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diff --git a/17667.txt b/17667.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41d3383 --- /dev/null +++ b/17667.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6693 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dialogues of the Dead, by Lord Lyttelton, +Edited by Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Dialogues of the Dead + + +Author: Lord Lyttelton + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: February 3, 2006 [eBook #17667] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD. + + +BY +LORD LYTTELTON. + +CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: +_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. +1889. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +George, Lord Lyttelton, was born in 1709, at Hagley, in Worcestershire. +He was educated at Eton and at Christchurch, Oxford, entered Parliament, +became a Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1757 +he withdrew from politics, was raised to the peerage, and spent the last +eighteen years of his life in lettered ease. In 1760 Lord Lyttelton +first published these "Dialogues of the Dead," which were revised for a +fourth edition in 1765, and in 1767 he published in four volumes a +"History of the Life of King Henry the Second and of the Age in which he +Lived," a work upon which he had been busy for thirty years. He began it +not long after he had published, at the age of twenty-six, his "Letters +from a Persian in England to his Friend at Ispahan." If we go farther +back we find George Lyttelton, aged twenty-three, beginning his life in +literature as a poet, with four eclogues on "The Progress of Love." + +To the last Lord Lyttelton was poet enough to feel true fellowship with +poets of his day. He loved good literature, and his own works show that +he knew it. He counted Henry Fielding among his friends; he was a friend +and helper to James Thomson, the author of "The Seasons;" and when acting +as secretary to the king's son, Frederick, Prince of Wales (who held a +little court of his own, in which there was much said about liberty), his +friendship brought Thomson and Mallet together in work on a masque for +the Prince and Princess, which included the song of "Rule Britannia." + +Before Lord Lyttelton followed their example, "Dialogues of the Dead" had +been written by Lucian, and by Fenelon, and by Fontenelle; and in our +time they have been written by Walter Savage Landor. This half-dramatic +plan of presenting a man's own thoughts upon the life of man and +characters of men, and on the issues of men's characters in shaping life, +is a way of essay writing pleasant alike to the writer and the reader. +Lord Lyttelton was at his best in it. The form of writing obliged him to +work with a lighter touch than he used when he sought to maintain the +dignity of history by the style of his "History of Henry II." His calm +liberality of mind enters into the discussion of many topics. His truths +are old, but there are no real truths of human life and conduct, worth +anything at all, that are of yesterday. Human love itself is called "the +old, old story;" but do we therefore cease from loving, or from finding +such ways as we can of saying that we love. Dr. Johnson was not at his +wisest when he found fault with Lord Lyttelton because, in his "Dialogues +of the Dead," "that man sat down to write a book, to tell the world what +the world had all his life been telling him." This was exactly what he +wished to do. In the Preface to his revised edition Lord Lyttelton said, +"Sometimes a new dress may render an old truth more pleasing to those +whom the mere love of novelty betrays into error, as it frequently does +not only the wits, but the sages of these days. Indeed, one of the best +services that could now be done to mankind by any good writer would be +the bringing them back to common sense, from which the desire of shining +by extraordinary notions has seduced great numbers, to the no small +detriment of morality and of all real knowledge." + +At any rate, we now find it worth while to know what the world had been +telling all his life to an enlightened, highly-educated man, who was an +active politician in the days of Walpole and of the elder Pitt, who was a +friend of Pope's and of the best writers of the day, and who in his +occasional verse added at least one line to the household words of +English literature when in his warm-hearted Prologue to Thomson's play of +_Coriolanus_, produced after its writer's death, he said of that poet +what we may say of Lord Lyttelton himself, that he gave to the world + + "Not one immoral, one corrupted thought, + One line which, dying, he could wish to blot." + +H. M. + + + + +DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD. + + +DIALOGUE I. + + +LORD FALKLAND--MR. HAMPDEN. + +_Lord Falkland_.--Are not you surprised to see me in Elysium, Mr. +Hampden? + +_Mr. Hampden_.--I was going to put the same question to your lordship, +for doubtless you thought me a rebel. + +_Lord Falkland_.--And certainly you thought me an apostate from the +Commonwealth, and a supporter of tyranny. + +_Mr. Hampden_.--I own I did, and I don't wonder at the severity of your +thoughts about me. The heat of the times deprived us both of our natural +candour. Yet I will confess to you here, that, before I died, I began to +see in our party enough to justify your apprehensions that the civil war, +which we had entered into from generous motives, from a laudable desire +to preserve our free constitution, would end very unhappily, and perhaps, +in the issue, destroy that constitution, even by the arms of those who +pretended to be most zealous for it. + +_Lord Falkland_.--And I will as frankly own to you that I saw, in the +court and camp of the king, so much to alarm me for the liberty of my +country, if our arms were successful, that I dreaded a victory little +less than I did a defeat, and had nothing in my mouth but the word peace, +which I constantly repeated with passionate fondness, in every council at +which I was called to assist. + +_Mr. Hampden_.--I wished for peace too, as ardently as your lordship, but +I saw no hopes of it. The insincerity of the king and the influence of +the queen made it impossible to trust to his promises and declarations. +Nay, what reliance could we reasonably have upon laws designed to limit +and restrain the power of the Crown, after he had violated the Bill of +Rights, obtained with such difficulty, and containing so clear an +assertion of the privileges which had been in dispute? If his conscience +would allow him to break an Act of Parliament, made to determine the +bounds of the royal prerogative, because he thought that the royal +prerogative could have no bounds, what legal ties could bind a conscience +so prejudiced? or what effectual security could his people obtain against +the obstinate malignity of such an opinion, but entirely taking from him +the power of the sword, and enabling themselves to defend the laws he had +passed? + +_Lord Falkland_.--There is evidently too much truth in what you have +said. But by taking from the king the power of the sword, you in reality +took all power. It was converting the government into a democracy; and +if he had submitted to it, he would only have preserved the name of a +king. The sceptre would have been held by those who had the sword; or we +must have lived in a state of perpetual anarchy, without any force or +balance in the government; a state which could not have lasted long, but +would have ended in a republic or in absolute dominion. + +_Mr. Hampden_.--Your reasoning seems unanswerable. But what could we do? +Let Dr. Laud and those other court divines, who directed the king's +conscience, and fixed in it such principles as made him unfit to govern a +limited monarchy--though with many good qualities, and some great +ones--let them, I say, answer for all the mischiefs they brought upon him +and the nation. + +_Lord Falkland_.--They were indeed much to blame; but those principles +had gained ground before their times, and seemed the principles of our +Church, in opposition to the Jesuits, who had certainly gone too far in +the other extreme. + +_Mr. Hampden_.--It is a disgrace to our Church to have taken up such +opinions; and I will venture to prophesy that our clergy in future times +must renounce them, or they will be turned against them by those who mean +their destruction. Suppose a Popish king on the throne, will the clergy +adhere to passive obedience and non-resistance? If they do, they deliver +up their religion to Rome; if they do not, their practice will confute +their own doctrines. + +_Lord Falkland_.--Nature, sir, will in the end be sure to set right +whatever opinion contradicts her great laws, let who will be the teacher. +But, indeed, the more I reflect on those miserable times in which we both +lived, the more I esteem it a favour of Providence to us that we were cut +off so soon. The most grievous misfortune that can befall a virtuous man +is to be in such a state that he can hardly so act as to approve his own +conduct. In such a state we both were. We could not easily make a step, +either forward or backward, without great hazard of guilt, or at least of +dishonour. We were unhappily entangled in connections with men who did +not mean so well as ourselves, or did not judge so rightly. If we +endeavoured to stop them, they thought us false to the cause; if we went +on with them, we ran directly upon rocks, which we saw, but could not +avoid. Nor could we take shelter in a philosophical retreat from +business. Inaction would in us have been cowardice and desertion. To +complete the public calamities, a religious fury, on both sides, mingled +itself with the rage of our civil dissensions, more frantic than that, +more implacable, more averse to all healing measures. The most +intemperate counsels were thought the most pious, and a regard to the +laws, if they opposed the suggestions of these fiery zealots, was +accounted irreligion. This added new difficulties to what was before but +too difficult in itself, the settling of a nation which no longer could +put any confidence in its sovereign, nor lay more restraints on the royal +authority without destroying the balance of the whole constitution. In +those circumstances, the balls that pierced our hearts were directed +thither by the hands of our guardian angels, to deliver us from horrors +we could not support, and perhaps from a guilt our souls abhorred. + +_Mr. Hampden_.--Indeed, things were brought to so deplorable a state, +that if either of us had seen his party triumphant, he must have lamented +that triumph as the ruin of his country. Were I to return into life, the +experience I have had would make me very cautious how I kindled the +sparks of civil war in England; for I have seen that, when once that +devouring fire is lighted, it is not in the power of the head of a party +to say to the conflagration, "Thus far shalt thou go, and here shall thy +violence stop." + +_Lord Falkland_.--The conversation we have had, as well as the +reflections of my own mind on past events, would, if I were condemned to +my body again, teach me great moderation in my judgments of persons who +might happen to differ from me in difficult scenes of public action; they +would entirely cure me of the spirit of party, and make me think that as +in the Church, so also in the State, no evil is more to be feared than a +rancorous and enthusiastical zeal. + + + +DIALOGUE II. + + +LOUIS LE GRAND--PETER THE GREAT. + +_Louis_.--Who, sir, could have thought, when you were learning the trade +of a shipwright in the dockyards of England and Holland, that you would +ever acquire, as I had done, the surname of "Great." + +_Peter_.--Which of us best deserved that title posterity will decide. But +my greatness appeared sufficiently in that very act which seemed to you a +debasement. + +_Louis_.--The dignity of a king does not stoop to such mean employments. +For my own part, I was careful never to appear to the eyes of my subjects +or foreigners but in all the splendour and majesty of royal power. + +_Peter_.--Had I remained on the throne of Russia, as my ancestors did, +environed with all the pomp of barbarous greatness, I should have been +idolised by my people--as much, at least, as you ever were by the French. +My despotism was more absolute, their servitude was more humble. But +then I could not have reformed their evil customs; have taught them arts, +civility, navigation, and war; have exalted them from brutes in human +shapes into men. In this was seen the extraordinary force of my genius +beyond any comparison with all other kings, that I thought it no +degradation or diminution of my greatness to descend from my throne, and +go and work in the dockyards of a foreign republic; to serve as a private +sailor in my own fleets, and as a common soldier in my own army, till I +had raised myself by my merit in all the several steps and degrees of +promotion up to the highest command, and had thus induced my nobility to +submit to a regular subordination in the sea and land service by a lesson +hard to their pride, and which they would not have learnt from any other +master or by any other method of instruction. + +_Louis_.--I am forced to acknowledge that it was a great act. When I +thought it a mean one, my judgment was perverted by the prejudices +arising from my own education and the ridicule thrown upon it by some of +my courtiers, whose minds were too narrow to be able to comprehend the +greatness of yours in that situation. + +_Peter_.--It was an act of more heroism than any ever done by Alexander +or Caesar. Nor would I consent to exchange my glory with theirs. They +both did great things; but they were at the head of great nations, far +superior in valour and military skill to those with whom they contended. +I was the king of an ignorant, undisciplined, barbarous people. My +enemies were at first so superior to my subjects that ten thousand of +them could beat a hundred thousand Russians. They had formidable navies; +I had not a ship. The King of Sweden was a prince of the most intrepid +courage, assisted by generals of consummate knowledge in war, and served +by soldiers so disciplined that they were become the admiration and +terror of Europe. Yet I vanquished these soldiers; I drove that prince +to take refuge in Turkey; I won battles at sea as well as land; I new- +created my people; I gave them arts, science, policy; I enabled them to +keep all the powers of the North in awe and dependence, to give kings to +Poland, to check and intimidate the Ottoman emperors, to mix with great +weight in the affairs of all Europe. What other man has ever done such +wonders as these? Read all the records of ancient and modern times, and +find, if you can, one fit to be put in comparison with me! + +_Louis_.--Your glory would indeed have been supreme and unequalled if, in +civilising your subjects, you had reformed the brutality of your own +manners and the barbarous vices of your nature. But, alas! the +legislator and reformer of the Muscovites was drunken and cruel. + +_Peter_.--My drunkenness I confess; nor will I plead, to excuse it, the +example of Alexander. It inflamed the tempers of both, which were by +nature too fiery, into furious passions of anger, and produced actions of +which our reason, when sober, was ashamed. But the cruelty you upbraid +me with may in some degree be excused, as necessary to the work I had to +perform. Fear of punishment was in the hearts of my barbarous subjects +the only principle of obedience. To make them respect the royal +authority I was obliged to arm it with all the terrors of rage. You had +a more pliant people to govern--a people whose minds could be ruled, like +a fine-managed horse, with an easy and gentle rein. The fear of shame +did more with them than the fear of the knout could do with the Russians. +The humanity of your character and the ferocity of mine were equally +suitable to the nations over which we reigned. But what excuse can you +find for the cruel violence you employed against your Protestant +subjects? They desired nothing but to live under the protection of laws +you yourself had confirmed; and they repaid that protection by the most +hearty zeal for your service. Yet these did you force, by the most +inhuman severities, either to quit the religion in which they were bred, +and which their consciences still retained, or to leave their native +land, and endure all the woes of a perpetual exile. If the rules of +policy could not hinder you from thus depopulating your kingdom, and +transferring to foreign countries its manufactures and commerce, I am +surprised that your heart itself did not stop you. It makes one shudder +to think that such orders should be sent from the most polished court in +Europe, as the most savage Tartars could hardly have executed without +remorse and compassion. + +_Louis_.--It was not my heart, but my religion, that dictated these +severities. My confessor told me they alone would atone for all my sins. + +_Peter_.--Had I believed in my patriarch as you believed in your priest, +I should not have been the great monarch that I was. But I mean not to +detract from the merit of a prince whose memory is dear to his subjects. +They are proud of having obeyed you, which is certainly the highest +praise to a king. My people also date their glory from the era of my +reign. But there is this capital distinction between us. The pomp and +pageantry of state were necessary to your greatness; I was great in +myself, great in the energy and powers of my mind, great in the +superiority and sovereignty of my soul over all other men. + + + +DIALOGUE III. + + +PLATO--FENELON. + +_Plato_.--Welcome to Elysium, O thou, the most pure, the most gentle, the +most refined disciple of philosophy that the world in modern times has +produced! Sage Fenelon, welcome!--I need not name myself to you. Our +souls by sympathy must know one another. + +_Fenelon_.--I know you to be Plato, the most amiable of all the disciples +of Socrates, and the philosopher of all antiquity whom I most desired to +resemble. + +_Plato_.--Homer and Orpheus are impatient to see you in that region of +these happy fields which their shades inhabit. They both acknowledge you +to be a great poet, though you have written no verses. And they are now +busy in composing for you unfading wreaths of all the finest and sweetest +Elysian flowers. But I will lead you from them to the sacred grove of +philosophy, on the highest hill of Elysium, where the air is most pure +and most serene. I will conduct you to the fountain of wisdom, in which +you will see, as in your own writings, the fair image of virtue +perpetually reflected. It will raise in you more love than was felt by +Narcissus, when he contemplated the beauty of his own face in the +unruffled spring. But you shall not pine, as he did, for a shadow. The +goddess herself will affectionately meet your embraces and mingle with +your soul. + +_Fenelon_.--I find you retain the allegorical and poetical style, of +which you were so fond in many of your writings. Mine also run sometimes +into poetry, particularly in my "Telemachus," which I meant to make a +kind of epic composition. But I dare not rank myself among the great +poets, nor pretend to any equality in oratory with you, the most eloquent +of philosophers, on whose lips the Attic bees distilled all their honey. + +_Plato_.--The French language is not so harmonious as the Greek, yet you +have given a sweetness to it which equally charms the ear and heart. When +one reads your compositions, one thinks that one hears Apollo's lyre, +strung by the hands of the Graces, and tuned by the Muses. The idea of a +perfect king, which you have exhibited in your "Telemachus," far excels, +in my own judgment, my imaginary "Republic." Your "Dialogues" breathe +the pure spirit of virtue, of unaffected good sense, of just criticism, +of fine taste. They are in general as superior to your countryman +Fontenelle's as reason is to false wit, or truth to affectation. The +greatest fault of them, I think, is, that some are too short. + +_Fenelon_.--It has been objected to them--and I am sensible of it +myself--that most of them are too full of commonplace morals. But I +wrote them for the instruction of a young prince, and one cannot too +forcibly imprint on the minds of those who are born to empire the most +simple truths; because, as they grow up, the flattery of a court will try +to disguise and conceal from them those truths, and to eradicate from +their hearts the love of their duty, if it has not taken there a very +deep root. + +_Plato_.--It is, indeed, the peculiar misfortune of princes, that they +are often instructed with great care in the refinements of policy, and +not taught the first principles of moral obligations, or taught so +superficially that the virtuous man is soon lost in the corrupt +politician. But the lessons of virtue you gave your royal pupil are so +graced by the charms of your eloquence that the oldest and wisest men may +attend to them with pleasure. All your writings are embellished with a +sublime and agreeable imagination, which gives elegance to simplicity, +and dignity to the most vulgar and obvious truths. I have heard, indeed, +that your countrymen are less sensible of the beauty of your genius and +style than any of their neighbours. What has so much depraved their +taste? + +_Fenelon_.--That which depraved the taste of the Romans after the ago of +Augustus--an immoderate love of wit, of paradox, of refinement. The +works of their writers, like the faces of their women, must be painted +and adorned with artificial embellishments to attract their regards. And +thus the natural beauty of both is lost. But it is no wonder if few of +them esteem my "Telemachus," as the maxims I have principally inculcated +there are thought by many inconsistent with the grandeur of their +monarchy, and with the splendour of a refined and opulent nation. They +seem generally to be falling into opinions that the chief end of society +is to procure the pleasures of luxury; that a nice and elegant taste of +voluptuous enjoyments is the perfection of merit; and that a king, who is +gallant, magnificent, liberal, who builds a fine palace, who furnishes it +well with good statues and pictures, who encourages the fine arts, and +makes them subservient to every modish vice, who has a restless ambition, +a perfidious policy, and a spirit of conquest, is better for them than a +Numa or a Marcus Aurelius. Whereas to check the excesses of luxury--those +excesses, I mean, which enfeeble the spirit of a nation--to ease the +people, as much as is possible, of the burden of taxes; to give them the +blessings of peace and tranquillity, when they can he obtained without +injury or dishonour; to make them frugal, and hardy, and masculine in the +temper of their bodies and minds, that they may be the fitter for war +whenever it does come upon them; but, above all, to watch diligently over +their morals, and discourage whatever may defile or corrupt them--is the +great business of government, and ought to be in all circumstances the +principal object of a wise legislature. Unquestionably that is the +happiest country which has most virtue in it; and to the eye of sober +reason the poorest Swiss canton is a much nobler state than the kingdom +of France, if it has more liberty, better morals, a more settled +tranquillity, more moderation in prosperity, and more firmness in danger. + +_Plato_.--Your notions are just, and if your country rejects them she +will not long hold the rank of the first nation in Europe. Her +declension is begun, her ruin approaches; for, omitting all other +arguments, can a state be well served when the raising of an opulent +fortune in its service, and making a splendid use of that fortune, is a +distinction more envied than any which arises from integrity in office or +public spirit in government? Can that spirit, which is the parent of +national greatness, continue vigorous and diffusive where the desire of +wealth, for the sake of a luxury which wealth alone can support, and an +ambition aspiring, not to glory, but to profit, are the predominant +passions? If it exists in a king or a minister of state, how will either +of them find among a people so disposed the necessary instruments to +execute his great designs; or, rather, what obstruction will he not find +from the continual opposition of private interest to public? But if, on +the contrary, a court inclines to tyranny, what a facility will be given +by these dispositions to that evil purpose? How will men with minds +relaxed by the enervating ease and softness of luxury have vigour to +oppose it? Will not most of them lean to servitude, as their natural +state, as that in which the extravagant and insatiable cravings of their +artificial wants may best be gratified at the charge of a bountiful +master or by the spoils of an enslaved and ruined people? When all sense +of public virtue is thus destroyed, will not fraud, corruption, and +avarice, or the opposite workings of court factions to bring disgrace on +each other, ruin armies and fleets without the help of an enemy, and give +up the independence of the nation to foreigners, after having betrayed +its liberties to a king? All these mischiefs you saw attendant on that +luxury, which some modern philosophers account (as I am informed) the +highest good to a state! Time will show that their doctrines are +pernicious to society, pernicious to government; and that yours, tempered +and moderated so as to render them more practicable in the present +circumstances of your country, are wise, salutary, and deserving of the +general thanks of mankind. But lest you should think, from the praise I +have given you, that flattery can find a place in Elysium, allow me to +lament, with the tender sorrow of a friend, that a man so superior to all +other follies could give into the reveries of a Madame Guyon, a +distracted enthusiast. How strange was it to see the two great lights of +France, you and the Bishop of Meaux, engaged in a controversy whether a +madwoman was a heretic or a saint! + +_Fenelon_.--I confess my own weakness, and the ridiculousness of the +dispute; but did not your warm imagination carry you also into some +reveries about divine love, in which you talked unintelligibly, even to +yourself? + +_Plato_.--I felt something more than I was able to express. + +_Fenelon_.--I had my feelings too, as fine and as lively as yours; but we +should both have done better to have avoided those subjects in which +sentiment took the place of reason. + + + +DIALOGUE IV. + + +MR. ADDISON--DR. SWIFT. + +_Dr. Swift_.--Surely, Addison, Fortune was exceedingly inclined to play +the fool (a humour her ladyship, as well as most other ladies of very +great quality, is frequently in) when she made you a minister of state +and me a divine! + +_Addison_.--I must confess we were both of us out of our elements; but +you don't mean to insinuate that all would have been right if our +destinies had been reversed? + +_Swift_.--Yes, I do. You would have made an excellent bishop, and I +should have governed Great Britain, as I did Ireland, with an absolute +sway, while I talked of nothing but liberty, property, and so forth. + +_Addison_.--You governed the mob of Ireland; but I never understood that +you governed the kingdom. A nation and a mob are very different things. + +_Swift_.--Ay, so you fellows that have no genius for politics may +suppose; but there are times when, by seasonably putting himself at the +head of the mob, an able man may get to the head of the nation. Nay, +there are times when the nation itself is a mob, and ought to be treated +as such by a skilful observer. + +_Addison_.--I don't deny the truth of your proposition; but is there no +danger that, from the natural vicissitudes of human affairs, the +favourite of the mob should be mobbed in his turn? + +_Swift_.--Sometimes there may, but I risked it, and it answered my +purpose. Ask the lord-lieutenants, who were forced to pay court to me +instead of my courting them, whether they did not feel my superiority. +And if I could make myself so considerable when I was only a dirty Dean +of St. Patrick's, without a seat in either House of Parliament, what +should I have done if Fortune had placed me in England, unencumbered with +a gown, and in a situation that would have enabled me to make myself +heard in the House of Lords or of Commons? + +_Addison_.--You would undoubtedly have done very marvellous acts! Perhaps +you might then have been as zealous a Whig as my Lord Wharton himself; +or, if the Whigs had unhappily offended the statesman as they did the +doctor, who knows whether you might not have brought in the Pretender? +Pray let me ask you one question between you and me: If your great +talents had raised you to the office of first minister under that prince, +would you have tolerated the Protestant religion or not? + +_Swift_.--Ha! Mr. Secretary, are you witty upon me? Do you think, +because Sunderland took a fancy to make you a great man in the state, +that he, or his master, could make you as great in wit as Nature made me? +No, no; wit is like grace, it must be given from above. You can no more +get that from the king than my lords the bishops can the other. And, +though I will own you had some, yet believe me, my good friend, it was no +match for mine. I think you have not vanity enough in your nature to +pretend to a competition in that point with me. + +_Addison_.--I have been told by my friends that I was rather too modest, +so I will not determine this dispute for myself, but refer it to Mercury, +the god of wit, who fortunately happens to be coming this way with a soul +he has brought to the Shades. + +Hail, divine Hermes! A question of precedence in the class of wit and +humour, over which you preside, having arisen between me and my +countryman, Dr. Swift, we beg leave-- + +_Mercury_.--Dr. Swift, I rejoice to see you. How does my old lad? How +does honest Lemuel Gulliver? Have you been in Lilliput lately, or in the +Flying Island, or with your good nurse Glumdalclitch? Pray when did you +eat a crust with Lord Peter? Is Jack as mad still as ever? I hear that +since you published the history of his case the poor fellow, by more +gentle usage, is almost got well. If he had but more food he would be as +much in his senses as Brother Martin himself; but Martin, they tell me, +has lately spawned a strange brood of Methodists, Moravians, +Hutchinsonians, who are madder than ever Jack was in his worst days. It +is a great pity you are not alive again to make a new edition of your +"Tale of the Tub" for the use of these fellows. Mr. Addison, I beg your +pardon; I should have spoken to you sooner, but I was so struck with the +sight of my old friend the doctor, that I forgot for a time the respects +due to you. + +_Swift_.--Addison, I think our dispute is decided before the judge has +heard the cause. + +_Addison_.--I own it is in your favour, but-- + +_Mercury_.--Don't be discouraged, friend Addison. Apollo perhaps would +have given a different judgment. I am a wit, and a rogue, and a foe to +all dignity. Swift and I naturally like one another. He worships me +more than Jupiter, and I honour him more than Homer; but yet, I assure +you, I have a great value for you. Sir Roger de Coverley, Will +Honeycomb, Will Wimble, the Country Gentleman in the Freeholder, and +twenty more characters, drawn with the finest strokes of unaffected wit +and humour in your admirable writings, have obtained for you a high place +in the class of my authors, though not quite so high a one as the Dean of +St. Patrick's. Perhaps you might have got before him if the decency of +your nature and the cautiousness of your judgment would have given you +leave. But, allowing that in the force and spirit of his wit he has +really the advantage, how much does he yield to you in all the elegant +graces, in the fine touches of delicate sentiment, in developing the +secret springs of the soul, in showing the mild lights and shades of a +character, in distinctly marking each line, and every soft gradation of +tints, which would escape the common eye? Who ever painted like you the +beautiful parts of human nature, and brought them out from under the +shade even of the greatest simplicity, or the most ridiculous weaknesses; +so that we are forced to admire and feel that we venerate, even while we +are laughing? Swift was able to do nothing that approaches to this. He +could draw an ill face, or caricature a good one, with a masterly hand; +but there was all his power, and, if I am to speak as a god, a worthless +power it is. Yours is divine. It tends to exalt human nature. + +_Swift_.--Pray, good Mercury (if I may have liberty to say a word for +myself) do you think that my talent was not highly beneficial to correct +human nature? Is whipping of no use to mend naughty boys? + +_Mercury_.--Men are generally not so patient of whipping as boys, and a +rough satirist is seldom known to mend them. Satire, like antimony, if +it be used as a medicine, must be rendered less corrosive. Yours is +often rank poison. But I will allow that you have done some good in your +way, though not half so much as Addison did in his. + +_Addison_.--Mercury, I am satisfied. It matters little what rank you +assign me as a wit, if you give me the precedence as a friend and +benefactor to mankind. + +_Mercury_.--I pass sentence on the writers, not the men, and my decree is +this:--When any hero is brought hither who wants to be humbled, let the +talk of lowering his arrogance be assigned to Swift. The same good +office may be done to a philosopher vain of his wisdom and virtue, or to +a bigot puffed up with spiritual pride. The doctor's discipline will +soon convince the first, that with all his boasted morality, he is but a +Yahoo; and the latter, that to be holy he must necessarily be humble. I +would also have him apply his anticosmetic wash to the painted face of +female vanity, and his rod, which draws blood at every stroke, to the +hard back of insolent folly or petulant wit. But Addison should be +employed to comfort those whose delicate minds are dejected with too +painful a sense of some infirmities in their nature. To them he should +hold his fair and charitable mirror, which would bring to their sight +their hidden excellences, and put them in a temper fit for +Elysium.--Adieu. Continue to esteem and love each other, as you did in +the other world, though you were of opposite parties, and, what is still +more wonderful, rival wits. This alone is sufficient to entitle you both +to Elysium. + + + +DIALOGUE V. + + +ULYSSES--CIRCE.--IN CIRCE'S ISLAND. + +_Circe_.--You will go then, Ulysses, but tell me, without reserve, what +carries you from me? + +_Ulysses_.--Pardon, goddess, the weakness of human nature. My heart will +sigh for my country. It is an attachment which all my admiration of you +cannot entirely overcome. + +_Circe_.--This is not all. I perceive you are afraid to declare your +whole mind. But what, Ulysses, do you fear? My terrors are gone. The +proudest goddess on earth, when she has favoured a mortal as I have +favoured you, has laid her divinity and power at his feet. + +_Ulysses_.--It may be so while there still remains in her heart the +tenderness of love, or in her mind the fear of shame. But you, Circe, +are above those vulgar sensations. + +_Circe_.--I understand your caution; it belongs to your character, and +therefore, to remove all diffidence from you, I swear by Styx I will do +no manner of harm, either to you or your friends, for anything which you +say, however offensive it may be to my love or my pride, but will send +you away from my island with all marks of my friendship. Tell me now, +truly, what pleasures you hope to enjoy in the barren rock of Ithaca, +which can compensate for those you leave in this paradise, exempt from +all cares and overflowing with all delights? + +_Ulysses_.--The pleasures of virtue; the supreme happiness of doing good. +Here I do nothing. My mind is in a palsy; all its faculties are +benumbed. I long to return into action, that I may worthily employ those +talents which I have cultivated from the earliest days of my youth. Toils +and cares fright not me; they are the exercise of my soul; they keep it +in health and in vigour. Give me again the fields of Troy, rather than +these vacant groves. There I could reap the bright harvest of glory; +here I am hid like a coward from the eyes of mankind, and begin to appear +comtemptible in my own. The image of my former self haunts and seems to +upbraid me wheresoever I go. I meet it under the gloom of every shade; +it even intrudes itself into your presence and chides me from your arms. +O goddess, unless you have power to lay that spirit, unless you can make +me forget myself, I cannot be happy here, I shall every day be more +wretched. + +_Circe_.--May not a wise and good man, who has spent all his youth in +active life and honourable danger, when he begins to decline, be +permitted to retire and enjoy the rest of his days in quiet and pleasure? + +_Ulysses_.--No retreat can be honourable to a wise and good man but in +company with the muses. Here I am deprived of that sacred society. The +muses will not inhabit the abodes of voluptuousness and sensual pleasure. +How can I study or think while such a number of beasts--and the worst +beasts are men turned into beasts--are howling or roaring or grunting all +about me? + +_Circe_.--There may be something in this, but this I know is not all. You +suppress the strongest reason that draws you to Ithaca. There is another +image besides that of your former self, which appears to you in this +island, which follows you in your walks, which more particularly +interposes itself between you and me, and chides you from my arms. It is +Penelope, Ulysses, I know it is. Don't pretend to deny it. You sigh for +Penelope in my bosom itself. And yet she is not an immortal. She is +not, as I am, endowed by Nature with the gift of unfading youth. Several +years have passed since hers has been faded. I might say, without +vanity, that in her best days she was never so handsome as I. But what +is she now? + +_Ulysses_.--You have told me yourself, in a former conversation, when I +inquired of you about her, that she is faithful to my bed, and as fond of +me now, after twenty years' absence, as at the time when I left her to go +to Troy. I left her in the bloom of youth and beauty. How much must her +constancy have been tried since that time! How meritorious is her +fidelity! Shall I reward her with falsehood? Shall I forget my +Penelope, who can't forget me, who has no pleasure so dear to her as my +remembrance? + +_Circe_.--Her love is preserved by the continual hope of your speedy +return. Take that hope from her. Let your companions return, and let +her know that you have fixed your abode with me, that you have fixed it +for ever. Let her know that she is free to dispose as she pleases of her +heart and her hand. Send my picture to her, bid her compare it with her +own face. If all this does not cure her of the remains of her passion, +if you don't hear of her marrying Eurymachus in a twelvemonth, I +understand nothing of womankind. + +_Ulysses_.--O cruel goddess! why will you force me to tell you truths I +desire to conceal? If by such unmerited, such barbarous usage I could +lose her heart it would break mine. How should I be able to endure the +torment of thinking that I had wronged such a wife? What could make me +amends for her being no longer mine, for her being another's? Don't +frown, Circe, I must own--since you will have me speak--I must own you +could not. With all your pride of immortal beauty, with all your magical +charms to assist those of Nature, you are not so powerful a charmer as +she. You feel desire, and you give it, but you have never felt love, nor +can you inspire it. How can I love one who would have degraded me into a +beast? Penelope raised me into a hero. Her love ennobled, invigorated, +exalted my mind. She bid me go to the siege of Troy, though the parting +with me was worse than death to herself. She bid me expose myself there +to all the perils of war among the foremost heroes of Greece, though her +poor heart sunk and trembled at every thought of those perils, and would +have given all its own blood to save a drop of mine. Then there was such +a conformity in all our inclinations! When Minerva was teaching me the +lessons of wisdom she delighted to be present. She heard, she retained, +she gave them back to me softened and sweetened with the peculiar graces +of her own mind. When we unbent our thoughts with the charms of poetry, +when we read together the poems of Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus, with what +taste did she discern every excellence in them! My feelings were dull +compared to hers. She seemed herself to be the muse who had inspired +those verses, and had tuned their lyres to infuse into the hearts of +mankind the love of wisdom and virtue and the fear of the gods. How +beneficent was she, how tender to my people! What care did she take to +instruct them in all the finer arts, to relieve the necessities of the +sick and aged, to superintend the education of children, to do my +subjects every good office of kind intercession, to lay before me their +wants, to mediate for those who were objects of mercy, to sue for those +who deserved the favours of the Crown. And shall I banish myself for +ever from such a consort? Shall I give up her society for the brutal +joys of a sensual life, keeping indeed the exterior form of a man, but +having lost the human soul, or at least all its noble and godlike powers? +Oh, Circe, it is impossible, I can't bear the thought. + +_Circe_.--Begone; don't imagine that I ask you to stay a moment longer. +The daughter of the sun is not so mean-spirited as to solicit a mortal to +share her happiness with her. It is a happiness which I find you cannot +enjoy. I pity and despise you. All you have said seems to me a jargon +of sentiments fitter for a silly woman than a great man. Go read, and +spin too, if you please, with your wife. I forbid you to remain another +day in my island. You shall have a fair wind to carry you from it. After +that may every storm that Neptune can raise pursue and overwhelm you. +Begone, I say, quit my sight. + +_Ulysses_.--Great goddess, I obey, but remember your oath. + + + +DIALOGUE VI. + + +MERCURY--AN ENGLISH DUELLIST--A NORTH AMERICAN SAVAGE. + +_The Duellist_.--Mercury, Charon's boat is on the other side of the +water. Allow me, before it returns, to have some conversation with the +North American savage whom you brought hither with me. I never before +saw one of that species. He looks very grim. Pray, sir, what is your +name? I understand you speak English. + +_Savage_.--Yes, I learnt it in my childhood, having been bred for some +years among the English of New York. But before I was a man I returned +to my valiant countrymen, the Mohawks; and having been villainously +cheated by one of yours in the sale of some rum, I never cared to have +anything to do with them afterwards. Yet I took up the hatchet for them +with the rest of my tribe in the late war against France, and was killed +while I was out upon a scalping party. But I died very well satisfied, +for my brethren were victorious, and before I was shot I had gloriously +scalped seven men and five women and children. In a former war I had +performed still greater exploits. My name is the Bloody Bear; it was +given me to express my fierceness and valour. + +_Duellist_.--Bloody Bear, I respect you, and am much your humble servant. +My name is Tom Pushwell, very well known at Arthur's. I am a gentleman +by my birth, and by profession a gamester and man of honour. I have +killed men in fair fighting, in honourable single combat, but don't +understand cutting the throats of women and children. + +_Savage_.--Sir, that is our way of making war. Every nation has its +customs. But, by the grimness of your countenance, and that hole in your +breast, I presume you were killed, as I was, in some scalping party. How +happened it that your enemy did not take off your scalp? + +_Duellist_.--Sir, I was killed in a duel. A friend of mine had lent me a +sum of money. After two or three years, being in great want himself, he +asked me to pay him. I thought his demand, which was somewhat +peremptory, an affront to my honour, and sent him a challenge. We met in +Hyde Park. The fellow could not fence: I was absolutely the adroitest +swordsman in England, so I gave him three or four wounds; but at last he +ran upon me with such impetuosity, that he put me out of my play, and I +could not prevent him from whipping me through the lungs. I died the +next day, as a man of honour should, without any snivelling signs of +contrition or repentance; and he will follow me soon, for his surgeon has +declared his wounds to be mortal. It is said that his wife is dead of +grief, and that his family of seven children will be undone by his death. +So I am well revenged, and that is a comfort. For my part, I had no +wife. I always hated marriage. + +_Savage_.--Mercury, I won't go in a boat with that fellow. He has +murdered his countryman--he has murdered his friend: I say, positively, I +won't go in a boat with that fellow. I will swim over the River, I can +swim like a duck. + +_Mercury_.