And all those that in enmity,
With downright working, cunningly
Convert to their own use the labour

Of their good-natured heedless neighbour.
These were call'd knaves; but bar the name,
The grave industrious were the same;

All trades and places know some cheat;
No calling is without deceit.'

Lady Wortley Montague says of Pope, that his works are copied from the French eloquence, with thoughts, poor and trite, dressed up in pompous language. Some one, too, wrote of his Homer:

'Pope came off clean with Homer, but they say,

Broome went before, and kindly swept the way.'

I will not insinuate that these writers were actuated by a wish to bring Pope down to their own level; but that they judged maliciously is distinctly evident.

Many persons, in fact, resemble the viper, the young of which, in times of danger, seek security in the mouth of its mother. Some we may compare to the owl, the kestrel, and the golden eagle, which love to build in ruined castles and towers; others resemble the jackal, the hyæna, and the rompo, which, having disinterred the dead, devour them with avidity. There is one consolation, nevertheless; they often fight, in effect, violently for those they fight violently against.

LVII.

WHO GIVE PREMATURE OPINIONS.

• Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando.'

Most persons presume to give opinions in respect to the conduct and sentiments of others, long before they

are acquainted with the scope of the sentiment, or the cause and extent of the conduct. Thus Battus, having been commanded by the Pythian oracle to found a colony in Libya, returned before he had explored the country, to ask why he had met so many difficulties; upon which the oracle answered,

'Know'st thou, then, Libya better than the god,
Whose fertile shores thy feet have never trod?
He, who has well explored them, thus replies;
I can but wonder at a man so wise.'

Heister, having found no stamens in an aloe, pronounced the Linnæan system wholly useless. Just so wise, and no wiser, are seven-tenths of mankind. They remind one of the ignorance of the Greek priest, who, in his condemnation, praised the pictures of Titian that he refused to accept. Your scandalous figures stand out,' said he, 'from the canvass like a group of statues;' good pictures, like pure motives, being much more difficult to understand than bad ones. Besides, many men resemble the airs, composed by that exquisite musician, Gluck, each of whose operas are said to consist of a chain: no single air can be sung with much effect; and the whole must be heard, for the hearer to be much pleased with the separate parts.

Men, I say, and wise ones, too, frequently give opinions before they know the grounds on which they ought to be founded. Milton is an example; at least, I hope King Charles was not actually guilty of a crime so enormous as that the poet lays to his charge*.

* King Charles began his reign with his father's funeral. I do not say murder; and yet all the marks and tokens of poison,

LVIII.

WHO ARE KNOWN BY THEIR MANNERS AT PLAY.

FEW men love to be beaten at cards, back-gammon, or chess. Sidonius, however, relates of Theoderic, that when engaged at dice, he alternately displayed his eagerness, his skill, his patience, and his cheerfulness of temper. If he lost, he laughed; and if he won, he was modest and silent. Yet Sidonius confesses, that, notwithstanding this apparent indifference, his courtiers chose to solicit favours in the moments of victory; and that he had himself derived some benefit from his losses. Theoderic seems, however, to have had higher aims: for, while engaged in the game, he watched the countenances and manners of his officers in the moments of loss, of victory, and of suspense.

Tamerlane is said to have been pleased, when a subject won a game of chess of him; but Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, is almost the only good player I ever heard of, who received more pleasure from overlooking the game than playing it. To be able to act a similar part in life were delightful!

A Polish noble was playing with Casimir, surnamed the Just; and having lost all his money, he struck the king on the ear, in the height of his passion. The

that may be, appeared in his dead body; but that suspicion lighted upon the Duke of Buckingham only, whom the king not'withstanding cleared to the Parliament, though he had killed 'the king, his father; and not only so, he dissolved the Parlia. ment, lest the matter should be inquired into.'-Defence of the People of England.

VOL. I.

H

king forgave him. said his majesty:

I am not surprised at his conduct,' for, having no power to revenge

'himself upon Fortune, it is no wonder he should attack ' her favourite in me.'

This anecdote reminds one of Louis XIV.: for a doubt having arisen at a game of back-gammon, in which Louis claimed the throw, all the courtiers remained silent. The adversary disputed the cast; when who should come in but the Count de Grammont. You shall decide,' says the king. Your majesty is in the 'wrong,' answered the Count immediately. How ?' inquired Louis: do you pronounce without hearing a single word?' 'Had there been the smallest doubt,' returned de Grammont, these gentlemen would, most assuredly, have all declared in favour of your ma'jesty.'

There is, undoubtedly, much of the real temper to be learnt both of men and of women, from the manner in which they play at hazard, ombre, whist, quadrille, and even picquet. Some will cheat, some be little scrupulous as to truth and concealment, some are overjoyed at winning or miserable at losing. But chess shows less of the temper, than of the mind. This game has been compared to a battle; but it resembles, much more intimately, the intrigue of a cabinet; in which no one can adequately act the part of first minister, who does not see the various motives, and observe the different vibrations, which agitate, or harmonize, the entire machine of general politics.

No one hated to lose at cards more than Napoleon. 'He could not bear,' says Bourrienne, that Fortune

'should frown upon him in a game of cards any more 'than in a field of battle.'

In going to Egypt his conversation was of science and art; hope and victory sitting near him. But, on his return, all was monotonous; and apprehension rendered him listless. Then he resorted to cards; and as a short game suited best, Vingt-et-un was the game. He played chess, too, occasionally: but never liked to lose. I remember, at Mantua,' says Bourrienne, his losing a game to General Beauvoir, reckoned one of the best players in Europe, who gave him odds. 'He was any thing but well pleased. He liked very well 'to play with me, because, though the superior, I was not so much so as to gain always. When successful, 'he would give over playing in order to rest upon his ' laurels.'

When closely analyzed, these exceedingly great men are but too often found to be exceedingly little!

LIX.

WHO HAVE NO OPINION, IN RESPECT TO WHAT THEY
APPROVE OR CONDEMN.

THOSE persons, who have the faculty of saying all they know upon one subject at one sitting, often regard the range of their own ideas to be the utmost boundary of the human intellect. But some have no opinions at all. They are convinced by the arguments of the last book they read; and think with the last person they see open their lips.

'Thus the cameleon, who is known

To have no colours of his own,