L.

WHO DOUBT VERACITY.

MEN, who know their own veracity, always suspect those who doubt theirs. If it is necessary to be cautious in what we say, it is equally so to be upon our guard in what we shall believe; particularly in an age when, in the dread of infidelity, preachers seem more solicitous to have their congregations believe well than act well. Many, therefore, have devotion in belief, without either piety of sentiment or charity of action.

It requires great skill to tell an exact truth; truth not being so plain as most men assert. Many of what we call truths are merely apparent ones; and all persons are not gifted with powers of discrimination to observe the difference; nor are all endowed with the faculty of precisely stating what they clearly know. A thousand untruths are told by great lovers of truth, and they themselves no wiser. Indeed, scarcely any thing we hear is truth, unmagnified or undiminished. There is always something too much, or something too little.

LI.

LORD TOWNSEND AND LORD GRANVILLE.

LORD CHESTERFIELD says of Lord Granville, that he had a wonderful quickness and precision in seizing the stress of a question,' and which no art or sophistry could disguise from him. Lord Townsend, too, was always near the stress of the question; but then, according to the same authority, he was an ungraceful

and confused speaker, inelegant in his language, and perplexed in his arguments.

In the latter part of this appreciation Lord Townsend seems to have resembled the late Duke of Newcastle.

LII.

WHO ACT UNWISELY ON A GREAT MAN'S LESSON.

6

'If I were a gentleman of property, sir,' said Dr. Johnson, 'I would turn out all my tenants who did not ' vote for the candidate whom I supported.' But, ' would not that be checking the freedom of election ?' inquired Mr. Langton. 'Sir, the law does not mean 'that the privilege of voting should be independent of 'old family interest; of the permanent property of the country.' This was spoken not only by a man of great intellectual qualifications, but by a great moralist. And the present Duke of Newcastle and the Marquis of Exeter having acted in conformity with the precept, they acted for their enemies, and more accelerated reform by the indignation they excited, than the best argument advanced in its support by any of their adversaries.

To hate men in the height of power is less universal than to hate them in the depth of tyranny. A wish for liberty is often but the mere hatred of control; but it is said of Lord -'s brother, that, if he is devoted to the cause of liberty, it is not because he is haughty and intractable, but because he is wise, beneficent, and humane.

VOL. II.

* A.D. 1829-30.

F

LIII.

WHO CANNOT CONFINE THEMSELVES TO ONE OBJECT.

SOME men's minds are so rapid and excursive, that they cannot command a prescriptive attention to any one object whatever. They have no singleness of purpose.

The

Such was one of the characteristics of Hooke. number of things that engaged his mind at the same time was astonishing; hence few of his inventions were brought to perfection; and hence his anticipations of Newton, which, I hope, will one day be fairly acknowledged, were lost in the blaze of that celebrated philosopher. Could Hooke have concentrated his powers, he had, probably, been-as a natural philosopher-second to none this empire has produced.

LIV.

WHO BEAR EVIL ACCIDENTS WITH PROPRIETY.

Perturbations, griefs, doubts, fears,

Innumerable conflicts, agonies,

Watchings, laborious studies, and disputes.'-Milton.

No people in the world bear hunger, thirst, cold, and poverty better than the Swedes. The English are, by no means, remarkable for bearing evil accidents with philosophy; yet they seem not always indisposed to acknowledge-that he should be esteemed one of the best of men, who bears inconveniences with the cheerfulness of true faith, and masters the most difficulties by honest and honourable endeavour.

Misfortune engenders good from every part; as

honey, in some plants, is exuded not only from the flower, but the flower-stalk.

Prosperity, after a season of adversity, is even more delightful than the fine return of morning in the spring, after a violent, tempestuous, and dangerous night on the bosom of the Caspian Sea.

LV.

WHO ACT FOR YEARS CONTRARY TO THEIR OWN OPINIONS.

LORD NORTH did!

Sir Grey Cooper, Bart., was for nearly seventeen years Secretary to the Treasury. He was appointed by the Marquis of Rockingham; and continued during the whole of the Grafton and North administrations.

He

He was Lord North's right hand, as it were. lived, during the whole of his retirement, in our village; and I remember his telling my father, that Lord North carried on the American war for three years longer than it was his opinion that it ought to be carried on. "Wherefore?' In obedience to his father;—not to disoblige the king.' • Had my father given me such an advice,' was the answer, I would have disobeyed

' him.'

Two and forty years ago! and yet I remember this conversation as well as if it had occurred but yesterday; the idea of disobeying a father having impressed it beyond all power of forgetfulness. I not only heard it myself, but a person, still living, heard it also.

It is lamentable to see on what feeble reeds the fortunes of the world rest!

LVI.

THE PATIENT.

ST. PIERRE calls patience the courage of virtue; and certain it is, that almost every fortune is to be conquered by patience *.

As the lion is patient of hunger, but impatient of thirst, so some men are patient of injury, and yet impatient of insult. Characters, less worthy, are more patient of insult than of injury. Others act so boldly under difficulties and slights, and rise so far above both, that we are reminded of a passage in Tertullian :— 'The more you mow us down, the thicker we rise the Christian blood you spill is like the seed you sow. It 'springs from the earth again, and fructifies the more.'

:

Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, grand master of the knights of Malta †, bore his misfortunes so bravely, constantly, mildly, and in a manner so worthy of admiration, that his knights placed over his' tomb, Here lies virtue • victorious over fortune.' Men, who cannot sympathize with misfortune, cannot be truly indignant against baseness; and those, who cannot feel for an honourable man in distress, whether of mind, of body, or of fortune, are unworthy to live. The followers of Mahomet are the most patient of men. Such is the consequence of a firm belief in predestination. 'Oh, true believers !' says the Koran, be constant-minded, and fear God, and ye may be happy.'

Patience, perseverance, and vigour, are the three

*Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.'-Æn., + Vertot, ii., 61.

V., 710.