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which 'tis enormous presumption for us to arrogate to ourselves; by attempting such things, we confound the ranks of men, and course of things; we ruffle the world, we supplant public tranquillity; and what greater mischief can we do amongst men?

I. BARROW

386. LADY JANE GREY ACCEPTS THE CROWN AGAINST HER BETTER JUDGMENT. Jane was in a great measure ignorant of these transactions; and it was with equal grief and surprise that she received intelligence of them. She was a lady of an amiable person, an engaging disposition, and accomplished parts. She had attained a familiar knowledge of the Roman and Greek languages, besides modern tongues; had passed most of her time in an application to learning; and expressed a great indifference for other occupations and amusements usual with her sex and station. Roger Ascham, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the rest of the family were engaged in a party of hunting in the park; and on his admiring the singularity of her choice, she told him that she received more pleasure from that author than the others could reap from all their sport and gaiety. Her heart, full of this passion for literature and the elegant arts and of tenderness towards her husband who was deserving of her affections, had never opened itself to the flattering allurements of ambition; and the intelligence of her elevation to the throne was nowise agreeable to her. She even refused to accept of the present; pleaded the preferable title of the two princesses; expressed her dread of the consequences attending an enterprise so dangerous, not to say so criminal; and desired to remain in the private station in which she was born. Overcome at last by the entreaties rather than the reasons of her father and father-in-law, and above all of her husband, she submitted to their will, and was prevailed on to relinquish her own judgment.

D. HUME

387. The emperor then inspected the field of battle: and never was there any that exhibited a more frightful spectacle. Every thing concurred to increase the horrors of it; a lowering sky, a cold rain, a violent wind, habitations in ashes, a plain absolutely torn up and covered with fragments and ruins; all round the horizon the dark and funereal verdure

of the north; soldiers roaming in every part among the bodies of the slain; wounds of a most hideous description; noiseless bivouacs; no songs of triumph, no lively narrations, but a general and mournful silence.

Around the eagles were the officers, and a few soldiers barely sufficient to guard the colours. Their clothes were torn by the violence of the conflict, and stained with blood; yet, notwithstanding all their rags, misery, and destitution, they displayed a lofty carriage, and even, on the appearance of the emperor, received him with acclamations of triumph: these, however, seemed somewhat rare and forced; for in this army, which was at once capable of discrimination and enthusiasm, each individual could form a correct estimate of the position of the whole. The soldiers were amazed to find so many of their enemies killed, such vast numbers wounded, and nevertheless so few prisoners. The latter did not amount in all to eight hundred. It was by the number of these that they estimated their success. The slain proved the courage of the conquered rather than the victory. If the rest retired in good order, under little discouragement, and even with a firm and warlike attitude, what was the advantage of gaining a mere field of battle? In a country of such immense extent there was ground enough to furnish these in endless succession.

388. LITERATURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The influence of literature on the public mind was already very considerable. All kinds of reading had become deeper and more diffused. Pedantry is the usual, perhaps the inevitable, consequence of a genuine devotion to learning, not surely in each individual, but in classes and bodies of men. And this was an age of pedants. To quote profusely from ancient writers seemed to be a higher merit than to rival them; they furnished both authority and ornament, they did honour to the modern, who shone in these plumes of other birds with little expense of thought, and sometimes the actual substance of a book is hardly discernible under their exuberance of rich incrustations. Tacitus, Sallust, Cicero, and Seneca (for the Greeks in comparison were but little read,) and many of the Latin poets were the books that directly, or by the secondary means of quotation, had most influence over the public opinion. Nor was it surprising that the reverence

for antiquity should be still undiminished; for, though the new literature was yielding abundant crops, no comparison between the ancients and moderns could as yet fairly arise.

389. IMMORALITY OF THE OLD ROMANS. It must be allowed that among the old Romans we find some noble spirits and great patterns of virtue; yet, upon the whole, it seems to me, they were much inferior, in point of real virtue and good morals, even to this corrupt and profligate nation (as you are pleased to call it). This, I think, will be plain to any one who will turn his eyes from a few shining characters, to view the general manners and customs of that people. Their insolent treatment of captives, even of the highest rank and softer sex, their unnatural exposure of their own children, their bloody gladiatorial spectacles, compared with the common notions of Englishmen, are to me a plain proof that in point of humanity and refinement we are greatly superior to them. Could anything be more unjust than the condemning to death a whole family of slaves, for a crime committed by one? Or more abominable than their bacchanals and unbridled lusts of every kind? While the Romans were poor, they were temperate; but as they grew rich they became luxurious to a degree that is hardly believed or conceived by us.