--Swim over the Styx! it must not be done; it is against the +laws of Pluto's Empire. You must go in the boat, and be quiet. + +_Savage_.--Don't tell me of laws, I am a savage. I value no laws. Talk +of laws to the Englishman. There are laws in his country, and yet you +see he did not regard them, for they could never allow him to kill his +fellow-subject, in time of peace, because he asked him to pay a debt. I +know indeed, that the English are a barbarous nation, but they can't +possibly be so brutal as to make such things lawful. + +_Mercury_.--You reason well against him. But how comes it that you are +so offended with murder; you, who have frequently massacred women in +their sleep, and children in the cradle? + +_Savage_.--I killed none but my enemies. I never killed my own +countrymen. I never killed my friend. Here, take my blanket, and let it +come over in the boat, but see that the murderer does not sit upon it, or +touch it. If he does, I will burn it instantly in the fire I see yonder. +Farewell! I am determined to swim over the water. + +_Mercury_.--By this touch of my wand I deprive thee of all thy strength. +Swim now if thou canst. + +_Savage_.--This is a potent enchanter. Restore me my strength, and I +promise to obey thee. + +_Mercury_.--I restore it: but be orderly, and do as I bid you; otherwise +worse will befall you. + +_Duellist_.--Mercury, leave him to me. I'll tutor him for you. Sirrah, +savage, dost thou pretend to be ashamed of my company? Dost thou know I +have kept the best company in England? + +_Savage_.--I know thou art a scoundrel! Not pay thy debts! kill thy +friend who lent thee money for asking thee for it! Get out of my sight! +I will drive thee into Styx! + +_Mercury_.--Stop! I command thee. No violence! Talk to him calmly. + +_Savage_.--I must obey thee. Well, sir, let me know what merit you had +to introduce you into good company? What could you do? + +_Duellist_.--Sir, I gamed, as I told you. Besides, I kept a good table. +I eat as well as any man either in England or France. + +_Savage_.--Eat! Did you ever eat the liver of a Frenchman, or his leg, +or his shoulder! There is fine eating! I have eat twenty. My table was +always well served. My wife was esteemed the best cook for the dressing +of man's flesh in all North America. You will not pretend to compare +your eating with mine? + +_Duellist_.--I danced very finely. + +_Savage_.--I'll dance with thee for thy ears: I can dance all day long. I +can dance the war-dance with more spirit than any man of my nation. Let +us see thee begin it. How thou standest like a post! Has Mercury struck +thee with his enfeebling rod? or art thou ashamed to let us see how +awkward thou art? If he would permit me, I would teach thee to dance in +a way that thou hast never yet learnt. But what else canst thou do, thou +bragging rascal? + +_Duellist_.--O heavens! must I bear this? What can I do with this +fellow? I have neither sword nor pistol. And his shade seems to be +twice as strong as mine. + +_Mercury_.--You must answer his questions. It was your own desire to +have a conversation with him. He is not well bred; but he will tell you +some truths which you must necessarily hear, when you come before +Rhadamanthus. He asked you what you could do besides eating and dancing. + +_Duellist_.--I sang very agreeably. + +_Savage_.--Let me hear you sing your "Death Song" or the "War Whoop." I +challenge you to sing. Come, begin. The fellow is mute. Mercury, this +is a liar; he has told us nothing but lies. Let me pull out his tongue. + +_Duellist_.--The lie given me! and, alas, I dare not resent it. What an +indelible disgrace to the family of the Pushwells! This indeed is +damnation. + +_Mercury_.--Here, Charon, take these two savages to your care. How far +the barbarism of the Mohawk will excuse his horrid acts I leave Minos to +judge. But what can be said for the other, for the Englishman? The +custom of duelling? A bad excuse at the best! but here it cannot avail. +The spirit that urged him to draw his sword against his friend is not +that of honour; it is the spirit of the furies, and to them he must go. + +_Savage_.--If he is to be punished for his wickedness, turn him over to +me; I perfectly understand the art of tormenting. Sirrah, I begin my +work with this kick on your breech. + +_Duellist_.--Oh my honour, my honour, to what infamy art thou fallen! + + + +DIALOGUE VII. + + +PLINY THE ELDER--PLINY THE YOUNGER. + +_Pliny the Elder_.--The account that you give me, nephew, of your +behaviour amidst the tenors and perils that accompanied the first +eruption of Vesuvius does not please me much. There was more of vanity +in it than of true magnanimity. Nothing is great that is unnatural and +affected. When the earth was shaking beneath you, when the whole heaven +was darkened with sulphurous clouds, when all Nature seemed falling into +its final destruction, to be reading Livy and making extracts was an +absurd affectation. To meet danger with courage is manly, but to be +insensible of it is brutal stupidity; and to pretend insensibility where +it cannot be supposed is ridiculous falseness. When you afterwards +refused to leave your aged mother and save yourself without her, you +indeed acted nobly. It was also becoming a Roman to keep up her spirits +amidst all the horrors of that tremendous scene by showing yourself +undismayed; but the real merit and glory of this part of your behaviour +is sunk by the other, which gives an air of ostentation and vanity to the +whole. + +_Pliny the Younger_.--That vulgar minds should consider my attention to +my studies in such a conjuncture as unnatural and affected, I should not +much wonder; but that you would blame it as such I did not apprehend--you, +whom no business could separate from the muses; you, who approached +nearer to the fiery storm, and died by the suffocating heat of the +vapour. + +_Pliny the Elder_.--I died in doing my duty. Let me recall to your +remembrance all the particulars, and then you shall judge yourself on the +difference of your behaviour and mine. I was the Prefect of the Roman +fleet, which then lay at Misenum. On the first account I received of the +very unusual cloud that appeared in the air I ordered a vessel to carry +me out to some distance from the shore that I might the better observe +the phenomenon, and endeavour to discover its nature and cause. This I +did as a philosopher, and it was a curiosity proper and natural to an +inquisitive mind. I offered to take you with me, and surely you should +have gone; for Livy might have been read at any other time, and such +spectacles are not frequent. When I came out from my house, I found all +the inhabitants of Misenum flying to the sea. That I might assist them, +and all others who dwelt on the coast, I immediately commanded the whole +fleet to put out, and sailed with it all round the Bay of Naples, +steering particularly to those parts of the shore where the danger was +greatest, and from whence the affrighted people were endeavouring to +escape with the most trepidation. Thus I happily preserved some +thousands of lives, noting at the same time, with an unshaken composure +and freedom of mind, the several phenomena of the eruption. Towards +night, as we approached to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, our galleys were +covered with ashes, the showers of which grew continually hotter and +hotter; then pumice stones and burnt and broken pyrites began to fall on +our heads, and we were stopped by the obstacles which the ruins of the +volcano had suddenly formed, by falling into the sea and almost filling +it up, on that part of the coast. I then commanded my pilot to steer to +the villa of my friend Pomponianus, which, you know, was situated in the +inmost recess of the bay. The wind was very favourable to carry me +thither, but would not allow him to put off from the shore, as he was +desirous to have done. We were, therefore, constrained to pass the night +in his house. The family watched, and I slept till the heaps of pumice +stones, which incessantly fell from the clouds that had by this time been +impelled to that side of the bay, rose so high in the area of the +apartment I lay in, that if I had stayed any longer I could not have got +out; and the earthquakes were so violent as to threaten every moment the +fall of the house. We, therefore, thought it more safe to go into the +open air, guarding our heads as well as we were able with pillows tied +upon them. The wind continuing contrary, and the sea very rough, we all +remained on the shore, till the descent of a sulphurous and fiery vapour +suddenly oppressed my weak lungs and put an end to my life. In all this +I hope that I acted as the duty of my station required, and with true +magnanimity. But on this occasion, and in many other parts of your +conduct, I must say, my dear nephew, there was a mixture of vanity +blended with your virtue which impaired and disgraced it. Without that +you would have been one of the worthiest men whom Rome has over produced, +for none excelled you in sincere integrity of heart and greatness of +sentiments. Why would you lose the substance of glory by seeking the +shadow? Your eloquence had, I think, the same fault as your manners; it +was generally too affected. You professed to make Cicero your guide and +pattern; but when one reads his Panegyric upon Julius Caesar, in his +Oration for Marcellus, and yours upon Trajan, the first seems the genuine +language of truth and Nature, raised and dignified with all the majesty +of the most sublime oratory; the latter appears the harangue of a florid +rhetorician, more desirous to shine and to set off his own wit than to +extol the great man whose virtues he was praising. + +_Pliny the Younger_.--I will not question your judgment either of my life +or my writings; they might both have been better if I had not been too +solicitous to render them perfect. It is, perhaps, some excuse for the +affectation of my style that it was the fashion of the age in which I +wrote. Even the eloquence of Tacitus, however nervous and sublime, was +not unaffected. Mine, indeed, was more diffuse, and the ornaments of it +were more tawdry; but his laboured conciseness, the constant glow of his +diction, and pointed brilliancy of his sentences, were no less unnatural. +One principal cause of this I suppose to have been that, as we despaired +of excelling the two great masters of oratory, Cicero and Livy, in their +own manner, we took up another, which to many appeared more shining, and +gave our compositions a more original air; but it is mortifying to me to +say much on this subject. Permit me, therefore, to resume the +contemplation of that on which our conversation turned before. What a +direful calamity was the eruption of Vesuvius, which you have been +describing? Don't you remember the beauty of that fine coast, and of the +mountain itself, before it was torn with the violence of those internal +fires, that forced their way through its surface. The foot of it was +covered with cornfields and rich meadows, interspersed with splendid +villas and magnificent towns; the sides of it were clothed with the best +vines in Italy. How quick, how unexpected, how terrible was the change! +All was at once overwhelmed with ashes, cinders, broken rocks, and fiery +torrents, presenting to the eye the most dismal scene of horror and +desolation! + +_Pliny the Elder_.--You paint it very truly. But has it never occurred +to your philosophical mind that this change is a striking emblem of that +which must happen, by the natural course of things, to every rich, +luxurious state? While the inhabitants of it are sunk in +voluptuousness--while all is smiling around them, and they imagine that +no evil, no danger is nigh--the latent seeds of destruction are +fermenting within; till, breaking out on a sudden, they lay waste all +their opulence, all their boasted delights, and leave them a sad monument +of the fatal effects of internal tempests and convulsions. + + + +DIALOGUE VIII. + + +FERNANDO CORTEZ--WILLIAM PENN. + +_Cortez_.--Is it possible, William Penn, that you should seriously +compare your glory with mine? The planter of a small colony in North +America presume to vie with the conqueror of the great Mexican Empire? + +_Penn_.--Friend, I pretend to no glory--the Lord preserve me from it. All +glory is His; but this I say, that I was His instrument in a more +glorious work than that performed by thee--incomparably more glorious. + +_Cortez_.--Dost thou not know, William Penn, that with less than six +hundred Spanish foot, eighteen horse, and a few small pieces of cannon, I +fought and defeated innumerable armies of very brave men; dethroned an +emperor who had been raised to the throne by his valour, and excelled all +his countrymen in the science of war, as much as they excelled all the +rest of the West Indian nations? That I made him my prisoner in his own +capital; and, after he had been deposed and slain by his subjects, +vanquished and took Guatimozin, his successor, and accomplished my +conquest of the whole empire of Mexico, which I loyally annexed to the +Spanish Crown? Dost thou not know that, in doing these wonderful acts, I +showed as much courage as Alexander the Great, as much prudence as Caesar? +That by my policy I ranged under my banners the powerful commonwealth of +Tlascala, and brought them to assist me in subduing the Mexicans, though +with the loss of their own beloved independence? and that, to consummate +my glory, when the Governor of Cuba, Velasquez, would have taken my +command from me and sacrificed me to his envy and jealousy, I drew from +him all his forces and joined them to my own, showing myself as superior +to all other Spaniards as I was to the Indians? + +_Penn_.--I know very well that thou wast as fierce as a lion and as +subtle as a serpent. The devil perhaps may place thee as high in his +black list of heroes as Alexander or Caesar. It is not my business to +interfere with him in settling thy rank. But hark thee, friend Cortez. +What right hadst thou, or had the King of Spain himself, to the Mexican +Empire? Answer me that, if thou canst. + +_Cortez_.--The Pope gave it to my master. + +_Penn_.--The devil offered to give our Lord all the kingdoms of the +earth, and I suppose the Pope, as his vicar, gave thy master this; in +return for which he fell down and worshipped him, like an idolater as he +was. But suppose the high priest of Mexico had taken it into his head to +give Spain to Montezuma, would his grant have been good? + +_Cortez_.--These are questions of casuistry which it is not the business +of a soldier to decide. We leave that to gownsmen. But pray, Mr. Penn, +what right had you to the province you settled? + +_Penn_.--An honest right of fair purchase. We gave the native savages +some things they wanted, and they in return gave us lands they did not +want. All was amicably agreed on, not a drop of blood shed to stain our +acquisition. + +_Cortez_.--I am afraid there was a little fraud in the purchase. Thy +followers, William Penn, are said to think cheating in a quiet and sober +way no mortal sin. + +_Penn_.--The saints are always calumniated by the ungodly. But it was a +sight which an angel might contemplate with delight to behold the colony +I settled! To see us living with the Indians like innocent lambs, and +taming the ferocity of their barbarous manners by the gentleness of ours! +To see the whole country, which before was an uncultivated wilderness, +rendered as fertile and fair as the garden of God! O Fernando Cortez, +Fernando Cortez! didst thou leave the great empire of Mexico in that +state? No, thou hadst turned those delightful and populous regions into +a desert--a desert flooded with blood. Dost thou not remember that most +infernal scene when the noble Emperor Guatimozin was stretched out by thy +soldiers upon hot burning coals to make him discover into what part of +the lake of Mexico he had thrown the royal treasures? Are not his groans +ever sounding in the ears of thy conscience? Do not they rend thy hard +heart, and strike thee with more horror than the yells of the furies? + +_Cortez_.--Alas! I was not present when that dire act was done. Had I +been there I would have forbidden it. My nature was mild. + +_Penn_.--Thou wast the captain of that band of robbers who did this +horrid deed. The advantage they had drawn from thy counsels and conduct +enabled them to commit it; and thy skill saved them afterwards from the +vengeance that was due to so enormous a crime. The enraged Mexicans +would have properly punished them for it, if they had not had thee for +their general, thou lieutenant of Satan. + +_Cortez_.--The saints I find can rail, William Penn. But how do you hope +to preserve this admirable colony which you have settled? Your people, +you tell me, live like innocent lambs. Are there no wolves in North +America to devour those lambs? But if the Americans should continue in +perpetual peace with all your successors there, the French will not. Are +the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to make war against them with prayers and +preaching? If so, that garden of God which you say you have planted will +undoubtedly be their prey, and they will take from you your property, +your laws, and your religion. + +_Penn_.--The Lord's will be done. The Lord will defend us against the +rage of our enemies if it be His good pleasure. + +_Cortez_.--Is this the wisdom of a great legislator? I have heard some +of your countrymen compare you to Solon. Did Solon, think you, give laws +to a people, and leave those laws and that people at the mercy of every +invader? The first business of legislature is to provide a military +strength that may defend the whole system. If a house is built in a land +of robbers, without a gate to shut or a bolt or bar to secure it, what +avails it how well-proportioned or how commodious the architecture of it +may be? Is it richly furnished within? the more it will tempt the hands +of violence and of rapine to seize its wealth. The world, William Penn, +is all a land of robbers. Any state or commonwealth erected therein must +be well fenced and secured by good military institutions; or, the happier +it is in all other respects, the greater will be its danger, the more +speedy its destruction. Perhaps the neighbouring English colonies may +for a while protect yours; but that precarious security cannot always +preserve you. Your plan of government must be changed, or your colony +will be lost. What I have said is also applicable to Great Britain +itself. If an increase of its wealth be not accompanied with an increase +of its force that wealth will become the prey of some of the neighbouring +nations, in which the martial spirit is more prevalent than the +commercial. And whatever praise may be due to its civil institutions, if +they are not guarded by a wise system of military policy, they will be +found of no value, being unable to prevent their own dissolution. + +_Penn_.--These are suggestions of human wisdom. The doctrines I held +were inspired; they came from above. + +_Cortez_.--It is blasphemy to say that any folly could come from the +Fountain of Wisdom. Whatever is inconsistent with the great laws of +Nature and with the necessary state of human society cannot possibly have +been inspired by God. Self-defence is as necessary to nations as to men. +And shall particulars have a right which nations have not? True +religion, William Penn, is the perfection of reason; fanaticism is the +disgrace, the destruction of reason. + +_Penn_.--Though what thou sayest should be true, it does not come well +from thy mouth. A Papist talk of reason! Go to the Inquisition and tell +them of reason and the great laws of Nature. They will broil thee, as +thy soldiers broiled the unhappy Guatimozin. Why dost thou turn pale? Is +it the name of the Inquisition, or the name of Guatimozin, that troubles +and affrights thee? O wretched man! who madest thyself a voluntary +instrument to carry into a new-discovered world that hellish tribunal? +Tremble and shake when thou thinkest that every murder the Inquisitors +have committed, every torture they have inflicted on the innocent +Indians, is originally owing to thee. Thou must answer to God for all +their inhumanity, for all their injustice. What wouldst thou give to +part with the renown of thy conquests, and to have a conscience as pure +and undisturbed as mine? + +_Cortez_.--I feel the force of thy words; they pierce me like daggers. I +can never, never be happy, while I retain any memory of the ills I have +caused. Yet I thought I did right. I thought I laboured to advance the +glory of God and propagate, in the remotest parts of the earth, His holy +religion. He will be merciful to well designing and pious error. Thou +also wilt have need of that gracious indulgence, though not, I own, so +much as I. + +_Penn_.--Ask thy heart whether ambition was not thy real motive and zeal +the pretence? + +_Cortez_.--Ask thine whether thy zeal had no worldly views and whether +thou didst believe all the nonsense of the sect, at the head of which +thou wast pleased to become a legislator.--Adieu. Self-examination +requires retirement. + + + +DIALOGUE IX. + + +MARCUS PORTIUS CATO--MESSALLA CORVINUS. + +_Cato_.--Oh, Messalla! is it then possible that what some of our +countrymen tell me should be true? Is it possible that you could live +the courtier of Octavius; that you could accept of employments and +honours from him, from the tyrant of your country; you, the brave, the +noble-minded, the virtuous Messalla; you, whom I remember, my son-in-law +Brutus has frequently extolled as the most promising youth in Rome, +tutored by philosophy, trained up in arms, scorning all those soft, +effeminate pleasures that reconcile men to an easy and indolent +servitude, fit for all the roughest tasks of honour and virtue, fit to +live or to die a free man? + +_Messalla_.--Marcus Cato, I revere both your life and your death; but the +last, permit me to tell you, did no good to your country, and the former +would have done more if you could have mitigated a little the sternness +of your virtue, I will not say of your pride. For my own part, I adhered +with constant integrity and unwearied zeal to the Republic, while the +Republic existed. I fought for her at Philippi under the only commander, +who, if he had conquered, would have conquered for her, not for himself. +When he was dead I saw that nothing remained to my country but the choice +of a master. I chose the best. + +_Cato_.--The best! What! a man who had broken all laws, who had violated +all trusts, who had led the armies of the Commonwealth against Antony, +and then joined with him and that sottish traitor Lepidus, to set up a +triumvirate more execrable by far than either of the former; who shed the +best blood in Rome by an inhuman proscription, murdered even his own +guardian, murdered Cicero, to whose confidence, too improvidently given, +he owed all his power? Was this the master you chose? Could you bring +your tongue to give him the name of Augustus? Could you stoop to beg +consulships and triumphs from him? Oh, shame to virtue! Oh, degeneracy +of Rome! To what infamy are her sons, her noblest sons, fallen. The +thought of it pains me more than the wound that I died of; it stabs my +soul. + +_Messalla_.--Moderate, Cato, the vehemence of your indignation. There +has always been too much passion mixed with your virtue. The enthusiasm +you are possessed with is a noble one, but it disturbs your judgment. +Hear me with patience, and with the tranquillity that becomes a +philosopher. It is true that Octavius had done all you have said; but it +is no less true that, in our circumstances, he was the best master Rome +could choose. His mind was fitted by nature for empire. His +understanding was clear and strong. His passions were cool, and under +the absolute command of his reason. His name gave him an authority over +the troops and the people which no other Roman could possess in an equal +degree. He used that authority to restrain the excesses of both, which +it was no longer in the power of the Senate to repress, nor of any other +general or magistrate in the state. He restored discipline in our +armies, the first means of salvation, without which no legal government +could have been formed or supported. He avoided all odious and invidious +names. He maintained and respected those which time and long habits had +endeared to the Roman people. He permitted a generous liberty of speech. +He treated the nobles of Pompey's party as well as those of his father's, +if they did not themselves, for factious purposes, keep up the +distinction. He formed a plan of government, moderate, decent, +respectable, which left the senate its majesty, and some of its power. He +restored vigour and spirit to the laws; he made new and good ones for the +reformation of manners; he enforced their execution; he governed the +empire with lenity, justice, and glory; he humbled the pride of the +Parthians; he broke the fierceness of the barbarous nations; he gave to +his country, exhausted and languishing with the great loss of blood which +she had sustained in the course of so many civil wars, the blessing of +peace--a blessing which was become so necessary for her, that without it +she could enjoy no other. In doing these things I acknowledge he had my +assistance. I am prouder of it, and I think I can justify myself more +effectually to my country, than if I had died by my own hand at Philippi. +Believe me, Cato, it is better to do some good than to project a great +deal. A little practical virtue is of more use to society than the most +sublime theory, or the best principles of government ill applied. + +_Cato_.--Yet I must think it was beneath the character of Messalla to +join in supporting a government which, though coloured and mitigated, was +still a tyranny. Had you not better have gone into a voluntary exile, +where you would not have seen the face of the tyrant, and where you might +have quietly practised those private virtues which are all that the gods +require from good men in certain situations? + +_Messalla_.--No; I did much more good by continuing at Rome. Had +Augustus required of me anything base, anything servile, I would have +gone into exile, I would have died, rather than do it. But he respected +my virtue, he respected my dignity; he treated me as well as Agrippa, or +as Maecenas, with this distinction alone, that he never employed my sword +but against foreign nations, or the old enemies of the republic. + +_Cato_.--It must, I own, have been a pleasure to be employed against +Antony, that monster of vice, who plotted the ruin of liberty, and the +raising of himself to sovereign power, amidst the riot of bacchanals, and +in the embraces of harlots, who, when he had attained to that power, +delivered it up to a lascivious queen, and would have made an Egyptian +strumpet the mistress of Rome, if the Battle of Actium had not saved us +from that last of misfortunes. + +_Messalla_.--In that battle I had a considerable share. So I had in +encouraging the liberal arts and sciences, which Augustus protected. +Under his judicious patronage the muses made Rome their capital seat. It +would have pleased you to have known Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, +Livy, and many more, whose names will be illustrious to all generations. + +_Cato_.--I understand you, Messalla. Your Augustus and you, after the +ruin of our liberty, made Rome a Greek city, an academy of fine wits, +another Athens under the government of Demetrius Phalareus. I had much +rather have seen her under Fabricius and Curius, and her other honest old +consuls, who could not read. + +_Messalla_.--Yet to these writers she will owe as much of her glory as +she did to those heroes. I could say more, a great deal more, on the +happiness of the mild dominion of Augustus. I might even add, that the +vast extent of the empire, the factions of the nobility, and the +corruption of the people, which no laws under the ordinary magistrates of +the state were able to restrain, seemed necessarily to require some +change in the government; that Cato himself, had he remained upon earth, +could have done us no good, unless he would have yielded to become our +prince. But I see you consider me as a deserter from the republic, and +an apologist for a tyrant. I, therefore, leave you to the company of +those ancient Romans, for whose society you were always much fitter than +for that of your contemporaries. Cato should have lived with Fabricius +and Curius, not with Pompey and Caesar. + + + +DIALOGUE X. + + +CHRISTINA, Queen Of Sweden--Chancellor OXENSTIERN. + +_Christina_.--You seem to avoid me, Oxenstiern; and, now we are met, you +don't pay me the reverence that is due to your queen! Have you forgotten +that I was your sovereign? + +_Oxenstiern_.--I am not your subject here, madam; but you have forgotten +that you yourself broke that bond, and freed me from my allegiance, many +years before you died, by abdicating the crown, against my advice and the +inclination of your people. Reverence here is paid only to virtue. + +_Christina_.--I see you would mortify me if it were in your power for +acting against your advice. But my fame does not depend upon your +judgment. All Europe admired the greatness of my mind in resigning a +crown to dedicate myself entirely to the love of the sciences and the +fine arts; things of which you had no taste in barbarous Sweden, the +realm of Goths and Vandals. + +_Oxenstiern_.--There is hardly any mind too great for a crown, but there +are many too little. Are you sure, madam, it was magnanimity that caused +you to fly from the government of a kingdom which your ancestors, and +particularly your heroic father Gustavus, had ruled with so much glory? + +_Christina_.--Am I sure of it? Yes; and to confirm my own judgment, I +have that of many learned men and _beaux esprits_ of all countries, who +have celebrated my action as the perfection of heroism. + +_Oxenstiern_.--Those _beaux esprits_ judged according to their +predominant passion. I have heard young ladies express their admiration +of Mark Antony for heroically leaving his fleet at the Battle of Actium +to follow his mistress. Your passion for literature had the same effect +upon you. But why did not you indulge it in a manner more becoming your +birth and rank? Why did not you bring the muses to Sweden, instead of +deserting that kingdom to seek them in Rome? For a prince to encourage +and protect arts and sciences, and more especially to instruct an +illiterate people and inspire them with knowledge, politeness, and fine +taste is indeed an act of true greatness. + +_Christina_.--The Swedes were too gross to be refined by any culture +which I could have given to their dull, their half-frozen souls. Wit and +genius require the influence of a more southern climate. + +_Oxenstiern_.--The Swedes too gross! No, madam, not even the Russians +are too gross to be refined if they had a prince to instruct them. + +_Christina_.--It was too tedious a work for the vivacity of my temper to +polish bears into men. I should have died of the spleen before I had +made any proficiency in it. My desire was to shine among those who were +qualified to judge of my talents. At Paris, at Rome I had the glory of +showing the French and Italian wits that the North could produce one not +inferior to them. They beheld me with wonder. The homage I had received +in my palace at Stockholm was paid to my dignity. That which I drew from +the French and Roman academies was paid to my talents. How much more +glorious, how much more delightful to an elegant and rational mind was +the latter than the former! Could you once have felt the joy, the +transport of my heart, when I saw the greatest authors and all the +celebrated artists in the most learned and civilised countries of Europe +bringing their works to me and submitting the merit of them to my +decisions; when I saw the philosophers, the rhetoricians, the poets +making my judgment the standard of their reputation, you would not wonder +that I preferred the empire of wit to any other empire. + +_Oxenstiern_.--O great Gustavus! my ever-honoured, my adored master! O +greatest of kings, greatest in valour, in virtue, in wisdom, with what +indignation must thy soul, enthroned in heaven, have looked down on thy +unworthy, thy degenerate daughter! With what shame must thou have seen +her rambling about from court to court deprived of her royal dignity, +debased into a pedant, a witling, a smatterer in sculpture and painting, +reduced to beg or buy flattery from each needy rhetorician or hireling +poet! I weep to think on this stain, this dishonourable stain, to thy +illustrious blood! And yet, would to God! would to God! this was all the +pollution it has suffered! + +_Christina_.--Darest thou, Oxenstiern, impute any blemish to my honour? + +_Oxenstiern_.--Madam, the world will scarce respect the frailties of +queens when they are on their thrones, much less when they have +voluntarily degraded themselves to the level of the vulgar. And if +scandalous tongues have unjustly aspersed their fame, the way to clear it +is not by an assassination. + +_Christina_.--Oh! that I were alive again, and restored to my throne, +that I might punish the insolence of this hoary traitor! But, see! he +leaves me, he turns his back upon me with cool contempt! Alas! do I not +deserve this scorn? In spite of myself I must confess that I do. O +vanity, how short-lived are the pleasures thou bestowest! I was thy +votary. Thou wast the god for whom I changed my religion. For thee I +forsook my country and my throne. What compensation have I gained for +all these sacrifices so lavishly, so imprudently made? Some puffs of +incense from authors who thought their flattery due to the rank I had +held, or hoped to advance themselves by my recommendation, or, at best, +over-rated my passion for literature, and praised me to raise the value +of those talents with which they were endowed. But in the esteem of wise +men I stand very low, and their esteem alone is the true measure of +glory. Nothing, I perceive, can give the mind a lasting joy but the +consciousness of having performed our duty in that station which it has +pleased the Divine Providence to assign to us. The glory of virtue is +solid and eternal. All other will fade away like a thin vapoury cloud, +on which the casual glance of some faint beams of light has superficially +imprinted their weak and transient colours. + + + +DIALOGUE XI. + + +TITUS VESPASIANUS--PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO AFRICANUS. + +_Titus_.--No, Scipio, I can't give place to you in this. In other +respects I acknowledge myself your inferior, though I was Emperor of Rome +and you only her consul. I think your triumph over Carthage more +glorious than mine over Judaea. But in that I gained over love I must +esteem myself superior to you, though your generosity with regard to the +fair Celtiberian, your captive, has been celebrated so highly. + +_Scipio_.--Fame has been, then, unjust to your merit, for little is said +of the continence of Titus, but mine has been the favourite topic of +eloquence in every age and country. + +_Titus_.--It has; and in particular your great historian Livy has poured +forth all the ornaments of his admirable rhetoric to embellish and +dignify that part of your story. I had a great historian too--Cornelius +Tacitus; but either from the brevity which he affected in writing, or +from the severity of his nature, which never having felt the passion of +love, thought the subduing of it too easy a victory to deserve great +encomiums, he has bestowed but three lines upon my parting with Berenice, +which cost me more pain and greater efforts of mind than the conquest of +Jerusalem. + +_Scipio_.--I wish to hear from yourself the history of that parting, and +what could make it so hard and painful to you. + +_Titus_.--While I served in Palestine under the auspices of my father, +Vespasian, I became acquainted with Berenice, sister to King Agrippa, and +who was herself a queen in one of those Eastern countries. She was the +most beautiful woman in Asia, but she had graces more irresistible still +than her beauty. She had all the insinuation and wit of Cleopatra, +without her coquetry. I loved her, and was beloved; she loved my person, +not my greatness. Her tenderness, her fidelity so inflamed my passion +for her that I gave her a promise of marriage. + +_Scipio_.--What do I hear? A Roman senator promise to marry a queen! + +_Titus_.--I expected, Scipio, that your ears would be offended with the +sound of such a match. But consider that Rome was very different in my +time from Rome in yours. The ferocious pride of our ancient republican +senators had bent itself to the obsequious complaisance of a court. +Berenice made no doubt, and I flattered myself that it would not be +inflexible in this point alone. But we thought it necessary to defer the +completion of our wishes till the death of my father. On that event the +Roman Empire and (what I knew she valued more) my hand became due to her, +according to my engagements. + +_Scipio_.--The Roman Empire due to a Syrian queen! Oh, Rome, how art +thou fallen! Accursed be the memory of Octavius Caesar, who by +oppressing its liberty so lowered the majesty of the republic, that a +brave and virtuous Roman, in whom was vested all the power of that mighty +state, could entertain such a thought! But did you find the senate and +people so servile, so lost to all sense of their honour and dignity, as +to affront the great genius of imperial Rome and the eyes of her tutelary +gods, the eyes of Jupiter Capitolinus, with the sight of a queen--an +Asiatic queen--on the throne of the Caesars? + +_Titus_.--I did not. They judged of it as you, Scipio, judge; they +detested, they disdained it. In vain did I urge to some particular +friends, who represented to me the sense of the Senate and people, that a +Messalina, a Poppaea, were a much greater dishonour to the throne of the +Caesars than a virtuous foreign princess. Their prejudices were +unconquerable; I saw it would be impossible for me to remove them. But I +might have used my authority to silence their murmurs. A liberal +donative to the soldiers, by whom I was fondly beloved, would have +secured their fidelity, and consequently would have forced the Senate and +people to yield to my inclination. Berenice knew this, and with tears +implored me not to sacrifice her happiness and my own to an unjust +prepossession. Shall I own it to you, Publius? My heart not only pitied +her, but acknowledged the truth and solidity of her reasons. Yet so much +did I abhor the idea of tyranny, so much respect did I pay to the +sentiments of my subjects, that I determined to separate myself from her +for ever, rather than force either the laws or the prejudices of Rome to +submit to my will. + +_Scipio_.--Give me thy hand, noble Titus. Thou wast worthy of the +empire, and Scipio Africanus honours thy virtue. + +_Titus_.--My virtue can have no greater reward from the approbation of +man. But, O Scipio, think what anguish my heart must have felt when I +took that resolution, and when I communicated it to my dear, my unhappy +Berenice. You saw the struggle of Masinissa, when you forced him to give +up his beloved Sophonisba. Mine was a harder conflict. She had +abandoned him to marry the King of Numidia. He knew that her ruling +passion was ambition, not love. He could not rationally esteem her when +she quitted a husband whom she had ruined, who had lost his crown and his +liberty in the cause of her country and for her sake, to give her person +to him, the capital foe of that unfortunate husband. He must, in spite +of his passion, have thought her a perfidious, a detestable woman. But I +esteemed Berenice; she deserved my esteem. I was certain she would not +have accepted the empire from any other hand; and had I been a private +man she would have raised me to her throne. Yet I had the fortitude--I +ought, perhaps, to say the hardness of heart--to bid her depart from my +sight; depart for ever! What, O Publius, was your conquest over +yourself, in giving back to her betrothed lover the Celtiberian captive +compared to this? Indeed, that was no conquest. I will not so dishonour +the virtue of Scipio as to think he could feel any struggle with himself +on that account. A woman engaged to another--engaged by affection as +well as vows, let her have been ever so beautiful--could raise in your +heart no sentiments but compassion and friendship. To have violated her +would have been an act of brutality, which none but another Tarquin could +have committed. To have detained her from her husband would have been +cruel. But where love is mutual, where the object beloved suffers more +in the separation than you do yourself, to part with her is indeed a +struggle. It is the hardest sacrifice a good heart can make to its duty. + +_Scipio_.--I acknowledge that it is, and yield you the palm. But I will +own to you, Titus, I never knew much of the tenderness you describe. +Hannibal, Carthage, Rome, the saving of my country, the subduing of its +rival, these filled my thoughts, and left no room there for those +effeminate passions. I do not blame your sensibility; but when I went to +the capitol to talk with Jove, I never consulted him about love affairs. + +_Titus_.--If my soul had been possessed by ambition alone, I might +possibly have been a greater man than I was; but I should not have been +more virtuous, nor have gained the title I preferred to that of conqueror +of Judaea and Emperor of Rome, in being called the delight of humankind. + + + +DIALOGUE XII + + +HENRY DUKE OF GUISE--MACHIAVEL. + +_Guise_.--Avaunt! thou fiend. I abhor thy sight. I look upon thee as +the original cause of my death, and of all the calamities brought upon +the French nation, in my father's time and my own. + +_Machiavel_.--I the cause of your death! You surprise me! + +_Guise_.--Yes. Your pernicious maxims of policy, imported from Florence +with Catherine of Medicis, your wicked disciple, produced in France such +a government, such dissimulation, such perfidy, such violent, ruthless +counsels, as threw that whole kingdom into the utmost confusion, and +ended my life, even in the palace of my sovereign, by the swords of +assassins. + +_Machiavel_.--Whoever may have a right to complain of my policy, you, +sir, have not. You owed your greatness to it, and your deviating from it +was the real cause of your death. If it had not been for the +assassination of Admiral Coligni and the massacre of the Huguenots, the +strength and power which the conduct of so able a chief would have given +to that party, after the death of your father, its most dangerous enemy, +would have been fatal to your house; nor could you, even with all the +advantage you drew from that great stroke of royal policy, have acquired +the authority you afterwards rose to in the kingdom of France; but by +pursuing my maxims, by availing yourself of the specious name of religion +to serve the secret purposes of your ambition, and by suffering no +restraint of fear or conscience, not even the guilt of exciting a civil +war, to check the necessary progress of your well-concerted designs. But +on the day of the barricades you most imprudently let the king escape out +of Paris, when you might have slain or deposed him. This was directly +against the great rule of my politics, not to stop short in rebellion or +treason till the work is fully completed. And you were justly censured +for it by Pope Sixtus Quintus, a more consummate politician, who said, +"You ought to have known that when a subject draws his sword against his +king he should throw away the scabbard." You likewise deviated from my +counsels, by putting yourself in the power of a sovereign you had so much +offended. Why would you, against all the cautions I had given, expose +your life in a loyal castle to the mercy of that prince? You trusted to +his fear, but fear, insulted and desperate, is often cruel. Impute +therefore your death not to any fault in my maxims, but to your own folly +in not having sufficiently observed them. + +_Guise_.