nor study the books of mathematicians, to understand vision; and accordingly will have but mean thoughts of the contrivance of the organ, and the skill of the artificer, in comparison of the ideas that will be suggested of both of them to him that, being profoundly skilled in anatomy and optics, by their help takes asunder the several coats, humours, and muscles, of which that exquisite dioptrical instrument consists; and having separately considered the figure, size, consistence, texture, diaphaneity or opacity, situation, and connection of each of them, and their coaptation in the whole eye, shall discover, by the help of the law of optics, how admirably this little organ is fitted to receive the incident beams of light, and dispose them in the best manner possible for completing the lively representation of the almost infinitely various objects of sight. ticular cases. Public and Private Life. itself lasting, not only are wont to decay betimes, but as soon as they have lost that youthful freshness that alone endeared them, quickly pass from being objects of wonder and love, to be so of pity, if not of scorn; whereas those that were as solicitous to enrich their minds as to adorn their faces, may not only with mediocrity of beauty be very desirable whilst that lasts, but, notwithstanding the recess of that and youth, may, by the fragrancy of their reputation, and those virtues and ornaments of the mind that time does but improve, be always sufficiently endeared to those that have merit enough to discern and value such excellences, and whose esteem and friendship is alone worth their being concerned for. In a word, they prove the happiest as well as they are the wisest ladies, that, whilst they possess the desirable qualities that youth is wont to give, neglect not the acquist [acquisition] of those that age cannot take away. Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy As there are few controversies more important, so there are not many that have been more curiously and warmly disputed than the question, whether a public or a private life is preferable? But perhaps this may be much of the nature of the other question, whether a In the first place, it should be considered that those married life or single ought rather to be chosen? that cavillers at the style of the Scriptures, that you and I being best determinable by the circumstances of par- have hitherto met with, do-for want of skill in the oriFor though, indefinitely speaking, one of ginal, especially in the Hebrew-judge of it by the transthe two may have advantages above the other, yet they lations, wherein alone they read it. Now, scarce any but are not so great but that special circumstances may make a linguist will imagine how much a book may lose of its either of them the more eligible to particular persons. elegancy by being read in another tongue than that it They that find themselves furnished with abilities to was written in, especially if the languages from which serve their generation in a public capacity, and virtue and into which the version is made be so very differing, as great enough to resist the temptation to which such a are those of the eastern and these western parts of the condition is usually exposed, may not only be allowed world. But of this I foresee an occasion of saying someto embrace such an employment, but obliged to seek it. thing hereafter; yet at present I must observe to you, But he whose parts are too mean to qualify him to that the style of the Scripture is much more disadvantgovern others, and perhaps to enable him to govern him-aged than that of other books, by being judged of by self, or manage his own private concerns, or whose graces translations; for the religious and just veneration that are so weak, that it is less to his virtues, or to his ability the interpreters of the Bible have had for that sacred of resisting, than to his care of shunning the occasions book, has made them, in most places, render the Hebrew of sin, that he owes his escaping the guilt of it, had and Greek passages so scrupulously word for word, that, better deny himself some opportunities of good, than for fear of not keeping close enough to the sense, they expose himself to probable temptations. For there is usually care not how much they lose of the eloquence of such a kind of difference betwixt virtue shaded by a the passages they translate. So that, whereas in those private and shining forth in a public life, as there is versions of other books that are made by good linguists, betwixt a candle carried aloft in the open air, and the interpreters are wont to take the liberty to recede inclosed in a lanthorn; in the former place, it gives from the author's words, and also substitute other phrases more light, but in the latter, it is in less danger to be instead of his, that they may express his meaning without injuring his reputation. In translating the Old Testament, interpreters have not put Hebrew phrases into Latin or English phrases, but only into Latin or English words, and have too often, besides, by not sufficiently understanding, or at least considering, the various significations of words, particles, and tenses, in the holy tongue, made