with that which was unconsciously display-ground than that of the truth of Christiani ed by St. Paul in his way to Jerusalem? Re-ty; or let him even plausibly elude the matgulus, we are told, would not turn his eyes ter-of-fact evidence to this truth, which towards his wife or his children. In his he- arises from St. Paul's character. In the roism, therefore, he sinks his humanity. mean time, let the pious Christian enjoy his Not so our apostle; while he fears nothing sober triumph in that system, which not in for himself, he feels every thing for those St. Paul only, but in all its true votaries, in around him. What mean ye thus to weep, every age and nation, it has producedand to break my heart,' says he, for I am a hope full of immortality, a peace ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Je- which passeth all understanding,'-'a wisrusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus.' com pure and peaceable, gentle and easy If this be not perfect magnanimity, where to be entreated, full of mercy and of good was it ever exhibited ? fruits, without partiality, and without hy I will add but two instances.-One ex-pocrisy.' pressing the feelings which were habitual to If any difficulty, attending particular dochimself; the other describing that perfec- trines of Christianity, should present itself; tion of goodness, which he wished to be pur- it will be well first to inquire, whether the sued by others: and let the learned infidel doctrine in question be really Christian? find, if he can, a parallel for either. In and this can only be determined by a disspeaking of himself, after acknowledging an passionate and impartial recurrence to the act of friendship in those to whom he writes, Scriptures themselves, particularly the New he says, 'Not as though I speak in respect Testament. Whatever is clearly asserted of want, for I have learned in whatsoever there, follows inevitably from the establishstate I am, therewith to be content. I know ed divinity of that which contains it. And both how to be abased, and I know how to in what conceivable case can, not only huabound. I am instructed both to be full and mility, but rational consistency, be more to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer wisely exercised, than in receiving, without need. I can do all things through Christ question, the obvious parts, and then no which strengtheneth me." What a testimo- doubt can be entertained respecting the nial this to the faithfulness of the offer of our whole. Happy had it been for the ChrisSaviour, to which we have already referred! tian world, had this self-evident maxim been How consummately does it evince, that when practically attended to; for then what dishe engaged to fulfil that deepest of human pute could possibly have arisen aboutdesires, the thirst of happiness, he promised that Word which was made flesh, and no more than he was infinitely able to per- dwelt among us, being also God over all, form! The apostle's exhortation to others, blessed for evermore? Or whether the Fais no less worthy of attention. Finally, ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in whose brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- name we are baptised, must not be essensoever things are honest, whatsoever things tially divine? Or whether there can be any are just, whatsoever things are pure, what- misconception in what the redeemed in soever things are lovely, whatsoever things heaven make the subject of their eternal are of good report-If there be any virtue, if song: that the Lamb which was slain, had there be any praise, think on these things.' redeemed them to God by his blood, out of In what human words did genuine moral every kindred, and tongue, and people, and feelings ever more completely embody it- nation?' self? Are they not, as it were, the very soul and body of true philosophy? But what philosopher, before him, after such a lesson to his pupils, could have dared to add the words which immediately follow?-The things which ye have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you. That plain and simple readers think they find each others doctrines clearly set forth in the sacred volume, is a matter of fact, authenticated by abundant evidence; and that, where they have been disputed, those who have agreed in holding them, have evidently derived a deeper influence from Christianity, both as to the conduct of their This is a most imperfect portion of that lives, and the comfort of their minds, than body of internal evidence, which even the those who have rejected them,-if it could most general view of Christianity presses on not be substantiated by innumerable proofs, the attentive and candid mind: and with would be almost self-evident, on a merely even this before us, may it not be boldly ask-theoretic view of the two cases. For who ed, what else like this has come within hu- ever derived either partial strength, or menman knowledge? On these characters of tal comfort, from indulging a habit of metathe gospel then, let the infidel fairly try his physical disquisition! And who but such strength. Let him disprove, if he can, the have, in any age of the church, questioned correspondence between the wishes of phi- the doctrines of our Saviour's divinity, the losophy, and the achievements of Christiani- three fold distinction in the divine nature, or ty, or destroy the identity of that common the expiatory efficacy of Christ's one oblaview of man's chief good, and paramount tion of himself, once offered for the sins of happiness. Let him account, if he