Do not think that any kindness of yours can divert them from that desire, nor any injury of yours provoke them to be worse. 'Tis their business therefore to rob you of your liberty; 'tis yours to defend it; and what either of you do in pursuance of those ends may be lamented but cannot be wondered at by any body: we may be sorry our country is invaded, our city besieged, our houses burned; but who of us all is so weak as to admire it? seeing, if our power were as great, we would do the same to them, and, if possible, worse. If they pretend this war was occasioned by our admitting of Nicolo; had he not been received, they would have pretended another, and, perhaps, had this invasion been deferred, it might have proved more fatal and pernicious. N. MACHIAVELLI 376. TREATMENT OF SOLDIERS. Living as we do in an age when charity has a wide and an undisputed dominion; in an age when we see nothing but monuments of compassionate feeling from one end of the country to the other; in which, not only at home, but as though that was too confined a sphere, we are ransacking foreign climes for new objects of relief; where no land is so remote, no place so secluded, as not to have a claim on our assistance; no people so barbarous or so strange as not to excite our sympathy: is this a period in which we are to be told that our own soldiers may not claim our mercy? Granting that they are not barbarians,— granting that they are not strangers, but are born amongst us, that they are our kinsmen, our friends, inhabiting the same country, and worshipping at the same altars,—-granting that far from being unknown to us, we know them by the benefits they have rendered us, and by the feeling that we owe them a debt of gratitude never to be repaid,-I put it to you, gentlemen, whether we are to exclude them from what we give to all mankind; from the benefit of our feelings and our sympathy; from that universal law of nature which gives to all the victims of cruelty, however distant, however estranged, a home, a settlement, in every compassionate heart. LORD BROUGHAM 377. THOUGHT is different from motion, perception from impact: the individuality of a mind is hardly consistent with the divisibility of an extended subtance; or its volition, that is, its power of originating motion, with the inertness which cleaves to every portion of matter which our observation or our experiments can reach. These distinctions lead us to an immaterial principle: at least, they do this; they so negative the mechanical properties of matter, in the constitution of a sentient, still more of a rational being, that no argument drawn from these properties, can be of any great weight in opposition to other reasons, when the question respects the changes of which such a nature is capable, or the manner in which these changes are effected. Whatever thought be, or whatever it depend upon, the regular experience of sleep makes one thing concerning it certain, that it can be completely suspended, and completly restored. If any one find it too great a strain upon his thoughts, to admit the notion of a substance strictly immaterial, that is, from which extension and solidity are excluded, he can find no difficulty in allowing, that a particle as small as a particle of light, minuter than all conceivable dimensions, may just as easily be the depository, the organ, and the vehicle, of consciousness, as the congeries of animal substance which forms a human body, or the human brain; that, being so, it may transfer a proper identity to whatever shall hereafter be united to it; may be safe amidst the destruction of its integuments; may connect the natural with the spiritual, the corruptible with the glorified, body. If it be said, that the mode and means of all this is imperceptible by our senses, it is only what is true of the most important agencies and operations. The great powers of nature are all invisible. Gravitation, electricity, magnetism, though constantly present, and constantly exerting their influence; though within us, near us, and about us; though diffused throughout all space, overspreading the surface, or penetrating the contexture, of all bodies with which we are acquainted, depend upon substances and actions which are totally concealed from our senses. The Supreme Intelligence is so himself. 378. NICIAS. W. PALEY Furthermore landing in the countrie of the Corinthians, he ouercome them that offered him battel, and slue a great number, and among others Lycophron the Captaine. At this battell he chaunsed to forget to bury two of his men that were slaine, whose bodies could not be found in gathering vp of the rest: howbeit, so soone as he heard of it, he caused all his fleete to stay, and sent an Herauld to the enemies, to pray leaue to fetch away those two bodies. Now, though by lawe of armes they that sent to aske leaue to take away their dead to burie them, did thereby lose the honor of their victory, and were barred to set vp any marke or token of triumph, because it seemed by the sute, that they which had them in their power were conquerors, and not the peticioners that made request for them, which otherwise needed not to haue made demaund of them: Nicias notwithstanding was contented rather to forsake the honor of his victory, than to leaue the bodies of two of his countrymen in the field without buriall. PLUTARCH 379. HE knew the temper, disposition, and genius of the kingdom most exactly; saw their spirits grow every day more sturdy, inquisitive, and impatient; and therefore naturally abhorred all innovations which he foresaw would produce ruinous effects. Yet many, who stood at a distance, thought that he was not active and stout enough in opposing those innovations. For though, by his place, he presided in all public councils, and was sharp-sighted in the consequences of things; yet he was seldom known to speak in matters of state, which, he well knew, were for the most part concluded, before they were brought to that public agitation ; never in foreign affairs, which the vigour of his judgment could well have comprehended; nor indeed freely in any thing, but what immediately and plainly concerned the justice of the kingdom; and in that, as much as he could, le procured references to the judges. 