserve praise, who above all things endeavour to procure it, and appoint means proportioned to that end. A. SYDNEY 245. BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR JULY A. D. 1644. The numbers on each side were not far unequal, but never were two hosts speaking one language of more dissimilar aspects. The Cavaliers, flushed with recent victory, identifying their quarrel with their honour and their love, their loose locks escaping beneath their plumed helmets, glittering in all the martial pride which makes the battle-day like a pageant or a festival, and prancing forth with all the grace of gentle blood, as they would make a jest of death, while the spiritrousing strains of the trumpets made their blood dance, and their steeds prick up their ears: the Roundheads, arranged in thick dark masses, their steel caps and high crown hats drawn close over their brows, looking determination, expressing with furrowed foreheads and hard-closed lips the inly-working rage which was blown up to furnace-heat by the extempore effusions of their preachers, and found vent in the terrible denunciations of the Hebrew psalms and prophecies. The arms of each party were adapted to the nature of their courage: the swords, pikes, and pistols of the royalists, light and bright, were suited for swift onset and ready use; while the ponderous basket-hilted blades, long halberts, and heavy firearms of the parliamentarians were equally suited to resist a sharp attack, and to do execution upon a broken enemy. H. COLERIDGE 246. THE OVERTURE TO INVEST CROMWELL WITH THE TITLE OF KING, BY WHOM AND ON WHAT GROUNDS OPPOSED, A. D. 1657. But the more sober persons of the king's party who made less noise, trembled at this overture; and believed that it was the only way utterly to destroy the king, and to pull up all future hopes of the royal family by the roots. They saw all men even already tired in their hopes; and that which was left of spirit in them was from the horror they had of the confusion of the present government; that very many who had sustained the king's quarrel in the beginning were dead; that the present king, by his long absence out of the kingdom, was known to very few; so that there was too much reason to fear, that much of that affection that appeared under the notion of allegiance to the king was more directed to the monarchy than to the person, and that if Cromwell were once made king and so the government ran again in the old channel, though those who were in love with a republic would possibly fall from him, he would receive abundant reparation of strength by the access of those who preferred the monarchy, and which probably would reconcile most men of estates to an absolute |