pos

If it is true, that we can never be happy without sessing something to which we may be kind;-affection being what a German writer calls 'the sunshine of the mind;'—it is equally so, that none can have the true marrow of humanity till they become fathers or mothers. This argument should be extended to the length of making allowances for inordinate temptation; for some temptations there are, which would almost tend to the endowment even of Parian marble with living passion. Those men, therefore, are superficial, who, with an air of superior sagacity, are always seeking bad motives for dubious actions; and making no allowances for strong feelings and great allurements.

Prejudices and partialities are the great colourists which prevent our attainment of truth. In judging of men and of women, therefore, as we know not the secrets of their hearts, we are too often unwilling, as indeed we are too frequently unable, to make allowances for strong excitements.

Men of education are, sometimes, placed by want in the midst of great-nay, overwhelming temptations. They escape by the mere force of those mental moral associations, to encourage which is one of the best designs of education. For men of education, then, to condemn a poor, ignorant, unfortunate clown, to the punishment of death for stealing a horse, a heifer, or a sheep, is a frightful exercise of a most wicked law. And yet we have some, even now, living amongst us-men of education and of vast property, too-who vindicate such laws. As Dante would say—' Look at them, and pass on, in silent contempt. Breathe not a word!'

CLXII.

THE TEMPTERS AND THE TEMPTED.

WHEN the Florentines desired a pretence for attacking the town of Pietra Santa, they caused a quantity of ammunition and provisions to pass by that town, in their way to Sarzana, in the hope that the garrison, in the extremity of their want, would attack and plunder the detachment. What the Florentines expected occurred. The garrison did plunder the detachment*, and the Florentines †, in consequence, compelled the town to submit to their authority and protection. This was like a master punishing a half-starved servant, for robbing him of money he had purposely placed in his way.

Louis XIV., learning from his envoy at the Hague (D'Avaux), that William of Orange was preparing to invade England, offered to assist James II. with as many troops as he might consider necessary to his safety; or to raise the siege of Philipsburg, and march his army into the Netherlands, in order to detain the Dutch forces in their own country. James, however, was sufficiently discreet to decline all assistance of that kind, lest it might afford a pretext to the people to mutiny against foreign troops, or to keep him in bondage after the danger of the time had subsided. James, I say, was too wise to give his enemies such a pretext for rebellion. But when Louis XIV. took possession of a great part of the Spanish dominions, and attempted to unite the crown of Spain to that of France, by placIn Vit. Laur., i. 126.

*Hist. Fior., lib. viii.

ing his grandson on the throne of that country, Queen Anne did not hesitate to bring the accusation against him, that he designed to invade the general liberties of Europe. There was no fear of a pretext here; all was legitimate and solid; for there can be no doubt as to what were the real intentions of that ambitious and vain-glorious person. Indeed, he scarcely condescended to disguise them.

Tempters and the tempted are not equally guilty; hence Macbeth is less detested than his wife. Magistrates should always consult this in their relative commitments and punishments.

'I think Sir Godfrey should decide the suit ;
Who sent the thief (who stole the cash) away,
And punished him that put it in his way.'

Some men are capable of giving the most judicious advice, yet of following the worst. The third Duke of Marlborough is said to have been of this order, and Catiline seems not far removed from it; for he declared, that if he had had honest men to work with, he should have been as capable of acting nobly, and for the benefit of his country, as he had done otherwise.

Leodamias insisted, in his accusation against Callistrates, that the adviser of a bad action is more culpable than the man who commits it; because if the act had never been advised, it had never been done. But in a cause, which he pleaded for Chabrias, he contended, that he who commits an injustice is more culpable than the person who prompts to it; since all advice is nugatory if there be not a person to execute; and since those,

who prompt to an evil, do so with a design that it shall be carried into effect by others.

From this we may infer, that both the tempter and the tempted, if a bad action is performed, are equally guilty; the former being the greater coward. But it is base, pre-eminently base,-to tempt poverty with that, the mere sight of which, as it were, renders every thing ductile and obedient: money, and the want of it, being the greatest of tempters, and the greatest of orators in the parliament of vice.

If we have no right to tempt men too much, we are equally wrong in suffering them to be tempted too much by circumstances; if the power exist in us to alter them ourselves, or to assist others to alter them. It may be truly observed, therefore, that those who look carelessly and unassistingly on, share in the guilt, if any guilt is incurred.

Some are tempted by vices, for which they appear to be punished through the medium of their virtues.

To withstand temptation at the first is noble; to withstand daily and hourly, when daily and hourly placed in allurement, is-almost!-more the work of a god than of a man. Many, however, are placed after the manner in which Telemachus describes himself to have been in the island of Calypso:-'I was like a man who attempts to swim a deep and rapid river. 'His first efforts are vigorous, and he makes way ' against the stream; but if the shores are steep, and ' he cannot rest himself upon the bank, he grows weary by degrees; his strength is exhausted: his limbs become stiff with fatigue; and he is carried away by the

'torrent.' Superficial law-makers make no allowances for human temptation.

Some men first tempt, and then are mean enough, and base enough, to accuse women for suffering themselves to be tempted. Some women act in the same manner by men. Milton has a fine scene of this kind in the tenth book of Paradise Lost.'

6

A similar policy may often be traced in the ludicrous trade of politics. The Earl of Clare loudly stigmatized the traffic of peerages, and yet bought both his barony and his earldom. Count Swedenbourg was scarcely more ridiculous; gravely censuring, as he did, all visionary books; and yet recounting in his own a multitude of interviews and conversations, that he insisted he had held with angels in heaven and with devils in hell.

Johnson was wisely alive to the evils of temptation. Humanly speaking,' said he, 'there is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and if he is overcome, you 'share in his guilt.' And this reminds me of Ambrogio de Camaldules; for when he came to a convent, the sisters of which lived in harmony and innocence :Happy garden!' exclaimed he, where the voice of 'the tempter has never yet been heard.'

CLXIII.

WEAKNESSES OF EMINENT MEN.

ALL men fear, dislike, and grieve; all men desire, hope, and rejoice; though, of course, different men

VOL. I.

U