--If neither I nor that prince had ever practised your maxims in +any part of our conduct, he would have reigned many years with honour and +peace, and I should have risen by my courage and talents to as high a +pitch of greatness as it consisted with the duty of a subject to desire. +But your instructions led us on into those crooked paths, out of which +there was no retreat without great danger, nor a possibility of advancing +without being detested by all mankind, and whoever is so has everything +to fear from that detestation. I will give you a proof of this in the +fate of a prince, who ought to have been your hero instead of Caesar +Borgia, because he was incomparably a greater man, and, of all who ever +lived, seems to have acted most steadily according to the rules laid down +by you; I mean Richard III., King of England. He stopped at no crime +that could be profitable to him; he was a dissembler, a hypocrite, a +murderer in cool blood. After the death of his brother he gained the +crown by cutting off, without pity, all who stood in his way. He trusted +no man any further than helped his own purposes and consisted with his +own safety. He liberally rewarded all services done him, but would not +let the remembrance of them atone for offences or save any man from +destruction who obstructed his views. Nevertheless, though his nature +shrunk from no wickedness which could serve his ambition, he possessed +and exercised all those virtues which you recommend to the practice of +your prince. He was bold and prudent in war, just and strict in the +general administration of his government, and particularly careful, by a +vigorous execution of the laws, to protect the people against injuries or +oppressions from the great. In all his actions and words there +constantly appeared the highest concern for the honour of the nation. He +was neither greedy of wealth that belonged to other men nor profuse of +his own, but knew how to give and where to save. He professed a most +edifying sense of religion, pretended great zeal for the reformation of +manners, and was really an example of sobriety, chastity, and temperance +in the whole course of his life. Nor did he shed any blood, but of those +who were such obstacles in his way to dominion as could not possibly be +removed by any other means. This was a prince after your heart, yet mark +his end. The horror his crimes had excited in the minds of his subjects, +and the detestation it produced, were so pernicious to him, that they +enabled an exile, who had no right to the crown, and whose abilities were +much inferior to his, to invade his realm and destroy him. + +_Machiavel_.--This example, I own, may seem to be of some weight against +the truth of my system. But at the same time it demonstrates that there +was nothing so new in the doctrines I published as to make it reasonable +to charge me with the disorders and mischiefs which, since my time, any +kingdom may have happened to suffer from the ambition of a subject or the +tyranny of a prince. Human nature wants no teaching to render it wicked. +In courts more especially there has been, from the first institution of +monarchies, a policy practised, not less repugnant than mine to the +narrow and vulgar laws of humanity and religion. Why should I be singled +out as worse than other statesmen? + +_Guise_.--There have been, it must be owned, in all ages and all states, +many wicked politicians; but thou art the first that ever taught the +science of tyranny, reduced it to rules, and instructed his disciples how +to acquire and secure it by treachery, perjuries, assassinations, +proscriptions, and with a particular caution, not to be stopped in the +progress of their crimes by any check of the conscience or feeling of the +heart, but to push them as far as they shall judge to be necessary to +their greatness and safety. It is this which has given thee a +pre-eminence in guilt over all other statesmen. + +_Machiavel_.--If you had read my book with candour you would have +perceived that I did not desire to render men either tyrants or rebels, +but only showed, if they were so, what conduct, in such circumstances, it +would be rational and expedient for them to observe. + +_Guise_.--When you were a minister of state in Florence, if any chemist +or physician had published a treatise, to instruct his countrymen in the +art of poisoning, and how to do it with the most certain destruction to +others and security to themselves, would you have allowed him to plead in +his justification that he did not desire men to poison their neighbours? +But, if they would use such evil means of mending their fortunes, there +could surely be no harm in letting them know what were the most effectual +poisons, and by what methods they might give them without being +discovered. Would you have thought it a sufficient apology for him that +he had dropped in his preface, or here and there in his book, a sober +exhortation against the committing of murder? Without all doubt, as a +magistrate concerned for the safety of the people of Florence, you would +have punished the wretch with the utmost severity, and taken great care +to destroy every copy of so pernicious a book. Yet your own admired work +contains a more baneful and more infernal art. It poisons states and +kingdoms, and spreads its malignity, like a general pestilence, over the +whole world. + +_Machiavel_.--You must acknowledge at least that my discourses on Livy +are full of wise and virtuous maxims and precepts of government. + +_Guise_.--This, I think, rather aggravates than alleviates your guilt. +How could you study and comment upon Livy with so acute and profound an +understanding, and afterwards write a book so absolutely repugnant to all +the lessons of policy taught by that sage and moral historian? How could +you, who had seen the picture of virtue so amiably drawn by his hand, and +who seemed yourself to be sensible of all its charms, fall in love with a +fury, and set up her dreadful image as an object of worship to princes? + +_Machiavel_.--I was seduced by vanity. My heart was formed to love +virtue. But I wanted to be thought a greater genius in politics than +Aristotle or Plato. Vanity, sir, is a passion as strong in authors as +ambition in princes, or rather it is the same passion exerting itself +differently. I was a Duke of Guise in the republic of letters. + +_Guise_.--The bad influences of your guilt have reached further than +mine, and been more lasting. But, Heaven be praised, your credit is at +present much declining in Europe. I have been told by some shades who +are lately arrived here, that the ablest statesman of his time, a king, +with whose fame the world is filled, has answered your book, and confuted +all the principles of it, with a noble scorn and abhorrence. I am also +assured, that in England there is a great and good king, whose whole life +has been a continued opposition to your evil system; who has hated all +cruelty, all fraud, all falseness; whose word has been sacred, whose +honour inviolate; who has made the laws of his kingdom the rules of his +government, and good faith and a regard for the liberty of mankind the +principles of his conduct with respect to foreign powers; who reigns more +absolutely now in the hearts of his people, and does greater things by +the confidence they place in him, and by the efforts they make from the +generous zeal of affection, than any monarch ever did, or ever will do, +by all the arts of iniquity which you recommended. + + + +DIALOGUE XIII. + + +VIRGIL--HORACE--MERCURY--SCALIGER THE ELDER. + +_Virgil_.--My dear Horace, your company is my greatest delight, even in +the Elysian Fields. No wonder it was so when we lived together in Rome. +Never had man so genteel, so agreeable, so easy a wit, or a temper so +pliant to the inclinations of others in the intercourse of society. And +then such integrity, such fidelity, such generosity in your nature! A +soul so free from all envy, so benevolent, so sincere, so placable in its +anger, so warm and constant in its affections! You were as necessary to +Maecenas as he to Augustus. Your conversation sweetened to him all the +cares of his ministry; your gaiety cheered his drooping spirits; and your +counsels assisted him when he wanted advice. For you were capable, my +dear Horace, of counselling statesmen. Your sagacity, your discretion, +your secrecy, your clear judgment in all affairs, recommended you to the +confidence, not of Maecenas alone, but of Augustus himself; which you +nobly made use of to serve your old friends of the republican party, and +to confirm both the minister and the prince in their love of mild and +moderate measures, yet with a severe restraint of licentiousness, the +most dangerous enemy to the whole commonwealth under any form of +government. + +_Horace_.--To be so praised by Virgil would have put me in Elysium while +I was alive. But I know your modesty will not suffer me, in return for +these encomiums, to speak of your character. Supposing it as perfect as +your poems, you would think, as you did of them, that it wanted +correction. + +_Virgil_.--Don't talk of my modesty. How much greater was yours, when +you disclaimed the name of a poet, you whose odes are so noble, so +harmonious, so sublime! + +_Horace_.--I felt myself too inferior to the dignity of that name. + +_Virgil_.--I think you did like Augustus, when he refused to accept the +title of king, but kept all the power with which it was ever attended. +Even in your Epistles and Satires, where the poet was concealed, as much +as he could be, you may properly be compared to a prince in disguise, or +in his hours of familiarity with his intimate friends: the pomp and +majesty were let drop, but the greatness remained. + +_Horace_.--Well, I will not contradict you; and, to say the truth, I +should do it with no very good grace, because in some of my Odes I have +not spoken so modestly of my own poetry as in my Epistles. But to make +you know your pre-eminence over me and all writers of Latin verse, I will +carry you to Quintilian, the best of all Roman critics, who will tell you +in what rank you ought to be placed. + +_Virgil_.--I fear his judgment of me was biassed by your commendation. +But who is this shade that Mercury is conducting? I never saw one that +stalked with so much pride, or had such ridiculous arrogance expressed in +his looks! + +_Horace_.--They come towards us. Hail, Mercury! What is this stranger +with you? + +_Mercury_.--His name is Julius Caesar Scaliger, and he is by profession a +critic. + +_Horace_.--Julius Caesar Scaliger! He was, I presume, a dictator in +criticism. + +_Mercury_.--Yes, and he has exercised his sovereign power over you. + +_Horace_.--I will not presume to oppose it. I had enough of following +Brutus at Philippi. + +_Mercury_.--Talk to him a little. He'll amuse you. I brought him to you +on purpose. + +_Horace_.--Virgil, do you accost him. I can't do it with proper gravity. +I shall laugh in his face. + +_Virgil_.--Sir, may I ask for what reason you cast your eyes so +superciliously upon Horace and me? I don't remember that Augustus ever +looked down upon us with such an air of superiority when we were his +subjects. + +_Scaliger_.--He was only a sovereign over your bodies, and owed his power +to violence and usurpation. But I have from Nature an absolute dominion +over the wit of all authors, who are subjected to me as the greatest of +critics or hypercritics. + +_Virgil_.--Your jurisdiction, great sir, is very extensive. And what +judgments have you been pleased to pass upon us? + +_Scaliger_.--Is it possible you should be ignorant of my decrees? I have +placed you, Virgil, above Homer, whom I have shown to be-- + +_Virgil_.--Hold, sir. No blasphemy against my master. + +_Horace_.--But what have you said of me? + +_Scaliger_.--I have said that I had rather have written the little +dialogue between you and Lydia than have been made king of Arragon. + +_Horace_.--If we were in the other world you should give me the kingdom, +and take both the ode and the lady in return. But did you always +pronounce so favourably for us? + +_Scaliger_.--Send for my works and read them. Mercury will bring them to +you with the first learned ghost that arrives here from Europe. There is +instruction for you in them. I tell you of your faults. But it was my +whim to commend that little ode, and I never do things by halves. When I +give praise, I give it liberally, to show my royal bounty. But I +generally blame, to exert all the vigour of my censorian power, and keep +my subjects in awe. + +_Horace_.--You did not confine your sovereignty to poets; you exercised +it, no doubt, over all other writers. + +_Scaliger_.--I was a poet, a philosopher, a statesman, an orator, an +historian, a divine without doing the drudgery of any of these, but only +censuring those who did, and showing thereby the superiority of my genius +over them all. + +_Horace_.--A short way, indeed, to universal fame! And I suppose you +were very peremptory in your decisions? + +_Scaliger_.--Peremptory! ay. If any man dared to contradict my opinions +I called him a dunce, a rascal, a villain, and frightened him out of his +wits. + +_Virgil_.--But what said others to this method of disputation? + +_Scaliger_.--They generally believed me because of the confidence of my +assertions, and thought I could not be so insolent or so angry if I was +not absolutely sure of being in the right. Besides, in my controversies, +I had a great help from the language in which I wrote. For one can scold +and call names with a much better grace in Latin than in French or any +tame modern tongue. + +_Horace_.--Have not I heard that you pretended to derive your descent +from the princes of Verona? + +_Scaliger_.--Pretended! Do you presume to deny it? + +_Horace_.--Not I, indeed. Genealogy is not my science. If you should +claim to descend in a direct line from King Midas I would not dispute it. + +_Virgil_.--I wonder, Scaliger, that you stooped to so low an ambition. +Was it not greater to reign over all Mount Parnassus than over a petty +state in Italy? + +_Scaliger_.--You say well. I was too condescending to the prejudices of +vulgar opinion. The ignorant multitude imagine that a prince is a +greater man than a critic. Their folly made me desire to claim kindred +with the Scalas of Verona. + +_Horace_.--Pray, Mercury, how do you intend to dispose of this august +person? You can't think it proper to let him remain with us. He must be +placed with the demigods; he must go to Olympus. + +_Mercury_.--Be not afraid. He shall not trouble you long. I brought him +hither to divert you with the sight of an animal you never had seen, and +myself with your surprise. He is the chief of all the modern critics, +the most renowned captain of that numerous and dreadful band. Whatever +you may think of him, I can seriously assure you that before he went mad +he had good parts and great learning. But I will now explain to you the +original cause of the absurdities he has uttered. His mind was formed in +such a manner that, like some perspective glasses, it either diminished +or magnified all objects too much; but, above all others, it magnified +the good man to himself. This made him so proud that it turned his +brain. Now I have had my sport with him, I think it will be charity to +restore him to his senses, or rather to bestow what Nature denied him--a +sound judgment. Come hither, Scaliger. By this touch of my Caduceus I +give thee power to see things as they are, and, among others, thyself. +Look, gentlemen, how his countenance is fallen in a moment! Hear what he +says. He is talking to himself. + +_Scaliger_.--Bless me! with what persons have I been discoursing? With +Virgil and Horace! How could I venture to open my lips in their +presence? Good Mercury, I beseech you let me retire from a company for +which I am very unfit. Let me go and hide my head in the deepest shade +of that grove which I see in the valley. After I have performed a +penance there, I will crawl on my knees to the feet of those illustrious +shades, and beg them to see me burn my impertinent books of criticism in +the fiery billows of Phlegethon with my own hands. + +_Mercury_.--They will both receive thee into favour. This mortification +of truly knowing thyself is a sufficient atonement for thy former +presumption. + + + +DIALOGUE XIV. + + +BOILEAU--POPE. + +_Boileau_.--Mr. Pope, you have done me great honour. I am told that you +made me your model in poetry, and walked on Parnassus in the same paths +which I had trod. + +_Pope_.--We both followed Horace, but in our manner of imitation, and in +the turn of our natural genius, there was, I believe, much resemblance. +We both were too irritable and too easily hurt by offences, even from the +lowest of men. The keen edge of our wit was frequently turned against +those whom it was more a shame to contend with than an honour to +vanquish. + +_Boileau_.--Yes. But in general we were the champions of good morals, +good sense, and good learning. If our love of these was sometimes heated +into anger against those who offended them no less than us, is that anger +to be blamed? + +_Pope_.--It would have been nobler if we had not been parties in the +quarrel. Our enemies observe that neither our censure nor our praise was +always impartial. + +_Boileau_.--It might perhaps have been better if in some instances we had +not praised or blamed so much. But in panegyric and satire moderation is +insipid. + +_Pope_.--Moderation is a cold unpoetical virtue. Mere historical truth +is better written in prose. And, therefore, I think you did judiciously +when you threw into the fire your history of Louis le Grand, and trusted +his fame to your poems. + +_Boileau_.--When those poems were published that monarch was the idol of +the French nation. If you and I had not known, in our occasional +compositions, how to speak to the passions, as well as to the sober +reason of mankind, we should not have acquired that despotic authority in +the empire of wit which made us so formidable to all the inferior tribe +of poets in England and France. Besides, sharp satirists want great +patrons. + +_Pope_.--All the praise which my friends received from me was unbought. +In this, at least, I may boast a superiority over the pensioned Boileau. + +_Boileau_.--A pension in France was an honourable distinction. Had you +been a Frenchman you would have ambitiously sought it; had I been an +Englishman I should have proudly declined it. If our merit in other +respects be not unequal, this difference will not set me much below you +in the temple of virtue or of fame. + +_Pope_.--It is not for me to draw a comparison between our works. But, +if I may believe the best critics who have talked to me on the subject, +my "Rape of the Lock" is not inferior to your "Lutrin;" and my "Art of +Criticism" may well be compared with your "Art of Poetry;" my "Ethic +Epistles" are esteemed at least equal to yours; and my "Satires" much +better. + +_Boileau_.--Hold, Mr. Pope. If there is really such a sympathy in our +natures as you have supposed, there may be reason to fear that, if we go +on in this manner comparing our works, we shall not part in good +friendship. + +_Pope_.--No, no; the mild air of the Elysian Fields has mitigated my +temper, as I presume it has yours. But, in truth, our reputations are +nearly on a level. Our writings are admired, almost equally (as I hear) +for energy and justness of thought. We both of us carried the beauty of +our diction, and the harmony of our numbers, to the highest perfection +that our languages would admit. Our poems were polished to the utmost +degree of correctness, yet without losing their fire, or the agreeable +appearance of freedom and ease. We borrowed much from the ancients, +though you, I believe, more than I; but our imitations (to use an +expression of your own) had still an original air. + +_Boileau_.--I will confess, sir (to show you that the Elysian climate has +had its effects upon me), I will fairly confess, without the least ill +humour, that in your "Eloisa to Abelard," your "Verses to the Memory of +an Unfortunate Lady," and some others you wrote in your youth, there is +more fire of poetry than in any of mine. You excelled in the pathetic, +which I never approached. I will also allow that you hit the manner of +Horace and the sly delicacy of his wit more exactly than I, or than any +other man who has written since his time. Nor could I, nor did even +Lucretius himself, make philosophy so poetical, and embellish it with +such charms as you have given to that of Plato, or (to speak more +properly) of some of his modern disciples, in your celebrated "Essay on +Man." + +_Pope_.--What do you think of my "Homer?" + +_Boileau_.--Your "Homer" is the most spirited, the most poetical, the +most elegant, and the most pleasing translation that ever was made of any +ancient poem, though not so much in the manner of the original, or so +exactly agreeable to the sense in all places, as might perhaps be +desired. But when I consider the years you spent in this work, and how +many excellent original poems you might, with less difficulty, have +produced in that time, I can't but regret that your talents were thus +employed. A great poet so tied down to a tedious translation is a +Columbus chained to an oar. What new regions of fancy, full of treasures +yet untouched, might you have explored, if you had been at liberty to +have boldly expanded your sails, and steered your own course, under the +conduct and direction of your own genius! But I am still more angry with +you for your edition of Shakespeare. The office of an editor was below +you, and your mind was unfit for the drudgery it requires. Would anybody +think of employing a Raphael to clean an old picture? + +_Pope_.--The principal cause of my undertaking that task was zeal for the +honour of Shakespeare; and, if you knew all his beauties as well as I, +you would not wonder at this zeal. No other author had ever so copious, +so bold, so creative an imagination, with so perfect a knowledge of the +passions, the humours, and sentiments of mankind. He painted all +characters, from kings down to peasants, with equal truth and equal +force. If human nature were destroyed, and no monument were left of it +except his works, other beings might know what man was from those +writings. + +_Boileau_.--You say he painted all characters, from kings down to +peasants, with equal truth and equal force. I can't deny that he did so; +but I wish he had not jumbled those characters together in the +composition of his pictures as he has frequently done. + +_Pope_.--The strange mixture of tragedy, comedy, and farce in the same +play, nay, sometimes in the same scene, I acknowledge to be quite +inexcusable. But this was the taste of the times when Shakespeare wrote. + +_Boileau_.--A great genius ought to guide, not servilely follow, the +taste of his contemporaries. + +_Pope_.--Consider from how thick a darkness of barbarism the genius of +Shakespeare broke forth! What were the English, and what, let me ask +you, were the French dramatic performances, in the age when he nourished? +The advances he made towards the highest perfection, both of tragedy and +comedy, are amazing! In the principal points, in the power of exciting +terror and pity, or raising laughter in an audience, none yet has +excelled him, and very few have equalled. + +_Boileau_.--Do you think that he was equal in comedy to Moliere? + +_Pope_.--In comic force I do; but in the fine and delicate strokes of +satire, and what is called genteel comedy, he was greatly inferior to +that admirable writer. There is nothing in him to compare with the +_Misanthrope_, the _Ecole des Femmes_, or _Tartuffe_. + +_Boileau_.--This, Mr. Pope, is a great deal for an Englishman to +acknowledge. A veneration for Shakespeare seems to be a part of your +national religion, and the only part in which even your men of sense are +fanatics. + +_Pope_.--He who can read Shakespeare, and be cool enough for all the +accuracy of sober criticism, has more of reason than taste. + +_Boileau_.--I join with you in admiring him as a prodigy of genius, +though I find the most shocking absurdities in his plays--absurdities +which no critic of my nation can pardon. + +_Pope_.--We will be satisfied with your feeling the excellence of his +beauties. But you would admire him still more if you could see the chief +characters in all his test tragedies represented by an actor who appeared +on the stage a little before I left the world. He has shown the English +nation more excellencies in Shakespeare than the quickest wits could +discern, and has imprinted them on the heart with a livelier feeling than +the most sensible natures had ever experienced without his help. + +_Boileau_.--The variety, spirit, and force of Mr. Garrick's action have +been much praised to me by many of his countrymen, whose shades I +converse with, and who agree in speaking of him as we do of Baron, our +most natural and most admired actor. I have also heard of another, who +has now quitted the stage, but who had filled, with great dignity, force, +and elevation, some tragic parts, and excelled so much in the comic, that +none ever has deserved a higher applause. + +_Pope_.--Mr. Quin was, indeed, a most perfect comedian. In the part of +Falstaff particularly, wherein the utmost force of Shakespeare's humour +appears, he attained to such perfection that he was not an actor; he was +the man described by Shakespeare; he was Falstaff himself! When I saw +him do it the pleasantry of the fat knight appeared to me so bewitching, +all his vices were so mirthful, that I could not much wonder at his +having seduced a young prince even to rob in his company. + +_Boileau_.--That character is not well understood by the French; they +suppose it belongs, not to comedy, but to farce, whereas the English see +in it the finest and highest strokes of wit and humour. Perhaps these +different judgments may be accounted for in some measure by the diversity +of manners in different countries. But don't you allow, Mr. Pope, that +our writers, both of tragedy and comedy, are, upon the whole, more +perfect masters of their art than yours? If you deny it, I will appeal +to the Athenians, the only judges qualified to decide the dispute. I +will refer it to Euripides, Sophocles, and Menander. + +_Pope_.--I am afraid of those judges, for I see them continually walking +hand-in-hand, and engaged in the most friendly conversation with +Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. Our dramatic writers seem, in general, +not so fond of their company; they sometimes shove rudely by them, and +give themselves airs of superiority. They slight their reprimands, and +laugh at their precepts--in short, they will be tried by their country +alone; and that judicature is partial. + +_Boileau_.--I will press this question no further. But let me ask you to +which of our rival tragedians, Racine and Corneille, do you give the +preference? + +_Pope_.--The sublimest plays of Corneille are, in my judgment, equalled +by the _Athalia_ of Racine, and the tender passions are certainly touched +by that elegant and most pathetic writer with a much finer hand. I need +not add that he is infinitely more correct than Corneille, and more +harmonious and noble in his versification. Corneille formed himself +entirely upon Lucan, but the master of Racine was Virgil. How much +better a taste had the former than the latter in choosing his model! + +_Boileau_.--My friendship with Racine, and my partiality for his +writings, make me hear with great pleasure the preference given to him +above Corneille by so judicious a critic. + +_Pope_.--That he excelled his competitor in the particulars I have +mentioned, can't, I think, be denied. But yet the spirit and the majesty +of ancient Rome were never so well expressed as by Corneille. Nor has +any other French dramatic writer, in the general character of his works, +shown such a masculine strength and greatness of thought. Racine is the +swan described by ancient poets, which rises to the clouds on downy wings +and sings a sweet but a gentle and plaintive note. Corneille is the +eagle, which soars to the skies on bold and sounding pinions, and fears +not to perch on the sceptre of Jupiter, or to bear in his pounces the +lightning of the god. + +_Boileau_.--I am glad to find, Mr. Pope, that in praising Corneille you +run into poetry, which is not the language of sober criticism, though +sometimes used by Longinus. + +_Pope_.--I caught the fire from the idea of Corneille. + +_Boileau_.--He has bright flashes, yet I think that in his thunder there +is often more noise than fire. Don't you find him too declamatory, too +turgid, too unnatural, even in his best tragedies? + +_Pope_.--I own I do; yet the greatness and elevation of his sentiments, +and the nervous vigour of his sense, atone, in my opinion, for all his +faults. But let me now, in my turn, desire your opinion of our epic +poet, Milton. + +_Boileau_.--Longinus perhaps would prefer him to all other writers, for +he surpasses even Homer in the sublime; but other critics who require +variety, and agreeableness, and a correct regularity of thought and +judgment in an epic poem, who can endure no absurdities, no extravagant +fictions, would place him far below Virgil. + +_Pope_.--His genius was indeed so vast and sublime, that his poem seems +beyond the limits of criticism, as his subject is beyond the limits of +nature. The bright and excessive blaze of poetical fire, which shines in +so many parts of the "Paradise Lost," will hardly permit the dazzled eye +to see its faults. + +_Boileau_.--The taste of your countrymen is much changed since the days +of Charles II., when Dryden was thought a greater poet than Milton! + +_Pope_.--The politics of Milton at that time brought his poetry into +disgrace, for it is a rule with the English, they see no good in a man +whose politics they dislike; but, as their notions of government are apt +to change, men of parts whom they have slighted become their favourite +authors, and others who have possessed their warmest admiration are in +their turn undervalued. This revolution of favour was experienced by +Dryden as well as Milton; he lived to see his writings, together with his +politics, quite out of fashion. But even in the days of his highest +prosperity, when the generality of the people admired his _Almanzor_, and +thought his _Indian Emperor_ the perfection of tragedy, the Duke of +Buckingham and Lord Rochester, the two wittiest noblemen our country has +produced, attacked his fame, and turned the rants of his heroes, the +jargon of his spirits, and the absurdity of his plots into just ridicule. + +_Boileau_.--You have made him good amends by the praise you have given +him in some of your writings. + +_Pope_.--I owed him that praise as my master in the art of versification, +yet I subscribe to the censures which have been passed by other writers +on many of his works. They are good critics, but he is still a great +poet. You, sir, I am sure, must particularly admire him as an excellent +satirist; his "Absalom and Achitophel" is a masterpiece in that way of +writing, and his "Mac Flecno" is, I think, inferior to it in nothing but +the meanness of the subject. + +_Boileau_.--Did not you take the model of your "Dunciad" from the latter +of those very ingenious satires? + +_Pope_.--I did; but my work is more extensive than his, and my +imagination has taken in it a greater scope. + +_Boileau_.--Some critics may doubt whether the length of your poem was so +properly suited to the meanness of the subject as the brevity of his. +Three cantos to expose a dunce crowned with laurel! I have not given +above three lines to the author of the "Pucelle." + +_Pope_.--My intention was to expose, not one author alone, but all the +dulness and false taste of the English nation in my times. Could such a +design be contracted into a narrower compass? + +_Boileau_.--We will not dispute on this point, nor whether the hero of +your "Dunciad" was really a dunce. But has not Dryden been accused of +immorality and profaneness in some of his writings? + +_Pope_.--He has, with too much reason: and I am sorry to say that all our +best comic writers after Shakespeare and Johnson, except Addison and +Steele, are as liable as he to that heavy charge. Fletcher is shocking. +Etheridge, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar have painted the +manners of the times in which they wrote with a masterly hand; but they +are too often such manners that a virtuous man, and much more a virtuous +woman, must be greatly offended at the representation. + +_Boileau_.--In this respect our stage is far preferable to yours. It is +a school of morality. Vice is exposed to contempt and to hatred. No +false colours are laid on to conceal its deformity, but those with which +it paints itself are there taken off. + +_Pope_.--It is a wonderful thing that in France the comic Muse should be +the gravest lady in the nation. Of late she is so grave, that one might +almost mistake her for her sister Melpomene. Moliere made her indeed a +good moral philosopher; but then she philosophised, like Democritus, with +a merry, laughing face. Now she weeps over vice instead of showing it to +mankind, as I think she generally ought to do, in ridiculous lights. + +_Boileau_.--Her business is more with folly than with vice, and when she +attacks the latter, it should be rather with ridicule than invective. But +sometimes she may be allowed to raise her voice, and change her usual +smile into a frown of just indignation. + +_Pope_.--I like her best when she smiles. But did you never reprove your +witty friend, La Fontaine, for the vicious levity that appears in many of +his tales? He was as guilty of the crime of debauching the Muses as any +of our comic poets. + +_Boileau_.--I own he was, and bewail the prostitution of his genius, as I +should that of an innocent and beautiful country girl. He was all +nature, all simplicity! yet in that simplicity there was a grace, and +unaffected vivacity, with a justness of thought and easy elegance of +expression that can hardly be found in any other writer. His manner is +quite original, and peculiar to himself, though all the matter of his +writings is borrowed from others. + +_Pope_.--In that manner he has been imitated by my friend Mr. Prior. + +_Boileau_.--He has, very successfully. Some of Prior's tales have the +spirit of La Fontaine's with more judgment, but not, I think, with such +an amiable and graceful simplicity. + +_Pope_.--Prior's harp had more strings than La Fontaine's. He was a fine +poet in many different ways: La Fontaine but in one. And, though in some +of his tales he imitated that author, his "Alma" was an original, and of +singular beauty. + +_Boileau_.--There is a writer of heroic poetry, who lived before Milton, +and whom some of your countrymen place in the highest class of your +poets, though he is little known in France. I see him sometimes in +company with Homer and Virgil, but oftener with Tasso, Ariosto, and +Dante. + +_Pope_.--I understand you mean Spenser. There is a force and beauty in +some of his images and descriptions, equal to any in those writers you +have seen him converse with. But he had not the art of properly shading +his pictures. He brings the minute and disagreeable parts too much into +sight; and mingles too frequently vulgar and mean ideas with noble and +sublime. Had he chosen a subject proper for epic poetry, he seems to +have had a sufficient elevation and strength in his genius to make him a +great epic poet: but the allegory, which is continued throughout the +whole work, fatigues the mind, and cannot interest the heart so much as +those poems, the chief actors in which are supposed to have really +existed. The Syrens and Circe in the "Odyssey" are allegorical persons; +but Ulysses, the hero of the poem, was a man renowned in Greece, which +makes the account of his adventures affecting and delightful. To be now +and then in Fairyland, among imaginary beings, is a pleasing variety, and +helps to distinguish the poet from the orator or historian, but to be +always there is irksome. + +_Boileau_.--Is not Spenser likewise blamable for confounding the +Christian with the Pagan theology in some parts of his poem? + +_Pope_.--Yes; he had that fault in common with Dante, with Ariosto, and +with Camoens. + +_Boileau_.--Who is the poet that arrived soon after you in Elysium, whom +I saw Spenser lead in and present to Virgil, as the author of a poem +resembling the "Georgics"? On his head was a garland of the several +kinds of flowers that blow in each season, with evergreens intermixed. + +_Pope_.--Your description points out Thomson. He painted nature exactly, +and with great strength of pencil. His imagination was rich, extensive, +and sublime: his diction bold and glowing, but sometimes obscure and +affected. Nor did he always know when to stop, or what to reject. + +_Boileau_.--I should suppose that he wrote tragedies upon the Greek +model. For he is often admitted into the grove of Euripides. + +_Pope_.--He enjoys that distinction both as a tragedian and as a +moralist. For not only in his plays, but all his other works, there is +the purest morality, animated by piety, and rendered more touching by the +fine and delicate sentiments of a most tender and benevolent heart. + +_Boileau_.--St. Evremond has brought me acquainted with Waller. I was +surprised to find in his writings a politeness and gallantry which the +French suppose to be appropriated only to theirs. His genius was a +composition which is seldom to be met with, of the sublime and the +agreeable. In his comparison between himself and Apollo, as the lover of +Daphne, and in that between Amoret and Sacharissa, there is a _finesse_ +and delicacy of wit which the most elegant of our writers have never +exceeded. Nor had Sarrazin or Voiture the art of praising more genteelly +the ladies they admired. But his epistle to Cromwell, and his poem on +the death of that extraordinary man, are written with a force and +greatness of manner which give him a rank among the poets of the first +class. + +_Pope_.--Mr. Waller was unquestionably a very fine writer. His Muse was +as well qualified as the Graces themselves to dress out a Venus; and he +could even adorn the brows of a conqueror with fragrant and beautiful +wreaths. But he had some puerile and low thoughts, which unaccountably +mixed with the elegant and the noble, like schoolboys or a mob admitted +into a palace. There was also an intemperance and a luxuriancy in his +wit which he did not enough restrain. He wrote little to the +understanding, and less to the heart; but he frequently delights the +imagination, and sometimes strikes it with flashes of the highest +sublime. We had another poet of the age of Charles I., extremely admired +by all his contemporaries, in whose works there is still more affectation +of wit, a greater redundancy of imagination, a worse taste, and less +judgment; but he touched the heart more, and had finer feelings than +Waller. I mean Cowley. + +_Boileau_.--I have been often solicited to admire his writings by his +learned friend, Dr. Spratt. He seems to me a great wit, and a very +amiable man, but not a good poet. + +_Pope_.--The spirit of poetry is strong in some of his odes, but in the +art of poetry he is always extremely deficient. + +_Boileau_.--I hear that of late his reputation is much lowered in the +opinion of the English. Yet I cannot but think that, if a moderate +portion of the superfluities of his wit were given by Apollo to some of +their modern bards, who write commonplace morals in very smooth verse, +without any absurdity, but without a single new thought, or one +enlivening spark of imagination, it would be a great favour to them, and +do them more service than all the rules laid down in my "Art of Poetry" +and yours of "Criticism." + +_Pope_.--I am much of your mind. But I left in England some poets whom +you, I know, will admire, not only for the harmony and correctness of +style, but the spirit and genius you will find in their writings. + +_Boileau_.--France, too, has produced some very excellent writers since +the time of my death. Of one particularly I hear wonders. Fame to him +is as kind as if he had been dead a thousand years. She brings his +praises to me from all parts of Europe. You know I speak of Voltaire. + +_Pope_.--I do; the English nation yields to none in admiration of his +extensive genius. Other writers excel in some one particular branch of +wit or science; but when the King of Prussia drew Voltaire from Paris to +Berlin, he had a whole academy of _belles lettres_ in him alone. + +_Boileau_.--That prince himself has such talents for poetry as no other +monarch in any age or country has ever possessed. What an astonishing +compass must there be in his mind, what an heroic tranquillity and +firmness in his heart, that he can, in the evening, compose an ode or +epistle in the most elegant verse, and the next morning fight a battle +with the conduct of Caesar or Gustavus Adolphus! + +_Pope_.--I envy Voltaire so noble a subject both for his verse and his +prose. But if that prince will write his own commentaries, he will want +no historian. I hope that, in writing them, he will not restrain his +pen, as Caesar has done, to a mere account of his wars, but let us see +the politician, and the benignant protector of arts and sciences, as well +as the warrior, in that picture of himself. Voltaire has shown us that +the events of battles and sieges are not the most interesting parts of +good history, but that all the improvements and embellishments of human +society ought to be carefully and particularly recorded there. + +_Boileau_.--The progress of arts and knowledge, and the great changes +that have happened in the manners of mankind, are objects far more worthy +of a leader's attention than the revolutions of fortune. And it is +chiefly to Voltaire that we owe this instructive species of history. + +_Pope_.--He has not only been the father of it among the moderns, but has +carried it himself to its utmost perfection. + +_Boileau_.--Is he not too universal? Can any writer be exact who is so +comprehensive? + +_Pope_.--A traveller round the world cannot inspect every region with +such an accurate care as exactly to describe each single part. If the +outlines are well marked, and the observations on the principal points +are judicious, it is all that can be required. + +_Boileau_.--I would, however, advise and exhort the French and English +youth to take a fuller survey of some particular provinces, and to +remember that although, in travels of this sort, a lively imagination is +a very agreeable companion, it is not the best guide. To speak without a +metaphor, the study of history, both sacred and profane, requires a +critical and laborious investigation. The composer of a set of lively +and witty remarks on facts ill-examined, or incorrectly delivered, is not +an historian. + +_Pope_.--We cannot, I think, deny that name to the author of the "Life of +Charles XII., King of Sweden." + +_Boileau_.--No, certainly. I esteem it the very best history that this +age has produced. As full of spirit as the hero whose actions it +relates, it is nevertheless most exact in all matters of importance. The +style of it is elegant, perspicuous, unaffected; the disposition and +method are excellent; the judgments given by the writer acute and just. + +_Pope_.--Are you not pleased with that philosophical freedom of thought +which discovers itself in all the works of Voltaire, but more +particularly in those of an historical nature? + +_Boileau_.--If it were properly regulated, I should reckon it among their +highest perfections. Superstition, and bigotry, and party spirit are as +great enemies to the truth and candour of history as malice or adulation. +To think freely is therefore a most necessary quality in a perfect +historian. But all liberty has its bounds, which, in some of his +writings, Voltaire, I fear, has not observed. Would to Heaven he would +reflect, while it is yet in his power to correct what is faulty, that all +his works will outlive him; that many nations will read them; and that +the judgment pronounced here upon the writer himself will be according to +the scope and tendency of them, and to the extent of their good or evil +effects on the great society of mankind. + +_Pope_.--It would be well for all Europe if some other wits of your +country, who give the tone to this age in all polite literature, had the +same serious thoughts you recommend to Voltaire. Witty writings, when +directed to serve the good ends of virtue and religion, are like the +lights hung out in a _pharos_, to guide the mariners safe through +dangerous seas; but the brightness of those that are impious or immoral +shines only to betray and lead men to destruction. + +_Boileau_.--Has England been free from all seductions of this nature? + +_Pope_.--No. But the French have the art of rendering vice and impiety +more agreeable than the English. + +_Boileau_.--I am not very proud of this superiority in the talents of my +countrymen. But as I am told that the good sense of the English is now +admired in France, I hope it will soon convince both nations that true +wisdom is virtue, and true virtue is religion. + +_Pope_.--I think it also to be wished that a taste for the frivolous may +not continue too prevalent among the French. There is a great difference +between gathering flowers at the foot of Parnassus and ascending the +arduous heights of the mountain. The palms and laurels grow there, and +if any of your countrymen aspire to gain them, they must no longer +enervate all the vigour of their minds by this habit of trifling. I +would have them be perpetual competitors with the English in manly wit +and substantial learning. But let the competition be friendly. There is +nothing which so contracts and debases the mind as national envy. True +wit, like true virtue, naturally loves its own image in whatever place it +is found. + + + +DIALOGUE XV. + + +OCTAVIA--PORTIA--ARRIA. + +_Portia_.--How has it happened, Octavia, that Arria and I, who have a +higher rank than you in the Temple of Fame, should have a lower here in +Elysium? We are told that the virtues you exerted as a wife were greater +than ours. Be so good as to explain to us what were those virtues. It +is the privilege of this place that one can bear superiority without +mortification. The jealousy of precedence died with the rest of our +mortal frailties. Tell us, then, your own story. We will sit down under +the shade of this myrtle grove and listen to it with pleasure. + +_Octavia_.