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CCLVII.

WHO ARE ALL DIPLOMACY IN POLITICS.

CAMPANELLA,-whom Prynne called a second Ma'chiavelli,'-says, in his Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy*, that the best method the King of Spain could adopt was,-seeing how well the Spaniards were defended by Nature and their own courage,-to cause dissension among their enemies, and be diligent to keep up. Cardinal Fleury was not unalive to this. He neglected the French marine; he neglected, also, the French military power; his policy being pacific. But he was still alive to French interests, and he endeavoured to secure them; not by fleets or by armies, but by dividing foreign courts, raising hopes, and fomenting intrigues.

The French had long been very expert in the exercise of this policy; and when the Jacobins levelled all orders, they endeavoured, with equal assiduity, to follow the example which had been set them by the court.

That artifice and cunning are true policies was the uninterrupted canon of Cardinal Fleury, as well as of Cardinal Mazarin. They were destined, however, in many instances, to resemble the North American Indians, who, climbing a tree to rob the nest of the redheaded wood-pecker, grasp the young, as they suppose, but which young, times and often,' turn out to be no other than the head of a snake.

*Ch. xxv.

CCLVIII.

WHO ARE RUINED BY SUCCESS.

'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.'- Young.

THE port of Syracuse could never be entered but by an Athenian fleet; and yet, in that port, the fame, empire, and glory of Athens suffered a total wreck. Thus says Cicero*; and history furnishes many analogous examples.

Men, indeed, are often ruined by success. Sir Robert Walpole felt so strongly the defeat of his opponents, that when the time came for a new parliament, he did not exercise his usual power and discretion in securing the new house. The consequences are known to most.

The lesson is taught us in another way. The order of Premontre relapsed into every species of vice when they became prosperous†: and a thousand instances are known to all in private life, however limited their sphere and power of observation. Men fall still more often when they attempt to be guides. The people, in fact, often resemble Hannibal's Indian elephants; their presuming dictators the guides themselves. In crossing the Rhone all the drivers perished; but the elephants arrived safely on the opposite shore.

The sale of indulgences operated in the same manner.

It produced vast sums of money. The popes and cardinals, however, sold too many; and the trade had *Orat. v. in Verrem.

Their history is curious. tom. ii. 156, &c.

Consult Helyot, Hist. des Ordres,

nearly overwhelmed the sellers. The power of granting these divine passports was first assumed by the bishops (in the twelfth century); and they were sold without scruple, on the presumed plea of church exigencies; but, in fact, to gratify the luxury and avarice of the episcopal orders. They were, afterwards, monopolized by the popes; and finally became, by their multitude and fruitless absurdity of application, the grand instruments by which the reformers were enabled to command so wise and so beneficial a result as the Reformation.

I seldom think of this, but by virtue of one of those associations for which it is difficult to account, I remember Salvator Rosa's picture of La Fortuna, some years ago, and perhaps now, in the possession of the Duke of Beaufort. In this picture the artist has represented a woman pouring from a cornucopia gems, jewels, coins, medals, crosses, mitres, and crowns, upon birds of prey and crawling reptiles, at once sanguinary and rapacious. In the struggle they trample on the symbols of genius and liberty; and globes, pens, pencils, and musical instruments lie neglected. Wolves and vultures divide among themselves the coronets and crowns; swine seize the mitres; and the ass is permitted to decorate himself with insignia of various orders.

CCLIX.

TOO GREAT FOR MONUMENTS.

'One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas !'-Pope.

HURD, Bishop of Worcester *, said in the warmth of his heart, that Warburton was lessened by elevation; and was too great to be advanced. The greatest possible reward for any man in this life is an inward satisfaction and sunshine of mind: but it is astonishing what men will do for a garter on the knee, a star on the breast, a mitre, or a medal in the button-hole! What, also, will they not do for empty monuments?

It is right to erect statues to heroes, painters, sculptors, architects, and musicians; but not to kings, or to men of learning and science. To those it is an honour; to these an equivocal distinction. The history of his reign is the monument of a king; his works the monuments of an author: each erecting their own monuments. How many men of genius sleep, unhonoured, unnoticed, and unknown, among the briared graves of villages and hamlets! How many a dauntless Hampden,' how many a guiltless Cromwell,' how many mute, inglorious Milton!" But to erect monuments to eminent writers-how superfluous! The sums expended upon them, when dead, had better have been spent upon them when living :

'Yes; still the great have kindness in reserve,

They help to bury, whom they help to starve.'-Pope.

Discourse by way of Preface, p. 85.

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CCLX.

WHO ARE SUBDUED, AS IT WERE, BY THE YELPING OF A SPANIEL.

SWIFT, for instance. No power could bend him; but he permitted himself to be so greatly mortified by an old woman, that he never after went into the street where she lived, although it was one in which he had before delighted to walk. The story is thus related in the Sloane MSS. No. 4223 :-' The Dean had often called ' at an upholsterer's on the Quay, to order some rub'bish lying before his door to be removed; but without 'being obeyed for several days; which brought him in some choler to the house, where he warmly expostu'lated with the woman, and concluded with—" Do you ❝“know, woman, who I am?" Yes, please your reverence," she replied, you are Dr. Higgins.' This Dr. Higgins is represented as having been a crazy old Jacobite, a favourite of Harley's, and the Dean's aversion. He was, moreover, so noisy, that he was called Orator Higgins. Swift never went into the street again.

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Thus a man, whom no one could conquer, if he chose to rebel, was subdued by a woman, by merely mistaking his person for another's.