many things appear less coherent, or less rational, or less considerable, which, by a more free and skilful rendering of the original, would not be blemished by any appearance of such imperfection. And though this fault of interpreters be pardonable enough in them, as carrying much of its excuse in its cause, yet it cannot but much derogate from the Scripture to appear with peculiar disadvantages, besides those many that are common to almost all books, by being translated. blown out. Upon the Sight of Roses and Tulips growing near one another. It is so uncommon a thing to see tulips last till roses come to be blown, that the seeing them in this garden grow together, as it deserves my notice, so methinks it should suggest to me some reflection or other on it. And perhaps it may not be an improper one to compare the difference betwixt these two kinds of flowers to the disparity which I have often observed betwixt the fates of those young ladies that are only very handsome, and those that have a less degree of beauty, recompensed by the accession of wit, discretion, and virtue: for tulips, whilst they are fresh, do indeed, by the lustre and vividness of their colours, more delight the eye than roses; but then they do not alone quickly fade, but, as soon as they have lost that freshness and gaudiness that solely endeared them, they degenerate into things not only undesirable, but distasteful; whereas roses, besides the moderate beauty they disclose to the eye-which is sufficient to please, though not to charm it-do not only keep their colour longer than tulips, but, when that decays, retain a perfumed odour, and divers useful qualities and virtues that survive the spring, and recommend them all the year. Thus those unadvised young ladies, that, because nature has given them beauty enough, despise all other qualities, and even that regular diet which is ordinarily requisite to make beauty For whereas the figures of rhetoric are wont, by orators, to be reduced to two comprehensive sorts, and one of those does so depend upon the sound and placing of the words-whence the Greek rhetoricians call such figures schemata lexeos-that, if they be altered, though the sense be retained, the figure may vanish; this sort of figures, I say, which comprises those that orators call apanados antanaclasis, and a multitude of others, are wont to be lost in such literal translations as are ours of the Bible, as I could easily shew by many instances, if I thought it requisite. Besides, there are in Hebrew, as in other languages, certain appropriated graces, and a peculiar emphasis belonging to some expressions, which must necessarily be impaired by any translation, and are but too often quite lost in those that adhere too scrupulously to the words of the original. And, as in a lovely face, though a painter may well enough express the cheeks, and the nose, and lips, yet there is often something of splendour and vivacity in the eyes, which no pencil can reach to equal; so in some choice composures, though a skilful interpreter may happily enough render into his own language a great part of what he translates, yet there may well be some shining passages, some sparkling and emphatical expressions, that he cannot possibly represent to the life. And this consideration is more applicable to the Bible and its translations than to other books, for two particular reasons. For, first, it is more difficult to translate the Hebrew of the Old Testament, than if that book were written in Syriac or Arabic, or some such other eastern language. Not that the holy tongue is much more difficult to be learned than others; but because in the other learned tongues we know there are commonly variety of books extant, whereby we may learn the various significations of the words and phrases; whereas the pure Hebrew being unhappily lost, except so much of it as remains in the Old Testament, out of whose books alone we can but very imperfectly frame a dictionary and a language, there are many words, especially the hapax legomena, and those that occur but seldom, of which we know but that one signification, or those few acceptions, wherein we find it used in those texts that we think we clearly understand. Whereas, if we consider the nature of the primitive tongue, whose words, being not numerous, are most of them equivocal enough, and do many of them abound with strangely different meanings; and if we consider, too, how likely it is that the numerous conquests of David, and the wisdom, prosperity, fleets, and various commerces of his son Solomon, did both enrich and spread the Hebrew language, it cannot but seem very probable, that the same word or phrase may have had divers other significations than interpreters have taken notice of, or we are now aware of: since we find in the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and other eastern tongues, that the Hebrew words and phrases-a little varied, according to the nature of those dialects-have other, and oftentimes very different significations, besides those that the modern interpreters of the Bible have ascribed to them. I say the modern, because the ancient versions before, or not long after, our Saviour's time, and