--Noble ladies, the glory of our sex and of Rome, I will not +refuse to comply with your desire, though it recalls to my mind some +scenes my heart would wish to forget. There can be only one reason why +Minos should have given to my conjugal virtues a preference above yours, +which is that the trial assigned to them was harder. + +_Arria_.--How, madam! harder than to die for your husband! We died for +ours. + +_Octavia_.--You did for husbands who loved yon, and were the most +virtuous men of the ages they lived in--who trusted you with their lives, +their fame, their honour. To outlive such husbands is, in my judgment, a +harder effort of virtue than to die for them or with them. But Mark +Antony, to whom my brother Octavius, for reasons of state, gave my hand, +was indifferent to me, and loved another. Yet he has told me himself I +was handsomer than his mistress Cleopatra. Younger I certainly was, and +to men that is generally a charm sufficient to turn the scale in one's +favour. I had been loved by Marcellus. Antony said he loved me when he +pledged to me his faith. Perhaps he did for a time; a new handsome woman +might, from his natural inconstancy, make him forget an old attachment. +He was but too amiable. His very vices had charms beyond other men's +virtues. Such vivacity! such fire! such a towering pride! He seemed +made by nature to command, to govern the world; to govern it with such +ease that the business of it did not rob him of an hour of pleasure. +Nevertheless, while his inclination for me continued, this haughty lord +of mankind who could hardly bring his high spirit to treat my brother, +his partner in empire, with the necessary respect, was to me as +submissive, as obedient to every wish of my heart, as the humblest lover +that ever sighed in the vales of Arcadia. Thus he seduced my affection +from the manes of Marcellus and fixed it on himself. He fixed it, ladies +(I own it with some confusion), more fondly than it had ever been fixed +on Marcellus. And when he had done so he scorned me, he forsook me, he +returned to Cleopatra. Think who I was--the sister of Caesar, sacrificed +to a vile Egyptian queen, the harlot of Julius, the disgrace of her sex! +Every outrage was added that could incense me still more. He gave her at +sundry times, as public marks of his love, many provinces of the Empire +of Rome in the East. He read her love-letters openly in his tribunal +itself--even while he was hearing and judging the causes of kings. Nay, +he left his tribunal, and one of the best Roman orators pleading before +him, to follow her litter, in which she happened to be passing by at that +time. But, what was more grievous to me than all these demonstrations of +his extravagant passion for that infamous woman, he had the assurance, in +a letter to my brother, to call her his wife. Which of you, ladies, +could have patiently borne this treatment? + +_Arria_.--Not I, madam, in truth. Had I been in your place, the dagger +with which I pierced my own bosom to show my dear Paetus how easy it was +to die, that dagger should I have plunged into Antony's heart, if piety +to the gods and a due respect to the purity of my own soul had not +stopped my hand. But I verily believe I should have killed myself; not, +as I did, out of affection to my husband, but out of shame and +indignation at the wrongs I endured. + +_Portia_.--I must own, Octavia, that to bear such usage was harder to a +woman than to swallow fire. + +_Octavia_.--Yet I did bear it, madam, without even a complaint which +could hurt or offend my husband. Nay, more, at his return from his +Parthian expedition, which his impatience to bear a long absence from +Cleopatra had made unfortunate and inglorious, I went to meet him in +Syria, and carried with me rich presents of clothes and money for his +troops, a great number of horses, and two thousand chosen soldiers, +equipped and armed like my brother's Praetorian bands. He sent to stop +me at Athens because his mistress was then with him. I obeyed his +orders; but I wrote to him, by one of his most faithful friends, a letter +full of resignation, and such a tenderness for him as I imagined might +have power to touch his heart. My envoy served me so well, he set my +fidelity in so fair a light, and gave such reasons to Antony why he ought +to see and receive me with kindness, that Cleopatra was alarmed. All her +arts were employed to prevent him from seeing me, and to draw him again +into Egypt. Those arts prevailed. He sent me back into Italy, and gave +himself up more absolutely than ever to the witchcraft of that Circe. He +added Africa to the States he had bestowed on her before, and declared +Caesario, her spurious son by Julius Caesar, heir to all her dominions, +except Phoenicia and Cilicia, which with the Upper Syria he gave to +Ptolemy, his second son by her; and at the same time declared his eldest +son by her, whom he had espoused to the Princess of Media, heir to that +kingdom and King of Armenia; nay, and of the whole Parthian Empire which +he meant to conquer for him. The children I had brought him he entirely +neglected as if they had been bastards. I wept. I lamented the wretched +captivity he was in; but I never reproached him. My brother, exasperated +at so many indignities, commanded me to quit the house of my husband at +Rome and come into his. I refused to obey him. I remained in Antony's +house; I persisted to take care of his children by Fulvia, the same +tender care as of my own. I gave my protection to all his friends at +Rome. I implored my brother not to make my jealousy or my wrongs the +cause of a civil war. But the injuries done to Rome by Antony's conduct +could not possibly be forgiven. When he found he should draw the Roman +arms on himself, he sent orders to me to leave his house. I did so, but +carried with me all his children by Fulvia, except Antyllus, the eldest, +who was then with him in Egypt. After his death and Cleopatra's, I took +her children by him, and bred them up with my own. + +_Arria_.--Is it possible, madam? the children of Cleopatra? + +_Octavia_.--Yes, the children of my rival. I married her daughter to +Juba, King of Mauritania, the most accomplished and the handsomest prince +in the world. + +_Arria_.--Tell me, Octavia, did not your pride and resentment entirely +cure you of your passion for Antony, as soon as you saw him go back to +Cleopatra? And was not your whole conduct afterwards the effect of cool +reason, undisturbed by the agitations of jealous and tortured love? + +_Octavia_.--You probe my heart very deeply. That I had some help from +resentment and the natural pride of my sex, I will not deny. But I was +not become indifferent to my husband. I loved the Antony who had been my +lover, more than I was angry with the Antony who forsook me and loved +another woman. Had he left Cleopatra and returned to me again with all +his former affection, I really believe I should have loved him as well as +before. + +_Arria_.--If the merit of a wife is to be measured by her sufferings, +your heart was unquestionably the most perfect model of conjugal virtue. +The wound I gave mine was but a scratch in comparison to many you felt. +Yet I don't know whether it would be any benefit to the world that there +should be in it many Octavias. Too good subjects are apt to make bad +kings. + +_Portia_.--True, Arria; the wives of Brutus and Cecinna Paetus may be +allowed to have spirits a little rebellious. Octavia was educated in the +Court of her brother. Subjection and patience were much better taught +there than in our houses, where the Roman liberty made its last abode. +And though I will not dispute the judgment of Minos, I can't help +thinking that the affection of a wife to her husband is more or less +respectable in proportion to the character of that husband. If I could +have had for Antony the same friendship as I had for Brutus, I should +have despised myself. + +_Octavia_.--My fondness for Antony was ill-placed; but my perseverance in +the performance of all the duties of a wife, notwithstanding his +ill-usage, a perseverance made more difficult by the very excess of my +love, appeared to Minos the highest and most meritorious effort of female +resolution against the seductions of the most dangerous enemy to our +virtue, offended pride. + + + +DIALOGUE XVI. + + +LOUISE DE COLIGNI, PRINCESS OF ORANGE--FRANCES WALSINGHAM, COUNTESS OF +ESSEX AND OF CLANRICARDE; BEFORE, LADY SIDNEY. + +_Princess of Orange_.--Our destinies, madam, had a great and surprising +conformity. I was the daughter of Admiral Coligni, you of Secretary +Walsingham, two persons who were the most consummate statesmen and ablest +supports of the Protestant religion in France, and in England. I was +married to Teligni, the finest gentleman of our party, the most admired +for his valour, his virtue, and his learning: you to Sir Philip Sidney, +who enjoyed the same pre-eminence among the English. Both these husbands +were cut off, in the flower of youth and of glory, by violent deaths, and +we both married again with still greater men; I with William Prince of +Orange, the founder of the Dutch Commonwealth; you with Devereux Earl of +Essex, the favourite of Elizabeth and of the whole English nation. But, +alas! to complete the resemblance of our fates, we both saw those second +husbands, who had raised us so high, destroyed in the full meridian of +their glory and greatness: mine by the pistol of an assassin; yours still +more unhappily, by the axe, as a traitor. + +_Countess of Clanricarde_.--There was indeed in some principal events of +our lives the conformity you observe. But your destiny, though it raised +you higher than me, was more unhappy than mine. For my father lived +honourably, and died in peace: yours was assassinated in his old age. +How, madam, did you support or recover your spirits under so rainy +misfortunes? + +_Princess of Orange_.--The Prince of Orange left an infant son to my +care. The educating of him to be worthy of so illustrious a father, to +be the heir of his virtue as well as of his greatness, and the affairs of +the commonwealth, in which I interested myself for his sake, so filled my +mind, that they in some measure took from me the sense of my grief, which +nothing but such a great and important scene of business, such a +necessary talk of private and public duty, could have ever relieved. But +let me inquire in my turn, how did your heart find a balm to alleviate +the anguish of the wounds it had suffered? What employed your widowed +hours after the death of your Essex? + +_Countess of Clanricarde_.--Madam, I did not long continue a widow: I +married again. + +_Princess of Orange_.--Married again! With what prince, what king did +you marry? The widow of Sir Philip Sidney and of my Lord Essex could not +descend from them to a subject of less illustrious fame; and where could +you find one that was comparable to either? + +_Countess of Clanricarde_.--I did not seek for one, madam: the heroism of +the former, and the ambition of the latter, had made me very unhappy. I +desired a quiet life and the joys of wedded love, with an agreeable, +virtuous, well-born, unambitious, unenterprising husband. All this I +found in the Earl of Clanricarde: and believe me, madam, I enjoyed more +solid felicity in Ireland with him, than I ever had possessed with my two +former husbands, in the pride of their glory, when England and all Europe +resounded with their praise. + +_Princess of Orange_.--Can it be possible that the daughter of +Walsingham, and the wife of Sidney and Essex, should have sentiments so +inferior to the minds from which she sprang, and to which she was +matched? Believe me, madam, there was no hour of the many years I lived +after the death of the Prince of Orange, in which I would have exchanged +the pride and joy I continually had in hearing his praise, and seeing the +monuments of his glory in the free commonwealth his wisdom had founded, +for any other delights the world could give. The cares that I shared +with him, while he remained upon earth, were a happiness to my mind, +because they exalted its powers. The remembrance of them was dear to me +after I had lost him. I thought his great soul, though removed to a +higher sphere, would look down upon mine with some tenderness of +affection, as its fellow-labourer in the heroic and divine work of +delivering and freeing his country. But to be divorced from that soul! +to be no longer his wife! to be the comfort of an inferior, inglorious +husband! I had much rather have died a thousand deaths, than that my +heart should one moment have conceived such a thought. + +_Countess of Clanricarde_.--Your Highness must not judge of all hearts by +your own. The ruling passion of that was apparently ambition. My +inclinations were not so noble as yours, but better suited, perhaps, to +the nature of woman. I loved Sir Philip Sidney, I loved the Earl of +Essex, rather as amiable men than as heroes and statesmen. They were so +taken up with their wars and state-affairs, that my tenderness for them +was too often neglected. The Earl of Clanricarde was constantly and +wholly mine. He was brave, but had not that spirit of chivalry with +which Sir Philip Sidney was absolutely possessed. He had, in a high +degree, the esteem of Elizabeth, but did not aspire to her love; nor did +he wish to be the rival of Carr or of Villiers in the affection of James. +Such, madam, was the man on whom my last choice bestowed my hand, and +whose kindness compensated for all my misfortunes. Providence has +assigned to different tempers different comforts. To you it gave the +education of a prince, the government of a state, the pride of being +called the wife of a hero; to me a good-living husband, quiet, opulence, +nobility, and a fair reputation, though not in a degree so exalted as +yours. If our whole sex were to choose between your consolations and +mine, your Highness, I think, would find very few of your taste. But I +respect the sublimity of your ideas. Now that we have no bodies they +appear less unnatural than I should have thought them in the other world. + +_Princess of Orange_.--Adieu, madam. Our souls are of a different order, +and were not made to sympathise or converse with each other. + + + +DIALOGUE XVII. + + +MARCUS BRUTUS--POMPONIUS ATTICUS. + +_Brutus_.--Well, Atticus, I find that, notwithstanding your friendship +for Cicero and for me, you survived us both many years, with the same +cheerful spirit you had always possessed, and, by prudently wedding your +daughter to Agrippa, secured the favour of Octavius Caesar, and even +contracted a close alliance with him by your granddaughter's marriage +with Tiberius Nero. + +_Atticus_.--You know, Brutus, my philosophy was the Epicurean. I loved +my friends, and I served them in their wants and distresses with great +generosity; but I did not think myself obliged to die when they died, or +not to make others as occasions should offer. + +_Brutus_.--You did, I acknowledge, serve your friends, as far as you +could, without bringing yourself, on their account, into any great danger +or disturbance of mind: but that you loved them I much doubt. If you +loved Cicero, how could you love Antony? If you loved me, how could you +love Octavius? If you loved Octavius, how could you avoid taking part +against Antony in their last civil war? Affection cannot be so strangely +divided, and with so much equality, among men of such opposite +characters, and who were such irreconcilable enemies to each other. + +_Atticus_.--From my earliest youth I possessed the singular talent of +ingratiating myself with the heads of different parties, and yet not +engaging with any of them so far as to disturb my own quiet. My family +was connected with the Marian party; and, though I retired to Athens that +I might not be unwillingly involved in the troubles which that turbulent +faction had begun to excite, yet when young Marius was declared an enemy +by the Senate, I sent him a sum of money to support him in his exile. Nor +did this hinder me from making my court so well to Sylla, upon his coming +to Athens, that I obtained from him the highest marks of his favour. +Nevertheless, when he pressed me to go with him to Rome, I declined it, +being as unwilling to fight for him against the Marian party, as for them +against him. He admired my conduct; and at his departure from Athens, +ordered all the presents made to him during his abode in that city to be +carried to me. I remind you of this only to show that moderation in all +contentions of this kind had been always my principle; and that in the +instances you mentioned I did not act from any levity or inconstancy in +my nature, but from a regular consistent plan of conduct, which my reason +convinced me was the wisest I could follow. + +_Brutus_.--I remember indeed that you observed the same neutrality +between Pompey and Julius Caesar. + +_Atticus_.--I did so--and that I might be able to do it with dignity, and +without the reproach of ingratitude, I never would accept any office or +honour from either of those great men; nor from Cicero, though my sister +had married his brother; nor from you, Marcus Brutus, whose friendship I +thought the greatest honour of my life. + +_Brutus_.--Are there no obligations to a good heart, Pomponius, but +honours and offices? Or could you, by refusing to encumber yourself with +these, dissolve all other ties? But, setting aside any considerations of +private affection or esteem, how was you able to reconcile your conduct +with that which is the ruling principle in the heart of every virtuous +man, and more especially a virtuous Roman, the love of the public? + +_Atticus_.--The times I lived in were so bad, and the conflict of parties +had so little to do in reality with the love of the public, that I +thought my virtue much safer and purer by avoiding than mixing in the +fray. + +_Brutus_.--Possibly, in the dispute between Marius and Sylla, and even in +that between Pompey and Caesar, a virtuous man might see so much to blame +on both sides, and so much to fear, whichever faction should overcome the +other, as to be justified in not engaging with either. But let me say, +without vanity, in the war which I waged against Antony and Octavius you +could have nothing to blame, for I know you approved the principle upon +which I killed Julius Caesar. Nor had you anything to fear if our arms +had succeeded, for you know that my intentions were upright and pure; nor +was it doubtful that Cassius was as much determined as I to restore the +Republic. How could you, then, with any sense of virtue in your heart, +maintain an indifference and neutrality between the deliverers and the +tyrants of your country? + +_Atticus_.--My answer to this will necessarily require explanations, +which my respect to the manes of Brutus makes me wish to avoid. + +_Brutus_.--In the other world I loved truth, and was desirous that all +might speak it with freedom; but here even the tender ears of a tyrant +are compelled to endure it. If I committed any faults, or erred in my +judgment, the calamities I have suffered are a punishment for it. Tell +me then, truly, and without fear of offending, what you think were my +failings. + +_Atticus_.--You said that the principle upon which you killed Julius +Caesar had my approbation. This I do not deny; but did I ever declare, +or give you reason to believe, that I thought it a prudent or well-timed +act? I had quite other thoughts. Nothing ever seemed to me worse judged +or worse timed; and these, Brutus, were my reasons. Caesar was just +setting out to make war on the Parthians. This was an enterprise of no +little difficulty and no little danger; but his unbounded ambition, and +that restless spirit which never would suffer him to take any repose, did +not intend to stop there. You know very well (for he hid nothing from +you) that he had formed a vast plan of marching, after he had conquered +the whole Parthian Empire, along the coast of the Caspian Sea and the +sides of Mount Caucasus into Scythia, in order to subdue all the +countries that border on Germany, and Germany itself; from whence he +proposed to return to Rome by Gaul. Consider now, I beseech you, how +much time the execution of this project required. In some of his battles +with so many fierce and warlike nations, the bravest of all the +barbarians, he might have been slain; but, if he had not, disease, or age +itself, might have ended his life before he could have completed such an +immense undertaking. He was, when you killed him, in his fifty-sixth +year, and of an infirm constitution. Except his bastard by Cleopatra, he +had no son; nor was his power so absolute or so quietly settled that he +could have a thought of bequeathing the Empire, like a private +inheritance, to his sister's grandson, Octavius. While he was absent +there was no reason to fear any violence or maladministration in Italy or +in Rome. Cicero would have had the chief authority in the Senate. The +praetorship of the city had been conferred upon you by the favour of +Caesar, and your known credit with him, added to the high reputation of +your virtues and abilities, gave you a weight in all business which none +of his party left behind him in Italy would have been able to oppose. +What a fair prospect was here of good order, peace, and liberty at home, +while abroad the Roman name would have been rendered more glorious, the +disgrace of Crassus revenged, and the Empire extended beyond the utmost +ambition of our forefathers by the greatest general that ever led the +armies of Rome, or, perhaps, of any other nation! What did it signify +whether in Asia, and among the barbarians, that general bore the name of +King or Dictator? Nothing could be more puerile in you and your friends +than to start so much at the proposition of his taking that name in Italy +itself, when you had suffered him to enjoy all the power of royalty, and +much more than any King of Rome had possessed from Romulus down to +Tarquin. + +_Brutus_.--We considered that name as the last insult offered to our +liberty and our laws; it was an ensign of tyranny, hung out with a vain +and arrogant purpose of rendering the servitude of Rome more apparent. +We, therefore, determined to punish the tyrant, and restore our country +to freedom. + +_Atticus_.--You punished the tyrant, but you did not restore your country +to freedom. By sparing Antony, against the opinion of Cassius, you +suffered the tyranny to remain. He was Consul, and, from the moment that +Caesar was dead, the chief power of the State was in his hands. The +soldiers adored him for his liberality, valour, and military frankness. +His eloquence was more persuasive from appearing unstudied. The nobility +of his house, which descended from Hercules, would naturally inflame his +heart with ambition. The whole course of his life had evidently shown +that his thoughts were high and aspiring, and that he had little respect +for the liberty of his country. He had been the second man in Caesar's +party; by saving him you gave a new head to that party, which could no +longer subsist without your ruin. Many who would have wished the +restoration of liberty, if Caesar had died a natural death, were so +incensed at his murder that, merely for the sake of punishing that, they +were willing to confer all power upon Antony and make him absolute master +of the Republic. This was particularly true with respect to the veterans +who had served under Caesar, and he saw it so plainly that he presently +availed himself of their dispositions. You and Cassius were obliged to +fly out of Italy, and Cicero, who was unwilling to take the same part, +could find no expedient to save himself and the Senate but the wretched +one of supporting and raising very high another Caesar, the adopted son +and heir of him you had slain, to oppose Antony and to divide the +Caesarean party. But even while he did this he perpetually offended that +party and made them his enemies by harangues in the Senate, which +breathed the very spirit of the old Pompeian faction, and made him appear +to Octavius and all the friends of the dead Dictator no less guilty of +his death than those who had killed him. What could this end in but that +which you and your friends had most to fear, a reunion of the whole +Caesarean party and of their principal leaders, however discordant the +one with the other, to destroy the Pompeians? For my own part, I foresaw +it long before the event, and therefore kept myself wholly clear of those +proceedings. You think I ought to have joined you and Cassius at +Philippi, because I knew your good intentions, and that, if you +succeeded, you designed to restore the commonwealth. I am persuaded you +did both agree in that point, but you differed in so many others, there +was such a dissimilitude in your tempers and characters, that the union +between you could not have lasted long, and your dissension would have +had most fatal effects with regard both to the settlement and to the +administration of the Republic. Besides, the whole mass of it was in +such a fermentation, and so corrupted, that I am convinced new disorders +would soon have arisen. If you had applied gentle remedies, to which +your nature inclined, those remedies would have failed; if Cassius had +induced you to act with severity, your government would have been +stigmatised with the name of a tyranny more detestable than that against +which you conspired, and Caesar's clemency would have been the perpetual +topic of every factious oration to the people, and of every seditious +discourse to the soldiers. Thus you would have soon been plunged in the +miseries of another civil war, or perhaps assassinated in the Senate, as +Julius was by you. Nothing could give the Roman Empire a lasting +tranquillity but such a prudent plan of a mitigated imperial power as was +afterwards formed by Octavius, when he had ably and happily delivered +himself from all opposition and partnership in the government. Those +quiet times I lived to see, and I must say they were the best I ever had +seen, far better than those under the turbulent aristocracy for which you +contended. And let me boast a little of my own prudence, which, through +so many storms, could steer me safe into that port. Had it only given me +safety, without reputation, I should not think that I ought to value +myself upon it. But in all these revolutions my honour remained as +unimpaired as my fortune. I so conducted myself that I lost no esteem in +being Antony's friend after having been Cicero's, or in my alliance with +Agrippa and Augustus Caesar after my friendship with you. Nor did either +Caesar or Antony blame my inaction in the quarrels between them; but, on +the contrary, they both seemed to respect me the more for the neutrality +I observed. My obligations to the one and alliance with the other made +it improper for me to act against either, and my constant tenor of life +had procured me an exemption from all civil wars by a kind of +prescription. + +_Brutus_.--If man were born to no higher purpose than to wear out a long +life in ease and prosperity, with the general esteem of the world, your +wisdom was evidently as much superior to mine as my life was shorter and +more unhappy than yours. Nay, I verily believe it exceeded the prudence +of any other man that ever existed, considering in what difficult +circumstances you were placed, and with how many violent shocks and +sudden changes of fortune you were obliged to contend. But here the most +virtuous and public-spirited conduct is found to have been the most +prudent. The motives of our actions, not the success, give us here +renown. And could I return to that life from whence I am escaped, I +would not change my character to imitate yours; I would again be Brutus +rather than Atticus. Even without the sweet hope of an eternal reward in +a more perfect state, which is the strongest and most immovable support +to the good under every misfortune, I swear by the gods I would not give +up the noble feelings of my heart, that elevation of mind which +accompanies active and suffering virtue, for your seventy-seven years of +constant tranquillity, with all the praise you obtained from the learned +men whom you patronised or the great men whom you courted. + + + +DIALOGUE XVIII. + + +WILLIAM III., KING OF ENGLAND--JOHN DE WITT, PENSIONER, OF HOLLAND. + +_William_.--Though I had no cause to love you, yet, believe me, I +sincerely lament your fate. Who could have thought that De Witt, the +most popular Minister that ever served a commonwealth, should fall a +sacrifice to popular fury! Such admirable talents, such virtues as you +were endowed with, so clear, so cool, so comprehensive a head, a heart so +untainted with any kind of vice, despising money, despising pleasure, +despising the vain ostentation of greatness, such application to +business, such ability in it, such courage, such firmness, and so perfect +a knowledge of the nation you governed, seemed to assure you of a fixed +and stable support in the public affection. But nothing can be durable +that depends on the passions of the people. + +_De Witt_.--It is very generous in your Majesty, not only to +compassionate the fate of a man whose political principles made him an +enemy to your greatness, but to ascribe it to the caprice and inconstancy +of the people, as if there had been nothing very blamable in his conduct. +I feel the magnanimity of this discourse from your Majesty, and it +confirms what I have heard of all your behaviour after my death. But I +must frankly confess that, although the rage of the populace was carried +much too far when they tore me and my unfortunate brother to pieces, yet +I certainly had deserved to lose their affection by relying too much on +the uncertain and dangerous friendship of France, and by weakening the +military strength of the State, to serve little purposes of my own power, +and secure to myself the interested affection of the burgomasters or +others who had credit and weight in the faction the favour of which I +courted. This had almost subjected my country to France, if you, great +prince, had not been set at the head of the falling Republic, and had not +exerted such extraordinary virtues and abilities to raise and support it, +as surpassed even the heroism and prudence of William, our first +Stadtholder, and equalled yon to the most illustrious patriots of Greece +or Rome. + +_William_.--This praise from your mouth is glorious to me indeed! What +can so much exalt the character of a prince as to have his actions +approved by a zealous Republican and the enemy of his house? + +_De Witt_.--If I did not approve them I should show myself the enemy of +the Republic. You never sought to tyrannise over it; you loved, you +defended, you preserved its freedom. Thebes was not more indebted to +Epaminondas or Pelopidas for its independence and glory than the United +Provinces were to you. How wonderful was it to see a youth, who had +scarce attained to the twenty-second year of his age, whose spirit had +been depressed and kept down by a jealous and hostile faction, rising at +once to the conduct of a most arduous and perilous war, stopping an enemy +victorious, triumphant, who had penetrated into the heart of his country, +driving him back and recovering from him all he had conquered: to see +this done with an army in which a little before there was neither +discipline, courage, nor sense of honour! Ancient history has no exploit +superior to it; and it will ennoble the modern whenever a Livy or a +Plutarch shall arise to do justice to it, and set the hero who performed +it in a true light. + +_William_.--Say, rather, when time shall have worn out that malignity and +rancour of party which in free States is so apt to oppose itself to the +sentiments of gratitude and esteem for their servants and benefactors. + +_De Witt_.--How magnanimous was your reply, how much in the spirit of +true ancient virtue, when being asked, in the greatest extremity of our +danger, "How you intended to live after Holland was lost?" you said, "You +would live on the lands you had left in Germany, and had rather pass your +life in hunting there than sell your country or liberty to France at any +rate!" How nobly did you think when, being offered your patrimonial +lordships and lands in the county of Burgundy, or the full value of them +from France, by the mediation of England in the treaty of peace, your +answer was, "That to gain one good town more for the Spaniards in +Flanders you would be content to lose them all!" No wonder, after this, +that you were able to combine all Europe in a league against the power of +France; that you were the centre of union, and the directing soul of that +wise, that generous confederacy formed by your labours; that you could +steadily support and keep it together, in spite of repeated misfortunes; +that even after defeats you were as formidable to Louis as other generals +after victories; and that in the end you became the deliverer of Europe, +as you had before been of Holland. + +_William_.--I had, in truth, no other object, no other passion at heart +throughout my whole life but to maintain the independence and freedom of +Europe against the ambition of France. It was this desire which formed +the whole plan of my policy, which animated all my counsels, both as +Prince of Orange and King of England. + +_De Witt_.--This desire was the most noble (I speak it with shame) that +could warm the heart of a prince whose ancestors had opposed and in a +great measure destroyed the power of Spain when that nation aspired to +the monarchy of Europe. France, sir, in your days had an equal ambition +and more strength to support her vast designs than Spain under the +government of Philip II. That ambition you restrained, that strength you +resisted. I, alas! was seduced by her perfidious Court, and by the +necessity of affairs in that system of policy which I had adopted, to ask +her assistance, to rely on her favour, and to make the commonwealth, +whose counsels I directed, subservient to her greatness. Permit me, sir, +to explain to you the motives of my conduct. If all the Princes of +Orange had acted like you, I should never have been the enemy of your +house. But Prince Maurice of Nassau desired to oppress the liberty of +that State which his virtuous father had freed at the expense of his +life, and which he himself had defended against the arms of the House of +Austria with the highest reputation of military abilities. Under a +pretence of religion (the most execrable cover of a wicked design) he put +to death, as a criminal, that upright Minister, Barneveldt, his father's +best friend, because, he refused to concur with him in treason against +the State. He likewise imprisoned several other good men and lovers of +their country, confiscated their estates, and ruined their families. Yet, +after he had done these cruel acts of injustice with a view to make +himself sovereign of the Dutch Commonwealth, he found they had drawn such +a general odium upon him that, not daring to accomplish his iniquitous +purpose, he stopped short of the tyranny to which he had sacrificed his +honour and virtue; a disappointment so mortifying and so painful to his +mind that it probably hastened his death. + +_William_.--Would to Heaven he had died before the meeting of that +infamous Synod of Dort, by which he not only dishonoured himself and his +family, but the Protestant religion itself! Forgive this interruption--my +grief forced me to it--I desire you to proceed. + +_De Witt_.--The brother of Maurice, Prince Henry, who succeeded to his +dignities in the Republic, acted with more moderation. But the son of +that good prince, your Majesty's father (I am sorry to speak what I know +you hear with pain), resumed, in the pride and fire of his youth, the +ambitious designs of his uncle. He failed in his undertaking, and soon +afterwards died, but left in the hearts of the whole Republican party an +incurable jealousy and dread of his family. Full of these prejudices, +and zealous for liberty, I thought it my duty as Pensionary of Holland to +prevent for ever, if I could, your restoration to the power your +ancestors had enjoyed, which I sincerely believed would be inconsistent +with the safety and freedom of my country. + +_William_.--Let me stop you a moment here. When my great-grandfather +formed the plan of the Dutch Commonwealth, he made the power of a +Stadtholder one of the principal springs in his system of government. How +could you imagine that it would ever go well when deprived of this +spring, so necessary to adjust and balance its motions? A constitution +originally formed with no mixture of regal power may long be maintained +in all its vigour and energy without such a power; but if any degree of +monarchy was mixed from the beginning in the principles of it, the +forcing that out must necessarily disorder and weaken the whole fabric. +This was particularly the case in our Republic. The negative voice of +every small town in the provincial States, the tedious slowness of our +forms and deliberations, the facility with which foreign Ministers may +seduce or purchase the opinions of so many persons as have a right to +concur in all our resolutions, make it impossible for the Government, +even in the quietest times, to be well carried on without the authority +and influence of a Stadtholder, which are the only remedy our +constitution has provided for those evils. + +_De Witt_.--I acknowledge they are; but I and my party thought no evil so +great as that remedy, and therefore we sought for other more pleasing +resources. One of these, upon which we most confidently depended, was +the friendship of France. I flattered myself that the interest of the +French would secure to me their favour, as your relation to the Crown of +England might naturally raise in them a jealousy of your power. I hoped +they would encourage the trade and commerce of the Dutch in opposition to +the English, the ancient enemies of their Crown, and let us enjoy all the +benefits of a perpetual peace, unless we made war upon England, or +England upon us, in either of which cases it was reasonable to presume we +should have their assistance. The French Minister at the Hague, who +served his Court but too well, so confirmed me in these notions, that I +had no apprehensions of the mine which was forming under my feet. + +_William_.--You found your authority strengthened by a plan so agreeable +to your party, and this contributed more to deceive your sagacity than +all the art of D'Estrades. + +_De Witt_.--My policy seemed to me entirely suitable to the lasting +security of my own power, of the liberty of my country, and of its +maritime greatness; for I made it my care to keep up a very powerful +navy, well commanded and officered, for the defence of all these against +the English; but, as I feared nothing from France, or any Power on the +Continent, I neglected the army, or rather I destroyed it, by enervating +all its strength, by disbanding old troops and veteran officers attached +to the House of Orange, and putting in their place a trading militia, +commanded by officers who had neither experience nor courage, and who +owed their promotions to no other merit but their relation to or interest +with some leading men in the several oligarchies of which the Government +in all the Dutch towns is composed. Nevertheless, on the invasion of +Flanders by the French, I was forced to depart from my close connection +with France, and to concur with England and Sweden in the Triple +Alliance, which Sir William Temple proposed, in order to check her +ambition; but as I entered into that measure from necessity, not from +choice, I did not pursue it. I neglected to improve our union with +England, or to secure that with Sweden; I avoided any conjunction of +counsels with Spain; I formed no alliance with the Emperor or the +Germans; I corrupted our army more and more; till a sudden, unnatural +confederacy, struck up, against all the maxims of policy, by the Court of +England with France, for the conquest of the Seven Provinces, brought +these at once to the very brink of destruction, and made me a victim to +the fury of a populace too justly provoked. + +_William_.--I must say that your plan was in reality nothing more than to +procure for the Dutch a licence to trade under the good pleasure and +gracious protection of France. But any State that so entirely depends on +another is only a province, and its liberty is a servitude graced with a +sweet but empty name. You should have reflected that to a monarch so +ambitious and so vain as Louis le Grand the idea of a conquest which +seemed almost certain, and the desire of humbling a haughty Republic, +were temptations irresistible. His bigotry likewise would concur in +recommending to him an enterprise which he might think would put heresy +under his feet. And if you knew either the character of Charles II. or +the principles of his government, you ought not to have supposed his +union with France for the ruin of Holland an impossible or even +improbable event. It is hardly excusable in a statesman to be greatly +surprised that the inclinations of princes should prevail upon them to +act, in many particulars, without any regard to the political maxims and +interests of their kingdoms. + +_De Witt_.--I am ashamed of my error; but the chief cause of it was that, +though I thought very ill, I did not think quite so ill of Charles II. +and his Ministry as they deserved. I imagined, too, that his Parliament +would restrain him from engaging in such a war, or compel him to engage +in our defence if France should attack us. These, I acknowledge, are +excuses, not justifications. When the French marched into Holland and +found it in a condition so unable to resist them, my fame as a Minister +irrecoverably sank; for, not to appear a traitor, I was obliged to +confess myself a dupe. But what praise is sufficient for the wisdom and +virtue you showed in so firmly rejecting the offers which, I have been +informed, were made to you, both by England and France, when first you +appeared in arms at the head of your country, to give you the sovereignty +of the Seven Provinces by the assistance and under the protection of the +two Crowns! Believe me, great prince, had I been living in those times, +and had known the generous answers you made to those offers (which were +repeated more than once during the course of the war), not the most +ancient and devoted servant to your family would have been more your +friend than I. But who could reasonably hope for such moderation, and +such a right sense of glory, in the mind of a young man descended from +kings, whose mother was daughter to Charles I., and whose father had left +him the seducing example of a very different conduct? Happy, indeed, was +the English nation to have such a prince, so nearly allied to their Crown +both in blood and by marriage, whom they might call to be their deliverer +when bigotry and despotism, the two greatest enemies to human society, +had almost overthrown their whole constitution in Church and State! + +_William_.--They might have been happy, but were not. As soon as I had +accomplished their deliverance for them, many of them became my most +implacable enemies, and even wished to restore the unforgiving prince +whom they had so unanimously and so justly expelled from his kingdom. +Such levity seems incredible. I could not myself have imagined it +possible, in a nation famed for good sense, if I had not had proofs of it +beyond contradiction. They seemed as much to forget what they called me +over for as that they had called me over. The security of their +religion, the maintenance of their liberty, were no longer their care. +All was to yield to the incomprehensible doctrine of right divine and +passive obedience. Thus the Tories grew Jacobites, after having +renounced both that doctrine and King James, by their opposition to him, +by their invitation of me, and by every Act of the Parliament which gave +me the Crown. But the most troublesome of my enemies were a set of +Republicans, who violently opposed all my measures, and joined with the +Jacobites in disturbing my government, only because it was not a +commonwealth. + +_De Witt_.--They who were Republicans under your government in the +Kingdom of England did not love liberty, but aspired to dominion, and +wished to throw the nation into a total confusion, that it might give +them a chance of working out from that anarchy a better state for +themselves. + +_William_.