dusky greasy scoundrels from the Nile. All that is bad is near. There are sounds of revelry which are allied with unutterable shame. The clashing of cymbals and the notes of lutes, the gleam of gold and of wine do not charm here: they terrify. The smoke of the wicked feasts blots the heaven above you, and, like the drifting smoke from funeral piles, is heavy with the odours of death.-T. Hannay.

TACITUS, Hist. iii. c. 83. i. c. 2, 3. Ann. xiv. c. 20, 21. SALLUST, Catilin. c. 10, 11, 12, 13. CICERO, pro Sestio, § 7, 8.

JUVENAL, Sat. i. iii.

AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, xiv. c. 6. xxviii. c. 4.

LIVY, xxxix. c. 6.

PART II.

CHARACTERS.

CHARACTER OF JAMES I.—HIS INCONSISTENCY.

"Nil æquale homini fuit illi."

E was deeply learned, without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual cases, without having real wisdom; fond of his power, and desirous to maintain and augment it, yet willing to resign the direction of that and of himself, to the most unworthy favourites; a big and bold assertor of his rights in words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, in which he was always outwitted; and one who feared war, where conquest might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity; capable of much public labour, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform; and there were moments of his life, and those critical, in which he showed the spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler where serious labour was required; devout in his sentiments, and yet too often profane in his language; just and beneficent by nature, he yet gave way to the iniquities and oppressions of others. He was penurious respecting money which

he had to give from his own hand, yet inconsiderately and unboundedly profuse of that which he did not see. In a word, those good qualities which displayed themselves in particular cases and occasions were not of a nature sufficiently firm and comprehensive to regulate his general conduct; and, showing themselves as they occasionally did, only entitled James to the character bestowed on him by Sully-that he was the wisest fool in Christendom.— Sir W. Scott.

SUETONIUS, Claud. c. 30, 31.

SENECA, lusus de morte Claud. c. 5. HOR. Sat. I. iii. 1-40.

James I.—CharactER OF A PEDANTIC king.

ATURE and education had done their best to produce a

NA

finished specimen of all that a king ought not to be. His awkward figure, his rolling eye, his rickety walk, his nervous tremblings, his slobbering mouth, his broad Scotch accent, were imperfections which might have have been found in the best and greatest man. Their effect, however, was to make James and his office objects of contempt, and to dissolve those associations which had been created by the noble bearing of preceding monarchs, and which were in themselves no inconsiderable fence to royalty. The sovereign whom James most resembled was, we think, Claudius Cæsar. Both had the same feeble vacillating temper, the same childishness, the same coarseness, the same poltroonery. Both were men of learning; both wrote and spoke, not indeed well, but still in a manner which it seems almost incredible that men so foolish should have written or spoken. Claudius was ruled successively by two bad women, James successively by two bad men.-Lord Macaulay.

SUETONIUS, Claud. c. 30, 31. SENECA, lusus de morte Claud. c. 5.

IN

CHARACTER OF PRINCE POTEMKIN.

N this person were collected the most opposite defects and advantages of every kind. He was avaricious and ostentatious, despotic and obliging, politic and confiding, licentious and superstitious, bold and timid, ambitious and indiscreet; lavish of his bounties to his relations, his mistresses, and his favourites; yet frequently paying neither his household nor his creditors. His consequence always depended on a woman, and he was always unfaithful to her. Nothing could equal the activity of his mind, nor the indolence of his body. No dangers could appal his courage; no difficulties force him to abandon his projects. But the success of an enterprise always brought on disgust. Everything with him was desultory: business, pleasure, temper, courage. His presence was a restraint on every company. He was morose to all that stood in awe of him, and caressed all such as accosted him with familiarity. One while he formed the project of becoming Duke of Courland; at another he thought of bestowing on himself the crown of Poland. He built a superb palace, and wanted to pull it down before it was finished. In his youth he had pleased Catherine, by the ardour of his passion, by his valour, and by his masculine beauty. He put out an eye to free it from a blemish which marred its beauty. Banished by his rival, he ran to meet death in battle, and returned with glory. He died at the age of fifty-two.—Byron.

TACITUS, Hist. i. c. 10. ii. c. 5.

SALLUST, Catilin. c. 5, 22.

TH

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

HERE is nothing more memorable in history than the actions, fortunes, and character of this great man, whether we consider the grandeur of the plans he formed, the courage

and wisdom with which they were executed, or the splendour of that success, which adorning his youth continued without the smallest reserve to support his age even to the last moments of his life. He lived above seventy years, and reigned, within ten years, as long as he lived-sixty over his dukedom, above twenty over England-both of which he acquired or kept by his own magnanimity, with hardly any other title than he derived from his arms; so that he might be reputed in all respects as happy as the highest ambition the most fully gratified, can make a man. The silent inward satisfaction of domestic happiness he neither had nor sought. He had a body suited to the character of his mind; erect, firm, large, and active, whilst to be active was a praise; a countenance stern, and which became command. Magnificent in his living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, but relaxing with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his mind, and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions.-Burke.

Livy, ix. c. 16, sqq.

TACITUS, Hist. i. c. 10, 48, 9. ii. c. 50, 86. iii. c. 75, 86. iv. c. 5, 6. Ann. ii. c. 72, 73. iii. c. 30. iv. c. 1.

vi. c. 51.

CICERO, Phil. ii. § 116, 117.

SUETONIUS, Octav. c. 79-84.

CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

NLEARNED in books, he formed his understanding by the

UNLE

rigid discipline of a large and complicated experience. He knew men much, and therefore generally trusted them but little ; but when he knew any man to be good, he reposed in him an entire confidence, which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice. He had vices in his composition, and great ones; but they were the vices of a great mind: ambition, the malady of every extensive genius, and avarice, the madness of the wise: one chiefly actuated his youth, the other governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of wine and the pleasures of love, never