especially that which we vulgarly call the Septuagint's, do frequently favour our conjecture, by rendering Hebrew words and phrases to senses very distant from those more received significations in our texts; when there appears no other so probable reason of their so rendering them, as their believing them capable of significations differing enough from those to which our later interpreters have thought fit to confine themselves. The use that I would make of this consideration may easily be conjectured-namely, that it is probable that many of those texts whose expressions, as they are rendered in our translations, seem flat or improper, or incoherent with the context, would appear much otherwise, if we were acquainted with all the significations of words and phrases that were known in the times when the Hebrew language flourished, and the sacred books were written; it being very likely, that among those various significations, some one or other would afford a better sense, and a more significant and sinewy expression, than we meet with in our translations; and perhaps would make such passages as seem flat or uncouth, appear eloquent and emphatical. . . . My second is this, that we should carefully distinguish betwixt what the Scripture itself says, and what is only said in the Scripture. For we must not look upon the Bible as an oration of God to men, or as a body of laws, like our English statute-book, wherein it is the legislator that all the way speaks to the people; but as a collection of composures of very differing sorts, and written at very distant times; and of such composures, that though the holy men of God-as St Peter calls them-were acted by the Holy Spirit, who both excited and assisted them in penning the Scripture, yet there are many others, besides the Author and the penman, introduced speaking there. For besides the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, the four evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, and other parts of Scripture that are evidently historical and wont to be so called, there are, in the other books, many passages that deserve the same name, and many others wherein, though they be not mere narratives of things done, many sayings and expressions are recorded that either belong not to the Author of the Scripture, or must be looked upon as such wherein his secretaries personate others. So that, in a considerable part of the Scripture, not only prophets, and kings, and priests being introduced speaking, but soldiers, shepherds, and women, and such other sorts of persons, from whom witty or eloquent things are not-especially when they speak ex tempore-to be expected, it would be very injurious to impute to the Scripture any want of eloquence, that may be noted in the expressions of others than its Author. For though, not only in romances, but in many of those that pass for true histories, the supposed speakers may be observed to talk as well as the historian, yet that is but either because the men so introduced were ambassadors, orators, generals, or other eminent men for parts as well as employments; or because the historian does, as it often happens, give himself the liberty to make speeches for them, and does not set down indeed what they said, but what he thought fit that such persons on such occasions should have said. Whereas the penmen of the Scripture, as one of them truly professes, having not followed cunningly devised fables in what they have written, have faithfully set down the sayings, as well as actions, they record, without making them rather congruous to the conditions of the speakers than to the laws of truth. JOHN RAY. JOHN RAY (1628-1705), the son of a blacksmith at Black Notley, in Essex, was an eminent naturalist. In the department of botany his works are more numerous than those of any other botanist except Linnæus, and entitle him to be ranked as one of the founders of the science. In company with his friend, Mr Willoughby, also celebrated as a naturalist, he visited several continental countries in 1663; and his love of natural history induced him to perambulate England and Scotland. The principal works in which the results of his studies and travels were given to the public, are-Observations, Topographical, Moral, and Physiological, made in a Journey through part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France (1673); and Historia Plantarum Generalis (A General History of Plants). The latter, consisting of two large folio volumes, which were published in 1686 and 1688, is a work of prodigious labour. As a cultivator of zoology and entomology also, Ray deserves to be mentioned with honour; and he further served the cause of science by editing and enlarging the posthumous works of his friend Willoughby on birds and fishes. His character as a naturalist is thus spoken of by the Rev. Gilbert White of Selborne: Our countryman, the excellent Mr Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his followers and imitators, in spite of the advantage of fresh discoveries and modern information.' Cuvier also gives him a high character as a naturalist. For the greater part of his popular fame, Ray is indebted to an admirable treatise published