390. KING HENRY VII-HIS PROCEEDINGS AFTER THE BATTLE OF STOKE NEAR NEWARK, A.D. 1487. But howsoever the king thought himself now in a haven, yet such was his wisdom, as his confidence did seldom darken his foresight, especially in things near hand. And therefore awakened by so fresh and unexpected dangers he entered into due consideration, as well how to weed out the partakers of the former rebellion, as to kill the seeds of the like in time to come and withall to take away all shelters and harbours for discontented persons, where they might hatch and foster rebellions, which afterwards might gather strength and motion. And first, he did yet againe make a progresse from Lincolne to the Northern parts, though it were indeed rather an itinerary circuit of justice than a progress. For all along as he went, with much severity and strict inquisition, partly by martial law and partly by commission,

were punished the adherents and aiders of the late rebels. Amongst other crimes of this nature, there was diligent inquiry made of such as had raised and dispersed a bruit and rumour, a little before the field fought, That the rebels had the day, and that the king's army was overthrown, and the king fled. Whereby it was supposed that many succours, which otherwise would have come unto the king, were cunningly put off and kept backe. Which charge and accusation, though it had some ground, yet it was industriously embraced and put on by divers, who having been in themselves not the best affected to the king's part, nor forward to come to his aide, were glad to apprehend this colour, to cover their neglect and coldness, under the pretence of such discouragements. Which cunning nevertheless the king would not understand, though he lodged it and noted it in some particulars, as his manner was.

LORD BACON

391. THE EARL OF ESSEX BEFORE READING, A.D. 1643. Upon the first sitting down before it, after they had taken a full view of the ground, their general advised with his council of war in what manner he should proceed, whether by assault or approach; in which there was great diversity of opinions. 'The works were weak, the number of the assailants sufficient; all materials in readiness; the soldiers in the town full of apprehensions, and a very considerable party of the inhabitants disaffected to the garrison, who in the time of a storm would be able to beget a great distraction. That they might be able to storm it in so many places at once, that the number of the soldiers within would not be able to defend all; and if they prevailed in any one, their whole body of horse might enter, and be immediately masters of the town: if they prevailed this way, their army would have that reputation, and carry that terror with it, that no power of the king would hereafter be able to abide it; but they might march over the kingdom, and subdue every part of it; whereas if they delayed their works, and proceeded by way of approach, those in the town would recover heart, and, after they had digested the present fears and apprehensions, contemn their danger; and their own soldiers, who were yet fresh and vigorous, would every day abate in courage, and their numbers in a few weeks lessen as much by sickness and duty as they should probably do by an assault.

LORD CLARENDON

392. NECESSITY OF UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE TO THE SEARCHER AFTER TRUTH. But if we hope to instruct others, we should familiarise our own minds to some fixed and determinate principles of action. The world is a vast labyrinth, in which almost every one is running a different way, and almost every one manifesting hatred to those who do not run the same way. A few indeed stand motionless, and, not seeking to lead themselves or others out of the maze, laugh at the failures of their brethren. Yet with little reason for more grossly than the most bewildered wanderer does he err, who never aims to go right. It is more honourable to the head, as well as to the heart, to be misled by our eagerness in the pursuit of truth, than to be safe from blundering by contempt of it. The happiness of mankind is the end of virtue; and truth is the knowledge of the means; which he will never seriously attempt to discover, who has not habitually interested himself in the welfare of others. The searcher after truth must love and be beloved; for general benevolence is a necessary motive to constancy of pursuit; and this general benevolence is begotten and rendered permanent by social and domestic affections. Let us beware of that proud philosophy, which affects to inculcate philanthropy while it denounces every home-born feeling by which it is produced and nurtured. The paternal and filial duties discipline the heart and prepare it for the love of all mankind. The intensity of private attachments encourages, not prevents, universal benevolence. The nearer we approach to the sun, the more intense his heat: yet what corner of the system does he not cheer and vivify?

S. T. COLERIDGE

393. WILLIAM OF NORMANDY-HIS CHARACTER. Magnificent in his living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, but relaxing with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his mind and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions. Unlearned in books, he formed his understanding by the rigid discipline of a large and complicated experience. He knew men much, and therefore generally trusted them but little; but when he knew any man to be good, he reposed in him an entire confidence, which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice. He had vices in his composition, and great 16

FOL. CENT.

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