CHAP. XXV.

On Erroneous Judgment.-Character of Queen Chriftina of Sweden.-Comparison of Chriftina with Alfred.

NOTHING leads more to false estimates than our fuffering that natural defire of happiness, congenial to the human heart, to mislead us by its eagerness. The object in itself is not only natural, but laudable; but the fteps which are fuppofed to lead to it, when ill regulated, never attain the end. Vice, of whatever kind, leads to inevitable mifery; yet, through a falfe calcula tion, even while happiness is intended, vice is pursued. The voluptuous will not be perfuaded to fet, bounds to their indulgencies. Thus they commonly deftroy both health of body, and peace of mind; yet the most voluptuous never intend to be miferable. What a neceffity hence arifes, for early

infufing

infufing right principles, and training to fafe and temperate habits, when even the very defire of happiness, if left merely to its instinctive movements, is almost certain to plunge its votary into final and irremediable wretchedness!

But in no inftance is the defective judg ment which leads to falfe estimates, more to be regretted, than in the cafe of thofe who apply themselves to pursuits, and affect habits foreign from their station; who spend their season of improvement in cultivating talents, which they can rarely bring into exercise, to the neglect of those which they are peculiarly called to acquire; who run out of their proper road in pursuit of false fame, while they renounce the folid glory of a real, an attainable, and an appropriate renown.

The danger of a Prince often becomes, in this refpect, the greater, because, while he fees a path open before him, fuppofe in' the cafe of the fine arts, by which he beholds others rifing into univerfal notice.

and

and celebrity, he feels, perhaps, a natural propensity to the fame purfuits, and a confcioufnefs of being able to excel in them.. Meanwhile, even his weakest efforts are flattered by thofe around him, as the fure prefages of excellence; and he is eafily led to believe, that if he will condefcend to enter the lifts, he is certain to attain the palm of victory. When we confider the amount of the temptation, we fhould be almoft ready to forgive the Emperor Nero, had it been only in difplaying his musical or theatrical talents, that he had departed from the line of rectitude. But to fee a Roman Emperor travelling through Greece in the character of an artift, in order to extort the applauses of a people eminent for their tafte, was an indication of farther evils. The infatuation remained to his laft hour; for, in his dying moments, instead of thinking how Rome must rejoice to be rid of fuch a master, he only wondered how the world could fubmit to the lofs of fuch a performer,

It is one of the many evils which result from indulging fuch mifplaced propensities, that it produces a fatal forgetfulness of all the proper duties of a fovereign, and of his legitimate fphere of emulation. Having once eaten of the forbidden fruit of this meretricious praise, he becomes fonder of the relifh, his tafte is corrupted,-his views are lowered, his ambition is contracted; and indolence confpires with vanity, in perpetuating his delufion, and in making him take up with pursuits, and gratifications, far below the level of his high original.

For a Prince, who has formed a just eftimate of his own exalted station, will ever bear in mind, that as its rank, its rights, and its privileges, are all of a kind peculiar to itself, fo alfo must be its honours. Providence has laid open to a Prince an elevated and capacious field of glory, from which fubjects must be ever excluded, by the very circumstances of their civil condition. A Prince will but degrade himself, when

6

nour.

when he defcends from this vantage ground, which he naturally occupies, to mix in the competitions of ordinary men. He engages in a conteft in which, though failure may difgrace, fuccefs cannot do him hoMonarchs, therefore, would do well to remember, and to improve upon the principle of the dignified reply of Alexander, who being afked whether he would not engage in the competition for the prize at the Olympic games, answered, "Yes, if KINGS are to be my competitors." Nor perhaps would the highminded anfwer of Alcibiades be unbecoming in a Prince," It is not for me to give, but to receive delight."

Ever, therefore, let thofe whofe important duty it is, to fuperintend the education of a royal perfon, labour to fix in him a just conception of the proprieties of his princely character. Let them teach him how to regulate all his judgments and purfuits, by the rule of reafon, by a found and ferious estimate of his own condition, and

of