most persons; and when it is extinguished in others, it raged furiously in her. Wise to-day, foolish to-morrow! whether Louis XIV. can be esteemed wise, in any respect, I much doubt; but it is certain, that important manufactories in England, Holland, and Germany, arose out of his impolitic revocation of the edict of Nantes. When the Marquis de Louvois was desired by this monarch to give his opinion, relative to his proposed marriage with Madame de Maintenon, he threw himself at the feet of the king, and exclaimed, Sire, you 'may deprive me of my fortune, my liberty, my life ; ' yet, I must ever repeat, your Majesty will dishonour 'yourself by this marriage.' This was a line of conduct that did honour to the Marquis de Louvois, and which the consciousness of having advised wisely enabled him to exhibit. But he lost all his influence by two designs he meditated against his master. First, to treat the Duke of Savoy in a manner so unworthy as to compel that prince to declare war against France; secondly, by the non-fulfilment of every article of a treaty with Switzerland, to induce the Swiss to break off their alliance. How these acts of treachery were to increase his power, except by rendering him more necessary, does not appear; but the discovery ultimately ruined him. The king insulted him. He was re-invited, however, to court, and he returned; but, on being insulted again, he returned to his hotel, drank a glass of water, threw himself upon a chair, and, uttering a few words, immediately expired. CCLXIII. THE POWER OF CIRCUMSTANCES. Oct. 10, 1807.-YESTERDAY I rode ten miles, and returned listless and weary. To-day I rode the same distance, and returned more vigorous than when I sat out. The cause of this difference? Yesterday I had no hopes of an agreeable termination to a business in hand; to-day the affair ended to my entire satisfaction. A week since, I rose from my bed, low, languid, and apparently on the eve of an illness. A letter came! I immediately ordered my horse, and was able to hunt as well as ever I did in my life. Circumstances work stranger wonders,-whether of good or of ill. A similar effect of mind over body furnished Xenophon with a fine argument in favour of the soul's eternity: When I consider the boundless activity of our minds,' says he,' the remembrance we have of things past, and our foresight of that which is to come: when I reflect on the noble discoveries and vast improvements by which those minds have advanced arts and 'sciences, I am entirely persuaded, and out of all doubt, ' that a nature, which has in itself a fund of so many 'excellent things, cannot possibly be mortal.' Doubtless, it cannot be mortal; in a future state, too, there can be little doubt, that a large field will be opened to our observance, and ourselves endowed with senses and faculties to observe and to act with, far more various, comprehensive, and acute, than those we are at VOL. II. Ꮓ present endowed with. Let us hope this. Suppose an error where is the injury? Hope is the best friend that age and misfortune have. June 6, 1831.-Four-and-twenty years ago! To-day I find myself at a small inn near Goodrich Castle, in the county of Monmouth. But before I go farther, however, I must apologize, my dear Lelius, for every now and then speaking of myself. Yet I will not! Have I not promised to give you the result of my experience? But how can you reap what you have so often desired me to give you the fruits of my harvest,-unless you consent to pay for the sickle? Say nothing, then; bind up the sheaves, such as they are, and take them into your barn. Goodrich Castle is a fine ruin; and from one of the windings of the river on which it stands (the Wye) it presents a picture, so greatly admired in Milton: Towers and battlements he sees, Bosom'd high in tufted trees.' We stood some time to admire its appearance, and then gazed awhile on a walnut-tree, the number of nuts on which are said to indicate the plenty or scarcity of the coming harvest. 'Contemplator item, cum se nux plurima silvis Georg., i. 187. On the trunk of this walnut-tree is inscribed the name of Pulteney; and that name naturally reminding us of the Earl of Bath, my companion reflected on the character, given of that statesman by the Earl of Chesterfield :—' Though he was an actor of truth and sin'cerity, he could, occasionally, lay them aside to serve * the purposes of his ambition or avarice.' This association induced an argument in regard to precept and practice, and the imperative necessity some men seem to see in mixing accommodation of temper with inflexibility of principle. To be invariably inflexible is not difficult of practice by one who is in easy circumstances, lives in retirement, far from temptation, and gazed on with attention by those who live in his neighbourhood; but those who have mixed largely, and scrutinized passion closely, know well that men may, in the language of Dryden and Boscovich, 'Approve the right, though they the wrong pursue I regard Johnson with veneration, for many of his views of human character and manners. Bishops may preach, and be the models for their own preaching; but no one, who has had a competent acquaintance with the world, but will agree with him in the answer he gave to one who declared, that he had no opinion of any person, whoever he might be, whose practice was not quite as good as his precepts. Sir,' said the moralist, are you so grossly ignorant of human nature, as not * Video meliora (et idem etiam pacto jucundiora, utiliora) proboque; deteriora sequor.- Boscovich on Stay, de Systemate 340 THE BOOK OF HUMAN CHARACTER. to know, that a man may be very sincere in good ' principles, without having good practice ?’ Let us be charitable one with another! Circumstances are, sometimes, great apologies. He, who is hardened by practice in virtue, might, under powerful temptations of another kind, have been equally hardened in the practice of vice. Certain, however, it is, 'That virtue only makes our bliss below, And our best knowledge is ourselves to know.' END OF VOL. II. Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford-street, |