can, for the whole world? these unexampled congruities, on any other The Scriptures are so explicit on the last mentioned great doctrine of our religion, | The lives of the criminal and unfortunate, that we are not left to infer its truth and commonly unfortunate because criminal, certainty as we might almost do from the w ll not be read in vain. They are instrucobvious exigencies of human nature. That tive, not only by detailing the personal caguilt is one of the deepest of the natural feel-lamities with which the misconduct was folings, will not be disputed; and, that the lowed, but by exhibiting that misconduct as sense of guilt has been, in every age and na- the source of the alienation of the hearts of tion a source of the deepest horrors, and has their subjects; and often as the remote, suggested even still more horrible methods sometimes as the immediate, cause of civil of appeasing the perturbed mind, can be commotions and revolutions. questioned by none who is acquainted, how- But caution is to be learned, not from their ever slightly, with the history of the world. vices only, but from their weaknesses and Atheists in pagan countries have made this errors; from their false judgments, their very fact the great apology for their impiety, ignorance of human nature, their narrow charging upon religion itself the dismal su- views arising from a bad education, their perstitions. which appeared to them to arise judging from partial information, deciding from it. And Plutarch, one of the most en-from infused prejudices, and acting on party lightened of heathen moralists, concludes principles; their being habituated to conthat even Atheism itself is preferable to sider petty unconnected details, instead of that superstitious dread of the gods, which taking in the great aggregate of public conhe saw impelling so many wretched victims cerns; their imprudent choice of ministers, to daily and hourly self-torture. The fact their unhappy spirit of favouritism, their is, no misery incident to man involves either preference of selfish flatterers to disinterestgreater depth, or complication, than that of ed counsellors, and making the associates a guilty conscience. And a system of reli- of their pleasures the dispensers of justice gion, which would have left this unprovided and the ministers of public affairs.* for, we may venture to pronounce, would have been utterly unsuitable to man, and, therefore, utterly unworthy of the wisdom and goodness of God. How appositely to this awful feeling, does the doctrine of the atonement come into the christian system! How astonishingly has even its general belief chased from the christian world those superstitious phantoms with which paganism ever has been, and even at this day is, haunted! But above all, what relief has it afforded to the humble penitent! This,' said the pious Melancthon, can only be understood in conflicts of conscience.' It is most true. Let these therefore, who have never felt such conflicts, beware how they despise what they may yet be impelled to resort to, as the only certain stay and prop of their sinking spirits. It is a fearful thing,' says an inspired writer, to fall into the hands of the living God.' Against this fear to what resource could we trust, but that which the mercy of God has no less clearly revealed to us? Seeing, then, that we have a great high priest that is passed for us into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession; for we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.' CHAP. XVII. The use of history in teaching the choice of favourites.-Flattery.-Our taste improved in the arts of adulation.-The dangers of flattery exemplified. 'Tis by that close acquaintance with the characters of men which history supplies, that a prince must learn how to avoid a jealous Sejanus, a vicious Tigellinus, a corrupt Spenser and Gavaston, a rapacious Epsom and Dudley, a pernicious D'Ancre, and ambitious Wolsey, a profligate Buckingham; we allude at once to the minister of the first James, and to the still more profligate Buckingham of the Second Charles ; a tyrannical Richelieu, a crafty Mazarin, a profuse Louvois, an intriguing Ursini, an inefficient Chamillard, an imperious dutches of Marlborough, and a supple Masham. History presents frequent instances of an inconsistency not uncommon in human nature,-sovereigns the most arbitrary to their subjects, themselves the tools of favourites. He who treated his people with disdain, and his parliaments with contempt, was, in turn, the slave of Arran, of Car, and of Villiers. His grandson, who boldly intrenched on the liberties of his country, was himself governed by the Cabal. It may sound paradoxical to assert, that in a period of society, when characters are less strongly marked, a sovereign is, in some respects, in more danger of choosing wrong. In our days, and under our constitution, indeed, it is scarcely possible to err so widely, as to select, for ministers, men of such atrocious characters, as those who have just been held up to detestation. The very improvement of society, therefore, has caused the question to become one of a much nicer kind. It is no longer a choice between men, whose outward characters exhibit a monstrous disproportion to each other. A • The Romans seem to have had just ideas of the dignity of character and office attached to the friend of IT is not from the history of good princes a prince by denominating him, not favourite, but, paralone, that signal instruction may be reaped.' ticeps curarum. gods, was Nero, who rewarded Lucan, not for