errors of such minds are few, but fatal. I allude to those characters, who have a kind of mathematical decision about them, which dictates that a straight line is the shortest distance between any two points, and that small bodies with velocity, have a greater momentum than large masses without it. Thus they would rather use a cannon ball, than a battering ram. With such minds to resolve and to act is instantaneous; they seem to precede the march of time; to foresee events, in the chrysalis of their causes ; and to seize that moment for execution, which others waste in deliberation. Cromwell had much of this decision in the camp, but in the church, hypocrisy asserted her dominion, and sometimes neutralized his moral courage, never his physical; for he always fought, with more sincerity than he prayed. Cardinal de Retz carried this energy and promptitude into every department of his career the church, the camp, the council, and the court; but, like Charles the XIIth, he had always more sail than ballast, and after the most hair-breadth escapes, was shipwrecked at last. Napoleon had more of this promptitude of decision, than any other character, ancient or modern. Even his ablest generals were often overwhelmed with astonishment at the result of his simultaneities. Kleber designated him, as a chief, who had two faults, that of advancing, without considering how he should retreat; and of seizing, without considering how he should retain. It was absolutely necessary for such a man to "wear his heart in his head," for he invariably sacrificed blood to time, and means to the end. If the wrong path happened to be the shortest, that made it the right; and he • Cromwell is thus described by his confidential physician George Bate: "A perfect master of all the arts of simulation, and of dissimulation; who, turning up the whites of his eyes, and seeking the Lord with pious gestures, will weep and pray, and cant most devoutly, till an opportunity offers of dealing his dupe a knock-down blow under the short ribs." anticipated an acquittal, by securing a conquest. He invaded France with sixty men, and for a time succeeded; but this desperate measure would not have been necessary, if the same promptitude of action which caused this latter attempt to succeed, had not most miserably failed on a former one. He had said, "Let war feed war;" it did so, and Russia spread her table-cloth of snow, to receive the fragments of the feast. But all this energy, and all this talent, were clouded by a total want of principle; he knew that he had none himself, and here he was always right; but he concluded that all others had none, and here he was often wrong. On a more confined stage, and in a smaller sphere, few have combined more talent with more decision, than Lord Thurlow. Nature seems to have given him a head of chrystal, and nerves of brass. I shall quote his reply to a deputation from the dissenters, as highly characteristic of the man. They had waited on him by appointment, to request that he would give them his vote for the repeal of the test act. They were shewn into the library, where a plentiful collation had been prepared. They thought themselves sure of success, but they reckoned without their host, who at length made his appearance. He listened to a long harangue with much patience; when it was finished, he rose up, and addressed them, "Gentlemen, you have called on me to request my vote for the repeal of the test act. Gentlemen, I shall not vote for the repeal of the test act. I care not whether your religion has the ascendancy, or mine, or any, or none; but this I know, that when you were uppermost, you kept us down, and now that we are uppermost, with God's help, we will keep you down." LXIV. IN pulpit eloquence, the grand difficulty lies here; to give the subject all the dignity it so fully deserves, with out attaching any importance to ourselves. The Christian messenger cannot think too highly of his prince, nor too humbly of himself. This is that secret art which captivates and improves an audience, and which all who see, will fancy they could imitate, while most who try, will fail. "Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret, LXV. THE most disinterested of all gifts, are those which kings bestow on undeserving favourites; first, because they are purely at the expense of the donor's character; and secondly, because they are sure to be repaid with ingratitude. In fact, honours and titles so conferred, or rather so misplaced, dishonour the giver, without exalting the receiver; they are a splendid sign, to a wretched inn; an illuminated frontispiece, to a contemptible missal; a lofty arch, overshadowing a gutter. Court minions lifted up from obscurity by their vices, and splendid, only because they reflect the rays of royal munificence, may be compared to those fogs, which the sun raises up from a swamp, merely to obscure the beams, which were the cause of their elevation. LXVI. SOME men who know that they are great, are so very haughty withal and insufferable, that their acquaintance discover their greatness, only by the tax of humility, which they are obliged to pay, as the price of their friendship. Such characters are as tiresome and disgusting in the journey of life, as rugged roads are to the weary traveller, which he discovers to be turnpikes, only by the toll. LXVII. A CERTAIN degree of labour and exertion, seems to have been allotted us by Providence, as the condition of humanity. "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread," this is a curse which has proved a blessing in disguise. And those favoured few, who, by their rank or their riches, are exempted from all exertion, have no reason to be thankful for the privilege. It was the observation of this necessity, that led the ancients to say, that the gods sold us every thing, but gave us nothing. Water, however, which is one of the great necessaries of life, may in general be gratuitously procured; but it has been well observed, that if bread, the other great necessary of human life, could be procured on terms equally cheap and easy, there would be much more reason to fear, that men would become brutes, for the want of something to do, rather than philosophers, from the possession of leisure. And the facts seem to bear out the theory. In all countries, where nature does the most, man does the least; and where she does but little, there we shall find the utmost acme of human exertion. Thus, Spain produces the worst farmers; and Scotland the best gardeners; the former are the spoilt children of indulgence, the latter, the hardy offspring of endeavour. The copper, coal, and iron, of England, in as much as they cost much labour to dig, and insure a still farther accumulation of it, when dug, have turned out to be richer mines to us, than those of Potosi and Peru. The possessors of the latter have been impoverished by their treasures, while we have been constantly enriched by our exertion. Our merchants, without being aware of it, have been the sole possessors of the philosopher's stone, for they have anticipated most of the wealth of Mexico, before it arrived in Europe, by transmuting their iron and their copper into gold. LXVIII THE road to glory, would cease to be arduous, if it were trite and trodden; and great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them. Alexander dragged the Pythian priestess to the temple, on a forbidden day-She exclaimed, " My son, thou art invincible,” which was oracle enough for him. On a second occasion, he cut the Gordian knot which others had in vain attempted to untie. Those who start for human glory like the mettled hounds of Acteon, must pursue the game not only where there is a path, but where there is none. They must be able to simulate and dissimulate, to leap and to creep; to conquer the earth like Cæsar, or to fall down and kiss it like Brutus; to throw their sword like Brennus into the trembling scale; or, like Nelson, to snatch the laurels from the doubtful hand of victory, while she is hesitating where to bestow them. That policy that can strike only while the iron is hot, will be overcome by that perseverance, which, like Cromwell's, can make the iron hot by striking; and he that can only rule the storm, must yield to him who can both raise and rule it. LXIX. SOME frauds succeed from the apparent candour, the open confidence, and the full blaze of ingenuousness that is thrown around them. The slightest mystery would excite suspicion, and ruin all.-Such stratagems may be compared to the stars, they are discoverable by darkness, and hidden only by light. LXX. SOME one, in casting up his accounts, put down a very large sum per annum for his idleness. But there is another account more awful than that of our expences, in |