in 1691, under the title of The Wisdom this manner: 'I have now placed thee in a spacious and of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation, which has gone through many editions, and been translated into several continental languages. One of his reasons for composing it is thus stated by himself: 'By virtue of my function, I suspect myself to be obliged to write something in divinity, having written so much on other subjects; for, not being permitted to serve the church with my tongue in preaching, I know not but it may be my duty to serve it with my hand in writing; and I have made choice of this subject, as thinking myself best qualified to treat of it.' Natural theology had previously been developed in England by Boyle, Stillingfleet, Wilkins, Henry More, and Cudworth; but Ray was the first to systematise and popularise the subject. Paley afterwards adopted it, and his Natural Theology (1802) has superseded the work of Ray, and also the treatises of Derham in the beginning of the eighteenth century. But though written in a more pleasing style, and with greater fulness of information, Paley's excellent work is but an imitation of Ray's volume, and he has derived from it many of his most striking arguments and illustrations. The Study of Nature Recommended, Let us then consider the works of God, and observe the operations of his hands: let us take notice of and admire his infinite wisdom and goodness in the formation of them. No creature in this sublunary world is capable of so doing beside man; yet we are deficient herein: we content ourselves with the knowledge of the tongues, and a little skill in philology, or history perhaps, and antiquity, and neglect that which to me seems more material, I mean natural history and the works of the creation. I do not discommend or derogate from those other studies; I should betray mine own ignorance and weakness should I do so; I only wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this. I wish that this might be brought in fashion among us; I wish men would be so equal and civil, as not to disparage, deride, and vilify those studies which themselves skill not of, or are not conversant in. No knowledge can be more pleasant than this, none that doth so satisfy and feed the soul; in comparison whereto that of words and phrases seems to me insipid and jejune. That learning, saith a wise and observant prelate, which consists only in the form and pedagogy of arts, or the critical notion upon words and phrases, hath in it this intrinsical imperfection, that it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledge of things, being in itself but a kind of pedantry, apt to infect a man with such odd humours of pride, and affectation, and curiosity, as will render him unfit for any great employment. Words being but the images of matter, to be wholly given up to the study of these, what is it but Pygmalion's frenzy to fall in love with a picture or image. As for oratory, which is the best skill about words, that hath by some wise men been esteemed but a voluptuary art, like to cookery, which spoils wholesome meats, and helps unwholesome, by the variety of sauces, serving more to the pleasure of taste than the health of the body. God's Exhortation to Activity. Methinks by all this provision for the use and service of man, the Almighty interpretively speaks to him in Derham's works are-Physico-theology, or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of a God, from his Works of Creation (1713) and Astro-theology, or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from a Survey of the Heavens (1714) The substance of both had been preached by the author in 1711 and 1712, in the capacity of lecturer on Boyle's foundation. well-furnished world; I have endued thee with an ability of understanding what is beautiful and proportionable, and have made that which is so agreeable and delightful to thee; I have provided thee with materials whereon to exercise and employ thy art and strength; I have dated to make use of them all; I have distinguished the given thee an excellent instrument, the hand, accommoearth into hills and valleys, and plains, and meadows, and woods; all these parts capable of culture and improvement by thy industry; I have committed to thee for thy assistance in thy labours of ploughing, and carrying, and drawing, and travel, the laborious ox, the patient ass, and the strong and serviceable horse; I have created a multitude of seeds for thee to make choice out of them, of what is most pleasant to thy taste, and of most wholesome and plentiful nourishment; I have also made great variety of trees, bearing fruit both for food and physic, those, too, capable of being meliorated and ing, watering, and other arts and devices. Till and improved by transplantation, stercoration, incision, prunmanure thy fields, sow them with thy seeds, extirpate noxious and unprofitable herbs, guard them from the invasions and spoil of beasts, clear and fence in thy meadows and pastures, dress and prune thy vines, and so rank and dispose them as is most suitable to the climate; plant thee orchards, with all sorts of fruit-trees, in such order as may be most beautiful to the eye, and