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CXLIII.

WHO HAVE COMMITTED BAD ACTIONS WITH NOBLE
VIEWS.

ANATOMISTS are compelled, in some degree, to practices partaking of cruelty. Even the humane Haller * was led to cruel experiments, in order to acquire a more precise knowledge in regard to the relative sensibility of animal parts. Some ancient anatomists dissected living men; viz. the bodies of criminals. We may instance Herophilus, and Erasistratus the grandson of Aristotle. This was an act of barbarity to insure beneficial results. It was allowed by the laws; and when laws speak, most men seem to think that humanity has an obligation to be silent; and that eloquence is an ignominy and a crime. Who, however, can be ignorant that legislators are, sometimes, far more atrocious, in the laws they enact, than the men they condemn ?

It appears certain that some men have been actuated to bad deeds by noble aspirations; and of this Paul Jovius † furnishes an example in Olgiati. This enthusiast was instigated to be a party in the murder of Galeizzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, by a schoolmaster, who was continually celebrating the virtue of Brutus in assassinating Cæsar. Brought to the place of execution, Olgiati addressed himself in the following manner. Collect thyself, Olgiati. The memory of thy deed

* Vide Deux Mémoires sur les Parties sensibles et irritables. See also Machiv. Ist. Fior. vii.

' will never perish. Death is bitter; but the pain of it 'will be short, while the glory will be eternal *.'

Olgiati seems to have thought with Jason, the Thessalian †, that to effect a great good, it is sometimes justifiable to perpetrate a great act of atrocity. In the same spirit Clement and Ravillac believed themselves to be actuated by the sublimest impulse of devotion. It is very certain, that the characters of men must always be judged in reference to the times in which they thought, planned, and executed; failed, succeeded, or left half done for others to complete.

CXLIV.

WHO ARE CRUEL IN GENERAL, YET CLEMENT IN PARTI

CULAR.

THE Greeks were an elegant people.

Even their

trophies, the monuments of war, were not permitted to be permanent. They were neither of iron, of brass, nor of marble but of baked clay. They were a good-· natured people, also: yet not so delicate of blood, as, of a good-natured people, we might have had reason to expect. The Athenians, for instance, as at Melos and Scione (we have the testimony of their own countryman ‡), murdered all the males of a defenceless people, over the age of fourteen; and sold the women and children to perpetual slavery!

Though the Areopagites forbade § any one to raise the passions in a cause, though ever in so gentle a manner, the Athenians had two goddesses, whom the *Mors acerbia, fama perpetua, stabit memoria facti.

Thucydides, v.

† Arist. Rhet.

Arist. Rhet. i. c. i. p. 4.

Romans adopted late*. These were clemency and pity. There is some doubt, however, whether the latter was ever adopted in Rome : for in respect to pity, Quintilian, when he recommended it to a judge, was curiously cautious lest the recommendation might offendt.

Cruelty has never, in any age, been visited by adequate indignation. Agamemnon, Scipio Nasica, and Titus, have been celebrated for their humanity: yet Agamemnon insists to Menelaus, that when Ilion falls, none shall be saved: not even the suckling on the mother's breast. Scipio Nasica ought to have been given up to the vengeance of the Spaniards, for having inflicted such cruelties on the Numantines; since not only Paterculus and Florus confess, that Numantium had given Rome no just cause of complaint; but Appian expressly asserts, that Nasica exceeded the orders he had received from the senate. As to Titus, it is dangerous to speak of him; a fortunate speech and a few months' virtue being permitted to retrieve some crimes of which Suetonius accuses him ‡, and others which Josephus not only tolerates §, but almost approves.

CXLV.

WHO DELUDE THEMSELVES INTO A BELIEF, THAT THEY HAVE DONE NO BAD ACTIONS.

SENECA says, there is a pleasure in wickedness as well as in virtue; and it must be so, or the world *Urbe fuit mediâ,' &c.-Statius. Theb. xii. 492.

Si misericordiam commendabo judici, nihil proderit, quod ⚫ prudentissima civitas Atheniensium non eam pro affectu, sed pro 'numine, accepit ?—Inst. Orat. v. c. 12.

VOL. I.

In Vit. Tit. c. vi.

§ Lib. vii. c. 3.

S

would never have seen what it has seen in every age and country. To justify vile deeds is one of the last infirmities of man: yet to commit a bold, bad deed, and then affect a power of doing good by that wrong, is the constant practice and apology of adventurous men.

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Charles X. has recently seen the error of his ways, and, what is more, acknowledged them. The conduct ' of the Duchess de Berri,' said he* to Chateaubriand, 'has been very improper; it is an unfortunate affair ' both for herself and for me; but I, who have not forgotten my youth, should be the last to be severe with 'the weakness of a poor woman. When one has been guilty of as many errors as I have, he should make al'lowances for other people. I will not receive her here ' without her husband; but she may come if accompa'nied by him, and the wrongs which she has done her children and ourselves shall be forgotten.' Upon this, Chateaubriand expressed gratitude for the indulgence; on which the king answered:- Let it not surprise you. I have forgotten all; I have no longer any feeling against any one. I am now an unhappy Fold man, who has finished his part in the drama of C this world. I have no feeling even against Philippe. 'He now knows, that the throne is not worth the 'trouble and anxiety, which must be its accompaniments; and it is more than probable that those, who ́ made him king, have taken their own means of avǝnging me.'

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The luxurious and profligate Louis XV. constantly

* Prague, June 22, 1833.

attended public worship; and is said to have been so assiduous in private acts of devotion, that he really believed himself to be a very good Christian. Conscience, that internal monitor, which sits in judgment on all our actions,-awoke him, however, at last.

Self-deception is the most alluring of all species of cunning. Rousseau was a remarkable instance. He had even the presumption to address the Deity in his last illness, in a style, implying, that he was about to deliver his soul to Him, as pure as when he received it at his hands! It is certain that Rousseau was the mirror of vanity; but it could not be otherwise than amusing to hear the French priests and the French emigrants attribute their ruin to the writings of Rousseau and Voltaire, rather than to their own vanity and bigotry, cowardice, ignorance, and presumption.

Indeed, it is astonishing what power men, guilty of follies and crimes, have to delude themselves! Napoleon, after his conduct in Spain, his innumerable legal murders in the field, and the consequent agony his policy entailed upon surviving wives, parents, and children,-Napoleon, having an inclination to commit suicide, on learning that St. Helena was his destined theatre of reflection, could argue in its defence, after the following manner: My friend! I have sometimes an idea of quitting you; and this would not be very difficult; it is only necessary to create a little mental excitement, and I 'shall soon have escaped. All will be over, and you 'can then tranquilly rejoin your families. This is the more easy, since my principles do not oppose any bar 'to it. I am one of those who conceive, that the pains

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