grossment in public business:-There are two opposite errors into which many public men have fallen; on the one hand, allowing family concerns to intermingle with public business, on the other, sacrificing to their station all the enjoyments of private life. The former interference is rare; it is so obviously a source of perplexity and annoyance, that it soon works its own cure; but the latter 'grows by what it feeds upon.' Unless you habitually court the privacy of the domestic circle, you will find that you are losing that intimate acquaintance with those who compose it which is its chief charm, and the source of all its advantage. In your family alone can there be that intercourse of heart with heart which falls like refreshing dew on the soul when it is withered and parched by the heats of business and the intense selfishness which you must hourly meet in public life. Unless your affections are sheltered in that sanctuary, they cannot long resist the blighting influence of a constant repression of their development, and a compulsory substitution of calculation in their stead. Domestic privacy is necessary, not only to your happiness, but even to your efficiency; it gives the rest necessary to your active powers of judgment and discrimi nation; it keeps unclosed those well-springs of the heart whose flow is necessary to float onwards the determination of the head. It is not enough that the indulgence of these affections should fill up the casual chinks of your time; they must have their allotted portion of it, with which nothing but urgent necessity should be allowed to interfere. These things are the aliments of his greatness; they preserve within him that image of moral beauty which constant intercourse with the public world—that is, the world with its worse side outwards-is too likely to efface. If our clergy had been permitted to marry,' said an intelligent Romanist, 'we never should have had inquisitors.'' (Page 327.)

'A place showeth the man: and it showeth some to the better, and some to the worse.'

Bacon here quotes a Greek proverb, and a very just one. Some persons of great promise, when raised to high office, either are puffed up with self-sufficiency, or daunted by the high winds that blow on high hills,' or in some way or other dis

appoint expectation. And others, again, show talents and courage, and other qualifications, when these are called forth by high office, beyond what any one gave them credit for before, and beyond what they suspected to be in themselves. It is unhappily very difficult to judge how a man will conduct himself in a high office, till the trial has been made. It must not, however, be forgotten that renown and commendation will, as in other cases, be indiscriminate. By those whose nearness, or easiness of access, enables them to form an accurate judgment, many a public man will be found neither so detestable nor so admirable as perhaps he is thought by opposite parties. This truth is well expressed in the fable of 'The Clouds."

'Two children once, at eventide,

Thus prattled by their parents' side:—
'See, mother, see that stormy cloud!
What can its inky bosom shroud?
It looks so black, I do declare
I shudder quite to see it there.'
And father, father, now behold
Those others, all of pink and gold!
How beautiful and bright their hue!
I wish that I were up there too:
For, if they look so fine from here,
What must they be when one is near!'
'Children,' the smiling sire replied,
'I've climbed a mountain's lofty side,
Where, lifted 'mid the clouds awhile,
Distance no longer could beguile:
And closer seen, I needs must say
That all the clouds are merely grey;
Differing in shade from one another,
But each in colour like his brother.
Those clouds you see of gold and pink,
To others look as black as ink;

And that same cloud, so black to you,
To some may wear a golden hue.
E'en so, my children, they whom fate
Has planted in a low estate,
Viewing their rulers from afar,

Admire what prodigies they are.

O! what a tyrant! dreadful doom!

His crimes have wrapped our land in gloom!

1 See Fourth Book of the Lessons for the Use of National Schools, page 49.

A tyrant! nay, a hero this,

The glorious source of all our bliss!
But they who haunt the magic sphere,
Beholding then its inmates near,
Know that the men, by some adored,

By others flouted and abhorred,
Nor sink so low, nor rise so high,

As seems it to the vulgar eye.
The man his party deems a hero,
His foes, a Judas, or a Nero-
Patriot of superhuman worth,
Or vilest wretch that cumbers earth,
Derives his bright or murky hues
From distant and from party views;
Seen close, nor black nor gold are they,
But every one a sober grey."'

IT

ESSAY XII. OF BOLDNESS.

1

T is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man's consideration: question was asked of Demosthenes, what was the chief part of an orator? He answered, action: what next? action: what next again? action. He said it that knew it best, and had by nature himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high above those other noble parts, of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay, almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds is taken, are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil busi

what first? boldness: what second and third? boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts: but, nevertheless, it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot those that are either shallow in judgment or weak in courage, which are the greatest part, yea, and prevaileth with wise men at weak times; therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular States, but with senates and princes lessand more, ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so there are mountebanks for the politic Body-men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out. Nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit'abashed, but

2

3 Whit. The least degree; the smallest particle. chiefest Apostles.'—2 Cor. xi. 5.

2 Politic. Political; civil.

'Not a whit behind the very

2

said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.' So these men, when they have promised great matters, and failed most shamefully, yet, if they have the perfection of boldness, they will but slight it over,' and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly, to men of great judgment, bold persons are sport to behold-nay, and to the vulgar also boldness hath somewhat of the ridiculous: for, if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not that great boldness is seldom without some absurdity: especially it is a sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture, as needs it mustfor in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come-but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay;' like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir; but this last were fitter for a satire than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed, that boldness is ever blind, for it seeth not dangers and inconveniences: therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others; for in counsel it is good to see dangers, and in execution not to see them, except they be very great.)

ANNOTATIONS.

'Boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness far inferior to other parts.'

Bacon seems to have had that over-estimate of those who are called the 'prudent' which is rather common. One cause of the supposed superiority of wisdom often attributed to the over-cautious, reserved, non-confiding, non-enterprising charac

1 Slight over.

2 Ado.

To treat carelessly.

'His death, and your deliverance,
Were themes that ought not to be slighted over.-Dryden.
Much ado about nothing.'-Shakespere.

3 Stay. Stand; cessation of progression.

'Never to decay

Until his revolution was at stay.'-Milton.