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end of the action, as the beginning of the practise was the end of the theory. J. HARRIS

348. THE PENINSULAR WAR. In this war the tenacity of vengeance peculiar to the people supplied the want of persevering intrepidity and led to deeds of craft and cruelty rather than daring and open warfare. At last came the tumult of the capital, swollen, distorted, cast like the body before the people to excite them to frenzy: and madly they arose not to confront a danger understood, but to satiate their thirst of blood. The result was a wonderful change in the affairs of Europe: it seems yet undecided whether for the better or the worse. In their struggle, the Spaniards developed more cruelty than courage, more personal hatred than enthusiasm: they opened a wide field for the exercise of others, presented the fulcrum for a lever which moved the civilised world, but the impelling power came from another quarter. It is not surprising that great expectations were at first formed of the heroism of the Spaniards; and those expectations were greatly augmented by their attractive qualities. As companions they are the most agreeable of mankind, but danger and disappointment attend the man who, confiding in their promises and energy, ventures upon a difficult enterprise. 'Never do to-day, what you can put off until to-morrow,' is the favourite proverb of Spain.

W. F. P. NAPIER

349. THE GENERAL HAPPINESS OF MANKIND A GREATER GOOD THAN THE PARTICULAR HAPPINESS OF ONE. Euph. Tell me, Alciphron, is your genuine philosopher a wise man or a fool? Alc. Without question, the wisest of men. Euph. Which is to be thought the wise man, he who acts with design, or he who acts at random? Alc. He who acts with design. Euph. Whoever acts with design, acts for some end. Doth he not? Alc. He doth. wise man for a good end? Alc. True. sheweth his wisdom, in making choice of fit means to obtain his end. Alc. I acknowledge it. Euph. By how much, 'therefore, the end proposed is more excellent, and by how much fitter the means employed are to obtain it, so much

Euph. And a Euph. And he

the wiser is the agent to be esteemed. Alc. This seems to be true. Euph. Can a rational agent propose a more excellent end than happiness? Alc. He cannot. Euph. Of good things, the greater good is most excellent. Alc. Doubtless. Euph. Is not the general happiness of mankind a greater good, than the private happiness of one man, or some certain men? Alc. It is. Euph. Is it not therefore the most excellent end? Alc. It seems so. Euph. Are not then those who pursue this end by the properest methods to be thought the wisest men? Alc. I grant they are. Euph. Which is a wise man governed by, wise or foolish notions? Alc. By wise, doubtless. Euph. It seems then to follow, that he who promotes the general well being of mankind by the proper necessary means, is truly wise, and acts upon wise grounds. Alc. It should seem so. Euph. And is not folly of an opposite nature to wisdom? Alc. It is. Euph. Might it not therefore be inferred, that those men are foolish who go about to unhinge such principles as have a necessary connexion with the general good of mankind? Alc. Perhaps this might be granted: but at the same time I must observe, that it is in my power to deny it. Euph. How! you will not surely deny the conclusion, when you admit the premises.

G. BERKELEY

350. THE DIVINE ECONOMY NOT TO BE MEASURED BY HUMAN NOTIONS. Euph. You allow, then, God to be wise? Alc. I do. Euph. What, infinitely wise? Alc. Even infinitely. Euph. His wisdom, then, far exceeds that of man? Alc. Vastly. Euph. Probably more than the wisdom of man, that of a child? Alc. Without all question. Euph. What think you, Alciphron, must not the conduct of a parent seem very unaccountable to a child, when its inclinations are thwarted, when it is put to learn the letters, when it is obliged to swallow bitter physic, to part with what it likes, and to suffer and do and see many things done contrary to its own judgment, however reasonable or agreeable to that of others? Alc. This I grant. Euph. Will it not therefore follow from hence by a parity of reason, that the little child man, when it takes upon it to judge of the schemes of parental providence; and a thing of yesterday to criticise the economy of the antient of days: will it not follow, I say, that such a judge, of such matters, must be apt to make very erroneous judg

ments? esteeming those things in themselves unaccountable, which he cannot account for, and concluding of some certain points, from an appearance of arbitrary carriage towards him, which is suited to his infancy and ignorance, that they are in themselves capricious or absurd, and cannot proceed from a wise, just and benevolent God.