--Your observation is just. A proud man thinks himself a lover +of liberty when he is only impatient of a power in government above his +own, and were he a king, or the first Minister of a king, would be a +tyrant. Nevertheless I will own to you, with the candour which becomes a +virtuous prince, that there were in England some Whigs, and even some of +the most sober and moderate Tories, who, with very honest intentions, and +sometimes with good judgments, proposed new securities to the liberty of +the nation, against the prerogative or influence of the Crown and the +corruption of Ministers in future times. To some of these I gave way, +being convinced they were right, but others I resisted for fear of +weakening too much the royal authority, and breaking that balance in +which consists the perfection of a mixed form of government. I should +not, perhaps, have resisted so many if I had not seen in the House of +Commons a disposition to rise in their demands on the Crown had they +found it more yielding. The difficulties of my government, upon the +whole, were so great that I once had determined, from mere disgust and +resentment, to give back to the nation, assembled in Parliament, the +crown they had placed on my head, and retire to Holland, where I found +more affection and gratitude in the people. But I was stopped by the +earnest supplications of my friends and by an unwillingness to undo the +great work I had done, especially as I knew that, if England should +return into the hands of King James, it would be impossible in that +crisis to preserve the rest of Europe from the dominion of France. + +_De Witt_.--Heaven be praised that your Majesty did not persevere in so +fatal a resolution! The United Provinces would have been ruined by it +together with England. But I cannot enough express my astonishment that +you should have met with such treatment as could suggest such a thought. +The English must surely be a people incapable either of liberty or +subjection. + +_William_.--There were, I must acknowledge, some faults in my temper and +some in my government, which are an excuse for my subjects with regard to +the uneasiness and disquiet they gave me. My taciturnity, which suited +the genius of the Dutch, offended theirs. They love an affable prince; +it was chiefly his affability that made them so fond of Charles II. Their +frankness and good-humour could not brook the reserve and coldness of my +nature. Then the excess of my favour to some of the Dutch, whom I had +brought over with me, excited a national jealousy in the English and hurt +their pride. My government also appeared, at last, too unsteady, too +fluctuating between the Whigs and the Tories, which almost deprived me of +the confidence and affection of both parties. I trusted too much to the +integrity and the purity of my intentions, without using those arts that +are necessary to allay the ferment of factions and allure men to their +duty by soothing their passions. Upon the whole I am sensible that I +better understood how to govern the Dutch than the English or the Scotch, +and should probably have been thought a greater man if I had not been +King of Great Britain. + +_De Witt_.--It is a shame to the English that gratitude and affection for +such merit as yours were not able to overcome any little disgusts arising +from your temper, and enthrone their deliverer in the hearts of his +people. But will your Majesty give me leave to ask you one question? Is +it true, as I have heard, that many of them disliked your alliances on +the Continent and spoke of your war with France as a Dutch measure, in +which you sacrificed England to Holland? + +_William_.--The cry of the nation at first was strong for the war, but +before the end of it the Tories began publicly to talk the language you +mention. And no wonder they did, for, as they then had a desire to set +up again the maxims of government which had prevailed in the reign of +their beloved Charles II., they could not but represent opposition to +France, and vigorous measures taken to restrain her ambition, as +unnecessary for England, because they well knew that the counsels of that +king had been utterly averse to such measures; that his whole policy made +him a friend to France; that he was governed by a French mistress, and +even bribed by French money to give that Court his assistance, or at +least his acquiescence, in all their designs. + +_De Witt_.--A King of England whose Cabinet is governed by France, and +who becomes a vile pensioner to a French King, degrades himself from his +royalty, and ought to be considered as an enemy to the nation. Indeed +the whole policy of Charles II., when he was not forced off from his +natural bias by the necessity he lay under of soothing his Parliament, +was a constant, designed, systematical opposition to the interest of his +people. His brother, though more sensible to the honour of England, was +by his Popery and desire of arbitrary power constrained to lean upon +France, and do nothing to obstruct her designs on the Continent or lessen +her greatness. It was therefore necessary to place the British Crown on +your head, not only with a view to preserve the religious and civil +rights of the people from internal oppressions, but to rescue the whole +State from that servile dependence on its natural enemy, which must +unquestionably have ended in its destruction. What folly was it to +revile your measures abroad, as sacrificing the interest of your British +dominions to connections with the Continent, and principally with +Holland! Had Great Britain no interest to hinder the French from being +masters of all the Austrian Netherlands, and forcing the Seven United +Provinces, her strongest barrier on the Continent against the power of +that nation, to submit with the rest to their yoke? Would her trade, +would her coasts, would her capital itself have been safe after so mighty +an increase of shipping and sailors as France would have gained by those +conquests? And what could have prevented them, but the war which you +waged and the alliances which you formed? Could the Dutch and the +Germans, unaided by Great Britain, have attempted to make head against a +Power which, even with her assistance, strong and spirited as it was, +they could hardly resist? And after the check which had been given to +the encroachments of France by the efforts of the first grand alliance, +did not a new and greater danger make it necessary to recur to another +such league? Was not the union of France and Spain under one monarch, or +even under one family, the most alarming contingency that ever had +threatened the liberty of Europe? + +_William_.--I thought so, and I am sure I did not err in my judgment. But +folly is blind, and faction wilfully shuts her eyes against the most +evident truths that cross her designs, as she believes any lies, however +palpable and absurd, that she thinks will assist them. + +_De Witt_.--The only objection which seems to have any real weight +against your system of policy, with regard to the maintenance of a +balance of power in Europe, is the enormous expense that must necessarily +attend it; an expense which I am afraid neither England nor Holland will +be able to bear without extreme inconvenience. + +_William_.--I will answer that objection by asking a question. If, when +you were Pensionary of Holland, intelligence had been brought that the +dykes were ready to break and the sea was coming in to overwhelm and to +drown us, what would you have said to one of the deputies who, when you +were proposing the proper repairs to stop the inundation, should have +objected to the charge as too heavy on the Province? This was the case +in a political sense with both England and Holland. The fences raised to +keep out superstition and tyranny were all giving way; those dreadful +evils were threatening, with their whole accumulated force, to break in +upon us and overwhelm our ecclesiastical and civil constitutions. In +such circumstances to object to a necessary expense is folly and madness. + +_De Witt_.--It is certain, sir, that the utmost abilities of a nation can +never be so well employed as in the unwearied, pertinacious defence of +their religion and freedom. When these are lost, there remains nothing +that is worth the concern of a good or wise man. Nor do I think it +consistent with the prudence of government not to guard against future +dangers, as well as present; which precaution must be often in some +degree expensive. I acknowledge, too, that the resources of a commercial +country, which supports its trade, even in war, by invincible fleets, and +takes care not to hurt it in the methods of imposing or collecting its +taxes, are immense, and inconceivable till the trial is made; especially +where the Government, which demands the supplies, is agreeable to the +people. But yet an unlimited and continued expense will in the end be +destructive. What matters it whether a State is mortally wounded by the +hand of a foreign enemy, or dies by a consumption of its own vital +strength? Such a consumption will come upon Holland sooner than upon +England, because the latter has a greater radical force; but, great as it +is, that force at last will be so diminished and exhausted by perpetual +drains, that it may fail all at once, and those efforts, which may seem +most surprisingly vigorous, will be in reality the convulsions of death. +I don't apply this to your Majesty's government; but I speak with a view +to what may happen hereafter from the extensive ideas of negotiation and +war which you have established: they have been salutary to your kingdom; +but they will, I fear, be pernicious in future times, if in pursuing +great plans great Ministers do not act with a sobriety, prudence, and +attention to frugality, which very seldom are joined with an +extraordinary vigour and boldness of counsels. + + + +DIALOGUE XIX. + + +M. APICIUS--DARTENEUF. + +_Darteneuf_.--Alas! poor Apicius, I pity thee from my heart for not +having lived in my age and in my country. How many good dishes, unknown +at Rome in thy days, have I feasted upon in England! + +_Apicius_.--Keep your pity for yourself. How many good dishes have I +feasted upon in Rome which England does not produce, or of which the +knowledge has been lost, with other treasures of antiquity, in these +degenerate days! The fat paps of a sow, the livers of scari, the brains +of phoenicopters, and the tripotanum, which consisted of three excellent +sorts of fish, for which you English have no names, the lupus marinus, +the myxo, and the muraena. + +_Darteneuf_.--I thought the muraena had been our lamprey. We have +delicate ones in the Severn. + +_Apicius_.--No; the muraena, so respected by the ancient Roman senators, +was a salt-water fish, and kept by our nobles in ponds, into which the +sea was admitted. + +_Darteneuf_.--Why, then, I dare say our Severn lampreys are better. Did +you ever eat any of them stewed or potted? + +_Apicius_.--I was never in Britain. Your country then was too barbarous +for me to go thither. I should have been afraid that the Britons would +have eaten me. + +_Darteneuf_.--I am sorry for you, very sorry; for if you never were in +Britain you never ate the best oysters. + +_Apicius_.--Pardon me, sir, your Sandwich oysters were brought to Rome in +my time. + +_Darteneuf_.--They could not be fresh; they were good for nothing there. +You should have come to Sandwich to eat them. It is a shame for you that +you did not. An epicure talk of danger when he is in search of a dainty! +Did not Leander swim over the Hellespont in a tempest to get to his +mistress? And what is a wench to a barrel of exquisite oysters? + +_Apicius_.--Nay; I am sure you can't blame me for any want of alertness +in seeking fine fishes. I sailed to the coast of Africa, from Minturnae +in Campania, only to taste of one species, which I heard was larger there +than it was on our coast; and finding that I had received a false +information, I returned immediately, without even deigning to land. + +_Darteneuf_.--There was some sense in that. But why did not you also +make a voyage to Sandwich? Had you once tasted those oysters in their +highest perfection, you would never have come back; you would have eaten +till you burst. + +_Apicius_.--I wish I had. It would have been better than poisoning +myself, as I did at Rome, because I found, upon the balance of my +accounts, I had only the pitiful sum of fourscore thousand pounds left, +which would not afford me a table to keep me from starving. + +_Darteneuf_.--A sum of fourscore thousand pounds not keep you from +starving! Would I had had it! I should have been twenty years in +spending it, with the best table in London. + +_Apicius_.--Alas, poor man! This shows that you English have no idea of +the luxury that reigned in our tables. Before I died I had spent in my +kitchen 807,291 pounds 13s. 4d. + +_Darteneuf_.--I don't believe a word of it. There is certainly an error +in the account. + +_Apicius_.--Why, the establishment of Lucullus for his suppers in the +Apollo--I mean for every supper he sat down to in the room which he +called by that name--was 5,000 drachms, which is in your money 1,614 +pounds 11s. 8d. + +_Darteneuf_.--Would I had supped with him there! But are you sure there +is no blunder in these calculations? + +_Apicius_.--Ask your learned men that. I reckon as they tell me. But +you may think that these feasts were made only by great men, by +triumphant generals, like Lucullus, who had plundered all Asia to help +him in his housekeeping. What will you say when I tell you that the +player AEsopus had one dish that cost him 6,000 sestertia--that is, 4,843 +pounds 10s. English? + +_Darteneuf_.--What will I say? Why, that I pity my worthy friend Mr. +Gibber, and that, if I had known this when alive, I should have hanged +myself for vexation that I did not live in those days. + +_Apicius_.--Well you might, well you might. You don't know what eating +is. You never could know it. Nothing less than the wealth of the Roman +Empire is sufficient to enable a man of taste to keep a good table. Our +players were infinitely richer than your princes. + +_Darteneuf_.--Oh that I had but lived in the blessed reign of Caligula, +or of Vitellius, or of Heliogabalus, and had been admitted to the honour +of dining with their slaves! + +_Apicius_.--Ay, there you touch me. I am miserable that I died before +their good times. They carried the glories of their table much farther +than the best eaters of the age in which I lived. Vitellius spent in +feasting, within the compass of one year, what would amount in your money +to above 7,200,000 pounds. He told me so himself in a conversation I had +with him not long ago. And the two others you mentioned did not fall +very short of his royal magnificence. + +_Darteneuf_.--These, indeed, were great princes. But what most affects +me is the luxury of that upstart fellow AEsopus. Pray, of what +ingredients might the dish he paid so much for consist? + +_Apicius_.--Chiefly of singing birds. It was that which so greatly +enhanced the price. + +_Darteneuf_.--Of singing birds! Choke him! I never ate but one, which I +stole out of its cage from a lady of my acquaintance, and all London was +in an uproar, as if I had stolen and roasted an only child. But, upon +recollection, I doubt whether I have really so much cause to envy AEsopus. +For the singing bird which I ate was not so good as a wheat-ear or +becafigue. And therefore I suspect that all the luxury you have bragged +of was nothing but vanity. It was like the foolish extravagance of the +son of AEsopus, who dissolved pearls in vinegar and drank them at supper. +I will stake my credit that a haunch of good buck venison and my +favourite ham pie were much better dishes than any at the table of +Vitellius himself. It does not appear that you ancients ever had any +good soups, without which a man of taste cannot possibly dine. The +rabbits in Italy are detestable. But what is better than the wing of one +of our English wild rabbits? I have been told you had no turkeys. The +mutton in Italy is ill-flavoured. And as for your boars roasted whole, +they were only fit to be served up at a corporation feast or election +dinner. A small barbecued hog is worth a hundred of them. And a good +collar of Canterbury or Shrewsbury brawn is a much better dish. + +_Apicius_.--If you had some meats that we wanted, yet our cookery must +have been greatly superior to yours. Our cooks were so excellent that +they could give to hog's flesh the taste of all other meats. + +_Darteneuf_.--I should never have endured their imitations. You might as +easily have imposed on a good connoisseur in painting the copy of a fine +picture for the original. Our cooks, on the contrary, give to all other +meats, and even to some kinds of fish, a rich flavour of bacon without +destroying that which makes the distinction of one from another. It does +not appear to me that essence of hams was ever known to the ancients. We +have a hundred ragouts, the composition of which surpasses all +description. Had yours been as good, you could not have lain indolently +lolling upon couches while you were eating. They would have made you sit +up and mind your business. Then you had a strange custom of hearing +things read to you while you were at supper. This demonstrates that you +were not so well entertained as we are with our meat. When I was at +table, I neither heard, nor saw, nor spoke; I only tasted. But the worst +of all is that, in the utmost perfection of your luxury, you had no wine +to be named with claret, Burgundy, champagne, old hock, or Tokay. You +boasted much of your Falernum, but I have tasted the Lachrymae Christi +and other wines of that coast, not one of which would I have drunk above +a glass or two of if you would have given me the Kingdom of Naples. I +have read that you boiled your wines and mixed water with them, which is +sufficient evidence that in themselves they were not fit to drink. + +_Apicius_.--I am afraid you do really excel us in wines; not to mention +your beer, your cider, and your perry, of all which I have heard great +fame from your countrymen, and their report has been confirmed by the +testimony of their neighbours who have travelled into England. Wonderful +things have been also said to me of an English liquor called punch. + +_Darteneuf_.--Ay, to have died without tasting that is miserable indeed! +There is rum punch and arrack punch! It is difficult to say which is +best, but Jupiter would have given his nectar for either of them, upon my +word and honour. + +_Apicius_.--The thought of them puts me into a fever with thirst. + +_Darteneuf_.--Those incomparable liquors are brought to us from the East +and West Indies, of the first of which you knew little, and of the latter +nothing. This alone is sufficient to determine the dispute. What a new +world of good things for eating and drinking has Columbus opened to us! +Think of that, and despair. + +_Apicius_.--I cannot indeed but exceedingly lament my ill fate that +America was not discovered before I was born. It tortures me when I hear +of chocolate, pineapples, and a number of other fine fruits, or delicious +meats, produced there which I have never tasted. + +_Darteneuf_.--The single advantage of having sugar to sweeten everything +with, instead of honey, which you, for want of the other, were obliged to +make use of, is inestimable. + +_Apicius_.--I confess your superiority in that important article. But +what grieves me most is that I never ate a turtle. They tell me that it +is absolutely the best of all foods. + +_Darteneuf_.--Yes, I have heard the Americans say so, but I never ate +any; for in my time they were not brought over to England. + +_Apicius_.--Never ate any turtle! How couldst thou dare to accuse me of +not going to Sandwich to eat oysters, and didst not thyself take a trip +to America to riot on turtles? But know, wretched man, I am credibly +informed that they are now as plentiful in England as sturgeons. There +are turtle-boats that go regularly to London and Bristol from the West +Indies. I have just received this information from a fat alderman, who +died in London last week of a surfeit he got at a turtle feast in that +city. + +_Darteneuf_.--What does he say? Does he affirm to you that turtle is +better than venison? + +_Apicius_.--He says, there was a haunch of the fattest venison untouched, +while every mouth was employed on the turtle alone. + +_Darteneuf_.--Alas! how imperfect is human felicity! I lived in an age +when the noble science of eating was supposed to have been carried to its +highest perfection in England and France. And yet a turtle feast is a +novelty to me! Would it be impossible, do you think, to obtain leave +from Pluto of going back for one day to my own table at London just to +taste of that food? I would promise to kill myself by the quantity of it +I would eat before the next morning. + +_Apicius_.--You have forgot you have no body. That which you had has +long been rotten, and you can never return to the earth with another, +unless Pythagoras should send you thither to animate a hog. But comfort +yourself that, as you have eaten dainties which I never tasted, so the +next age will eat some unknown to this. New discoveries will be made, +and new delicacies brought from other parts of the world. But see; who +comes hither? I think it is Mercury. + +_Mercury_.--Gentlemen, I must tell you that I have stood near you +invisible, and heard your discourse--a privilege which, you know, we +deities use as often as we please. Attend, therefore, to what I shall +communicate to you, relating to the subject upon which you have been +talking. I know two men, one of whom lived in ancient, and the other in +modern times, who had much more pleasure in eating than either of you +through the whole course of your lives. + +_Apicius_.--One of these happy epicures, I presume, was a Sybarite, and +the other a French gentleman settled in the West Indies. + +_Mercury_.--No; one was a Spartan soldier, and the other an English +farmer. I see you both look astonished. But what I tell you is truth. +Labour and hunger gave a relish to the black broth of the former, and the +salt beef of the latter, beyond what you ever found in the tripotanums or +ham pies, that vainly stimulated your forced and languid appetites, which +perpetual indolence weakened, and constant luxury overcharged. + +_Darteneuf_.--This, Apicius, is more mortifying than not to have shared a +turtle feast. + +_Apicius_.--I wish, Mercury, you had taught me your art of cookery in my +lifetime; but it is a sad thing not to know what good living is till +after one is dead. + + + +DIALOGUE XX. + + +ALEXANDER THE GREAT--CHARLES XII., KING OF SWEDEN. + +_Alexander_.--Your Majesty seems in great wrath! Who has offended you? + +_Charles_.--The offence is to you as much as me. Here is a fellow +admitted into Elysium who has affronted us both--an English poet, one +Pope. He has called us two madmen! + +_Alexander_.--I have been unlucky in poets. No prince ever was fonder of +the Muses than I, or has received from them a more ungrateful return. +When I was alive, I declared that I envied Achilles because he had a +Homer to celebrate his exploits; and I most bountifully rewarded +Choerilus, a pretender to poetry, for writing verses on mine. But my +liberality, instead of doing me honour, has since drawn upon me the +ridicule of Horace, a witty Roman poet; and Lucan, another versifier of +the same nation, has loaded my memory with the harshest invectives. + +_Charles_.--I know nothing of these; but I know that in my time a pert +French satirist, one Boileau, made so free with your character, that I +tore his book for having abused my favourite hero. And now this saucy +Englishman has libelled us both. But I have a proposal to make to you +for the reparation of our honour. If you will join with me, we will turn +all these insolent scribblers out of Elysium, and throw them down +headlong to the bottom of Tartarus, in spite of Pluto and all his guards. + +_Alexander_.--This is just such a scheme as that you formed at Bender, to +maintain yourself there, with the aid of three hundred Swedes, against +the whole force of the Ottoman Empire. And I must say that such follies +gave the English poet too much cause to call you a madman. + +_Charles_.--If my heroism was madness, yours, I presume, was not wisdom. + +_Alexander_.--There was a vast difference between your conduct and mine. +Let poets or declaimers say what they will, history shows that I was not +only the bravest soldier, but one of the ablest commanders the world has +ever seen. Whereas you, by imprudently leading your army into vast and +barren deserts at the approach of the winter, exposed it to perish in its +march for want of subsistence, lost your artillery, lost a great number +of your soldiers, and was forced to fight with the Muscovites under such +disadvantages as made it almost impossible for you to conquer. + +_Charles_.--I will not dispute your superiority as a general. It is not +for me, a mere mortal, to contend with the son of Jupiter Ammon. + +_Alexander_.--I suppose you think my pretending that Jupiter was my +father as much entitles me to the name of a madman as your extravagant +behaviour at Bender does you. But you are greatly mistaken. It was not +my vanity, but my policy, which set up that pretension. When I proposed +to undertake the conquest of Asia, it was necessary for me to appear to +the people something more than a man. They had been used to the idea of +demi-god heroes. I therefore claimed an equal descent with Osiris and +Sesostris, with Bacchus and Hercules, the former conquerors of the East. +The opinion of my divinity assisted my arms and subdued all nations +before me, from the Granicus to the Ganges. But though I called myself +the son of Jupiter, and kept up the veneration that name inspired, by a +courage which seemed more than human, and by the sublime magnanimity of +all my behaviour, I did not forget that I was the son of Philip. I used +the policy of my father and the wise lessons of Aristotle, whom he had +made my preceptor, in the conduct of all my great designs. It was the +son of Philip who planted Greek colonies in Asia as far as the Indies; +who formed projects of trade more extensive than his empire itself; who +laid the foundations of them in the midst of his wars; who built +Alexandria, to be the centre and staple of commerce between Europe, Asia, +and Africa, who sent Nearchus to navigate the unknown Indian seas, and +intended to have gone himself from those seas to the Pillars of +Hercules--that is, to have explored the passage round Africa, the +discovery of which has since been so glorious to Vasco de Gama. It was +the son of Philip who, after subduing the Persians, governed them with +such lenity, such justice, and such wisdom, that they loved him even more +than ever they had loved their natural kings; and who, by intermarriages +and all methods that could best establish a coalition between the +conquerors and the conquered, united them into one people. But what, +sir, did you do to advance the trade of your subjects, to procure any +benefit to those you had vanquished, or to convert any enemy into a +friend? + +_Charles_.--When I might easily have made myself King of Poland, and was +advised to do so by Count Piper, my favourite Minister, I generously gave +that kingdom to Stanislas, as you had given a great part of you conquests +in India to Porus, besides his own dominions, which you restored to him +entire after you had beaten his army and taken him captive. + +_Alexander_.--I gave him the government of those countries under me and +as my lieutenant, which was the best method of preserving my power in +conquests where I could not leave garrisons sufficient to maintain them. +The same policy was afterwards practised by the Romans, who of all +conquerors, except me, were the greatest politicians. But neither was I +nor were they so extravagant as to conquer only for others, or dethrone +kings with no view but merely to have the pleasure of bestowing their +crowns on some of their subjects without any advantage to ourselves. +Nevertheless, I will own that my expedition to India was an exploit of +the son of Jupiter, not of the son of Philip. I had done better if I had +stayed to give more consistency to my Persian and Grecian Empires, +instead of attempting new conquests and at such a distance so soon. Yet +even this war was of use to hinder my troops from being corrupted by the +effeminacy of Asia, and to keep up that universal awe of my name which in +those countries was the great support of my power. + +_Charles_.--In the unwearied activity with which I proceeded from one +enterprise to another, I dare call myself your equal. Nay, I may pretend +to a higher glory than you, because you only went on from victory to +victory; but the greatest losses were not able to diminish my ardour or +stop the efforts of my daring and invincible spirit. + +_Alexander_.--You showed in adversity much more magnanimity than you did +in prosperity. How unworthy of a prince who imitated me was your +behaviour to the king your arms had vanquished! The compelling Augustus +to write himself a letter of congratulation to one of his vassals whom +you had placed in his throne, was the very reverse of my treatment of +Porus and Darius. It was an ungenerous insult upon his ill-fortune. It +was the triumph of a little and a low mind. The visit you made him +immediately after that insult was a further contempt, offensive to him, +and both useless and dangerous to yourself. + +_Charles_.--I feared no danger from it. I knew he durst not use the +power I gave him to hurt me. + +_Alexander_.--If his resentment in that instant had prevailed over his +fear, as it was likely to do, you would have perished deservedly by your +insolence and presumption. For my part, intrepid as I was in all dangers +which I thought it was necessary or proper for me to meet, I never put +myself one moment in the power of an enemy whom I had offended. But you +had the rashness of folly as well as of heroism. A false opinion +conceived of your enemy's weakness proved at last your undoing. When, in +answer to some reasonable propositions of peace sent to you by the Czar, +you said, "You would come and treat with him at Moscow," he replied very +justly, "That you affected to act like Alexander, but should not find in +him a Darius." And, doubtless, you ought to have been better acquainted +with the character of that prince. Had Persia been governed by a Peter +Alexowitz when I made war against it, I should have acted more +cautiously, and not have counted so much on the superiority of my troops +in valour and discipline over an army commanded by a king who was so +capable of instructing them in all they wanted. + +_Charles_.--The battle of Narva, won by eight thousand Swedes against +fourscore thousand Muscovites, seemed to authorise my contempt of the +nation and their prince. + +_Alexander_.--It happened that their prince was not present in that +battle. But he had not as yet had the time which was necessary to +instruct his barbarous soldiers. You gave him that time, and he made so +good a use of it that you found at Pultowa the Muscovites become a +different nation. If you had followed the blow you gave them at Narva, +and marched directly to Moscow, you might have destroyed their Hercules +in his cradle. But you suffered him to grow till his strength was +mature, and then acted as if he had been still in his childhood. + +_Charles_.--I must confess you excelled me in conduct, in policy, and in +true magnanimity. But my liberality was not inferior to yours; and +neither you nor any mortal ever surpassed me in the enthusiasm of +courage. I was also free from those vices which sullied your character. +I never was drunk; I killed no friend in the riot of a feast; I fired no +palace at the instigation of a harlot. + +_Alexander_.--It may perhaps be admitted, as some excuse for my +drunkenness, that the Persians esteemed it an excellence in their kings +to be able to drink a great quantity of wine, and the Macedonians were +far from thinking it a dishonour. But you were as frantic and as cruel +when sober as I was when drunk. You were sober when you resolved to +continue in Turkey against the will of your host, the Grand Signor. You +were sober when you commanded the unfortunate Patkull, whose only crime +was his having maintained the liberties of his country, and who bore the +sacred character of an ambassador, to be broken alive on the wheel, +against the laws of nations, and those of humanity, more inviolable still +to a generous mind. You were likewise sober when you wrote to the Senate +of Sweden, who, upon a report of your death, endeavoured to take some +care of your kingdom, that you would send them one of your boots, and +from that they should receive their orders if they pretended to meddle in +government--an insult much worse than any the Macedonians complained of +from me when I was most heated with wine and with adulation. As for my +chastity, it was not so perfect as yours, though on some occasions I +obtained great praise for my continence; but, perhaps, if you had been +not quite so insensible to the charms of the fair sex, it would have +mitigated and softened the fierceness, the pride, and the obstinacy of +your nature. + +_Charles_.--It would have softened me into a woman, or, what I think +still more contemptible, the slave of a woman. But you seem to insinuate +that you never were cruel or frantic unless when you were drunk. This I +absolutely deny. You were not drunk when you crucified Hephaestion's +physician for not curing a man who killed himself by his intemperance in +his sickness, nor when you sacrificed to the manes of that favourite +officer the whole nation of the Cusseans--men, women, and children--who +were entirely innocent of his death--because you had read in Homer that +Achilles had immolated some Trojan captives on the tomb of Patroclus. I +could mention other proofs that your passions inflamed you as much as +wine, but these are sufficient. + +_Alexander_.--I can't deny that my passions were sometimes so violent as +to deprive me for a while of the use of my reason; especially when the +pride of such amazing successes, the servitude of the Persians, and +barbarian flattery had intoxicated my mind. To bear at my age, with +continual moderation, such fortune as mine, was hardly in human nature. +As for you, there was an excess and intemperance in your virtues which +turned them all into vices. And one virtue you wanted, which in a prince +is very commendable and beneficial to the public--I mean, the love of +science and of the elegant arts. Under my care and patronage they were +carried in Greece to their utmost perfection. Aristotle, Apelles, and +Lysippus were among the glories of my reign. Yours was illustrated only +by battles. Upon the whole, though, from some resemblance between us I +should naturally be inclined to decide in your favour, yet I must give +the priority in renown to your enemy, Peter Alexowitz. That great +monarch raised his country; you ruined yours. He was a legislator; you +were a tyrant. + + + +DIALOGUE XXI. + + +CARDINAL XIMENES--CARDINAL WOLSEY. + +_Wolsey_.--You seem to look on me, Ximenes, with an air of superiority, +as if I was not your equal. Have you forgotten that I was the favourite +and first Minister of a great King of England? that I was at once Lord +High Chancellor, Bishop of Durham, Bishop of Winchester, Archbishop of +York, and Cardinal Legate? On what other subject were ever accumulated +so many dignities, such honours, such power? + +_Ximenes_.--In order to prove yourself my equal, you are pleased to tell +me what you had, not what you did. But it is not the having great +offices, it is the doing great things, that makes a great Minister. I +know that for some years you governed the mind of King Henry VIII., and +consequently his kingdom, with the most absolute sway. Let me ask you, +then, What were the acts of your reign? + +_Wolsey_.--My acts were those of a very skilful courtier and able +politician. I managed a temper which nature had made the most difficult +to manage of any perhaps that ever existed, with such consummate address +that all its passions were rendered entirely subservient to my +inclinations. In foreign affairs I turned the arms of my master or +disposed of his friendship, whichever way my own interest happened to +direct. It was not with him, but with me, that treaties were made by the +Emperor or by France; and none were concluded during my Ministry that did +not contain some Article in my favour, besides secret assurances of +aiding my ambition or resentment, which were the real springs of all my +negotiations. At home I brought the pride of the English nobility, which +had resisted the greatest of the Plantagenets, to bow submissively to the +son of a butcher of Ipswich. And, as my power was royal, my state and +magnificence were suitable to it; my buildings, my furniture, my +household, my equipage, my liberalities, and my charities were above the +rank of a subject. + +_Ximenes_.--From all you have said I understand that you gained great +advantages for yourself in the course of your Ministry--too great, +indeed, for a good man to desire, or a wise man to accept. But what did +you do for your sovereign and for the State? You make me no answer. What +I did is well known. I was not content with forcing the arrogance of the +Spanish nobility to stoop to my power, but used that power to free the +people from their oppressions. In you they respected the royal +authority; I made them respect the majesty of the laws. I also relieved +my countrymen, the commons of Castile, from a most grievous burden, by an +alteration in the method of collecting their taxes. After the death of +Isabella I preserved the tranquillity of Aragon and Castile by procuring +the regency of the latter for Ferdinand, a wise and valiant prince, +though he had not been my friend during the life of the queen. And when +after his decease I was raised to the regency by the general esteem and +affection of the Castilians, I administered the government with great +courage, firmness, and prudence; with the most perfect disinterestedness +in regard to myself, and most zealous concern for the public. I +suppressed all the factions which threatened to disturb the peace of that +kingdom in the minority and the absence of the young king; and prevented +the discontents of the commons of Castile, too justly incensed against +the Flemish Ministers, who governed their prince and rapaciously pillaged +their country, from breaking out during my life into open rebellion, as +they did, most unhappily, soon after my death. These were my civil acts; +but, to complete the renown of my administration, I added to it the palm +of military glory. At my own charges, and myself commanding the army, I +conquered Oran from the Moors, and annexed it, with its territory, to the +Spanish dominions. + +_Wolsey_.--My soul was as elevated and noble as yours, my understanding +as strong, and more refined; but the difference of our conduct arose from +the difference of our objects. To raise your reputation and secure your +power in Castile, by making that kingdom as happy and as great as you +could, was your object. Mine was to procure the Triple Crown for myself +by the assistance of my sovereign and of the greatest foreign Powers. +Each of us took the means that were evidently most proper to the +accomplishment of his ends. + +_Ximenes_.--Can you confess such a principle of your conduct without a +blush? But you will at least be ashamed that you failed in your purpose, +and were the dupe of the Powers with whom you negotiated, after having +dishonoured the character of your master in order to serve your own +ambition. I accomplished my desire with glory to my sovereign and +advantage to my country. Besides this difference, there was a great one +in the methods by which we acquired our power. We both owed it, indeed, +to the favour of princes; but I gained Isabella's by the opinion she had +of my piety and integrity. You gained Henry's by a complaisance and +course of life which were a reproach to your character and sacred orders. + +_Wolsey_.--I did not, as you, Ximenes, did, carry with me to Court the +austerity of a monk; nor, if I had done so, could I possibly have gained +any influence there. Isabella and Henry were different characters, and +their favour was to be sought in different ways. By making myself +agreeable to the latter, I so governed his passions, unruly as they were, +that while I lived they did not produce any of those dreadful effects +which after my death were caused by them in his family and kingdom. + +_Ximenes_.--If Henry VIII., your master, had been King of Castile, I +would never have been drawn by him out of my cloister. A man of virtue +and spirit will not be prevailed with to go into a Court where he cannot +rise without baseness. + +_Wolsey_.--The inflexibility of your mind had like to have ruined you in +some of your measures; and the bigotry which you had derived from your +long abode in a cloister, and retained when a Minister, was very near +depriving the Crown of Castile of the new-conquered kingdom of Granada by +the revolt of the Moors in that city, whom you had prematurely forced to +change their religion. Do you not remember how angry King Ferdinand was +with you on that account? + +_Ximenes_.--I do, and must acknowledge that my zeal was too intemperate +in all that proceeding. + +_Wolsey_.--My worst complaisances to King Henry VIII. were far less +hurtful to England than the unjust and inhuman Court of Inquisition, +which you established in Granada to watch over the faith of your +unwilling converts, has been to Spain. + +_Ximenes_.--I only revived and settled in Granada an ancient tribunal, +instituted first by one of our saints against the Albigenses, and gave it +greater powers. The mischiefs which have attended it cannot be denied; +but if any force may be used for the maintenance of religion (and the +Church of Rome has, you know, declared authoritatively that it may) none +could be so effectual to answer the purpose. + +_Wolsey_.--This is an argument rather against the opinion of the Church +than for the Inquisition. I will only say I think myself very happy that +my administration was stained with no action of cruelty, not even cruelty +sanctified by the name of religion. My temper indeed, which influenced +my conduct more than my principles, was much milder than yours. To the +proud I was proud, but to my friends and inferiors benevolent and humane. +Had I succeeded in the great object of my ambition, had I acquired the +Popedom, I should have governed the Church with more moderation and +better sense than probably you would have done if you had exchanged the +See of Toledo for that of Rome. My good-nature, my policy, my taste for +magnificence, my love of the fine arts, of wit, and of learning, would +have made me the delight of all the Italians, and have given me a rank +among the greatest princes. Whereas in you the sour bigot and rigid monk +would too much have prevailed over the prince and the statesman. + +_Ximenes_.--What either of us would have been in that situation does not +appear; but, if you are compared to me as a Minister, you are vastly +inferior. The only circumstance in which you can justly pretend to any +equality is the encouragement you gave to learning and your munificence +in promoting it, which was indeed very great. Your two colleges founded +at Ipswich and Oxford may vie with my University at Alcala de Henara. But +in our generosity there was this difference--all my revenues were spent +in well-placed liberalities, in acts of charity, piety, and virtue; +whereas a great part of your enormous wealth was squandered away in +luxury and vain ostentation. With regard to all other points, my +superiority is apparent. You were only a favourite; I was the friend and +the father of the people. You served yourself; I served the State. The +conclusion of our lives was also much more honourable to me than you. + +_Wolsey_.--Did not you die, as I did, in disgrace with your master? + +_Ximenes_.--That disgrace was brought upon me by a faction of foreigners, +to whose power, as a good Spaniard, I would not submit. A Minister who +falls a victim to such an opposition rises by his fall. Yours was not +graced by any public cause, any merit to the nation. Your spirit, +therefore, sank under it; you bore it with meanness. Mine was unbroken, +superior to my enemies, superior to fortune, and I died, as I had lived, +with undiminished dignity and greatness of mind. + + + +DIALOGUE XXII. + + +LUCIAN--RABELAIS. + +_Lucian_.--Friend Rabelais, well met--our souls are very good company for +one another; we both were great wits and most audacious freethinkers. We +laughed often at folly, and sometimes at wisdom. I was, indeed, more +correct and more elegant in my style; but then, in return, you had a +greater fertility of imagination. My "True History" is much inferior, in +fancy and invention, in force of wit and keenness of satire, to your +"History of the Acts of Gargantua and Pantagruel." + +_Rabelais_.--You do me great honour; but I may say, without vanity, that +both those compositions entitle the authors of them to a very +distinguished place among memoir-writers, travellers, and even +historians, ancient and modern. + +_Lucian_.--Doubtless they do; but will you pardon me if I ask you one +question? Why did you choose to write such absolute nonsense as you have +in some places of your illustrious work? + +_Rabelais_.--I was forced to compound my physic for the mind with a large +dose of nonsense in order to make it go down. To own the truth to you, +if I had not so frequently put on the fool's-cap, the freedoms I took in +other places with cowls, with Red Hats, and the Triple Crown itself, +would have brought me into great danger. Not only my book, but I myself, +should, in all probability, have been condemned to the flames; and +martyrdom was an honour to which I never aspired. I therefore +counterfeited folly, like Junius Brutus, from the wisest of all +principles--that of self-preservation. You, Lucian, had no need to use +so much caution. Your heathen priests desired only a sacrifice now and +then from an Epicurean as a mark of conformity, and kindly allowed him to +make as free as he pleased, in conversation or writings, with the whole +tribe of gods and goddesses--from the thundering Jupiter and the scolding +Juno, down to the dog Anubis and the fragrant dame Cloacina. + +_Lucian_.