his adulation, but for being a better poet than himself, with a violent death. The smooth and obsequious Pliny improved on all anterior adulation. Not content with making his emperor the imitator, or the equal of Deity, he makes him a pattern for it; protesting that 'men needed to make no other prayers to the gods, than that they would continue to be as good and propitious lords to them as Trajan had been. bold oppressor of the people, the people [tions: nor, as when the bard of Pharsalia would not endure. A violent infringer, on offered to the emperor his choice, either of the constitution, the parliament would not the sceptre of Jupiter, or the chariot of tolerate. But still out of that class, from Apollo; modestly assuring him, that there which the election must be made, the moral was not a god in the pantheon, who would dispositions, the political tendencies, and not yield his empire to him, and account it the religious principles of men may differ an honour to resign in his favour. This so materially, that the choice may seriously meritorious prince, so worthy to displace the affect at once, the credit and happiness of the prince, and the welfare of the country. The conduct of good and bad men will always furnish no inconsiderable means of distinction; yet at a time when gross and palpable enormities are less likely to be endured, it is the more necessary for a prince to be able accurately to discriminate the shades of the characters of public men. While, therefore, every tendency to art or dissimulation should be reprobated, the most exact caution should be inculcated, and the keenest discernment cultivated, in the royal education. All that can improve the judgment, sharpen the penetration, or give enlarged views of the human mind, should be put in exercise. A prince should possess that sort of sight, which, while it takes in remote views, accurately distinguishes near objects. To the eye of the lynx, which no minuteness can elude, should be added that of the eagle, which no brightness can blind, for whatever dazzles darkens. He should acquire that justness, as well as extent of mind, which should enable him to study the character of his enemies, and decide upon that of his friends; to penetrate keenly, but not invidiously, into the designs of others, and vigilantly to scrutinize his own. His mind should be stored, not with shifts and expedients, but with large and liberal plans; not with stratagems, but resources; not with subterfuges, but principles; not with prejudices, but reasons. He should treasure up sound maxims to teach him to act consistently; be provided with steady measures suited to the probable occasion, together with a promptitude of mind, prepared to vary them so as to meet any contingency. In no instance will those who have the care of forming the royal pupil find a surer exercise of their wisdom and integrity, than in their endeavours to guard the mind from the deadly poison of flattery. Many kings,' says the witty South, have been destroyed by poison, but none has been so efficaciously mortal as that drunk in by the ear.’ But the refined sycophant of modern days is more likely to hide the actual blemishes, and to veil the real faults of a prince from himself, than to attribute to him incredible virtues, the ascription of which would be too gross to impose on his discernment. There will be more danger of a modern courtier imitating the delicacy of the ancient painter, who, being ordered to draw the portrait of a prince who had but one eye, adopted the conciliating expedient of painting him in profile. But if the modern flatterer be less gross, he will be, on that very account, the more dangerous. The refinement of his adulation prevents the object of it from putting himself on his guard. The prince is led, perhaps, to conceive with self-complacency that he is hearing the language of truth, while he is only the dupe of a more accomplished flatterer. He should especially beware of mistaking freedom of manner, for frankness of sentiment; and of confounding the artful familiarities of a designing favourite, with the honest simplicity of a disinterested friend. Where, in our more correct day, is the courtier who would dare to add profaneness to flattery so far, as to declare, as was done by the greatest philosopher this country ever produced, in his letter to prince Charles, that, as the Father had been his Creator, so he hoped the Son would be his Redeemer?'* But what a noble contrast to this base and blasphemous servility in the chancellor of James, does the conduct of the chancellor of his grand-son exhibit! The unbending rectitude of Clarendon not only disdained to flatter, in his private intercourse, a master to whom however his pen is always too partial, but it led boldly and honestly to remonstrate against his flagitious conduct. A standing example for all times, to the servants and companions of kings, he resolutely reproved his master to Compliments are not now absurd and ex- his face, while he thought it his duty to detravagant, as when the most elegant of Ro-fend him, somewhat too strongly, indeed, to man poets invited his imperial master to pick others. He boldly besought the king, 'not out his own lodging among the constella Intellectual taste, it is true, is much refined, since the Grecian sophist tried to cure the melancholy of Alexander by telling him, that Justice was painted, as seated near the throne of Jupiter, to indicate that right and wrong depended on the will of kings; all whose actions ought to be accounted just, both by themselves and others.' • See