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they have obtained victories, because there was none to oppose. Yet, from all I have ever read or seen, men appear more apt to err by having too high, than by having too despicable an opinion of their nature; and by attempting to exalt their original place in creation, depress their real value in society. The most ignorant nations have always been found to think most highly of themselves. The Deity has ever been thought peculiarly concerned in their glory and preservation; to have fought their battles, and inspired their teachers; their wizards are said to be familiar with heaven; and every hero has a guard of angels as well as men to attend him. *** This is the reason why demi-gods and heroes have ever been created in times or countries of ignorance and barbarity: they addressed a people who had high opinions of human natue, because they were ignorant how far it could extend; they addressed a people who were willing that men should be gods, because they were yet imperfectly acquainted with God and with man.

0. GOLDSMITH

354.

POVERTY-HOW REGARDED BY POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS. There are few words of which the reader believes himself better to know the import than of poverty; yet whosoever studies either the poets or philosophers, will find such an account of the condition expressed by that term as his experience or observation will not easily discover to be true. Instead of the meanness, distress, complaint, anxiety, and dependance which have hitherto been combined in his ideas of poverty, he will read of content, innocence and cheerfulness, of health and safety, tranquillity and freedom. Such are the blessings to be obtained by the resignation of riches, that kings might descend from their thrones, and generals retire from a triumph, only to slumber undisturbed in the elysium of poverty. If these authors do not deceive us, nothing can be more absurd than that perpetual contest for wealth which keeps the world in commotion; nor any complaints more justly censured than those which proceed from want of the gifts of fortune, which we are taught by the great masters of moral wisdom to consider as golden shackles, by which the wearer is at once disabled and adorned; as luscious poisons which may for a time please the palate, but soon betray their malignity by langour and pain.

S. JOHNSON

355. STATE OF ENGLAND AFTER THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, A.D. 1485. In a war of succession, where the great families were divided in their allegiance, and supported the rival claimants in evenly balanced numbers, the inveteracy of the conflict increased with its duration, and propagated itself from generation to generation. Every family was in blood-feud with its neighbour, and children, as they grew to manhood, inherited the duty of revenging their fathers' deaths. No effort of imagination can reproduce to us the state of this country in the fatal years which intervened between the first rising of the Duke of York and the battle of Bosworth. Fifty years, however, of settled government had not been without its effects. The country had collected itself; the feuds of the families had been chastened, if they had not been subdued; while the increase of wealth and prosperity had brought out into obvious prominence those advantages of peace which a hot-spirited people, antecedent to experience, had not anticipated and had not been able to appreciate. They were better fed, better cared for, more justly governed, than they had ever been before; and though abundance of unruly tempers remained, yet the wiser portion of the nation, looking back from their new vantage-ground, were able to recognize the past in its true hatefulness. Thenceforward a war of succession was the predominating terror with English

statesmen.

356. MAJORIAN-HIS EPISTLE TO THE SENATE ON HIS ELEVATION TO THE WESTERN EMPIRE. Your election, Conscript Fathers! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, have made me your emperor. May the propitious Deity direct and prosper the counsels and events of my administration to your advantage, and to the public welfare! For my own part I did not aspire, I have submitted to reign; nor should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen, if I had refused with base and selfish ingratitude to support the weight of those labours which were imposed by the republic. Assist therefore the prince whom you have made: partake the duties which you have enjoined; and may our common endeavours promote the happiness of an empire, which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall become not only innocent but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be

apprehensive of delations, which as a subject I have always condemned, and as a prince will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies. You now understand the maxims of my government: you may confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a prince, who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers; who still glories in the name of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent of the judgment which you have pronounced in his favour.