--Say rather that our Government allowed us that liberty; for I +assure you our priests were by no means pleased with it--at least, they +were not in my time. + +_Rabelais_.--The wiser men they; for, in spite of the conformity required +by the laws and enforced by the magistrate, that ridicule brought the +system of pagan theology into contempt, not only with the philosophical +part of mankind, but even with the vulgar. + +_Lucian_.--It did so, and the ablest defenders of paganism were forced to +give up the poetical fables and allegorise the whole. + +_Rabelais_.--An excellent way of drawing sense out of absurdity, and +grave instructions from lewdness. There is a great modern wit, Sir +Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who in his treatise entitled "The Wisdom of +the Ancients" has done more for you that way than all your own priests. + +_Lucian_.--He has indeed shown himself an admirable chemist, and made a +fine transmutation of folly into wisdom. But all the later Platonists +took the same method of defending our faith when it was attacked by the +Christians; and certainly a more judicious one could not be found. Our +fables say that in one of their wars with the Titans the gods were +defeated, and forced to turn themselves into beasts in order to escape +from the conquerors. Just the reverse happened here, for by this happy +art our beastly divinities were turned again into rational beings. + +_Rabelais_.--Give me a good commentator, with a subtle, refining, +philosophical head, and you shall have the edification of seeing him draw +the most sublime allegories and the most venerable mystic truths from my +history of the noble Gargantua and Pantagruel. I don't despair of being +proved, to the entire satisfaction of some future ape, to have been, +without exception, the profoundest divine and metaphysician that ever yet +held a pen. + +_Lucian_.--I shall rejoice to see you advanced to that honour. But in +the meantime I may take the liberty to consider you as one of our class. +There you sit very high. + +_Rabelais_.--I am afraid there is another, and a modern author too, whom +you would bid to sit above me, and but just below yourself--I mean Dr. +Swift. + +_Lucian_.--It was not necessary for him to throw so much nonsense into +his history of Lemuel Gulliver as you did into that of your two +illustrious heroes; and his style is far more correct than yours. His +wit never descended, as yours frequently did, into the lowest of taverns, +nor ever wore the meanest garb of the vulgar. + +_Rabelais_.--If the garb which it wore was not as mean, I am certain it +was sometimes as dirty as mine. + +_Lucian_.--It was not always nicely clean; yet, in comparison with you, +he was decent and elegant. But whether there was not in your +compositions more fire, and a more comic spirit, I will not determine. + +_Rabelais_.--If you will not determine it, e'en let it remain a matter in +dispute, as I have left the great question, Whether Panurge should marry +or not? I would as soon undertake to measure the difference between the +height and bulk of the giant Gargantua and his Brobdignagian Majesty, as +the difference of merit between my writings and Swift's. If any man +takes a fancy to like my book, let him freely enjoy the entertainment it +gives him, and drink to my memory in a bumper. If another likes +Gulliver, let him toast Dr. Swift. Were I upon earth I would pledge him +in a bumper, supposing the wine to be good. If a third likes neither of +us, let him silently pass the bottle and be quiet. + +_Lucian_.--But what if he will not be quiet? A critic is an unquiet +creature. + +_Rabelais_.--Why, then he will disturb himself, not me. + +_Lucian_.--You are a greater philosopher than I thought you. I knew you +paid no respect to Popes or kings, but to pay none to critics is, in an +author, a magnanimity beyond all example. + +_Rabelais_.--My life was a farce; my death was a farce; and would you +have me make my book a serious affair? As for you, though in general you +are only a joker, yet sometimes you must be ranked among grave authors. +You have written sage and learned dissertations on history and other +weighty matters. The critics have therefore an undoubted right to maul +you; they find you in their province. But if any of them dare to come +into mine, I will order Gargantua to swallow them up, as he did the six +pilgrims, in the next salad he eats. + +_Lucian_.--Have I not heard that you wrote a very good serious book on +the aphorisms of Hippocrates? + +_Rabelais_.--Upon my faith I had forgot it. I am so used to my fool's +coat that I don't know myself in my solemn doctor's gown. But your +information was right; that book was indeed a very respectable work. Yet +nobody reads it; and if I had writ nothing else, I should have been +reckoned, at best, a lackey to Hippocrates, whereas the historian of +Panurge is an eminent writer. Plain good sense, like a dish of solid +beef or mutton, is proper only for peasants; but a ragout of folly, well +dressed with a sharp sauce of wit, is fit to be served up at an emperor's +table. + +_Lucian_.--You are an admirable pleasant fellow. Let me embrace you. How +Apollo and the Muses may rank you on Parnassus I am not very certain; +but, if I were Master of the Ceremonies on Mount Olympus, you should be +placed, with a full bowl of nectar before you, at the right hand of +Momus. + +_Rabelais_.--I wish you were; but I fear the inhabitants of those sublime +regions will like your company no better than mine. Indeed, how Momus +himself could get a seat at that table I can't well comprehend. It has +been usual, I confess, in some of our Courts upon earth, to have a +privileged jester, called the king's fool. But in the Court of Heaven +one should not have supposed such an officer as Jupiter's fool. Your +allegorical theology in this point is very abstruse. + +_Lucian_.--I think our priests admitted Momus into our heaven, as the +Indians are said to worship the devil, through fear. They had a mind to +keep fair with him. For we may talk of the giants as much as we please, +but to our gods there is no enemy so formidable as he. Ridicule is the +terror of all false religion. Nothing but truth can stand its lash. + +_Rabelais_.--Truth, advantageously set in a good and fair light, can +stand any attacks; but those of Ridicule are so teasing and so fallacious +that I have seen them put her ladyship very much out of humour. + +_Lucian_.--Ay, friend Rabelais, and sometimes out of countenance too. But +Truth and Wit in confederacy will strike Momus dumb. United they are +invincible, and such a union is necessary upon certain occasions. False +Reasoning is most effectually exposed by Plain Sense; but Wit is the best +opponent to False Ridicule, as Just Ridicule is to all the absurdities +which dare to assume the venerable names of Philosophy or Religion. Had +we made such a proper use of our agreeable talents; had we employed our +ridicule to strip the foolish faces of Superstition, Fanaticism, and +Dogmatical Pride of the serious and solemn masks with which they are +covered, at the same time exerting all the sharpness of our wit to combat +the flippancy and pertness of those who argue only by jests against +reason and evidence in points of the highest and most serious concern, we +should have much better merited the esteem of mankind. + + + +DIALOGUE XXIII. + + +PERICLES--COSMO DE MEDICIS, THE FIRST OF THAT NAME. + +_Pericles_.--In what I have heard of your character and your fortune, +illustrious Cosmo, I find a most remarkable resemblance with mine. We +both lived in republics where the sovereign power was in the people; and +by mere civil arts, but more especially by our eloquence, attained, +without any force, to such a degree of authority that we ruled those +tumultuous and stormy democracies with an absolute sway, turned the +tempests which agitated them upon the heads of our enemies, and after +having long and prosperously conducted the greatest affairs in war and +peace, died revered and lamented by all our fellow-citizens. + +_Cosmo_.--We have indeed an equal right to value ourselves on that +noblest of empires, the empire we gained over the minds of our +countrymen. Force or caprice may give power, but nothing can give a +lasting authority except wisdom and virtue. By these we obtained, by +these we preserved, in our respective countries, a dominion unstained by +usurpation or blood--a dominion conferred on us by the public esteem and +the public affection. We were in reality sovereigns, while we lived with +the simplicity of private men; and Athens and Florence believed +themselves to be free, though they obeyed all our dictates. This is more +than was done by Philip of Macedon, or Sylla, or Caesar. It is the +perfection of policy to tame the fierce spirit of popular liberty, not by +blows or by chains, but by soothing it into a voluntary obedience, and +bringing it to lick the hand that restrains it. + +_Pericles_.--The task can never be easy, but the difficulty was still +greater to me than to you. For I had a lion to tame, from whose +intractable fury the greatest men of my country, and of the whole world, +with all their wisdom and virtue, could not save themselves. Themistocles +and Aristides were examples of terror that might well have deterred me +from the administration of public affairs at Athens. Another impediment +in my way was the power of Cimon, who for his goodness, his liberality, +and the lustre of his victories over the Persians was much beloved by the +people, and at the same time, by being thought to favour aristocracy, had +all the noble and rich citizens devoted to his party. It seemed +impossible to shake so well established a greatness. Yet by the charms +and force of my eloquence, which exceeded that of all orators +contemporary with me; by the integrity of my life, my moderation, and my +prudence; but, above all, by my artful management of the people, whose +power I increased that I might render it the basis and support of my own, +I gained such an ascendant over all my opponents that, having first +procured the banishment of Cimon by ostracism, and then of Thucydides, +another formidable antagonist set up by the nobles against my authority, +I became the unrivalled chief, or rather the monarch, of the Athenian +Republic, without ever putting to death, in above forty years that my +administration continued, one of my fellow-citizens; a circumstance which +I declared, when I lay on my death-bed, to be, in my own judgment, more +honourable to me than all my prosperity in the government of the State, +or the nine trophies erected for so many victories obtained by my +conduct. + +_Cosmo_.--I had also the same happiness to boast of at my death. And +some additions were made to the territories of Florence under my +government; but I myself was no soldier, and the Commonwealth I directed +was never either so warlike or so powerful as Athens. I must, therefore, +not pretend to vie with you in the lustre of military glory; and I will +moreover acknowledge that, to govern a people whose spirit and pride were +exalted by the wonderful victories of Marathon, Mycale, Salamis, and +Plataea, was much more difficult than to rule the Florentines and the +Tuscans. The liberty of the Athenians was in your time more imperious, +more haughty, more insolent, than the despotism of the King of Persia. +How great, then, must have been your ability and address that could so +absolutely reduce it under your power! Yet the temper of my countrymen +was not easy to govern, for it was exceedingly factious. The history of +Florence is little else, for several ages, than an account of +conspiracies against the State. In my youth I myself suffered much by +the dissensions which then embroiled the Republic. I was imprisoned and +banished, but after the course of some years my enemies, in their turn, +were driven into exile. I was brought back in triumph, and from that +time till my death, which was above thirty years, I governed the +Florentines, not by arms or evil arts of tyrannical power, but with a +legal authority, which I exercised so discreetly as to gain the esteem of +all the neighbouring potentates, and such a constant affection of all my +fellow-citizens that an inscription, which gave me the title of Father of +my Country, was engraved on my monument by an unanimous decree of the +whole Commonwealth. + +_Pericles_.--Your end was incomparably more happy than mine. For you +died rather of age than any violent illness, and left the Florentines in +a state of peace and prosperity procured for them by your counsels. But +I died of the plague, after having seen it almost depopulate Athens, and +left my country engaged in a most dangerous war, to which my advice and +the power of my eloquence had excited the people. The misfortune of the +pestilence, with the inconveniences they suffered on account of the war, +so irritated their minds, that not long before my death they condemned me +to a fine. + +_Cosmo_.--It is wonderful that, when once their anger was raised, it went +no further against you! A favourite of the people, when disgraced, is in +still greater danger than a favourite of a king. + +_Pericles_.--Your surprise will increase at hearing that very soon +afterwards they chose me their general, and conferred on me again the +principal direction of all their affairs. Had I lived I should have so +conducted the war as to have ended it with advantage and honour to my +country. For, having secured to her the sovereignty of the sea by the +defeat of the Samians, before I let her engage with the power of Sparta, +I knew that our enemies would be at length wearied out and compelled to +sue for a peace, because the city, from the strength of its +fortifications and the great army within it, being on the land side +impregnable to the Spartans, and drawing continual supplies from the sea, +suffered not much by their ravages of the country about it, from whence I +had before removed all the inhabitants; whereas their allies were undone +by the descents we made on their coasts. + +_Cosmo_.--You seem to have understood beyond all other men what +advantages are to be drawn from a maritime power, and how to make it the +surest foundation of empire. + +_Pennies_.--I followed the plan, traced out by Themistocles, the ablest +politician that Greece had ever produced. Nor did I begin the +Peloponnesian War (as some have supposed) only to make myself necessary, +and stop an inquiry into my public accounts. I really thought that the +Republic of Athens could no longer defer a contest with Sparta, without +giving up to that State the precedence in the direction of Greece and her +own independence. To keep off for some time even a necessary war, with a +probable hope of making it more advantageously at a favourable +opportunity, is an act of true wisdom; but not to make it, when you see +that your enemy will be strengthened, and your own advantages lost or +considerably lessened, by the delay, is a most pernicious imprudence. +With relation to my accounts, I had nothing to fear. I had not embezzled +one drachma of public money, nor added one to my own paternal estate; and +the people had placed so entire a confidence in me that they had allowed +me, against the usual forms of their government, to dispose of large sums +for secret service, without account. When, therefore, I advised the +Peloponnesian War, I neither acted from private views, nor with the +inconsiderate temerity of a restless ambition, but as became a wise +statesman, who, having weighed all the dangers that may attend a great +enterprise, and seeing a reasonable hope of good success, makes it his +option to fight for dominion and glory, rather than sacrifice both to the +uncertain possession of an insecure peace. + +_Cosmo_.--How were you sure of inducing so volatile a people to persevere +in so steady a system of conduct as that which you had laid down--a +system attended with much inconvenience and loss to particulars, while it +presented but little to strike or inflame the imagination of the public? +Bold and arduous enterprises, great battles, much bloodshed, and a speedy +decision, are what the multitude desire in every war; but your plan of +operation was the reverse of all this, and the execution of it required +the temper of the Thebans rather than of the Athenians. + +_Pericles_.--I found, indeed, many symptoms of their impatience, but I +was able to restrain it by the authority I had gained; for during my +whole Ministry I never had stooped to court their favour by any unworthy +means, never flattered them in their follies, nor complied with their +passions against their true interests and my own better judgment; but +used the power of my eloquence to keep them in the bounds of a wise +moderation, to raise their spirits when too low, and show them their +danger when they grew too presumptuous, the good effects of which conduct +they had happily experienced in all their affairs. Whereas those who +succeeded to me in the government, by their incapacity, their corruption, +and their servile complaisance to the humour of the people, presently +lost all the fruits of my virtue and prudence. Xerxes himself, I am +convinced, did not suffer more by the flattery of his courtiers than the +Athenians, after my decease, by that of their orators and Ministers of +State. + +_Cosmo_.--Those orators could not gain the favour of the people by any +other methods. Your arts were more noble--they were the arts of a +statesman and of a prince. Your magnificent buildings (which in beauty +of architecture surpassed any the world had ever seen), the statues of +Phidias, the paintings of Zeuxis, the protection you gave to knowledge, +genius, and abilities of every kind, added as much to the glory of Athens +as to your popularity. And in this I may boast of an equal merit to +Florence. For I embellished that city and the whole country about it +with excellent buildings; I protected all arts; and, though I was not +myself so eloquent or so learned as you, I no less encouraged those who +were eminent in my time for their eloquence or their learning. Marcilius +Ficinus, the second father of the Platonic philosophy, lived in my house, +and conversed with me as intimately as Anaxagoras with you. Nor did I +ever forget and suffer him so to want the necessaries of life as you did +Anaxagoras, who had like to have perished by that unfriendly neglect; but +to secure him at all times from any distress in his circumstances, and +enable him to pursue his sublime speculations unmolested by low cares, I +gave him an estate adjacent to one of my favourite villas. I also drew +to Florence Argiropolo, the most learned Greek of those times, that, +under my patronage, he might teach the Florentine youth the language and +sciences of his country. But with regard to our buildings, there is this +remarkable difference--yours were all raised at the expense of the +public, mine at my own. + +_Pericles_.--My estate would bear no profuseness, nor allow me to exert +the generosity of my nature. Your wealth exceeded that of any +particular, or indeed of any prince who lived in your days. The vast +commerce which, after the example of your ancestors, you continued to +carry on in all parts of the world, even while you presided at the helm +of the State, enabled you to do those splendid acts which rendered your +name so illustrious. But I was constrained to make the public treasure +the fund of my bounties; and I thought I could not possibly dispose of it +better in time of peace than in finding employment for that part of the +people which must else have been idle and useless to the community, +introducing into Greece all the elegant arts, and adorning my country +with works that are an honour to human nature; for, while I attended the +most to these civil and peaceful occupations, I did not neglect to +provide, with timely care, against war, nor suffer the nation to sink +into luxury and effeminate softness. I kept our fleets in continual +exercise, maintained a great number of seamen in constant pay, and +disciplined well our land forces. Nor did I ever cease to recommend to +all the Athenians, both by precepts and example, frugality, temperance, +magnanimity, fortitude, and whatever could most effectually contribute to +strengthen their bodies and minds. + +_Cosmo_.--Yet I have heard you condemned for rendering the people less +sober and modest, by giving them a share of the conquered lands, and +paying them wages for their necessary attendance in the public assemblies +and other civil functions; but more especially for the vast and +superfluous expense you entailed on the State in the theatrical +spectacles with which you entertained them at the cost of the public. + +_Pericles_.--Perhaps I may have been too lavish in some of those +bounties. Yet in a popular State it is necessary that the people should +be amused, and should so far partake of the opulence of the public as not +to suffer any want, which would render their minds too low and sordid for +their political duties. In my time the revenues of Athens were +sufficient to bear this charge; but afterwards, when we had lost the +greatest part of our empire, it became, I must confess, too heavy a +burden, and the continuance of it proved one cause of our ruin. + +_Cosmo_.--It is a most dangerous thing to load the State with largesses +of that nature, or indeed with any unnecessary but popular charges, +because to reduce them is almost impossible, though the circumstances of +the public should necessarily demand a reduction. But did not you +likewise, in order to advance your own greatness, throw into the hands of +the people of Athens more power than the institutions of Solon had +entrusted them with, and more than was consistent with the good of the +State? + +_Pericles_.--We are now in the regions where Truth presides, and I dare +not offend her by playing the orator in defence of my conduct. I must +therefore acknowledge that, by weakening the power of the court of +Areopagus, I tore up that anchor which Solon had wisely fixed to keep his +Republic firm against the storms and fluctuations of popular factions. +This alteration, which fundamentally injured the whole State, I made with +a view to serve my own ambition, the only passion in my nature which I +could not contain within the limits of virtue. For I knew that my +eloquence would subject the people to me, and make them the willing +instruments of all my desires; whereas the Areopagus had in it an +authority and a dignity which I could not control. Thus by diminishing +the counterpoise our Constitution had settled to moderate the excess of +popular power, I augmented my own. But since my death I have been often +reproached by the Shades of some of the most virtuous and wisest +Athenians, who have fallen victims to the caprice or fury of the people, +with having been the first cause of the injustice they suffered, and of +all the mischiefs perpetually brought on my country by rash undertakings, +bad conduct, and fluctuating councils. They say, I delivered up the +State to the government of indiscreet or venal orators, and to the +passions of a misguided, infatuated multitude, who thought their freedom +consisted in encouraging calumnies against the best servants of the +Commonwealth, and conferring power upon those who had no other merit than +falling in with and soothing a popular folly. It is useless for me to +plead that, during my life, none of these mischiefs were felt; that I +employed my rhetoric to promote none but good and wise measures; that I +was as free from any taint of avarice or corruption as Aristides himself. +They reply that I am answerable for all the great evils occasioned +afterwards by the want of that salutary restraint on the natural levity +and extravagance of a democracy, which I had taken away. Socrates calls +me the patron of Anytus, and Solon himself frowns upon me whenever we +meet. + +_Cosmo_.--Solon has reason to do so; for tell me, Pericles, what opinion +would you have of the architect you employed in your buildings if he had +made them to last no longer than during the term of your life? + +_Pericles_.--The answer to your question will turn to your own +condemnation. Your excessive liberalities to the indigent citizens, and +the great sums you lent to all the noble families, did in reality buy the +Republic of Florence, and gave your family such a power as enabled them +to convert it from a popular State into an absolute monarchy. + +_Cosmo_.--The Florentines were so infested with discord and faction, and +their commonwealth was so void of military virtue, that they could not +have long been exempt from a more ignominious subjection to some foreign +Power if those internal dissensions, with the confusion and anarchy they +produced, had continued. But the Athenians had performed very glorious +exploits, had obtained a great empire, and were become one of the noblest +States in the world, before you altered the balance of their government. +And after that alteration they declined very fast, till they lost all +their greatness. + +_Pericles_.--Their constitution had originally a foul blemish in it--I +mean, the ban of ostracism, which alone would have been sufficient to +undo any State. For there is nothing of such important use to a nation +as that men who most excel in wisdom and virtue should be encouraged to +undertake the business of government. But this detestable custom +deterred such men from serving the public, or, if they ventured to do so, +turned even their own wisdom and virtue against them; so that in Athens +it was safer to be infamous than renowned. We are told indeed, by the +advocates for this strange institution, that it was not a punishment, but +meant as a guard to the equality and liberty of the State; for which +reason they deem it an honour done to the persons against whom it was +used; as if words could change the real nature of things, and make a +banishment of ten years, inflicted on a good citizen by the suffrages of +his countrymen, no evil to him, or no offence against justice and the +natural right every freeman may claim--that he shall not be expelled from +any society of which he is a member without having first been proved +guilty of some criminal action. + +_Cosmo_.--The ostracism was indeed a most unpardonable fault in the +Athenian constitution. It placed envy in the seat of justice, and gave +to private malice and public ingratitude a legal right to do wrong. Other +nations are blamed for tolerating vice, but the Athenians alone would not +tolerate virtue. + +_Pericles_.--The friends to the ostracism say that too eminent virtue +destroys that equality which is the safeguard of freedom. + +_Cosmo_.--No State is well modelled if it cannot preserve itself from the +danger of tyranny without a grievous violation of natural justice; nor +would a friend to true freedom, which consists in being governed not by +men but by laws, desire to live in a country where a Cleon bore rule, and +where an Aristides was not suffered to remain. But, instead of remedying +this evil, you made it worse. You rendered the people more intractable, +more adverse to virtue, less subject to the laws, and more to impressions +from mischievous demagogues, than they had been before your time. + +_Pericles_.--In truth, I did so; and therefore my place in Elysium, +notwithstanding the integrity of my whole public conduct, and the great +virtues I excited, is much below the rank of those who have governed +commonwealths or limited monarchies, not merely with a concern for their +present advantage, but also with a prudent regard to that balance of +power on which their permanent happiness must necessarily depend. + + + +DIALOGUE XXIV. + + +LOCKE--BAYLE. + +_Bayle_.--Yes, we both were philosophers; but my philosophy was the +deepest. You dogmatised; I doubted. + +_Locke_.--Do you make doubting a proof of depth in philosophy? It may be +a good beginning of it, but it is a bad end. + +_Bayle_.--No; the more profound our searches are into the nature of +things, the more uncertainty we shall find; and the most subtle minds see +objections and difficulties in every system which are overlooked or +undiscoverable by ordinary understandings. + +_Locke_.--It would be better, then, to be no philosopher, and to continue +in the vulgar herd of mankind, that one may have the convenience of +thinking that one knows something. I find that the eyes which Nature has +given me see many things very clearly, though some are out of their +reach, or discerned but dimly. What opinion ought I to have of a +physician who should offer me an eye-water, the use of which would at +first so sharpen my sight as to carry it farther than ordinary vision, +but would in the end put them out? Your philosophy, Monsieur Bayle, is +to the eyes of the mind what I have supposed the doctor's nostrum to be +to those of the body. It actually brought your own excellent +understanding, which was by nature quick-sighted, and rendered more so by +art and a subtlety of logic peculiar to yourself--it brought, I say, your +very acute understanding to see nothing clearly, and enveloped all the +great truths of reason and religion in mists of doubt. + +_Bayle_.--I own it did; but your comparison is not just. I did not see +well before I used my philosophic eye-water. I only supposed I saw well; +but I was in an error, with all the rest of mankind. The blindness was +real; the perceptions were imaginary. I cured myself first of those +false imaginations, and then I laudably endeavoured to cure other men. + +_Locke_.--A great cure, indeed! and don't you think that, in return for +the service you did them, they ought to erect you a statue? + +_Bayle_.--Yes; it is good for human nature to know its own weakness. When +we arrogantly presume on a strength we have not, we are always in great +danger of hurting ourselves--or, at least, of deserving ridicule and +contempt by vain and idle efforts. + +_Locke_.--I agree with you that human nature should know its own +weakness; but it should also feel its strength, and try to improve it. +This was my employment as a philosopher. I endeavoured to discover the +real powers of the mind; to see what it could do, and what it could not; +to restrain it from efforts beyond its ability, but to teach it how to +advance as far as the faculties given to it by Nature, with the utmost +exertion and most proper culture of them, would allow it to go. In the +vast ocean of philosophy I had the line and the plummet always in my +hands. Many of its depths I found myself unable to fathom; but by +caution in sounding, and the careful observations I made in the course of +my voyage, I found out some truths of so much use to mankind that they +acknowledge me to have been their benefactor. + +_Bayle_.--Their ignorance makes them think so. Some other philosopher +will come hereafter, and show those truths to be falsehoods. He will +pretend to discover other truths of equal importance. A later sage will +arise, perhaps among men now barbarous and unlearned, whose sagacious +discoveries will discredit the opinions of his admired predecessor. In +philosophy, as in Nature, all changes its form, and one thing exists by +the destruction of another. + +_Locke_.--Opinions taken up without a patient investigation, depending on +terms not accurately defined, and principles begged without proof, like +theories to explain the phenomena of Nature built on suppositions instead +of experiments, must perpetually change and destroy one another. But +some opinions there are, even in matters not obvious to the common sense +of mankind, which the mind has received on such rational grounds of +assent that they are as immovable as the pillars of heaven, or (to speak +philosophically) as the great laws of Nature, by which, under God, the +universe is sustained. Can you seriously think that because the +hypothesis of your countryman Descartes, which was nothing but an +ingenious, well-imagined romance, has been lately exploded, the system of +Newton, which is built on experiments and geometry--the two most certain +methods of discovering truth--will ever fail? Or that, because the whims +of fanatics and the divinity of the schoolmen cannot now be supported, +the doctrines of that religion which I, the declared enemy of all +enthusiasm and false reasoning, firmly believed and maintained, will ever +be shaken? + +_Bayle_.--If you had asked Descartes, while he was in the height of his +vogue, whether his system would be ever confuted by any other +philosopher's, as that of Aristotle had been by his, what answer do you +suppose he would have returned? + +_Locke_.--Come, come, Monsieur Bayle, you yourself know the difference +between the foundations on which the credit of those systems and that of +Newton is placed. Your scepticism is more affected than real. You found +it a shorter way to a great reputation (the only wish of your heart) to +object than to defend, to pull down than to set up. And your talents +were admirable for that kind of work. Then your huddling together in a +critical dictionary a pleasant tale, or obscene jest, and a grave +argument against the Christian religion, a witty confutation of some +absurd author, and an artful sophism to impeach some respectable truth, +was particularly commodious to all our young smarts and smatterers in +freethinking. But what mischief have you not done to human society! You +have endeavoured, and with some degree of success, to shake those +foundations on which the whole moral world and the great fabric of social +happiness entirely rest. How could you, as a philosopher, in the sober +hours of reflection, answer for this to your conscience, even supposing +you had doubts of the truth of a system which gives to virtue its +sweetest hopes, to impenitent vice its greatest fears, and to true +penitence its best consolations; which restrains even the least +approaches to guilt, and yet makes those allowances for the infirmities +of our nature which the stoic pride denied to it, but which its real +imperfection and the goodness of its infinitely benevolent Creator so +evidently require? + +_Bayle_.--The mind is free, and it loves to exert its freedom. Any +restraint upon it is a violence done to its nature, and a tyranny against +which it has a right to rebel. + +_Locke_.--The mind, though free, has a governor within itself, which may +and ought to limit the exercise of its freedom. That governor is reason. + +_Bayle_.--Yes; but reason, like other governors, has a policy more +dependent upon uncertain caprice than upon any fixed laws. And if that +reason which rules my mind or yours has happened to set up a favourite +notion, it not only submits implicitly to it, but desires that the same +respect should be paid to it by all the rest of mankind. Now I hold that +any man may lawfully oppose this desire in another; and that if he is +wise, he will do his utmost endeavours to check it in himself. + +_Locke_.--Is there not also a weakness of a contrary nature to this you +are now ridiculing? Do we not often take a pleasure to show our own +power and gratify our own pride by degrading notions set up by other men +and generally respected? + +_Bayle_.--I believe we do; and by this means it often happens that if one +man builds and consecrates a temple to folly, another pulls it down. + +_Locke_.--Do you think it beneficial to human society to have all temples +pulled down? + +_Bayle_.--I cannot say that I do. + +_Locke_.--Yet I find not in your writings any mark of distinction to show +us which you mean to save. + +_Bayle_.--A true philosopher, like an impartial historian, must be of no +sect. + +_Locke_.--Is there no medium between the blind zeal of a sectary and a +total indifference to all religion? + +_Bayle_.--With regard to morality I was not indifferent. + +_Locke_.--How could you, then, be indifferent with regard to the +sanctions religion gives to morality? How could you publish what tends +so directly and apparently to weaken in mankind the belief of those +sanctions? Was not this sacrificing the great interests of virtue to the +little motives of vanity? + +_Bayle_.--A man may act indiscreetly, but he cannot do wrong, by +declaring that which, on a full discussion of the question, he sincerely +thinks to be true. + +_Locke_.--An enthusiast who advances doctrines prejudicial to society, or +opposes any that are useful to it, has the strength of opinion and the +heat of a disturbed imagination to plead in alleviation of his fault; but +your cool head and sound judgment can have no such excuse. I know very +well there are passages in all your works, and those not a few, where you +talk like a rigid moralist. I have also heard that your character was +irreproachably good; but when, in the most laboured parts of your +writings, you sap the surest foundations of all moral duties, what avails +it that in others, or in the conduct of your life, you have appeared to +respect them? How many who have stronger passions than you had, and are +desirous to get rid of the curb that restrains them, will lay hold of +your scepticism to set themselves loose from all obligations of virtue! +What a misfortune is it to have made such a use of such talents! It +would have been better for you and for mankind if you had been one of the +dullest of Dutch theologians, or the most credulous monk in a Portuguese +convent. The riches of the mind, like those of Fortune, may be employed +so perversely as to become a nuisance and pest instead of an ornament and +support to society. + +_Bayle_.--You are very severe upon me. But do you count it no merit, no +service to mankind, to deliver them from the frauds and fetters of +priestcraft, from the deliriums of fanaticism, and from the terrors and +follies of superstition? Consider how much mischief these have done to +the world! Even in the last age what massacres, what civil wars, what +convulsions of government, what confusion in society, did they produce! +Nay, in that we both lived in, though much more enlightened than the +former, did I not see them occasion a violent persecution in my own +country? And can you blame me for striking at the root of these evils. + +_Locke_.--The root of these evils, you well know, was false religion; but +you struck at the true. Heaven and hell are not more different than the +system of faith I defended and that which produced the horrors of which +you speak. Why would you so fallaciously confound them together in some +of your writings, that it requires much more judgment, and a more +diligent attention than ordinary readers have, to separate them again, +and to make the proper distinctions? This, indeed, is the great art of +the most celebrated freethinkers. They recommend themselves to warm and +ingenuous minds by lively strokes of wit, and by arguments really strong, +against superstition, enthusiasm, and priestcraft; but at the same time +they insidiously throw the colours of these upon the fair face of true +religion, and dress her out in their garb, with a malignant intention to +render her odious or despicable to those who have not penetration enough +to discern the impious fraud. Some of them may have thus deceived +themselves as well as others. Yet it is certain no book that ever was +written by the most acute of these gentlemen is so repugnant to +priestcraft, to spiritual tyranny, to all absurd superstitions, to all +that can tend to disturb or injure society, as that Gospel they so much +affect to despise. + +_Bayle_.--Mankind is so made that, when they have been over-heated, they +cannot be brought to a proper temper again till they have been +over-cooled. My scepticism might be necessary to abate the fever and +frenzy of false religion. + +_Locke_.--A wise prescription, indeed, to bring on a paralytical state of +the mind (for such a scepticism as yours is a palsy which deprives the +mind of all vigour, and deadens its natural and vital powers) in order to +take off a fever which temperance and the milk of the Evangelical +doctrines would probably cure. + +_Bayle_.--I acknowledge that those medicines have a great power. But few +doctors apply them untainted with the mixture of some harsher drugs or +some unsafe and ridiculous nostrums of their own. + +_Locke_.--What you now say is too true. God has given us a most +excellent physic for the soul in all its diseases, but bad and interested +physicians, or ignorant and conceited quacks, administer it so ill to the +rest of mankind that much of the benefit of it is unhappily lost. + + + +DIALOGUE XXV. + + +ARCHIBALD, EARL OF DOUGLAS, DUKE OF TOURAINE--JOHN, DUKE OF ARGYLE AND +GREENWICH, FIELD-MARSHAL OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S FORCES. + +_Argyle_.--Yes, noble Douglas, it grieves me that you and your son, +together with the brave Earl of Buchan, should have employed so much +valour and have thrown away your lives in fighting the battles of that +State which, from its situation and interests, is the perpetual and most +dangerous enemy to Great Britain. A British nobleman serving France +appears to me as unfortunate and as much out of his proper sphere as a +Grecian commander engaged in the service of Persia would have appeared to +Aristides or Agesilaus. + +_Douglas_.--In serving France I served Scotland. The French were the +natural allies to the Scotch, and by supporting their Crown I enabled my +countrymen to maintain their independence against the English. + +_Argyle_.--The French, indeed, from the unhappy state of our country, +were ancient allies to the Scotch, but that they ever were our natural +allies I deny. Their alliance was proper and necessary for us, because +we were then in an unnatural state, disunited from England. While that +disunion continued, our monarchy was compelled to lean upon France for +assistance and support. The French power and policy kept us, I +acknowledge, independent of the English, but dependent on them; and this +dependence exposed us to many grievous calamities by drawing on our +country the formidable arms of the English whenever it happened that the +French and they had a quarrel. The succours they afforded us were +distant and uncertain. Our enemy was at hand, superior to us in +strength, though not in valour. Our borders were ravaged; our kings were +slain or led captive; we lost all the advantage of being the inhabitants +of a great island; we had no commerce, no peace, no security, no degree +of maritime power. Scotland was a back-door through which the French, +with our help, made their inroads into England; if they conquered, we +obtained little benefit from it; but if they were defeated, we were +always the devoted victims on whom the conquerors severely wreaked their +resentment. + +_Douglas_.--The English suffered as much in those wars as we. How +terribly were their borders laid waste and depopulated by our sharp +incursions! How often have the swords of my ancestors been stained with +the best blood of that nation! Were not our victories at Bannockburn and +at Otterburn as glorious as any that, with all the advantage of numbers, +they have ever obtained over us? + +_Argyle_.--They were; but yet they did us no lasting good. They left us +still dependent on the protection of France. They left us a poor, a +feeble, a distressed, though a most valiant nation. They irritated +England, but could not subdue it, nor hinder our feeling such effects of +its enmity as gave us no reason to rejoice in our triumphs. How much +more happily, in the auspicious reign of that queen who formed the Union, +was my sword employed in humbling the foes of Great Britain! With how +superior a dignity did I appear in the combined British senate, +maintaining the interests of the whole united people of England and +Scotland against all foreign powers who attempted to disturb our general +happiness or to invade our common rights! + +_Douglas_.--Your eloquence and your valour had unquestionably a much +nobler and more spacious field to exercise themselves in than any of +those who defended the interests of only a part of the island. + +_Argyle_.--Whenever I read any account of the wars between the Scotch and +the English, I think I am reading a melancholy history of civil +dissensions. Whichever side is defeated, their loss appears to me a loss +to the whole and an advantage to some foreign enemy of Great Britain. But +the strength of that island is made complete by the Union, and what a +great English poet has justly said in one instance is now true in all:-- + + "The Hotspur and the Douglas, both together, + Are confident against the world in arms." + +Who can resist the English and Scotch valour combined? When separated +and opposed, they balanced each other; united, they will hold the balance +of Europe. If all the Scotch blood that has been shed for the French in +unnatural wars against England had been poured out to oppose the ambition +of France, in conjunction with the English--if all the English blood that +has been spilt as unfortunately in useless wars against Scotland had been +preserved, France would long ago have been rendered incapable of +disturbing our peace, and Great Britain would have been the most powerful +of nations. + +_Douglas_.