CXXIII.

WHO WORSHIP THEIR ENEMIES.

Yes, like the polypus, 'tis said,

These spirits are all tail and head;

And with the polypus, we know,

New heads and tails will quickly grow.'

The Battle of the Genii, 1764.

THE most timid animals are, for the most part, the most difficult to be tamed. This is not the case with men; for it is fear only that keeps most of them in any sort of subjection. Success puts even a child into courage; and it is dangerous to attack even a coward, who is cooped up in a corner so closely, that he has no means of escape but by the force of his arm.

Some nations worship the devil. The ancient Egyptians adored the ichneumon, because it was supposed to destroy crocodiles; and they worshipped crocodiles, lest it should destroy them. The Getæ *, on the other hand, menaced their god, whenever it thundered, by throwing their weapons into the air; and the Atlantes of Ethiopia † execrated the sun, every morning, for scorching their fields and drying up their streams.

*Herodotus, Melpom., c. 94.

Plin. Nat. Hist., v. c. viii. Solinus, c. iv.

CXXIV.

WHO LEAVE LEGACIES TO THEIR ENEMIES.

MANY men leave excellent legacies to their enemies in the way of advice or of information. Thus Napoleon recompensed England for all the losses she incurred. during his administration, by leaving them, through Las Cases, a legacy in one short sentence, more valuable than an army of men: 'The English may be omnipotent, if they confine themselves to their but they

navy;

' will endanger their superiority, complicate their affairs, and insensibly lose their importance, if they persevere ' in keeping soldiers on the continent.'

Posterity will see whether or not our statesmen will have sufficient wisdom to profit by this legacy;-a legacy far more valuable than gold or diamonds. Genius leaves legacies to all men.

CXXV.

WHO HAVE NO FIXED PRINCIPLES OF ACTION.

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THOUGH I despise obstinacy, I admire consistency. I can, therefore, never reflect with satisfaction on the conduct of the second William Pitt, wherein he forsook the path his green' integrity had so wisely pointed out. Castlereagh did the same in 1793. Even after the death of Louis XVI., Castlereagh was a vehement reformer. But we can tolerate in a Castlereagh what it would be a great stretch of philosophy, indeed, to tolerate in a man so pre-eminently gifted as William Pitt.

We regard the conduct of Blake in England, and of Moreau in France, after a different manner. Blake declared, that he would fight for his country, let him receive orders from whom he would: and Moreau stated, that he would fight for the existing government against the enemies of France, until the attainment of an honourable peace, let the government be in the hands of a Robespierre, a Barras, a Bourbon, or a Buonaparte : and such will ever be the conduct of men when guided by fixed principles of action. A country is not to be lost because some of its citizens chance to be traitors.

We admire courage; but what is valour in one situation is rashness in another. We approve calmness; but when insulted, a spirited resentment is not only becoming an honourable mind, but a prudent one. We respect benevolence; but benevolence abroad, when our children are starving at home, is not only a folly but an injustice and a cruelty. We despise obstinacy; yet consistency (in right objects,) is not only one of the noblest, but one of the most useful of all qualities.

CXXVI.

WHO ARE IN PERPETUAL MOTION.

HEALTHY children are ever so: and in this they resemble the picture, perpetually presented in the universe. For the universe, as Montaigne rightly observes, is in one perpetual motion; and constancy itself is only a more languid exhibition of that motion, which is the

very principle of existence and this truism reminds

me of a passage in Cowper

:

By ceaseless actions, all, that is, subsists.
Constant rotation of th' unwearied wheel,

That Nature rides upon, maintains her health,
Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads

An instant's pause, and lives but while she moves.'

Children are for ever reminding me of this phenomenon. I seldom see them, therefore, trundling their hoops, but I think of planets, satellites, and comets; suns, systems, clusters, and nebulæ.

CXXVII.

WHO COME TO THE POINT AT ONCE.

THE highest perfection the soul can attain is said, by some writers, to consist in action without passion. It appears, however, problematical, whether passion does not mix itself with all action; activity of the body, or of the mind, being 'sine quâ non;' if not con 'amore,' at least,' con spirito, aut ab necessitate.'

Some men's activity is so immediate, that there appears but a small interval between conception and execution. At one time they resemble a soldier hurling his javelin; at another a musician tuning his harp.

The power of coming to the point at once was one of the qualities of Lord Chatham: and Grattan has well alluded to this point in his intellectual character. • He 'did not conduct the understanding, like Murray, through 'the painful subtlety of argumentation; nor was he, ' like Townshend, for ever on the rack of exertion; but

' rather lightened on the subject; and reached the point 'by the flashings of his mind, which, like his eye, were 'felt, but could not be followed.'

CXXVIII.

WHO TRIUMPH FOR COMING IN AT THE DEATH.

PAUSANIAS relates*, that he saw, in one of the cities of Greece, a picture of Ocnus, painted by Polignotus, who was represented as twisting a rope, and a female ass standing by him, who ate the rope as fast as he twisted it. Here, methinks, we have an emblem of those, who suffer themselves to be robbed of the fruits of their labours; and the robbers we may associate with those vipers, which are said to take up their abode in the branches and round the body of the balsam tree, and calmly sip the odoriferous juices of its leaves and flowers.

Many are the men, who are ever ready with hooks to reap the harvest of another's vineyard; and melancholy, pre-eminently melancholy, is it to be one of those thus injured; being, unwittingly, like the ox, which

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Struggling, groans beneath the cruel hand

E'en of the clown he feeds; and that, perhaps,

To swell the riot of th' autumnal feast,

Won by his labour !'

Napoleon reaped the benefit of all the courage, skill, and barbarism of his officers; and this may serve to remind us of what Tacitus says in reference to the Germans. They esteem it an inviolable duty,' says

*Lib. x. c. 29.