XCIV.

MOUNTAINS IN LABOUR.

Fine as Arachne's web or gossamer,

Whose curls, when garnish'd by their dressing, show
Like that spun vapour, when 'tis pearl'd with dew.'
Nabbe's Hannibal and Scipio.

SOME men make great preparations to very small results. We may instance the attempts of Charles VI. That monarch determined on passing over to England, in order to perform some great exploit! Such, at least, is the motive assigned by Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. For this purpose, he assembled at Sluys the largest fleet of ships that had been witnessed in France for many ages. They were all painted and gilt; and the soldiers and officers covered, as it were, with gold. Every one, in fact, put himself to a great expense. The king appeared determined on this expedition, notwithstanding it was in the midst of winter: but the Duke de Berry declared his resolution, that if the expedition must be hazarded, the king's person should not. Upon this Charles answered, that, as no one should go without him, the attempt should be put off till the ensuing May. Other matters then intervened; and the fleet assembled for nothing. The whole was, in fact, no other than a specimen of boasting, folly, and rhodomontade, that never had any real meaning. A mere mountain in labour!

XCV.

WHO BELIEVE THEY MAY DO ALL THINGS THAT ARE
INNOCENT.

NONE are so deaf, they say, as those who will not hear, and none so blind as those who will not see. These men, however, resemble moles, which, though subterraneous animals, can, in a flood, not only swim well, but climb trees. Granger says of La Fontaine, that he could discover other men's characters, though they could not see his; and that he often laughed inwardly at the fools who laughed apparently at him.

Thousands, in this world of vanity and display, imagine they have nothing else to do but follow their inclinations. Let their rank, fortune, and opportunities be what they may, they have only enjoyments to conciliate; no duties to fulfil; reminding us, in fact, of the butterfly in Thomson's Castle of Indolence :

'What youthful bride can equal her array?

-:

Who can with her for easy pleasure vie?
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray,
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly,
Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky.'

Some are as inconvenient in their innocence, as others are in their guilt. They imagine, for instance, that they have a right to do whatever they please, provided they are actuated by good motives; and some imagine they may do whatever they desire, provided the deeds are innocent. Young ladies, for example, sometimes believe they may take solitary walks by

*Vol. iv. 481.

moonlight, to listen to the nightingale! What more innocent?

Men of genius are too often visited by this species of presumption; their genius sanctifying, in their estimation, every innocent deviation from custom they feel inclined to commit. Their deviations, however, are, but too frequently, occasioned more by misfortune than by a wish to be singular.

"Ah! should there be to whom the fatal blight

Of falling genius gives a base delight;

Men, who exult when minds of heavenly tone
Jar in the music which was born their own;

Still let them pause. Ah! little do they know
That what to them seem'd vice might have been woe.'

Byron.

In fact, innocence and no experienced person can deny this sometimes produces, in a worldly sense, even worse consequences than guilt.

XCVI.

WHO GIVE MEN EMPLOYMENTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF

GETTING RID OF THEM.

FOR this end Louis XI. sent Peter de Brezé with two thousand men-at-arms to assist Margaret of Anjou. In later times Lord *. was banished to the

was sent to the

court of St. Petersburg, under the title of ambassador ; and still more recently, Lord *. court of Stockholm. Had Charles I. and Cosmo I. understood this method, Strafford had been saved from the block; and Cosmo's private secretary had escaped the persecution of the Holy Inquisition.

XCVII.

INSTANCES IN WHICH SIMILAR WEAKNESSES PRODUCE

DIFFERENT RESULTS.

CHARLES of England and Louis XIV.: some author, (I forget whom) thus remarks upon them. Charles I. lost his head upon a scaffold for having, in the beginning of the troubles, sacrificed the blood of his friend Strafford. Louis XIV., on the contrary, became the peaceable master of his kingdom, by suffering the exile of Cardinal Mazarine.

XCVIII.

WHO WORK SLOWLY TILL EXCELLENCE GROWS INTO A

HABIT.

THE only pictures I remember to have seen by Lodovico Caracci, are the Death of Darius, the Madonna and Child, with St. Jerome, Mary Magdalen, and the Angels, copied from Correggio,-one of the most exquisite of his performances; Susannah and the Elders, in which the subject is treated more chastely than it usually is; St. Francis with the Angels, in which the saint, in an ecstasy of devotion, is soothed by the music of cherubs; a Dead Christ, with the Marys and St. John, in which the Magdalen is drawn with all the force and mellow richness of Correggio; and the Vision of St. Catharine, in which twilight is exquisitely delineated.

This painter, in early years, was of so slow and inactive an intellect, that his masters, Fontana and Tintoretto, advised him to betake himself to another pro

fession. He knew himself better. His dilatory cha6 racter,' says Lanzi*, ' did not spring from a confined genius, but from deep penetration. He pursued Nature everywhere; he exacted of himself a reason for every line he drew; and considered it the duty of a young artist to aim only at doing well, until it grows ' into a habit.'

This maxim is important, not only to painters, but to every man that lives.

XCIX.

WHOSE FIRST THOUGHTS ARE BEST.

IN Gerard Hamilton was read a double volume: and one of his biographers shall unfold it.

'On the first view of any complicated question, his opinion was almost always right; but, on reflection, 'his ingenuity sometimes led him astray: hence, de'ceived by his own refinement, and viewing the point ' under consideration in a great variety of lights, he 'doubted, hesitated, and perhaps decided erroneously at last t.'

What did his friends do, in consequence, when they wished to gain his best thoughts? They endeavoured to obtain his first thoughts; and rarely consulted him twice on the same subject.

* Vol. v. 97.

Vid. Pref. to Parl. Logic, xxxix.