--There is truth in all you have said. But yet when I reflect +on the insidious ambition of King Edward I., on the ungenerous arts he so +treacherously employed to gain, or rather to steal, the sovereignty of +our kingdom, and the detestable cruelty he showed to Wallace, our brave +champion and martyr, my soul is up in arms against the insolence of the +English, and I adore the memory of those patriots who died in asserting +the independence of our Crown and the liberty of our nation. + +_Argyle_.--Had I lived in those days I should have joined with those +patriots, and been the foremost to maintain so noble a cause. The Scotch +were not made to be subject to the English. Their souls are too great +for such a timid submission. But they may unite and incorporate with a +nation they would not obey. Their scorn of a foreign yoke, their strong +and generous love of independence and freedom, make their union with +England more natural and more proper. Had the spirit of the Scotch been +servile or base, it could never have coalesced with that of the English. + +_Douglas_.--It is true that the minds of both nations are congenial and +filled with the same noble virtues, the same impatience of servitude, the +same magnanimity, courage, and prudence, the same genius for policy, for +navigation and commerce, for sciences and arts. Yet, notwithstanding +this happy conformity, when I consider how long they were enemies to each +other, what an hereditary hatred and jealousy had subsisted for many ages +between them, what private passions, what prejudices, what contrary +interests must have necessarily obstructed every step of the treaty, and +how hard it was to overcome the strong opposition of national pride, I +stand astonished that it was possible to unite the two kingdoms upon any +conditions, and much more that it could be done with such equal regard +and amicable fairness to both. + +_Argyle_.--It was indeed a most arduous and difficult undertaking. The +success of it must, I think, be thankfully ascribed, not only to the +great firmness and prudence of those who had the management of it, but to +the gracious assistance of Providence for the preservation of the +reformed religion amongst us, which, in that conjuncture, if the union +had not been made, would have been ruined in Scotland and much endangered +in England. The same good Providence has watched over and protected it +since, in a most signal manner, against the attempts of an infatuated +party in Scotland and the arts of France, who by her emissaries laboured +to destroy it as soon as formed; because she justly foresaw that the +continuance of it would be destructive to all her vast designs against +the liberty of Europe. I myself had the honour to have a principal share +in subduing one rebellion designed to subvert it, and since my death it +has been, I hope, established for ever, not only by the defeat of another +rebellion, which came upon us in the midst of a dangerous war with +France, but by measures prudently taken in order to prevent such +disturbances for the future. The ministers of the Crown have proposed +and the British legislature has enacted a wise system of laws, the object +of which is to reform and to civilise the Highlands of Scotland; to +deliver the people there from the arbitrary power and oppression of their +chieftains; to carry the royal justice and royal protection into the +wildest parts of their mountains; to hinder their natural valour from +being abused and perverted to the detriment of their country; and to +introduce among them arts, agriculture, commerce, tranquillity, with all +the improvements of social and polished life. + +_Douglas_.--By what you now tell me you give me the highest idea of the +great prince, your master, who, after having been provoked by such a +wicked rebellion, instead of enslaving the people of the Highlands, or +laying the hand of power more heavily upon them (which is the usual +consequence of unsuccessful revolts), has conferred on them the +inestimable blessings of liberty, justice, and good order. To act thus +is indeed to perfect the union and make all the inhabitants of Great +Britain acknowledge, with gratitude and with joy, that they are subjects +of the same well-regulated kingdom, and governed with the same impartial +affection by the sovereign and father of the whole commonwealth. + +_Argyle_.--The laws I have mentioned and the humane benevolent policy of +His Majesty's Government have already produced very salutary effects in +that part of the kingdom, and, if steadily pursued, will produce many +more. But no words can recount to you the infinite benefits which have +attended the union in the northern counties of England and the southern +of Scotland. + +_Douglas_.--The fruits of it must be, doubtless, most sensible there, +where the perpetual enmity between the two nations had occasioned the +greatest disorder and desolation. + +_Argyle_.--Oh, Douglas, could you revive and return into Scotland what a +delightful alteration would you see in that country. All those great +tracts of land, which in your time lay untilled on account of the inroads +of the bordering English, or the feuds and discords that raged with +perpetual violence within our own distracted kingdom, you would now +behold cultivated and smiling with plenty. Instead of the castles, which +every baron was compelled to erect for the defence of his family, and +where he lived in the barbarism of Gothic pride, among miserable vassals +oppressed by the abuse of his feudal powers, your eyes would be charmed +with elegant country houses, adorned with fine plantations and beautiful +gardens, while happy villages or gay towns are rising about them and +enlivening the prospect with every image of rural wealth. On our coasts +trading cities, full of new manufactures, and continually increasing the +extent of their commerce. In our ports and harbours innumerable merchant +ships, richly loaded, and protected from all enemies by the matchless +fleet of Great Britain. But of all improvements the greatest is in the +minds of the Scotch. These have profited, even more than their lands, by +the culture which the settled peace and tranquillity produced by the +union have happily given to them, and they have discovered such talents +in all branches of literature as might render the English jealous of +being excelled by their genius, if there could remain a competition, when +there remains no distinction between the two nations. + +_Douglas_.--There may be emulation without jealousy, and the efforts, +which that emulation will excite, may render our island superior in the +fame of wit and good learning to Italy or to Greece; a superiority, which +I have learnt in the Elysian fields to prefer even to that which is +acquired by arms. But one doubt still remains with me concerning the +union. I have been informed that no more than sixteen of our peers, +except those who have English peerages (which some of the noblest have +not), now sit in the House of Lords as representatives of the rest. Does +not this in a great measure diminish those peers who are not elected? And +have you not found the election of the sixteen too dependent on the +favour of a court? + +_Argyle_.--It was impossible that the English could ever consent in the +Treaty of Union, to admit a greater number to have places and votes in +the Upper House of Parliament, but all the Scotch peerage is virtually +there by representation. And those who are not elected have every +dignity and right of the peerage, except the privilege of sitting in the +House of Lords and some others depending thereon. + +_Douglas_.--They have so; but when parliaments enjoy such a share in the +government of a country as ours do at this time, to be personally there +is a privilege and a dignity of the highest importance. + +_Argyle_.--I wish it had been possible to impart it to all. But your +reason will tell you it was not. And consider, my lord, that, till the +Revolution in 1688, the power vested by our Government in the Lords of +the Articles had made our parliaments much more subject to the influence +of the Crown than our elections are now. As, by the manner in which they +were constituted, those lords were no less devoted to the king than his +own privy council, and as no proposition could then be presented in +Parliament if rejected by them, they gave him a negative before debate. +This, indeed, was abolished upon the accession of King William III., with +many other oppressive and despotical powers, which had rendered our +nobles abject slaves to the Crown, while they were allowed to be tyrants +over the people. But if King James or his son had been restored, the +government he had exercised would have been re-established, and nothing +but the union of the two kingdoms could have effectually prevented that +restoration. We likewise owe to the union the subsequent abolition of +the Scotch privy council, which had been the most grievous engine of +tyranny, and that salutary law which declared that no crimes should be +high treason or misprision of treason in Scotland but such as were so in +England, and gave us the English methods of trial in cases of that +nature; whereas before there were so many species of treasons, the +construction of them was so uncertain, and the trials were so arbitrary, +that no man could be safe from suffering as a traitor. By the same Act +of Parliament we also received a communication of that noble privilege of +the English, exemption from torture--a privilege which, though essential +both to humanity and to justice, no other nation in Europe, not even the +freest republics, can boast of possessing. Shall we, then, take offence +at some inevitable circumstances, which may be objected to, on our part, +in the Treaty of Union, when it has delivered us from slavery, and all +the worst evils that a state can suffer? It might be easily shown that, +in his political and civil condition, every baron in Scotland is much +happier now, and much more independent, than the highest was under that +constitution of government which continued in Scotland even after the +expulsion of King James II. The greatest enemies to the union are the +friends of that king in whose reign, and in his brother's, the kingdom of +Scotland was subjected to a despotism as arbitrary as that of France, and +more tyrannically administered. + +_Douglas_.--All I have heard of those reigns makes me blush with +indignation at the servility of our nobles, who could endure them so +long. What, then, was become of that undaunted Scotch spirit, which had +dared to resist the Plantagenets in the height of their power and pride? +Could the descendants of those who had disdained to be subjects of Edward +I. submit to be slaves of Charles II. or James? + +_Argyle_.--They seemed in general to have lost every characteristic of +their natural temper, except a desire to abuse the royal authority for +the gratification of their private resentments in family quarrels. + +_Douglas_.--Your grandfather, my lord, has the glory of not deserving +this censure. + +_Argyle_.--I am proud that his spirit, and the principles he professed, +drew upon him the injustice and fury of those times. But there needs no +other proof than the nature and the manner of his condemnation to show +what a wretched state our nobility then were in, and what an inestimable +advantage it is to them that they are now to be tried as peers of Great +Britain, and have the benefit of those laws which imparted to us the +equity and the freedom of the English Constitution. + +Upon the whole, as much as wealth is preferable to poverty, liberty to +oppression, and national strength to national weakness, so much has +Scotland incontestably gained by the union. England, too, has secured by +it every public blessing which was before enjoyed by her, and has greatly +augmented her strength. The martial spirit of the Scotch, their hardy +bodies, their acute and vigorous minds, their industry, their activity, +are now employed to the benefit of the whole island. He is now a bad +Scotchman who is not a good Englishman, and he is a bad Englishman who is +not a good Scotchman. Mutual intercourse, mutual interests, mutual +benefits, must naturally be productive of mutual affection. And when +that is established, when our hearts are sincerely united, many great +things, which some remains of jealousy and distrust, or narrow local +partialities, may hitherto have obstructed, will be done for the good of +the whole United Kingdom. How much may the revenues of Great Britain be +increased by the further increase of population, of industry, and of +commerce in Scotland! What a mighty addition to the stock of national +wealth will arise from the improvement of our most northern counties, +which are infinitely capable of being improved! The briars and thorns +are in a great measure grubbed up; the flowers and fruits may soon be +planted. And what more pleasing, or what more glorious employment can +any government have, than to attend to the cultivating of such a +plantation? + +_Douglas_.--The prospect you open to me of happiness to my country +appears so fair, that it makes me amends for the pain with which I +reflect on the times wherein I lived, and indeed on our whole history for +several ages. + +_Argyle_.--That history does, in truth, present to the mind a long series +of the most direful objects, assassinations, rebellions, anarchy, +tyranny, and religion itself, either cruel, or gloomy and unsocial. An +historian who would paint it in its true colours must take the pencil of +Guercino or Salvator Rosa. But the most agreeable imagination can hardly +figure to itself a more pleasing scene of private and public felicity +than will naturally result from the union, if all the prejudices against +it, and all distinctions that may tend on either side to keep up an idea +of separate interests, or to revive a sharp remembrance of national +animosities, can be removed. + +_Douglas_.--If they can be removed! I think it impossible they can be +retained. To resist the union is indeed to rebel against Nature. She +has joined the two countries, has fenced them both with the sea against +the invasion of all other nations, but has laid them entirely open the +one to the other. Accursed be he who endeavours to divide them. What +God has joined let no man put asunder. + + + +DIALOGUE XXVI. + + +CADMUS--HERCULES. + +_Hercules_.--Do you pretend to sit as high on Olympus as Hercules? Did +you kill the Nemean lion, the Erymanthian boar, the Lernean serpent, and +Stymphalian birds? Did you destroy tyrants and robbers? You value +yourself greatly on subduing one serpent; I did as much as that while I +lay in my cradle. + +_Cadmus_.--It is not on account of the serpent I boast myself a greater +benefactor to Greece than you. Actions should be valued by their utility +rather than their eclat. I taught Greece the art of writing, to which +laws owe their precision and permanency. You subdued monsters; I +civilised men. It is from untamed passions, not from wild beasts, that +the greatest evils arise to human society. By wisdom, by art, by the +united strength of civil community, men have been enabled to subdue the +whole race of lions, bears, and serpents, and what is more, to bind in +laws and wholesome regulations the ferocious violence and dangerous +treachery of the human disposition. Had lions been destroyed only in +single combat, men had had but a bad time of it; and what but laws could +awe the men who killed the lions? The genuine glory, the proper +distinction of the rational species, arises from the perfection of the +mental powers. Courage is apt to be fierce, and strength is often +exerted in acts of oppression. But wisdom is the associate of justice. +It assists her to form equal laws, to pursue right measures, to correct +power, protect weakness, and to unite individuals in a common interest +and general welfare. Heroes may kill tyrants, but it is wisdom and laws +that prevent tyranny and oppression. The operations of policy far +surpass the labours of Hercules, preventing many evils which valour and +might cannot even redress. You heroes consider nothing but glory, and +hardly regard whether the conquests which raise your fame are really +beneficial to your country. Unhappy are the people who are governed by +valour not directed by prudence, and not mitigated by the gentle arts! + +_Hercules_.--I do not expect to find an admirer of my strenuous life in +the man who taught his countrymen to sit still and read, and to lose the +hours of youth and action in idle speculation and the sport of words. + +_Cadmus_.--An ambition to have a place in the registers of fame is the +Eurystheus which imposes heroic labours on mankind. The muses incite to +action as well as entertain the hours of repose; and I think you should +honour them for presenting to heroes such a noble recreation as may +prevent their taking up the distaff when they lay down the club. + +_Hercules_.--Wits as well as heroes can take up the distaff. What think +you of their thin-spun systems of philosophy, or lascivious poems, or +Milesian fables? Nay, what is still worse, are there not panegyrics on +tyrants, and books that blaspheme the gods and perplex the natural sense +of right and wrong? I believe if Eurystheus was to set me to work again +he would find me a worse task than any he imposed; he would make me read +through a great library; and I would serve it as I did the hydra, I would +burn as I went on, that one chimera might not rise from another to plague +mankind. I should have valued myself more on clearing the library than +on cleansing the Augean stables. + +_Cadmus_.--It is in those libraries only that the memory of your labours +exists. The heroes of Marathon, the patriots of Thermopylae, owe their +immortality to me. All the wise institutions of lawgivers and all the +doctrines of sages had perished in the ear, like a dream related, if +letters had not preserved them. Oh Hercules! it is not for the man who +preferred virtue to pleasure to be an enemy to the muses. Let +Sardanapalus and the silken sons of luxury, who have wasted life in +inglorious ease, despise the records of action which bear no honourable +testimony to their lives. But true merit, heroic virtue, each genuine +offspring of immortal Jove, should honour the sacred source of lasting +fame. + +_Hercules_.--Indeed, if writers employed themselves only in recording the +acts of great men, much might be said in their favour. But why do they +trouble people with their meditations? Can it signify to the world what +an idle man has been thinking? + +_Cadmus_.--Yes, it may. The most important and extensive advantages +mankind enjoy are greatly owing to men who have never quitted their +closets. To them mankind is obliged for the facility and security of +navigation. The invention of the compass has opened to them new worlds. +The knowledge of the mechanical powers has enabled them to construct such +wonderful machines as perform what the united labour of millions by the +severest drudgery could not accomplish. Agriculture, too, the most +useful of arts, has received its share of improvement from the same +source. Poetry likewise is of excellent use to enable the memory to +retain with more ease, and to imprint with more energy upon the heart, +precepts of virtue and virtuous actions. Since we left the world, from +the little root of a few letters, science has spread its branches over +all nature, and raised its head to the heavens. Some philosophers have +entered so far into the counsels of divine wisdom as to explain much of +the great operations of nature. The dimensions and distances of the +planets, the causes of their revolutions, the path of comets, and the +ebbing and flowing of tides are understood and explained. Can anything +raise the glory of the human species more than to see a little creature, +inhabiting a small spot, amidst innumerable worlds, taking a survey of +the universe, comprehending its arrangement, and entering into the scheme +of that wonderful connection and correspondence of things so remote, and +which it seems the utmost exertion of Omnipotence to have established? +What a volume of wisdom, what a noble theology do these discoveries open +to us! While some superior geniuses have soared to these sublime +subjects, other sagacious and diligent minds have been inquiring into the +most minute works of the Infinite Artificer; the same care, the same +providence is exerted through the whole, and we should learn from it that +to true wisdom utility and fitness appear perfection, and whatever is +beneficial is noble. + +_Hercules_.--I approve of science as far as it is assistant to action. I +like the improvement of navigation and the discovery of the greater part +of the globe, because it opens a wider field for the master spirits of +the world to bustle in. + +_Cadmus_.--There spoke the soul of Hercules. But if learned men are to +be esteemed for the assistance they give to active minds in their +schemes, they are not less to be valued for their endeavours to give them +a right direction and moderate their too great ardour. The study of +history will teach the warrior and the legislator by what means armies +have been victorious and states have become powerful; and in the private +citizen they will inculcate the love of liberty and order. The writings +of sages point out a private path of virtue, and show that the best +empire is self-government, and subduing our passions the noblest of +conquests. + +_Hercules_.--The true spirit of heroism acts by a sort of inspiration, +and wants neither the experience of history nor the doctrines of +philosophers to direct it. But do not arts and sciences render men +effeminate, luxurious, and inactive? and can you deny that wit and +learning are often made subservient to very bad purposes? + +_Cadmus_.--I will own that there are some natures so happily formed they +hardly want the assistance of a master, and the rules of art, to give +them force or grace in everything they do. But these heaven-inspired +geniuses are few. As learning flourishes only where ease, plenty, and +mild government subsist, in so rich a soil, and under so soft a climate, +the weeds of luxury will spring up among the flowers of art; but the +spontaneous weeds would grow more rank, if they were allowed the +undisturbed possession of the field. Letters keep a frugal, temperate +nation from growing ferocious, a rich one from becoming entirely sensual +and debauched. Every gift of the gods is sometimes abused; but wit and +fine talents by a natural law gravitate towards virtue; accidents may +drive them out of their proper direction; but such accidents are a sort +of prodigies, and, like other prodigies, it is an alarming omen, and of +dire portent to the times. For if virtue cannot keep to her allegiance +those men, who in their hearts confess her divine right, and know the +value of her laws, on whose fidelity and obedience can she depend? May +such geniuses never descend to flatter vice, encourage folly, or +propagate irreligion; but exert all their powers in the service of +virtue, and celebrate the noble choice of those, who, like you, preferred +her to pleasure. + + + +DIALOGUE XXVII. + + +MERCURY--AND A MODERN FINE LADY. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--Indeed, Mr. Mercury, I cannot have the pleasure of +waiting upon you now. I am engaged, absolutely engaged. + +_Mercury_.--I know you have an amiable, affectionate husband, and several +fine children; but you need not be told, that neither conjugal +attachments, maternal affections, nor even the care of a kingdom's +welfare or a nation's glory, can excuse a person who has received a +summons to the realms of death. If the grim messenger was not as +peremptory as unwelcome, Charon would not get a passenger (except now and +then a hypochondriacal Englishman) once in a century. You must be +content to leave your husband and family, and pass the Styx. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--I did not mean to insist on any engagement with my +husband and children; I never thought myself engaged to them. I had no +engagements but such as were common to women of my rank. Look on my +chimney-piece, and you will see I was engaged to the play on Mondays, +balls on Tuesdays, the opera on Saturdays, and to card assemblies the +rest of the week, for two months to come; and it would be the rudest +thing in the world not to keep my appointments. If you will stay for me +till the summer season, I will wait on you with all my heart. Perhaps +the Elysian fields may be less detestable than the country in our world. +Pray have you a fine Vauxhall and Ranelagh? I think I should not dislike +drinking the Lethe waters when you have a full season. + +_Mercury_.--Surely you could not like to drink the waters of oblivion, +who have made pleasure the business, end, and aim of your life! It is +good to drown cares, but who would wash away the remembrance of a life of +gaiety and pleasure. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--Diversion was indeed the business of my life, but as to +pleasure, I have enjoyed none since the novelty of my amusements was gone +off. Can one be pleased with seeing the same thing over and over again? +Late hours and fatigue gave me the vapours, spoiled the natural +cheerfulness of my temper, and even in youth wore away my youthful +vivacity. + +_Mercury_.--If this way of life did not give you pleasure, why did you +continue in it? I suppose you did not think it was very meritorious? + +_Mrs. Modish_.--I was too much engaged to think at all: so far indeed my +manner of life was agreeable enough. My friends always told me +diversions were necessary, and my doctor assured me dissipation was good +for my spirits; my husband insisted that it was not, and you know that +one loves to oblige one's friends, comply with one's doctor, and +contradict one's husband; and besides I was ambitious to be thought _du +bon ton_. + +_Mercury_.--_Bon ton_! what is that, madam? Pray define it. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--Oh sir, excuse me, it is one of the privileges of the +_bon ton_ never to define, or be defined. It is the child and the parent +of jargon. It is--I can never tell you what it is: but I will try to +tell you what it is not. In conversation it is not wit; in manners it is +not politeness; in behaviour it is not address; but it is a little like +them all. It can only belong to people of a certain rank, who live in a +certain manner, with certain persons, who have not certain virtues, and +who have certain vices, and who inhabit a certain part of the town. Like +a place by courtesy, it gets a higher rank than the person can claim, but +which those who have a legal title to precedency dare not dispute, for +fear of being thought not to understand the rules of politeness. Now, +sir, I have told you as much as I know of it, though I have admired and +aimed at it all my life. + +_Mercury_.--Then, madam, you have wasted your time, faded your beauty, +and destroyed your health, for the laudable purposes of contradicting +your husband, and being this something and this nothing called the _bon +ton_. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--What would you have had me do? + +_Mercury_.--I will follow your mode of instructing. I will tell you what +I would not have had you do. I would not have had you sacrifice your +time, your reason, and your duties, to fashion and folly. I would not +have had you neglect your husband's happiness and your children's +education. + +_Mrs. Modish_.--As to the education of my daughters, I spared no expense; +they had a dancing-master, music-master, and drawing-mister, and a French +governess to teach them behaviour and the French language. + +_Mercury_.--So their religion, sentiments, and manners were to be learnt +from a dancing-master, music-master, and a chambermaid! Perhaps they +might prepare them to catch the _bon ton_. Your daughters must have been +so educated as to fit them to be wives without conjugal affection, and +mothers without maternal care. I am sorry for the sort of life they are +commencing, and for that which you have just concluded. Minos is a sour +old gentleman, without the least smattering of the _bon ton_, and I am in +a fright for you. The best thing I can advise you is to do in this world +as you did in the other, keep happiness in your view, but never take the +road that leads to it. Remain on this side Styx, wander about without +end or aim, look into the Elysian fields, but never attempt to enter into +them, lest Minos should push you into Tartarus; for duties neglected may +bring on a sentence not much less severe than crimes committed. + + + +DIALOGUE XXVIII. + + +PLUTARCH--CHARON--AND A MODERN BOOKSELLER. + +_Charon_.--Here is a fellow who is very unwilling to land in our +territories. He says he is rich, has a great deal of business in the +other world, and must needs return to it; he is so troublesome and +obstreperous I know not what to do with him. Take him under your care, +therefore, good Plutarch; you will easily awe him into order and decency +by the superiority an author has over a bookseller. + +_Bookseller_.--Am I got into a world so absolutely the reverse of that I +left, that here authors domineer over booksellers? Dear Charon, let me +go back, and I will pay any price for my passage; but, if I must stay, +leave me not with any of those who are styled classical authors. As to +you, Plutarch, I have a particular animosity against you for having +almost occasioned my ruin. When I first set up shop, understanding but +little of business, I unadvisedly bought an edition of your "Lives," a +pack of old Greeks and Romans, which cost me a great sum of money. I +could never get off above twenty sets of them. I sold a few to the +Universities, and some to Eton and Westminster, for it is reckoned a +pretty book for boys and undergraduates; but, unless a man has the luck +to light on a pedant, he shall not sell a set of them in twenty years. + +_Plutarch_.--From the merit of the subjects, I had hoped another +reception for my works. I will own, indeed, that I am not always +perfectly accurate in every circumstance, nor do I give so exact and +circumstantial a detail of the actions of my heroes as may be expected +from a biographer who has confined himself to one or two characters. A +zeal to preserve the memory of great men, and to extend the influence of +such noble examples, made me undertake more than I could accomplish in +the first degree of perfection; but surely the characters of my +illustrious men are not so imperfectly sketched that they will not stand +forth to all ages as patterns of virtue and incitements to glory. My +reflections are allowed to be deep and sagacious; and what can be more +useful to a reader than a wise man's judgment on a great man's conduct? +In my writings you will find no rash censures, no undeserved encomiums, +no mean compliance with popular opinions, no vain ostentation of critical +skill, nor any affected finesse. In my "Parallels," which used to be +admired as pieces of excellent judgment, I compare with perfect +impartiality one great man with another, and each with the rule of +justice. If, indeed, latter ages have produced greater men and better +writers, my heroes and my works ought to give place to them. As the +world has now the advantage of much better rules of morality than the +unassisted reason of poor Pagans could form, I do not wonder that those +vices, which appeared to us as mere blemishes in great characters, should +seem most horrid deformities in the purer eyes of the present age--a +delicacy I do not blame, but admire and commend. And I must censure you +for endeavouring, if you could publish better examples, to obtrude on +your countrymen such as were defective. I rejoice at the preference +which they give to perfect and unalloyed virtue; and as I shall ever +retain a high veneration for the illustrious men of every age, I should +be glad if you would give me some account of those persons who in wisdom, +justice, valour, patriotism, have eclipsed my Solon, Numa, Camillus, and +other boasts of Greece or Rome. + +_Bookseller_.--Why, Master Plutarch, you are talking Greek indeed. That +work which repaired the loss I sustained by the costly edition of your +books was "The Lives of the Highwaymen;" but I should never have grown +rich if it had not been by publishing "The Lives of Men that Never +Lived." You must know that, though in all times it was possible to have +a great deal of learning and very little wisdom, yet it is only by a +modern improvement in the art of writing that a man may read all his life +and have no learning or knowledge at all, which begins to be an advantage +of the greatest importance. There is as natural a war between your men +of science and fools as between the cranes and the pigmies of old. Most +of our young men having deserted to the fools, the party of the learned +is near being beaten out of the field; and I hope in a little while they +will not dare to peep out of their forts and fastnesses at Oxford and +Cambridge. There let them stay and study old musty moralists till one +falls in love with the Greek, another with the Roman virtue; but our men +of the world should read our new books, which teach them to have no +virtue at all. No book is fit for a gentleman's reading which is not +void of facts and of doctrines, that he may not grow a pedant in his +morals or conversation. I look upon history (I mean real history) to be +one of the worst kinds of study. Whatever has happened may happen again, +and a well-bred man may unwarily mention a parallel instance he had met +with in history and be betrayed into the awkwardness of introducing into +his discourse a Greek, a Roman, or even a Gothic name; but when a +gentleman has spent his time in reading adventures that never occurred, +exploits that never were achieved, and events that not only never did, +but never can happen, it is impossible that in life or in discourse he +should ever apply them. A secret history, in which there is no secret +and no history, cannot tempt indiscretion to blab or vanity to quote; and +by this means modern conversation flows gentle and easy, unencumbered +with matter and unburdened of instruction. As the present studies throw +no weight or gravity into discourse and manners, the women are not afraid +to read our books, which not only dispose to gallantry and coquetry, but +give rules for them. Caesar's "Commentaries," and the "Account of +Xenophon's Expedition," are not more studied by military commanders than +our novels are by the fair--to a different purpose, indeed; for their +military maxims teach to conquer, ours to yield. Those inflame the vain +and idle love of glory: these inculcate a noble contempt of reputation. +The women have greater obligations to our writers than the men. By the +commerce of the world men might learn much of what they get from books; +but the poor women, who in their early youth are confined and restrained, +if it were not for the friendly assistance of books, would remain long in +an insipid purity of mind, with a discouraging reserve of behaviour. + +_Plutarch_.--As to your men who have quitted the study of virtue for the +study of vice, useful truth for absurd fancy, and real history for +monstrous fiction, I have neither regard nor compassion for them; but I +am concerned for the women who are betrayed into these dangerous studies; +and I wish for their sakes I had expatiated more on the character of +Lucretia and some other heroines. + +_Bookseller_.--I tell you, our women do not read in order to live or to +die like Lucretia. If you would inform us that a _billet-doux_ was found +in her cabinet after her death, or give a hint as if Tarquin really saw +her in the arms of a slave, and that she killed herself not to suffer the +shame of a discovery, such anecdotes would sell very well. Or if, even +by tradition, but better still, if by papers in the Portian family, you +could show some probability that Portia died of dram drinking, you would +oblige the world very much; for you must know, that next to new-invented +characters, we are fond of new lights upon ancient characters; I mean +such lights as show a reputed honest man to have been a concealed knave, +an illustrious hero a pitiful coward, &c. Nay, we are so fond of these +kinds of information as to be pleased sometimes to see a character +cleared from a vice or crime it has been charged with, provided the +person concerned be actually dead. But in this case the evidence must be +authentic, and amount to a demonstration; in the other, a detection is +not necessary; a slight suspicion will do, if it concerns a really good +and great character. + +_Plutarch_.--I am the more surprised at what you say of the taste of your +contemporaries, as I met with a Frenchman who assured me that less than a +century ago he had written a much admired "Life of Cyrus," under the name +of Artamenes, in which he ascribed to him far greater actions than those +recorded of him by Xenophon and Herodotus; and that many of the great +heroes of history had been treated in the same manner; that empires were +gained and battles decided by the valour of a single man, imagination +bestowing what nature has denied, and the system of human affairs +rendered impossible. + +_Bookseller_.--I assure you those books were very useful to the authors +and their booksellers; and for whose benefit besides should a man write? +These romances were very fashionable and had a great sale: they fell in +luckily with the humour of the age. + +_Plutarch_.--Monsieur Scuderi tells me they were written in the times of +vigour and spirit, in the evening of the gallant days of chivalry, which, +though then declining, had left in the hearts of men a warm glow of +courage and heroism; and they were to be called to books as to battle, by +the sound of the trumpet. He says, too, that if writers had not +accommodated themselves to the prejudices of the age, and written of +bloody battles and desperate encounters, their works would have been +esteemed too effeminate an amusement for gentlemen. Histories of +chivalry, instead of enervating, tend to invigorate the mind, and +endeavour to raise human nature above the condition which is naturally +prescribed to it; but as strict justice, patriotic motives, prudent +counsels, and a dispassionate choice of what upon the whole is fittest +and best, do not direct these heroes of romance, they cannot serve for +instruction and example, like the great characters of true history. It +has ever been my opinion, that only the clear and steady light of truth +can guide men to virtue, and that the lesson which is impracticable must +be unuseful. Whoever shall design to regulate his conduct by these +visionary characters will be in the condition of superstitious people, +who choose rather to act by intimations they receive in the dreams of the +night, than by the sober counsels of morning meditation. Yet I confess +it has been the practice of many nations to incite men to virtue by +relating the deeds of fabulous heroes: but surely it is the custom only +of yours to incite them to vice by the history of fabulous scoundrels. +Men of fine imagination have soared into the regions of fancy to bring +back Astrea; you go thither in search of Pandora. Oh disgrace to +letters! Oh shame to the muses! + +_Bookseller_.--You express great indignation at our present race of +writers; but believe me the fault lies chiefly on the side of the +readers. As Monsieur Scuderi observed to you, authors must comply with +the manners and disposition of those who are to read them. There must be +a certain sympathy between the book and the reader to create a good +liking. Would you present a modern fine gentleman, who is negligently +lolling in an easy chair, with the labours of Hercules for his +recreation? or make him climb the Alps with Hannibal when he is expiring +with the fatigue of last night's ball? Our readers must be amused, +flattered, soothed; such adventures must be offered to them as they would +like to have a share in. + +_Plutarch_.--It should be the first object of writers to correct the +vices and follies of the age. I will allow as much compliance with the +mode of the times as will make truth and good morals agreeable. Your +love of fictitious characters might be turned to good purpose if those +presented to the public were to be formed on the rules of religion and +morality. It must be confessed that history, being employed only about +illustrious persons, public events, and celebrated actions, does not +supply us with such instances of domestic merit as one could wish. Our +heroes are great in the field and the senate, and act well in great +scenes on the theatre of the world; but the idea of a man, who in the +silent retired path of life never deviates into vice, who considers no +spectator but the Omniscient Being, and solicits no applause but His +approbation, is the noblest model that can be exhibited to mankind, and +would be of the most general use. Examples of domestic virtue would be +more particularly useful to women than those of great heroines. The +virtues of women are blasted by the breath of public fame, as flowers +that grow on an eminence are faded by the sun and wind which expand them. +But true female praise, like the music of the spheres, arises from a +gentle, a constant, and an equal progress in the path marked out for them +by their great Creator; and, like the heavenly harmony, it is not adapted +to the gross ear of mortals, but is reserved for the delight of higher +beings, by whose wise laws they were ordained to give a silent light and +shed a mild, benignant influence on the world. + +_Bookseller_.--We have had some English and French writers who aimed at +what you suggest. In the supposed character of Clarissa (said a +clergyman to me a few days before I left the world) one finds the dignity +of heroism tempered by the meekness and humility of religion, a perfect +purity of mind, and sanctity of manners. In that of Sir Charles +Grandison, a noble pattern of every private virtue, with sentiments so +exalted as to render him equal to every public duty. + +_Plutarch_.--Are both these characters by the same author? + +_Bookseller_.--Ay, Master Plutarch, and what will surprise you more, this +author has printed for me. + +_Plutarch_.--By what you say, it is pity he should print any work but his +own. Are there no other authors who write in this manner? + +_Bookseller_.--Yes, we have another writer of these imaginary histories; +one who has not long since descended to these regions. His name is +Fielding, and his works, as I have heard the best judges say, have a true +spirit of comedy and an exact representation of nature, with fine moral +touches. He has not, indeed, given lessons of pure and consummate +virtue, but he has exposed vice and meanness with all the powers of +ridicule; and we have some other good wits who have exerted their talents +to the purposes you approve. Monsieur de Marivaux, and some other French +writers, have also proceeded much upon the same plan with a spirit and +elegance which give their works no mean rank among the _belles lettres_. +I will own that, when there is wit and entertainment enough in a book to +make it sell, it is not the worse for good morals. + +_Charon_.--I think, Plutarch, you have made this gentleman a little more +humble, and now I will carry him the rest of his journey. But he is too +frivolous an animal to present to wise Minos. I wish Mercury were here; +he would damn him for his dulness. I have a good mind to carry him to +the Danaides, and leave him to pour water into their vessels which, like +his late readers, are destined to eternal emptiness. Or shall I chain +him to the rock, side to side by Prometheus, not for having attempted to +steal celestial fire, in order to animate human forms, but for having +endeavoured to extinguish that which Jupiter had imparted? Or shall we +constitute him _friseur_ to Tisiphone, and make him curl up her locks +with his satires and libels? + +_Plutarch_.--Minos does not esteem anything frivolous that affects the +morals of mankind. He punishes authors as guilty of every fault they +have countenanced and every crime they have encouraged, and denounces +heavy vengeance for the injuries which virtue or the virtuous have +suffered in consequence of their writings. + + + +DIALOGUE XXIX. + + +PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO AFRICANUS--CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR. + +_Scipio_.--Alas, Caesar! how unhappily did you end a life made +illustrious by the greatest exploits in war and most various civil +talents! + +_Caesar_.