E. GIBBON

357. VIRTUE HAS NOT ITS FULL SCOPE IN THE PRESENT STATE, BUT MAY HAVE IN A FUTURE ONE. Virtue, to borrow the Christian allusion, is militant here; and various untoward accidents contribute to its being often overborne: but it may combat with greater advantage hereafter, and prevail completely, and enjoy its consequent rewards, in some future states. Neglected as it is, perhaps unknown, perhaps despised and oppressed here; there may be scenes in eternity, lasting enough, and in every other way adapted, to afford it a sufficient sphere of action; and a sufficient sphere for the natural consequences of it to follow in fact. If the soul be naturally immortal, and this state be a progress towards a future one, as childhood is towards mature age; good men may naturally unite, not only amongst themselves, but also with other orders of virtuous creatures, in that future state. For virtue, from the very nature of it, is a principle and bond of union, in some degree, amongst all who are endued with it, and known to each other; so as that by it a good man cannot but recommend himself to the favour and protection of all virtuous beings, throughout the whole universe, who can be acquainted with his character, and can any way interpose in his behalf in any part of his duration. And one might add, that suppose all this advantageous tendency of virtue to become effect, amongst one or more orders of creatures, in any distant scenes and periods, and to be seen by any orders of vicious creatures, throughout the universal kingdom of God; this happy effect of virtue would have a tendency, by way of example, and possibly in other ways, to amend those of them, who are capable of amendment and being recovered to a just sense of virtue.

J. BUTLER

358. A KINGDOM SUPPOSED PERFECTLY VIRTUOUS FOR A SUCCESSION OF AGES. In such a state there would be no` such thing as faction: but men of the greatest capacity would of course, all along, have the direction of affairs willingly yielded to them; and they would share it among themselves without envy. Each of these would have the part assigned him, to which his genius was particularly adapted: and others who had not any distinguished genius, would be safe and think themselves very happy by being under the protection and guidance of those who had. Public determinations would really be the result of the united wisdom of the community: and they would faithfully be executed by the united strength of it. Some would in a higher way contribute, but all would in some way contribute to the public prosperity and in it, each would enjoy the fruits of his own virtue. And as injustice whether by fraud or force would be unknown among themselves, so they would be sufficiently secured from it in their neighbours. For cunning and false self-interest, confederacies in injustice, ever slight, and accompanied with faction and intestine treachery ; these on one hand would be found mere childish folly and weakness, when set in opposition against wisdom, public spirit, union inviolable, and fidelity on the other, allowing both a sufficient length of years to try their force. J. BUTLER

359. ADD the general influence, which such a kingdom would have over the face of the earth, by way of example particularly, and the reverence which would be paid it. It would plainly be superior to all others, and the world must gradually come under its empire; not by means of lawless violence; but partly by what must be allowed to be just conquest; and partly by other kingdoms submitting themselves voluntarily to it, throughout a course of ages, and claiming its protection, one after another, in successive exigencies. The head of it would be an universal monarch, in another sense than any mortal has yet been; and the eastern style would be literally applicable to him, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. And though indeed our knowledge of human nature, and the whole history of mankind, shew the impossibility, without some miraculous interposition, that a number of men, here on earth, should unite in one society or government, in the fear of God, and universal practice of virtue; and that such a government

'should continue so united for a succession of ages: yet admitting or supposing this, the effect would be as now drawn J. BUTLER

out.

360. CHARACTER OF SIR ROBERT WALPole. I much question whether an impartial character of this man will or ever can be transmitted to posterity; for he governed this kingdom so long, that the various passions of mankind mingled with every thing that was said or written concerning him. Never was man more flattered, nor more abused; and his long power was probably the chief cause of both. I was much acquainted with him both in his public and his private life, I mean to do impartial justice to his character; and therefore my picture of him will perhaps be more like him than it will be like any of the other pictures drawn of him. In private life he was good-natured, cheerful, social. He had a coarse, strong wit, which he was too free of for a man in his station, as it is always inconsistent with dignity. He was very able as a minister, but without a certain elevation of mind necessary for great good or great mischief. Profuse and appetent, his ambition was subservient to the desire of making a great fortune. He would do mean things for profit, and never thought of doing great ones for glory. LORD CHESTERFIELD

361. INEQUALITIES OF FORTUNE. Again: there are strong intelligible reasons why there should exist in human society great disparity of wealth and station; not only as these things are acquired in different degrees, but at the first setting out of life. In order, for instance, to answer the various demands of civil life there ought to be amongst the members of every civil society a diversity of education, which can only belong to an original diversity of circumstances As this sort of disparity, which ought to take place from the beginning of life, must be previous to the merit or demerit of those upon whom it falls, can it be better disposed of than by chance? Parentage is that sort of chance; yet it is the commanding circumstance which in general fixes each man's place in civil life along with every thing which appertains to its distinctions. It may be the result of a beneficial rule that the fortunes or honours of the father devolve upon the son; and, as it should seem, of a still more necessary rule, that

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