LXII.

WHO LET OTHERS DICTATE.

BEING One day (1809) at Canons*, the proprietor, who, in former times, had been one of the most intimate associates of his majesty, George IV., when Prince of Wales, took me aside :-'I was not very well pleased with you,' said he, to see how distantly you received the prof'fered hand of Mr. G- — the other evening. It was ' unlike a man of the world. Take my advice, and follow 'my plan: let others set the distance. I never take the lead in any thing. I bend, as I am bent to. If men are easy and pliant, I am easy and pliant. If 'they are distant, I am distant. If they smile, I smile. If they frown, I frown. If they flatter, I flatter. If they are sarcastic, I am sarcastic too. If they bow, I bow. If they pass on straight, I do the same.'

.

Frederic the Great always retaliated any coolness, adopted towards his ambassadors at foreign courts, by adopting the same line of conduct to the foreign ambassadors at his own. If foreign princes smiled upon his agent diplomatique, he smiled in return at theirs. And this reminds me of a letter, written by Lord Barrington in 1761, to Sir Andrew Mitchell: The same fortune,' says his lordship, which made me Secretary at War, • five years and a half ago, has made me Chancellor of 'the Exchequer. It may, perhaps, at last, make me Pope. I think I am equally fit to be at the head ' of the church. My reason tells me it would have been more proper to have given me an employment of less Ouce the seat of the Duke of Chandos, whom Pope is supposed to have satirized under the character of Timon.

consequence, when I was removed from the war office; 'but no man knows what is good for him.

My invariable rule, therefore, is, to refuse nothing; to let

' others place me; and to do my best wherever I am placed *."

6

It must be confessed, that Lord Barrington was not altogether unacquainted with the best method of securing employment for a man of rank, who has but a little interest to command results to his wishes.

OVID says,

LXIII.

WHO TAKE MIDDLE COURSES.

'Medio tutissimus ibis;' but Tacitus, 'Media sequitur quod inter ancipitia teterrimum est †.' These two passages direct our mental eye to what Amelot de la Houssaie says in respect to Venice.

That state,' says he, is subject, upon any ill con'juncture of their affairs, to take the middle way, ' which is, commonly, the worst. That is, of two coun'sels proposed, one generous and brave, the other poor ' and pusillanimous, they form a third out of both, ' without examining their incompatibility or danger.' This line of conduct may be generally safe; but it is not only, every now and then, unsafe, but even contemptible.

The habit, however, is occasionally carried into the bosom of philosophy; and to this end a passage may be quoted with advantage from Pope's Essay on Man :— Placed in this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great;

+ Ann. xv.

*Mitchell Papers, vol. xxxv. fol. 29.

On the government of Venice, p. 264.

With too much knowledge for the sceptic's side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer,

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err.'

LXIV.

WHO SELDOM RETURN BOWS.

THE influence of a bow from a great man to a little one is very great; the withholding of a bow by a little man from a great one is, sometimes, even of ruinous consequences. In a village, the baker, who withholds his bow, no longer serves the house. A bow from a member of parliament commands the continuance of

a vote.

Even republicans love the bow obsequious:' hence Milton makes a bow not only a custom in hell, but even in heaven :

Satan, bowing low,

As to superior spirits is wont in heaven,

Where honour due and reverence none neglect,

Took leave.'-Par. Lost, b. iii. 736.

Adam adopts the custom, as from instinct; for he had none to learn of:

'Nearer his presence, Adam, though not awed,

Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,

As to a superior nature, bowing low,

Thus said.'-Par. Lost, b. v. 358.

The squire, who returns no bow to those of his village, will have no tears from the poor wherewith his grave can be watered. And what so affecting to the soul as the anticipated tears of the poor? He who disdains them-let nettles and thistles cover his ashes!

LXV.

ROUNDABOUT QUESTIONERS.

YESTERDAY, in company with Mr. L—. As we came out, Junius inquired whether I knew the cause of L's asking me such and such questions.

They

were very unimportant ones,' answered I. Not quite 'so unimportant,' said Junius. He wished to know 'whether Mr. Mackenzie had been at your house lately; but as he can never ask a direct question, he inquired whether you did not meet Mrs. Mackenzie at 'Gloucester some years ago. This would lead you to speak of Mr. Mackenzie; and if he had been at your 'house yesterday, it was very probable that you would 'have said so. He asks questions sometimes ten miles ' off the subject he is earnest about; but those questions, distant as they appear, will answer the imme'diate ones he wishes to have solved. He once asked 'me, casually as it appeared, what English gentlemen I had known at Lisbon during the short time I staid there. I enumerated the whole; and at last mentioned the name of Mr. Fitzackerley. I saw by his countenance, that Mr. Fitzackerley was the person he ' wished to inquire about; but he could no more have ' mentioned his name in the first instance than he could 'have flown into the air.'

.

Madame d'Epinay was, in some degree, of this class. 'Never did human being,' says Grimm*, possess, in reater perfection, the art of eliciting from others,

* Mem. vol. i. p. 151.

'without art or indiscretion, what it was essential or desirable to know.' 'Nothing that was said,' he continues, was ever lost upon her; and she frequently ' availed herself of a random word to give that turn to 'the conversation which interested most.'

LXVI.

WHO STOOP TO CONQUER.

THE way to catch sturgeons is to fasten a net at the mouth of a river, in a manner that, whether the tide ebbs or flows, the pouch goes with the stream. Here we have the art of a true and thorough-bred politician. When they succeed, however, they frequently pay too few compliments to fortune :

'Hence, hence, their tide of fortune leaves the shore,

And ebbs much faster than it flowed before.'

Some gain progress by affecting to follow; knowing that should one sheep bound, it is a thousand to one but all the others will bound too, even should there be nothing to bound over. Of this, or something like it, Mr. Burke accused the once celebrated Charles Townshend *. 'He hit the house just between wind ' and water. He was always in unison with his hearers ; and he seemed to guide the house because he was always sure to follow it.'

This practice is not always dishonourable; it is, indeed, sometimes expedient to an honourable purpose. Homer, who knew the human heart better than any

* Debates House Commons, April 19, 1774.