of history would regard as wholly or chiefly the work of men fully sensible of the advantages of a government so mixed and balanced. It was in great measure the result of the efforts, partially neutralizing each other, of men who leaned, more or less, some of them towards pure Monarchy, and others towards Republicanism. And again, though no one can doubt how great an advance (it is as yet only an advance) of the principle of religious toleration, and of making a final appeal to Scripture alone, is due to the Reformation, yet the Reformers were slow in embracing these principles. They were at first nearly as much disposed as their opponents to force their own interpretations of Scripture on every one, and to call in the magistrate to suppress heresy by force. But not being able to agree among themselves whose interpretation of Scripture should be received as authoritative, and who should be entrusted with the sword that was to extirpate heresy, compromises and mutual concessions gradually led more and more to the practical adoption of principles whose theoretical truth and justice is, even yet, not universally perceived.

'And similar instances may be found in every part of history. Without entering into a detailed examination of the particular mode in which, on each occasion, a superior party is influenced by those opposed to them-either from reluctance to drive them to desperation, or otherwise,―certain it is, that, looking only to the results, the practical working of any government,—in the long run, and in the general course of measures,—we do find something corresponding to the composition of forces in Mechanics; and we find oftener than not, that the course actually pursued is better (however faulty) than could have been calculated from the character of the greater part of those who administer the government. The wisest and most moderate, even when they form but a small minority, are often enabled amidst the conflict of those in opposite extremes, to bring about decisions, less wise and just indeed than they themselves would have desired, but far better than those of either of the extreme parties.

'Of course we are not to expect the same exact uniformity of effects in human affairs as in Mechanics. It is not meant that each decision of every Assembly or Body of men will necessarily be the precise 'resultant' (as it is called in Natural Philosophy)

of the several forces operating,—the various parties existing in the Assembly. Some one or two votes will occasionally be passed, by a majority-perhaps by no very large majority,--in utter defiance of the sentiments of the rest. But in the long run-in any course of enactments or proceedings,—some degree of influence will seldom fail to be exercised by those who are in a minority. This influence, again, will not always correspond, in kind, and in degree, with what takes place in Mechanics. For instance, in the material world, the impulses which keep a body motionless must be exactly opposite, and exactly balanced; but in human affairs, it will often happen that there may be a considerable majority in favour of taking some step, or making some enactment, yet a disagreement as to some details will give a preponderance to a smaller party who are against any such step. When the majority, for example, of a garrison are disposed to make an attack on the besiegers, but are not agreed as to the time and mode of it, the decision may be on the side of a minority who deem it better to remain on the defensive. Accordingly, it is matter of common remark that a Council of War' rarely ends in a resolution to fight a battle.

'The results of this cause are sometimes evil, and sometimes —perhaps more frequently-good. Many troublesome and pernicious restrictions and enactments, as well as some beneficial ones, are in this way prevented.

'And again the delay and discussion which ensue when powerful parties are at all nearly balanced, afford an opening for arguments: and this, on the whole, and in the long run, gives an advantage (more or less, according to the state of intellectual culture and civilization) to the most wise and moderate,—in short, to those (even though but a small portion, numerically, of the assembly) who have the best arguments on their side. Some, in each of the opposed parties, may thus be influenced by reason, who would not have waited to listen to reason, but for the check they receive from each other. And thus it will sometimes happen that a result may ensue even better than could have been calculated from the mere mechanical computation of the acting forces.'

The above views are the more important, because any one who does not embrace them, will be likely, on contemplating any wise institution or enactment of former times, to be thrown

into indolent despondency, if he find, as he often will, that the majority of those around us do not seem to come up to the standard which those institutions and enactments appear to him to imply. He takes for granted that the whole, or the chief part, of the members of those assemblies, &c., in which such and such measures were carried, must have been men of a corresponding degree of good sense, and moderation, and public spirit: and perceiving (as he thinks) that an assembly of such men could not now be found, he concludes that wisdom and goodness (in governments at least) must have died with our ancestors; or at least that no good is at present to be hoped from any government. And yet perhaps the truth will be that the greater part of the very assemblies whose measures he is admiring may have consisted of men of several parties, each of which would, if left entirely to itself, have made a much worse decision than the one actually adopted; and that one may have been such, as, though not actually to coincide with, yet most nearly to approach to the opinions of the wisest and best members of the assembly, though those may have been but a small minority. And it may be therefore, that he may have around him the materials of an assembly not at all inferior in probity or intelligence to that which he is contemplating with despairing admiration.

'A king, when he presides in council

It is remarkable how a change of very great importance in our system of government was brought about by pure accident. The custom of the king's being present in a cabinet council of his ministers, which was the obvious, and had always been the usual state of things, was put an end to when the Hanoverian princes came to the throne, from their ignorance of the English language. The advantage thence resulting of ministers laying before the sovereign the result of their full and free deliberations—an advantage not at all originally contemplated,--caused the custom to be continued, and so established that it is most unlikely it should ever be changed.

Fo

ESSAY XXI. OF DELAYS.

3

ORTUNE is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's' offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly,' which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them: nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as some have been when the moon was low, and shone on their enemies' backs), and so to shoot off before the time, or to teach dangers to come on, by over-early buckling towards them, is another extreme. The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed and generally it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred hands-first to watch, and then to speed; for the helmet of Pluto,' which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel, and celerity in the execution; for when things are once come to the execution, there is no secrecy comparable to celerity like the motion of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye.

1 Sibylla. The Sibyl.

2 Belly. That protuberance or cavity of anything resembling the human belly. An Irish harp hath the concave, or belly, at the end of the strings.'-Bacon, Nat. Hist. 3 Phæd, viii.

4 Buckle.

To go; to hasten towards.

'Soon he buckled to the field.'-Spenser.

6 Homer, ll. v. 845.

This matter of 'Delays' is most emphatically one in which, as Sir Roger de Coverley might have decided, much may be said on both sides. The rules which Bacon does give are very good; but, as it has been well observed, 'genius begins where rules end,' and there is no matter wherein rules can go a less way, or wherein there is more call for what may be called practical genius: that is, a far-sighted sagacity, as to the probable results of taking or not taking a certain step, and a delicate tact in judging of the peculiar circumstances of each case.

It is important to keep in mind that in some cases, where (as Bacon has expressed it) 'not to decide is to decide,' a delay may amount to a wrong decision; and in other cases may at least produce serious evil. Thus, there was once a very learned and acute Lord Chancellor, none of whose decisions, I believe, were ever reversed, but who very often decided, virtually, against both parties, by delaying his decision till both were beggared by law-expenses, and broken down in mind and body by anxious care. And he delayed filling up livings for two or three years, or more, to the great detriment of the parish, and sometimes with heavy loss of the revenue of the benefice.

The greater part of men are bigots to one or the other of the opposite systems,—of delay, or of expedition; always for acting either on the maxim of 'never put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day,' or, on the opposite one, which is said to have been in the mouth of Talleyrand, 'never do to-day what can be done to-morrow."

But still worse are those mock-wise men who mingle the