Howell's Letters. to believe that he had a prerogative to de- her sex, have more complicated dangers to clare vice to be virtue.' And in one of the resist; against which her mind should be noblest speeches on record, in answer to a early fortified. The dangers of adulation dishonourable request of the king, that he are doubled, when the female character is would visit some of his majesty's infamous combined with the royal. Even the vigorassociates; he laid before him with a lofty ous mind of the great Elizabeth did not sincerity, the turpitude of a man in his dig-guard her against the powerful assaults of nified office, being obliged to countenance the flattery paid to her person. That maspersons scandalous for their vices, for which culine spirit was as much the slave of the by the laws of God and man, they ought to be odious and exposed to the judgment of the church and state." In this instance superior to his great rival Sully; that no desire of pleasing the king, no consideration of expediency, could induce him to visit the royal mistresses, or to countenance the licentious favourites. most egregious vanity, as the weakest of her sex could have been. All her admirable prudence and profound policy, could not preserve her from the childish and silly levity with which she greedily invited the compliments of the artful minister of her more beautiful rival. Even that gross instance of Melvil's extravagance enchanted her, when, Princes have generally been greedy of as she was playing on Mary's favourite inpraise in a pretty exact proportion to the strument, for the purpose of being overpains which they have taken not to deserve heard by him, the dissembling courtier afit. Henry the VIIIth was a patron of learn- fected to be so ravished by her skill, as to ed men, and might himself be accounted burst into her apartment, like an enraptured learned. But his favourite studies, instead man, who had forgotten his reverence in his of preserving him from the love of flattery, admiration. It was a curious combat in the served to lay him open to it. Scholastic di- great mind of Elizabeth, between the offendvinity, the fashionable learning of the times, ed pride of the queen, and the gratified vanias Burnet observes, suited his vain and con- ty of the woman; but Melvil knew his trade tentious temper, and as ecclesiastics were to in knowing human nature;-he calculated be his critics, his pursuits of polemical the- justly. The woman conquered. ology brought him in the largest revenue of praise; so that there seemed to be a contest between him and them, whether they could offer, or he could swallow, the most copious draughts of flattery. they seem to exact nothing? And have not too many been apt to consider that the honour of serving them is itself a sufficient reward? Princes have in all ages complained that they have been ill served. But, is it not because they have not always carefully selectcd their servants? Is it not because they have too often bestowed confidence on the But the reign of James the first was the unwise, and employments on the unworthy? great epocha of adulation in England; and Because, while they have loaded the undea prince who had not one of the qualities of serving with benefits, they have neglected to a warlike, and scarcely one of the virtues of reward those who have served them well, a pacific king, received from clergy and lai-and to support those who have served them ty, from statesmen, philosophers, and men long? Is it not because they have someof letters, praises not only utterly repugnant times a way of expecting every thing, while to truth and virtue, but directly contrary to that frankness of manners, and magnanimity of spirit, which had formerly characterized Englishmen. This ascription of all rights, aad all talents, and all virtues, to a By a close study of the weaknesses and prince, bold through fear, and presumptu- passions of a sovereign, crafty and designing ous because he wished to conceal his own favourites have ever been on the watch to pusillanimity, rebounded, as was but just, on establish their own dominion, by such appro the flatterers; who, in return for their adu- priate means as seem best accommodated to lation, were treated by him with a con- the turn of these weaknesses and passions. If tempt, which not the boldest of his prede-Leonore Concini, and the dutchess of Marlcesssors had ever ventured to manifest. borough, obtained the most complete ascenHis inquiry of his company at dinner, whe-dency over their respective queens, both ther he might not take his subjects' money probably by artful flattery at first, they afwhen he needed it, without the formality of terwards secured and preserved it by a ty parliament, indicates that one object was ranny the most absolute. In connexions of always uppermost in his mind ;* his familiar this nature, it is usually on the side of the intercourse was employed in diving into the sovereign, that the caprice and the haughtiprivate opinions of men, to discover to what ness are expected; but the domincering falength his oppressive schemes might be car-vourite of Anne exclusively assumed to herried; and his public conduct occupied in self all these prerogatives of despotic power, putting those schemes into practice. and exercised them without mercy, on the But the royal person whom we presume to intimidated and submissive queen; a queen, advise, may, from the very circumstance of • The requisition was allowed in a phrase as disgust ingly servile, by bishop Neile; as it was pleasant y evaded by Andrews. who, with many