--Can Scipio wonder at the ingratitude of Rome to her generals? +Did not he reproach her with it in the epitaph he ordered to be inscribed +upon his tomb at Liternum, that mean village in Campania, to which she +had driven the conqueror of Hannibal and of Carthage? I also, after +subduing her most dangerous enemies, the Helvetians, the Gauls, and the +Germans, after raising her name to the highest pitch of glory, should +have been deprived of my province, reduced to live as a private man under +the power of my enemies and the enviers of my greatness; nay, brought to +a trial and condemned by the judgment of a faction, if I had not led my +victorious troops to Rome, and by their assistance, after all my offers +of peace had been iniquitously rejected, made myself master of a State +which knew so ill how to recompense superior merit. Resentment of this, +together with the secret machinations of envy, produced not long +afterwards a conspiracy of senators, and even of some whom I had most +obliged and loved, against my life, which they basely took away by +assassination. + +_Scipio_.--You say you led your victorious troops to Rome. How were they +your troops? I thought the Roman armies had belonged to the Republic, +not to their generals. + +_Caesar_.--They did so in your time. But before I came to command them, +Marius and Sylla had taught them that they belonged to their generals. +And I taught the senate that a veteran army, affectionately attached to +its leader, could give him all the treasures and honours of the State +without asking their leave. + +_Scipio_.--Just gods! did I then deliver my country from the invading +Carthaginian, did I exalt it by my victories above all other nations, +that it might become a richer prey to its own rebel soldiers and their +ambitious commanders? + +_Caesar_.--How could it be otherwise? Was it possible that the +conquerors of Europe, Asia, and Africa could tamely submit to descend +from their triumphal chariots and become subject to the authority of +praetors and consuls elected by a populace corrupted by bribes, or +enslaved to a confederacy of factious nobles, who, without regard to +merit, considered all the offices and dignities of the State as +hereditary possessions belonging to their families? + +_Scipio_.--If I thought it no dishonour, after triumphing over Hannibal, +to lay down my fasces and obey, as all my ancestors had done before me, +the magistrates of the republic, such a conduct would not have +dishonoured either Marius, or Sylla, or Caesar. But you all dishonoured +yourselves when, instead of virtuous Romans, superior to your +fellow-citizens in merit and glory, but equal to them in a due subjection +to the laws, you became the enemies, the invaders, and the tyrants of +your country. + +_Caesar_.--Was I the enemy of my country in giving it a ruler fit to +support all the majesty and weight of its empire? Did I invade it when I +marched to deliver the people from the usurped dominion and insolence of +a few senators? Was I a tyrant because I would not crouch under Pompey, +and let him be thought my superior when I felt he was not my equal? + +_Scipio_.--Pompey had given you a noble example of moderation in twice +dismissing the armies, at the head of which he had performed such +illustrious actions, and returning a private citizen into the bosom of +his country. + +_Caesar_.--His moderation was a cheat. He believed that the authority +his victories had gained him would make him effectually master of the +commonwealth without the help of those armies. But finding it difficult +to subdue the united opposition of Crassus and me, he leagued himself +with us, and in consequence of that league we three governed the empire. +But, after the death of Crassus, my glorious achievements in subduing the +Gauls raised such a jealousy in him that he could no longer endure me as +a partner in his power, nor could I submit to degrade myself into his +subject. + +_Scipio_.--Am I then to understand that the civil war you engaged in was +really a mere contest whether you or Pompey should remain sole lord of +Rome? + +_Caesar_.--Not so, for I offered, in my letters to the senate, to lay +down my arms if Pompey at the same time would lay down his, and leave the +republic in freedom. Nor did I resolve to draw the sword till not only +the senate, overpowered by the fear of Pompey and his troops, had +rejected these offers, but two tribunes of the people, for legally and +justly interposing their authority in my behalf, had been forced to fly +from Rome disguised in the habit of slaves, and take refuge in my camp +for the safety of their persons. My camp was therefore the asylum of +persecuted liberty, and my army fought to avenge the violation of the +rights and majesty of the people as much as to defend the dignity of +their general unjustly oppressed. + +_Scipio_.--You would therefore have me think that you contended for the +equality and liberty of the Romans against the tyranny of Pompey and his +lawless adherents. In such a war I, myself, if I had lived in your +times, would have willingly been your lieutenant. Tell me then, on the +issue of this honourable enterprise, when you had subdued all your foes +and had no opposition remaining to obstruct your intentions, did you +establish that liberty for which you fought? Did you restore the +republic to what it was in my time? + +_Caesar_.--I took the necessary measures to secure to myself the fruits +of my victories, and gave a head to the empire, which could neither +subsist without one nor find another so well suited to the greatness of +the body. + +_Scipio_.--There the true character of Caesar was seen unmasked. You had +managed so skilfully in the measures which preceded the civil war, your +offers were so specious, and there appeared so much violence in the +conduct of your enemies that, if you had fallen in that war, posterity +might have doubted whether you were not a victim to the interests of your +country. But your success, and the despotism you afterwards exorcised, +took off those disguises and showed clearly that the aim of all your +actions was tyranny. + +_Caesar_.--Let us not deceive ourselves with sounds and names. That +great minds should aspire to sovereign power is a fixed law of Nature. It +is an injury to mankind if the highest abilities are not placed in the +highest stations. Had you, Scipio, been kept down by the republican +jealousy of Cato, the censor Hannibal would have never been recalled out +of Italy nor defeated in Africa. And if I had not been treacherously +murdered by the daggers of Brutus and Cassius, my sword would have +avenged the defeat of Crassus and added the empire of Parthia to that of +Rome. Nor was my government tyrannical. It was mild, humane, and +bounteous. The world would have been happy under it and wished its +continuance, but my death broke the pillars of the public tranquillity +and brought upon the whole empire a direful scene of calamity and +confusion. + +_Scipio_.--You say that great minds will naturally aspire to sovereign +power. But, if they are good as well as great, they will regulate their +ambition by the laws of their country. The laws of Rome permitted me to +aspire to the conduct of the war against Carthage; but they did not +permit you to turn her arms against herself, and subject her to your +will. The breach of one law of liberty is a greater evil to a nation +than the loss of a province; and, in my opinion, the conquest of the +whole world would not be enough to compensate for the total loss of their +freedom. + +_Caesar_.--You talk finely, Africanus; but ask yourself, whether the +height and dignity of your mind--that noble pride which accompanies the +magnanimity of a hero--could always stoop to a nice conformity with the +laws of your country? Is there a law of liberty more essential, more +sacred, than that which obliges every member of a free community to +submit himself to a trial, upon a legal charge brought against him for a +public misdemeanour? In what manner did you answer a regular accusation +from a tribune of the people, who charged you with embezzling the money +of the State? You told your judges that on that day you had vanquished +Hannibal and Carthage, and bade them follow you to the temples to give +thanks to the gods. Nor could you ever be brought to stand a legal +trial, or justify those accounts, which you had torn in the senate when +they were questioned there by two magistrates in the name of the Roman +people. Was this acting like the subject of a free State? Had your +victory procured you an exemption from justice? Had it given into your +hands the money of the republic without account? If it had, you were +king of Rome. Pharsalia, Thapsus, and Munda could do no more for me. + +_Scipio_.--I did not question the right of bringing me to a trial, but I +disdained to plead in vindication of a character so unspotted as mine. My +whole life had been an answer to that infamous charge. + +_Caesar_.--It may be so; and, for my part, I admire the magnanimity of +your behaviour. But I should condemn it as repugnant and destructive to +liberty, if I did not pay more respect to the dignity of a great general, +than to the forms of a democracy or the rights of a tribune. + +_Scipio_.--You are endeavouring to confound my cause with yours; but they +are exceedingly different. You apprehended a sentence of condemnation +against you for some part of your conduct, and, to prevent it, made an +impious war on your country, and reduced her to servitude. I trusted the +justification of my affronted innocence to the opinion of my judges, +scorning to plead for myself against a charge unsupported by any other +proof than bare suspicions and surmises. But I made no resistance; I +kindled no civil war; I left Rome undisturbed in the enjoyment of her +liberty. Had the malice of my accusers been ever so violent, had it +threatened my destruction, I should have chosen much rather to turn my +sword against my own bosom than against that of my country. + +_Caesar_.--You beg the question in supposing that I really hurt my +country by giving her a master. When Cato advised the senate to make +Pompey sole consul, he did it upon this principle, that any kind of +government is preferable to anarchy. The truth of this, I presume, no +man of sense will contest; and the anarchy, which that zealous defender +of liberty so much apprehended, would have continued in Rome, if that +power, which the urgent necessity of the State conferred upon me, had not +removed it. + +_Scipio_.--Pompey and you had brought that anarchy on the State in order +to serve your own ends. It was owing to the corruption, the factions, +and the violence which you had encouraged from an opinion that the senate +would be forced to submit to an absolute power in your hands, as a remedy +against those intolerable evils. But Cato judged well in thinking it +eligible to make Pompey sole consul rather than you dictator, because +experience had shown that Pompey respected the forms of the Roman +constitution; and though he sought, by bad means as well as good, to +obtain the highest magistracies and the most honourable commands, yet he +laid them down again, and contented himself with remaining superior in +credit to any other citizen. + +_Caesar_.--If all the difference between my ambition and Pompey's was +only, as you represent it, in a greater or less respect for the forms of +the constitution, I think it was hardly becoming such a patriot as Cato +to take part in our quarrel, much less to kill himself rather than yield +to my power. + +_Scipio_.--It is easier to revive the spirit of liberty in a government +where the forms of it remain unchanged, than where they have been totally +disregarded and abolished. But I readily own that the balance of the +Roman constitution had been destroyed by the excessive and illegal +authority which the people were induced to confer upon Pompey, before any +extraordinary honours or commands had been demanded by you. And that is, +I think, your best excuse. + +_Caesar_.--Yes, surely. The favourers of the Manilian law had an ill +grace in desiring to limit the commissions I obtained from the people, +according to the rigour of certain absolute republican laws, no more +regarded in my time than the Sybilline oracles or the pious institutions +of Numa. + +_Scipio_.--It was the misfortune of your time that they were not +regarded. A virtuous man would not take from a deluded people such +favours as they ought not to bestow. I have a right to say this because +I chid the Roman people, when, overheated by gratitude for the services I +had done them, they desired to make me perpetual consul and dictator. +Hear this, and blush. What I refused to accept, you snatched by force. + +_Caesar_.--Tiberius Gracchus reproached you with the inconsistency of +your conduct, when, after refusing these offers, you so little respected +the tribunitian authority. But thus it must happen. We are naturally +fond of the idea of liberty till we come to suffer by it, or find it an +impediment to some predominant passion; and then we wish to control it, +as you did most despotically, by refusing to submit to the justice of the +State. + +_Scipio_.--I have answered before to that charge. Tiberius Gracchus +himself, though my personal enemy, thought it became him to stop the +proceedings against me, not for my sake, but for the honour of my +country, whose dignity suffered with mine. Nevertheless I acknowledge my +conduct in that business was not absolutely blameless. The generous +pride of virtue was too strong in my mind. It made me forget I was +creating a dangerous precedent in declining to plead to a legal +accusation brought against me by a magistrate invested with the majesty +of the whole Roman people. It made me unjustly accuse my country of +ingratitude when she had shown herself grateful, even beyond the true +bounds of policy and justice, by not inflicting upon me any penalty for +so irregular a proceeding. But, at the same time, what a proof did I +give of moderation and respect for her liberty, when my utmost resentment +could impel me to nothing more violent than a voluntary retreat and quiet +banishment of myself from the city of Rome! Scipio Africanus offended, +and living a private man in a country-house at Liternum, was an example +of more use to secure the equality of the Roman commonwealth than all the +power of its tribunes. + +_Caesar_.--I had rather have been thrown down the Tarpeian Rock than have +retired, as you did, to the obscurity of a village, after acting the +first part on the greatest theatre of the world. + +_Scipio_.--A usurper exalted on the highest throne of the universe is not +so glorious as I was in that obscure retirement. I hear, indeed, that +you, Caesar, have been deified by the flattery of some of your +successors. But the impartial judgment of history has consecrated my +name, and ranks me in the first class of heroes and patriots; whereas, +the highest praise her records, even under the dominion usurped by your +family, have given to you, is, that your courage and talents were equal +to the object your ambition aspired to, the empire of the world; and that +you exercised a sovereignty unjustly acquired with a magnanimous +clemency. But it would have been better for your country, and better for +mankind, if you had never existed. + + + +DIALOGUE XXX. + + +PLATO--DIOGENES. + +_Diogenes_.--Plato, stand off. A true philosopher as I was, is no +company for a courtier of the tyrant of Syracuse. I would avoid you as +one infected with the most noisome of plagues--the plague of slavery. + +_Plato_.--He who can mistake a brutal pride and savage indecency of +manners for freedom may naturally think that the being in a court +(however virtuous one's conduct, however free one's language there) is +slavery. But I was taught by my great master, the incomparable Socrates, +that the business of true philosophy is to consult and promote the +happiness of society. She must not, therefore, be confined to a tub or a +cell. Her sphere is in senates or the cabinets of kings. While your +sect is employed in snarling at the great or buffooning with the vulgar, +she is counselling those who govern nations, infusing into their minds +humanity, justice, temperance, and the love of true glory, resisting +their passions when they transport them beyond the bounds of virtue, and +fortifying their reason by the antidotes she administers against the +poison of flattery. + +_Diogenes_.--You mean to have me understand that you went to the court of +the Younger Dionysius to give him antidotes against the poison of +flattery. But I say he sent for you only to sweeten the cup, by mixing +it more agreeably, and rendering the flavour more delicate. His vanity +was too nice for the nauseous common draught; but your seasoning gave it +a relish which made it go down most delightfully, and intoxicated him +more than ever. Oh, there is no flatterer half so dangerous to a prince +as a fawning philosopher! + +_Plato_.--If you call it fawning that I did not treat him with such +unmannerly rudeness as you did Alexander the Great when he visited you at +Athens, I have nothing to say. But, in truth, I made my company +agreeable to him, not for any mean ends which regarded only myself, but +that I might be useful both to him and to his people. I endeavoured to +give a right turn to his vanity; and know, Diogenes, that whosoever will +serve mankind, but more especially princes, must compound with their +weaknesses, and take as much pains to gain them over to virtue, by an +honest and prudent complaisance, as others do to seduce them from it by a +criminal adulation. + +_Diogenes_.--A little of my sagacity would have shown you that if this +was your purpose your labour was lost in that court. Why did not you go +and preach chastity to Lais? A philosopher in a brothel, reading +lectures on the beauty of continence and decency, is not a more +ridiculous animal than a philosopher in the cabinet, or at the table of a +tyrant, descanting on liberty and public spirit! What effect had the +lessons of your famous disciple Aristotle upon Alexander the Great, a +prince far more capable of receiving instruction than the Younger +Dionysius? Did they hinder him from killing his best friend, Clitus, for +speaking to him with freedom, or from fancying himself a god because he +was adored by the wretched slaves he had vanquished? When I desired him +not to stand between me and the sun, I humbled his pride more, and +consequently did him more good, than Aristotle had done by all his formal +precepts. + +_Plato_.--Yet he owed to those precepts that, notwithstanding his +excesses, he appeared not unworthy of the empire of the world. Had the +tutor of his youth gone with him into Asia and continued always at his +ear, the authority of that wise and virtuous man might have been able to +stop him, even in the riot of conquest, from giving way to those passions +which dishonoured his character. + +_Diogenes_.--If he had gone into Asia, and had not flattered the king as +obsequiously as Haephestion, he would, like Callisthenes, whom he sent +thither as his deputy, have been put to death for high treason. The man +who will not flatter must live independent, as I did, and prefer a tub to +a palace. + +_Plato_.--Do you pretend, Diogenes, that because you were never in a +court, you never flattered? How did you gain the affection of the people +of Athens but by soothing their ruling passion--the desire of hearing +their superiors abused? Your cynic railing was to them the most +acceptable flattery. This you well understood, and made your court to +the vulgar, always envious and malignant, by trying to lower all dignity +and confound all order. You made your court, I say, as servilely, and +with as much offence to virtue, as the basest flatterer ever did to the +most corrupted prince. But true philosophy will disdain to act either of +these parts. Neither in the assemblies of the people, nor in the +cabinets of kings, will she obtain favour by fomenting any bad +dispositions. If her endeavours to do good prove unsuccessful, she will +retire with honour, as an honest physician departs from the house of a +patient whose distemper he finds incurable, or who refuses to take the +remedies he prescribes. But if she succeeds--if, like the music of +Orpheus, her sweet persuasions can mitigate the ferocity of the multitude +and tame their minds to a due obedience of laws and reverence of +magistrates; or if she can form a Timoleon or a Numa Pompilius to the +government of a state--how meritorious is the work! One king--nay, one +minister or counsellor of state--imbued with her precepts is of more +value than all the speculative, retired philosophers or cynical revilers +of princes and magistrates that ever lived upon earth. + +_Diogenes_.--Don't tell me of the music of Orpheus, and of his taming +wild beasts. A wild beast brought to crouch and lick the hand of a +master, is a much viler animal than he was in his natural state of +ferocity. You seem to think that the business of philosophy is to polish +men into slaves; but I say, it is to teach them to assert, with an +untamed and generous spirit, their independence and freedom. You profess +to instruct those who want to ride their fellow-creatures, how to do it +with an easy and gentle rein; but I would have them thrown off, and +trampled under the feet of all their deluded or insulted equals, on whose +backs they have mounted. Which of us two is the truest friend to +mankind? + +_Plato_.--According to your notions all government is destructive to +liberty; but I think that no liberty can subsist without government. A +state of society is the natural state of mankind. They are impelled to +it by their wants, their infirmities, their affections. The laws of +society are rules of life and action necessary to secure their happiness +in that state. Government is the due enforcing of those laws. That +government is the best which does this post effectually, and most +equally; and that people is the freest which is most submissively +obedient to such a government. + +_Diogenes_.--Show me the government which makes no other use of its power +than duly to enforce the laws of society, and I will own it is entitled +to the most absolute submission from all its subjects. + +_Plato_.--I cannot show you perfection in human institutions. It is far +more easy to blame them than it is to amend them, much may be wrong in +the best: but a good man respects the laws and the magistrates of his +country. + +_Diogenes_.--As for the laws of my country, I did so far respect them as +not to philosophise to the prejudice of the first and greatest principle +of nature and of wisdom, self-preservation. Though I loved to prate +about high matters as well as Socrates, I did not choose to drink hemlock +after his example. But you might as well have bid me love an ugly woman, +because she was dressed up in the gown of Lais, as respect a fool or a +knave, because he was attired in the robe of a magistrate. + +_Plato_.--All I desired of you was, not to amuse yourself and the +populace by throwing dirt upon the robe of a magistrate, merely because +he wore that robe, and you did not. + +_Diogenes_.--A philosopher cannot better display his wisdom than by +throwing contempt on that pageantry which the ignorant multitude gaze at +with a senseless veneration. + +_Plato_.--He who tries to make the multitude venerate nothing is more +senseless than they. Wise men have endeavoured to excite an awful +reverence in the minds of the vulgar for external ceremonies and forms, +in order to secure their obedience to religion and government, of which +these are the symbols. Can a philosopher desire to defeat that good +purpose? + +_Diogenes_.--Yes, if he sees it abused to support the evil purposes of +superstition and tyranny. + +_Plato_.--May not the abuse be corrected without losing the benefit? Is +there no difference between reformation and destruction. + +_Diogenes_.--Half-measures do nothing. He who desires to reform must not +be afraid to pull down. + +_Plato_.--I know that you and your sect are for pulling down everything +that is above your own level. Pride and envy are the motives that set +you all to work. Nor can one wonder that passions, the influence of +which is so general, should give you many disciples and many admirers. + +_Diogenes_.--When you have established your Republic, if you will admit +me into it I promise you to be there a most respectful subject. + +_Plato_.--I am conscious, Diogenes, that my Republic was imaginary, and +could never be established. But they show as little knowledge of what is +practicable in politics as I did in that book, who suppose that the +liberty of any civil society can be maintained by the destruction of +order and decency or promoted by the petulance of unbridled defamation. + +_Diogenes_.--I never knew any government angry at defamation, when it +fell on those who disliked or obstructed its measures. But I well +remember that the thirty tyrants at Athens called opposition to them the +destruction of order and decency. + +_Plato_.--Things are not altered by names. + +_Diogenes_.--No, but names have a strange power to impose on weak +understandings. If, when you were in Egypt, you had laughed at the +worship of an onion, the priests would have called you an atheist, and +the people would have stoned you. But I presume that, to have the honour +of being initiated into the mysteries of that reverend hierarchy, you +bowed as low to it as any of their devout disciples. Unfortunately my +neck was not so pliant, and therefore I was never initiated into the +mysteries either of religion or government, but was feared or hated by +all who thought it their interest to make them be respected. + +_Plato_.--Your vanity found its account in that fear and that hatred. The +high priest of a deity or the ruler of a state is much less distinguished +from the vulgar herd of mankind than the scoffer at all religion and the +despiser of all dominion. But let us end our dispute. I feel my folly +in continuing to argue with one who in reasoning does not seek to come at +truth, but merely to show his wit. Adieu, Diogenes; I am going to +converse with the shades of Pythagoras, Solon, and Bias. You may jest +with Aristophanes or rail with Thersites. + + + +DIALOGUE XXXI. + + +ARISTIDES--PHOCION--DEMOSTHENES. + +_Aristides_.--How could it happen that Athens, after having recovered an +equality with Sparta, should be forced to submit to the dominion of +Macedon when she had two such great men as Phocion and Demosthenes at the +head of her State? + +_Phocion_.--It happened because our opinions of her interests in foreign +affairs were totally different; which made us act with a constant and +pernicious opposition the one to the other. + +_Aristides_.--I wish to hear from you both (if you will indulge my +curiosity) on what principles you could form such contrary judgments +concerning points of such moment to the safety of your country, which you +equally loved. + +_Demosthenes_.--My principles were the same with yours, Aristides. I +laboured to maintain the independence of Athens against the encroaching +ambition of Macedon, as you had maintained it against that of Persia. I +saw that our own strength was unequal to the enterprise; but what we +could not do alone I thought might be done by a union of the principal +states of Greece--such a union as had been formed by you and Themistocles +in opposition to the Persians. To effect this was the great, the +constant aim of my policy; and, though traversed in it by many whom the +gold of Macedon had corrupted, and by Phocion, whom alone, of all the +enemies to my system, I must acquit of corruption, I so far succeeded, +that I brought into the field of Chaeronea an army equal to Philip's. The +event was unfortunate; but Aristides will not judge of the merits of a +statesman by the accidents of war. + +_Phocion_.--Do not imagine, Aristides, that I was less desirous than +Demosthenes to preserve the independence and liberty of my country. But, +before I engaged the Athenians in a war not absolutely necessary, I +thought it proper to consider what the event of a battle would probably +be. That which I feared came to pass: the Macedonians were victorious, +and Athens was ruined. + +_Demosthenes_.--Would Athens not have been ruined if no battle had been +fought? Could you, Phocion, think it safety to have our freedom depend +on the moderation of Philip? And what had we else to protect us, if no +confederacy had been formed to resist his ambition? + +_Phocion_.--I saw no wisdom in accelerating the downfall of my country by +a rash activity in provoking the resentment of an enemy, whose arms, I +foretold, would in the issue prove superior, not only to ours, but to +those of any confederacy we were able to form. My maxim was, that a +state which cannot make itself stronger than any of its neighbours, +should live in friendship with that power which is the strongest. But +the more apparent it was that our strength was inferior to that of +Macedon, the more you laboured to induce us, by all the vehemence of your +oratory, to take such measures as tended to render Philip our enemy, and +exasperate him more against us than any other nation. This I thought a +rash conduct. It was not by orations that the dangerous war you had +kindled could finally be determined; nor did your triumphs over me in an +assembly of the people intimidate any Macedonian in the field of +Chaeronea, or stop you yourself from flying out of that field. + +_Demosthenes_.--My flight from thence, I must own, was ignominious to me; +but it affects not the question we are agitating now, whether the +counsels I gave to the people of Athens, as a statesman and a public +minister, were right or wrong. When first I excited them to make war +against Philip, the victories gained by Chabrias, in which you, Phocion, +had a share (particularly that of Naxos, which completely restored to us +the empire of the sea), had enabled us to maintain, not only our own +liberty, but that of all Greece, in the defence of which we had formerly +acquired so much glory, and which our ancestors thought so important to +the safety and independence of Athens. Philip's power was but beginning, +and supported itself more by craft than force. I saw, and I warned my +countrymen in due time, how impolitic it would be to suffer his +machinations to be carried on with success, and his strength to increase +by continual acquisitions, without resistance. I exposed the weakness of +that narrow, that short-sighted policy, which looked no farther than to +our own immediate borders, and imagined that whatsoever lay out of those +bounds was foreign to our interests, and unworthy of our care. The force +of my remonstrances roused the Athenians to a more vigilant conduct. Then +it was that the orators whom Philip had corrupted loudly inveighed +against me, as alarming the people with imaginary dangers, and drawing +them into quarrels in which they had really no concern. This language, +and the fair professions of Philip, who was perfectly skilled in the +royal art of dissembling, were often so prevalent, that many favourable +opportunities of defeating his designs were unhappily lost. Yet +sometimes, by the spirit with which I animated the Athenians and other +neighbouring states, I stopped the progress of his arms, and opposed to +him such obstacles as cost him much time and much labour to remove. You +yourself, Phocion, at the head of fleets and armies sent against him by +decrees which I had proposed, vanquished his troops in Eubaea, and saved +from him Byzantium, with other cities of our allies on the coasts of the +Hellespont, from which you drove him with shame. + +_Phocion_.--The proper use of those advantages was to secure a peace to +Athens, which they inclined him to keep. His ambition was checked, but +his forces were not so much diminished as to render it safe to provoke +him to further hostilities. + +_Demosthenes_.--His courage and policy were indeed so superior to ours +that, notwithstanding his defeats, he was soon in a condition to pursue +the great plan of conquest and dominion which he had formed long before, +and from which he never desisted. Thus, through indolence on our side +and activity on his, things were brought to such a crisis that I saw no +hope of delivering all Greece from his yoke, but by confederating against +him the Athenians and the Thebans, which league I effected. Was it not +better to fight for the independence of our country in conjunction with +Thebes than alone? Would a battle lost in Boeotia be so fatal to Athens +as one lost in our own territory and under our own walls? + +_Phocion_.--You may remember that when you were eagerly urging this +argument I desired you to consider, not where we should fight, but how we +should be conquerors; for, if we were vanquished, all sorts of evils and +dangers would be instantly at our gates. + +_Aristides_.--Did not you tell me, Demosthenes, when you began to speak +upon this subject, that you brought into the field of Chaeronea an army +equal to Philip's? + +_Demosthenes_.--I did, and believe that Phocion will not contradict me. + +_Aristides_.--But, though equal in number, it was, perhaps, much inferior +to the Macedonians in valour and military discipline. + +_Demosthenes_.--The courage shown by our army excited the admiration of +Philip himself, and their discipline was inferior to none in Greece. + +_Aristides_.--What then occasioned their defeat? + +_Demosthenes_.--The bad conduct of their generals. + +_Aristides_.--Why was the command not given to Phocion, whose abilities +had been proved on so many other occasions? Was it offered to him, and +did he refuse to accept it? You are silent, Demosthenes. I understand +your silence. You are unwilling to tell me that, having the power, by +your influence over the people, to confer the command on what Athenian +you pleased, you were induced, by the spirit of party, to lay aside a +great general who had been always successful, who had the chief +confidence of your troops and of your allies, in order to give it to men +zealous indeed for your measures and full of military ardour, but of +little capacity or experience in the conduct of a war. You cannot plead +that, if Phocion had led your troops against Philip, there was any danger +of his basely betraying his trust. Phocion could not be a traitor. You +had seen him serve the Republic and conquer for it in wars, the +undertaking of which he had strenuously opposed, in wars with Philip. How +could you then be so negligent of the safety of your country as not to +employ him in this, the most dangerous of all she ever had waged? If +Chares and Lysicles, the two generals you chose to conduct it, had +commanded the Grecian forces at Marathon and Plataea we should have lost +those battles. All the men whom you sent to fight the Macedonians under +such leaders were victims to the animosity between you and Phocion, which +made you deprive them of the necessary benefit of his wise direction. +This I think the worst blemish of your administration. In other parts of +your conduct I not only acquit but greatly applaud and admire you. With +the sagacity of a most consummate statesman you penetrated the deepest +designs of Philip, you saw all the dangers which threatened Greece from +that quarter while they were yet at a distance, you exhorted your +countrymen to make a timely provision for their future security, you +spread the alarm through all the neighbouring states, you combined the +most powerful in a confederacy with Athens, you carried the war out of +Attica, which (let Phocion say what he will) was safer than meeting it +there, you brought it, after all that had been done by the enemy to +strengthen himself and weaken us, after the loss of Amphipolis, Olynthus, +and Potidaea, the outguards of Athens, you brought it, I say, to the +decision of a battle with equal forces. When this could be effected +there was evidently nothing so desperate in our circumstances as to +justify an inaction which might probably make them worse, but could not +make them better. Phocion thinks that a state which cannot itself be the +strongest should live in friendship with that power which is the +strongest. But in my opinion such friendship is no better than +servitude. It is more advisable to endeavour to supply what is wanting +in our own strength by a conjunction with others who are equally in +danger. This method of preventing the ruin of our country was tried by +Demosthenes. Nor yet did he neglect, by all practicable means, to +augment at the same time our internal resources. I have heard that when +he found the Public Treasure exhausted he replenished it, with very great +peril to himself, by bringing into it money appropriated before to the +entertainment of the people, against the express prohibition of a popular +law, which made it death to propose the application thereof to any other +use. This was virtue, this was true and genuine patriotism. He owed all +his importance and power in the State to the favour of the people; yet, +in order to serve the State, he did not fear, at the evident hazard of +his life, to offend their darling passion and appeal against it to their +reason. + +_Phocion_.--For this action I praise him. It was, indeed, far more +dangerous for a minister at Athens to violate that absurd and extravagant +law than any of those of Solon. But though he restored our finances, he +could not restore our lost virtue; he could not give that firm health, +that vigour to the State, which is the result of pure morals, of strict +order and civil discipline, of integrity in the old, and obedience in the +young. I therefore dreaded a conflict with the solid strength of +Macedon, where corruption had yet made but a very small progress, and was +happy that Demosthenes did not oblige me, against my own inclination, to +be the general of such a people in such war. + +_Aristides_.--I fear that your just contempt of the greater number of +those who composed the democracy so disgusted you with this mode and form +of government, that you were as averse to serve under it as others with +less ability and virtue than you were desirous of obtruding themselves +into its service. But though such a reluctance proceeds from a very +noble cause, and seems agreeable to the dignity of a great mind in bad +times, yet it is a fault against the highest of moral obligations--the +love of our country. For, how unworthy soever individuals may be, the +public is always respectable, always dear to the virtuous. + +_Phocion_.--True; but no obligation can lie upon a citizen to seek a +public charge when he foresees that his obtaining of it will be useless +to his country. Would you have had me solicit the command of an army +which I believed would be beaten? + +_Aristides_.--It is not permitted to a State to despair of its safety +till its utmost efforts have been made without success. If you had +commanded the army at Chaeronea you might possibly have changed the event +of the day; but, if you had not, you would have died more honourably +there than in a prison at Athens, betrayed by a vain confidence in the +insecure friendship of a perfidious Macedonian. + + + +DIALOGUE XXXII. + + +MARCUS AURELIUS PHILOSOPHUS--SERVIUS TULLIUS. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Yes, Marcus, though I own you to have been the first +of mankind in virtue and goodness--though, while you governed, Philosophy +sat on the throne and diffused the benign influences of her +administration over the whole Roman Empire--yet as a king I might, +perhaps, pretend to a merit even superior to yours. + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--That philosophy you ascribe to me has taught me to +feel my own defects, and to venerate the virtues of other men. Tell me, +therefore, in what consisted the superiority of your merit as a king. + +_Servius Tullius_.--It consisted in this--that I gave my people freedom. +I diminished, I limited the kingly power, when it was placed in my hands. +I need not tell you that the plan of government instituted by me was +adopted by the Romans when they had driven out Tarquin, the destroyer of +their liberty; and gave its form to that republic, composed of a due +mixture of the regal, aristocratical, and democratical powers, the +strength and wisdom of which subdued the world. Thus all the glory of +that great people, who for many ages excelled the rest of mankind in the +arts of war and of policy, belongs originally to me. + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--There is much truth in what you say. But would not +the Romans have done better if, after the expulsion of Tarquin, they had +vested the regal power in a limited monarch, instead of placing it in two +annual elective magistrates with the title of consuls? This was a great +deviation from your plan of government, and, I think, an unwise one. For +a divided royalty is a solecism--an absurdity in politics. Nor was the +regal power committed to the administration of consuls continued in their +hands long enough to enable them to finish any difficult war or other act +of great moment. From hence arose a necessity of prolonging their +commands beyond the legal term; of shortening the interval prescribed by +the laws between the elections to those offices; and of granting +extraordinary commissions and powers, by all which the Republic was in +the end destroyed. + +_Servius Tullius_.--The revolution which ensued upon the death of +Lucretia was made with so much anger that it is no wonder the Romans +abolished in their fury the name of king, and desired to weaken a power +the exercise of which had been so grievous, though the doing this was +attended with all the inconveniences you have justly observed. But, if +anger acted too violently in reforming abuses, philosophy might have +wisely corrected that error. Marcus Aurelius might have new-modelled the +constitution of Rome. He might have made it a limited monarchy, leaving +to the emperors all the power that was necessary to govern a +wide-extended empire, and to the Senate and people all the liberty that +could be consistent with order and obedience to government--a liberty +purged of faction and guarded against anarchy. + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--I should have been happy indeed if it had been in my +power to do such good to my country. But the gods themselves cannot +force their blessings on men who by their vices are become incapable to +receive them. Liberty, like power, is only good for those who possess it +when it is under the constant direction of virtue. No laws can have +force enough to hinder it from degenerating into faction and anarchy, +where the morals of a nation are depraved; and continued habits of vice +will eradicate the very love of it out of the hearts of a people. A +Marcus Brutus in my time could not have drawn to his standard a single +legion of Romans. But, further, it is certain that the spirit of liberty +is absolutely incompatible with the spirit of conquest. To keep great +conquered nations in subjection and obedience, great standing armies are +necessary. The generals of those armies will not long remain subjects; +and whoever acquires dominion by the sword must rule by the sword. If he +does not destroy liberty, liberty will destroy him. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Do you then justify Augustus for the change he made +in the Roman government? + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--I do not, for Augustus had no lawful authority to +make that change. His power was usurpation and breach of trust. But the +government which he seized with a violent hand came to me by a lawful and +established rule of succession. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Can any length of establishment make despotism +lawful? Is not liberty an inherent, inalienable right of mankind? + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--They have an inherent right to be governed by laws, +not by arbitrary will. But forms of government may, and must, be +occasionally changed, with the consent of the people. When I reigned +over them the Romans were governed by laws. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Yes, because your moderation and the precepts of that +philosophy in which your youth had been tutored inclined you to make the +laws the rules of your government and the bounds of your power. But if +you had desired to govern otherwise, had they power to restrain you? + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--They had not. The imperial authority in my time had +no limitations. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Rome therefore was in reality as much enslaved under +you as under your son; and you left him the power of tyrannising over it +by hereditary right? + +_Marcus Aurelius_.--I did; and the conclusion of that tyranny was his +murder. + +_Servius Tullius_.--Unhappy father! unhappy king! what a detestable thing +is absolute monarchy when even the virtues of Marcus Aurelius could not +hinder it from being destructive to his family and pernicious to his +country any longer than the period of his own life. But how happy is +that kingdom in which a limited monarch presides over a state so justly +poised that it guards itself from such evils, and has no need to take +refuge in arbitrary power against the dangers of anarchy, which is almost +as bad a resource as it would be for a ship to run itself on a rock in +order to escape from the agitation of a tempest. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD*** + + +******* This file should be named 17667.txt or 17667.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/6/6/17667 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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