G. BERKELEY

351. THE MARTYRDOM OF TRUTH. Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, nor ever shall do, till her master's second coming; he shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to stand at every place of opportunity forbidding and disturbing them that continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to the torn body of our martyred saint.

J. MILTON

352. CONJOINT ACTION. Another great difficulty in government is the difficulty of conjoint action: I mean the difficulty of coming to a result, and still more of predicating one, when many people are met together to do or to determine anything. In order to form some notion of the difficulties inherent in conjoint action, it is advisable to observe it in the simplest instances. Suppose that two men have to walk to a particular place at which they are both minded to arrive at the same time: in which case therefore their wills and opinions are the same as regards the main object in pursuit. But their walking together may very much vary the result, and if a third person had to calculate with exactness upon the result, he would have to consider what the effect

might be of their companionship. Emulation might quicken the pace of both: good nature might retard the pace of one to accommodate the other. The way might be lost in the animation of conversation, or their joint sagacity might find an easier route than either alone would have discovered.

A. HELPS

353. PLEA OF NOT GUILTY. A man may plead not guilty, and yet tell no lie; for by the law, no man is bound to accuse himself; so that when I say Not guilty, the meaning is, as if I should say by way of paraphrase, I am not so guilty as to tell you; if you will bring me to a trial, and have me punished for this you lay to my charge, prove it against me. Ignorånce of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.

354.

HISTORIE OF TRAVAILE INTO VIRGINIA. The head of the northernmost river comes from certaine steepe mountaines, that are said to be impassable; the head of the other comes from high hills afar off, within the land, from the topps of which hills the people saie they see another sea, and that the water is there salt; and the journey to this sea, from the falls, by their accompt, should be about ten daies, allowing, according to a march, some fourteen or sixteen miles a day. Some of the inhabitants have not spared to give us to understand, how they have a prophesie amongst them, that twice they should give overthrow and dishearten the attempters, and such strangers as should invade their territories or labour to settle a plantation among them, but the third tyme they themselves should fall into their subjection, and under their conquest; and sure in the observation of our settlement, and the manner thereof hitherto, we maye well suppose that this their apprehension may fully touch at us.

R. HAKLUYT

355. THE rebel army was composed chiefly of brave and experienced veterans, trained up by Hamilcar himself in Sicily during the late war with the Romans, whose courage was heightened by despair. It is worthy our observation therefore, that these very men who, under the conduct of

Hamilcar, had been a terror to the Romans, and given them so many blows in Sicily towards the latter end of the first Punick war, should yet be so little able to cope with an army so much inferior in number, and composed in a great measure of city militia only, when commanded by the same general. Polybius, who esteems Hamilcar by far the greatest captain of that age, observes, that though the rebels were by no means inferior to the Carthaginian troops in resolution and bravery, yet they were frequently beaten by Hamilcar by mere dint of generalship. Upon this occasion he cannot help remarking the vast superiority which judicious skill and ability of generalship has over long military practice, where this so essentially necessary skill and judgment is wanting.

B. MONTAGU

The

356. MAN AND THE LOWER ORDERS OF ANIMALS. generic distinction between man and the lower orders of animals, if we look at them historically, the distinction out of which it arises that mankind alone have, properly speaking, a history, or become the agents and subjects in a series of diverse events,-is, that, while each individual animal in a manner fulfils the whole purpose of its existence, nothing of the sort can be predicated of any man that ever lived, but only of the race. All the organs and faculties with which the animal is endowed, are called into action: all the tendencies discoverable in its nature are realized. Whereas every man has a number of dormant powers, a number of latent tendencies, the purpose of which can never be accomplished, except in the historical development of the race; not in the race as existing at any one time, nor even the whole of time past, but of the race as diffused through the whole period of time allotted to it, past, present, and to come.

357. A VISION. I was in a place no t very unlike this, my head lying back against a rock, where its crevices were tufted with soft and odoriferous herbs, and where vine-leaves protected my face from the sun, and from the bees, which however were less likely to molest me, being busy in their first hours of honey-making among the blossoms. Sleep soon fell upon me; for of all philosophers I am certainly the drowsiest, though perhaps there are many quite of equal ability in communicating the gift of drowsiness. Presently I saw three figures

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