virtues, not having had the discernment to find out, that the opposite extreme to what is wrong, is commonly wrong also, in order to extricate herself from her captivity to one favourite, fell into the snares spread for her by the servility of another. Thus, whether the imperious dutchess, or the obsequious Masham, were lady of the ascendant, the sovereign was equally infatuated, equally misled. Namur, in which the king and the gods were That attachments formed without judg- No godhead, but the first of men." ment, and pursued without moderation, are A prince should be accustomed to see and likely to be dissolved without reason; and know things as they really are, and should that breaches the most trivial in themselves be taught to dread that state of delusion in may be important in their consequences, which the monarch is the only person ignowere never more fully exemplified than in rant of what is doing in his kingdom. It the trifling cause, which, by putting an end was to little purpose that the sovereign last to the intercourse between the above named named, when some temporary sense of requeen and dutchess, produced events the morse was excited by an affecting represenmost unforeseen and extraordinary. While tation of the miseries of the persecuted prothe duke was fighting her majesty's battles testants, said, that he hoped God would abroad, and his dutchess supporting his in-not impute to him as a crime, punishments terest against a powerful party at court; a which he had not commanded.' Delusive pair of gloves of a new invention, sent first hope! It was crime enough for a king to by the milliner to the favourite (impatient be ignorant of what was passing in his doto have them before the queen, who had or- minions. dered a similar pair,) so incensed her majesty, as to be the immediate cause, by driving the dutchess from her post, of depriving the duke of his command, compelling the confederates to agree to a peace, preserving Louis from the destruction which awaited him, making a total revolution in parties at home, and determining the fate of Europe.* To a monarch more eager to acquire fame than to deserve it, to pension a poet will be a shorter cut to renown than to dispense blessings to his country. Louis XII. instead of buying immortality of a servile bard, earned and enjoyed the appellation of father of his people; that people whom his brilliant successor, Louis the great, drained and plundered, or in the emphatic language of the prophet, peeled and scattered to provide money for his wars, his mistresses, his buildings, and his spectacles. Posterity, how-as was but just, became the victim of the ever, has done justice to both kings, and le bien aime is remembered with affectionate veneration, while le grand is regarded as the fabricator of the ruin of his race. There have been few princes so ill disposed, as not to have been made worse by unmeasured flattery. Even some of the most depraved Roman emperors began their career with a fair promise. Tiberius set out with being mild and prudent; and even Nero, for a considerable time, either wore the mask, or did not need it. While his two virtuous friends maintained their entire influence, every thing looked favourable.— But when his sycophants had succeeded in making Seneca an object of ridicule; and when Tigellinus was preferred to Buri hus all that followed was a natural consequence. the abject slavery of the people, the servile decrces of the senate, the obsequious acquiescence of the court, the prostrate homage of every order, all concurred to bring out his vices in their full luxuriance, and Rome, monster she had pampered. Tacitus, with his usual honest indignation, declares, that as often as the emperor commanded banishments or ordered assassinations, so often were thanks and sacrifices decreed to the gods! How totally must adulation have blunted the delicacy of the latter prince, when he could shut himself up with his two royal But, in our happier days, as subjects, it is historiographers, Boileau and Racine, to presumed, indulge no such propensities, so hear them read portions of his own history.under our happier constitution, have they no Deservedly high as was the reputation of such opportunities. Yet powerful, though these two fine geniuses, in the walks of po-gentler, and almost unapparent means, may etry, was that history likely to convey much be employed to weaken the virtue, and intruth or instruction to posterity, which, after jure the fame of a prince. To degrade his being composed by two pensioned poets, character, he need only be led into one vice, was read by them to the monarch, who was idleness; and be attacked by one weapon, to be the hero of the tale? Sovereigns, in-flattery. Indiscriminate acquiescence and deed, may elect poets to record their exploits, but subjects will read historians. The conquest of every town and village was celebrated by Boileau in hyperbolic song; and the whole pantheon ransacked for deities, who might furnish some faint idea of the glories of the immortal Louis.The time, however, soon arrived, when the author of the adulatory ode on the taking of • Examen du Prince. VOL. II. 8 soothing adulation will lay his mind open to the incursion of every evil without his being aware of it; for his table is not the place where he expects to meet an enemy, consequently, he is not on his guard against him. And where he is thus powerfully assailed, the kindest nature, the best intentions, the See Boileau's Ode sur la prise de Namur, by Louis and Prior's Poem on the taking of Namur, by king William. |