380. BEFORE the ambassadors that were returned from the Princes had made their report, the king in person entred the towne of Paris, accompanied like a prince that cometh to relieve his people: for he brought with him into the towne two thousand men of armes, all the nobles of Normandie, a great number of franke archers, and all his owne servants, pensioners, and others that use to accompanie the king in such affaires. And all the people altered their mindes, neither durst any of them that had been with us make farther mention of the Princes demaunds. Some of them also sped but evil for that they had already done, notwithstanding the king used no extremitie towards them, but some lost their offices, and others were sent to dwell in other places: for the which easie revenge the king undoubtedly deserved great commendation, considering, that if this practise begun had taken effect the best that could have happened to him had been to forsake his realm, which also was his resolution. PHILIP DE COMINES 381. PRUDENCE IN THE CAUSE OF VICE. An honourable friend of mine has told you that prudence, the first of virtues, never can be used in the cause of vice. But I should doubt whether we can read the history of a Philip of Macedon, of Cæsar, or of Cromwell, if we apprehend prudence to be discreetly and successfully conducting some purpose to its end, without confessing that there have been evil purposes, baneful to the peace and to the rights of men, conducted, if I may not say with prudence or with wisdom, yet with awful craft and most successful and commanding subtlety. But, if I might make a distinction, I should say that it is the proud attempt to mix a variety of lordly crimes that unsettles the prudence of the mind and breeds the distraction of the brain; that one master passion domineering in the breast may win the faculties of the understanding to advance its purpose, and to direct to that object everything that thought or human knowledge can effect. But, to succeed, it must maintain a solitary despotism in the mind: each rival profligacy must stand aloof or wait in abject vassalage upon its throne. R. B. SHERIDAN 382. INCIDENT CONTRASTING THE ATHENIAN AND LACEDEMONIAN CHARACTER. It happened at Athens, during a public representation of sone play, that an old gentleman came too late for a place suitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen, who observed the difficulty and confusion he was in, made signs to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly; but when he came to the seats to which he was invited, the jest was to sit close and expose him, as he stood, out of countenance, to the whole audience. The frolic went round the Athenian benches. But on those occasions there were also particular places assigned for foreigners. When the good man skulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that honest people, more virtuous than polite, rose up all to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians being suddenly touched with a sense of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applause; and the old man cried out, 'The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lacedemonians practise it.' SIR R. STEELE 383. TRUTH AND TRUE GOODNESS OFTEN DISJOINED. When Zoroaster's scholars asked him what they should do to get winged souls, such as might soar aloft in the bright beams of divine truth, he bids them bathe themselves in the waters of life: they asking what they were, he tells them, the four cardinal virtues, which are the four rivers of paradise. It is but a thin, airy, knowledge that is got by mere speculation, which is ushered in by syllogisms and demonstrations; but that which springs from true goodness is θειότερόν τι πάσης ἀποδείξεως, as Origen speaks—it brings such a divine light into the soul, as is more clear and convincing than any demonstration. The reason why, notwithstanding all our acute reasons and subtle disputes, truth prevails no more in the world, is, we so often disjoin truth and true goodness, which in themselves can never be disunited; they grow both from the same root, and live in one another. We may, like those in Plato's deep pit, with their faces bended downwards, converse with sounds and shadows, but not with the life and substance of truth, while our souls remain defiled with any vice or lusts. These are the black Lethe lake which drench the souls of men: he that wants true virtue, in heaven's logic, 'is blind, and cannot see afar off.' 384. THE INDIAN AND BEAR. An Indian hunter once shot a huge bear, and broke its back-bone. The animal fell, and set up a most plaintive cry, something like that of the panther when he is hungry. The hunter, instead of giving him another shot, came up close to him, and addressed him in these words:-'Hark ye! bear; you are a coward, and no warrior, as you pretend to be. Were you a warrior you would shew it by your firmness, and not cry and whimper like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are at war with each other, and that yours was the aggressor. You have found the Indians too powerful for you, and you have gone sneaking about in the woods stealing their hogs; perhaps at this time you have hog's flesh in your belly. Had you conquered me I would have borne it with courage, and died |