most comprehensive of plants; gardens for culinary herbs, and all kinds of salading; for delectable flowers, to gratify the eye with their agreeable colours and figures, and thy scent with their fragrant odours; for odoriferous and evergreen shrubs and suffrutices; for exotic and medicinal plants of all sorts; and dispose them in that comely order as may be most pleasant to behold, and commodious for access. I have furnished thee with all materials for building, as stone, and timber, and slate, and lime, and clay, and earth, whereof to make bricks and tiles. Deck and bespangle the country with houses and villages convenient for thy habitation, provided with outhouses and stables for the harbouring and shelter of thy cattle, with barns and granaries for the reception, and custody, and storing up thy corn and fruits. I have made thee a sociable creature, zoon politikon, for the improvement of thy understanding by conference, and communication of observations and experiments; for mutual help, assistance, and defence, build thee large towns and cities with straight and well-paved streets, and elegant rows of houses, adorned with magnificent temples for my honour and worship, with beautiful palaces for thy princes and grandees, with stately halls for public meetings of the citizens and their several companies, and the sessions of the courts of judicature, besides public porticoes and aqueducts. I have implanted in thy nature a desire of seeing strange and foreign, and finding out unknown countries, for the improvement and advance of thy knowledge in geography, by observing the bays, and creeks, and havens, and promontories, the outlets of rivers, the situation of the maritime towns and cities, the longitude and latitude, &c. of those places; in politics, by noting their government, their manners, laws, and customs, their diet and medicine, their trades and manufactures, their houses and buildings, their exercises and sports, &c. In physiology, or natural history, by searching out their natural rarities, the productions both of land and water, what species of animals, plants, and minerals, of fruits and drugs, are to be found there, what commodities for bartering and permutation, whereby thou mayest be enabled to make large additions to natural history, to advance those other sciences, and to benefit and enrich thy country by increase of its trade and merchandise. I have given thee timber and iron to build the hulls of ships, tall trees for masts, flax and hemp for sails, cables and cordage for rigging. I have armed thee with courage and hardiness to attempt the seas, and traverse the spacious plains of that liquid element; I have assisted thee with a compass, to direct thy course when thou shalt be out of all ken of land, and have nothing in view but sky and water. Go thither for the purposes before mentioned, and bring home what may be useful and beneficial to thy country in general, or thyself in particular.' in the world whose outward shape is not yet taken notice of or described, much less their way of generation, food, manners, uses, observed. Ray published, in 1672, a Collection of English Proverbs, and, in 1700, A Persuasive to a Holy Life. From a volume of his correspondence published by Derham, we extract the following affecting letter, written on his death-bed to Sir Hans Sloane : I persuade myself, that the bountiful and gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all things else, delights in the beauty of his creation, and is well pleased with the industry of man, in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles, with pleasant villages and country-houses, with regular gardens, and orchards, and plantations of all sorts of shrubs, and herbs, and fruits, 'DEAR SIR-the best of friends. These are to for meat, medicine, or moderate delight; with shady take a final leave of you as to this world: I look woods and groves, and walks set with rows of elegant upon myself as a dying man. God requite your trees; with pastures clothed with flocks, and valleys kindness expressed anyways toward me a hundredcovered over with corn, and meadows burdened with fold; bless you with a confluence of all good grass, and whatever else differenceth a civil and well-things in this world, and eternal life and happiness cultivated region from a barren and desolate wilderness. hereafter If a country thus planted and adorned, thus polished I am, Sir, eternally yours-JOHN RAY.' ; grant us a happy meeting in heaven. and civilised, thus improved to the height by all manner of culture for the support and sustenance, and convenient entertainment of innumerable multitudes of people, be not to be preferred before a barbarous and inhospitable Scythia, without houses, without plantations, without corn-fields or vineyards, where the roving hordes of the savage and truculent inhabitants transfer themselves from place to place in wagons, as they can find pasture and forage for their cattle, and live upon milk, and flesh roasted in the sun, at the pommels of their saddles; or a rude and unpolished America, peopled with slothful and naked Indians-instead of well-built houses, living in pitiful huts and cabins, made of poles set endwise; then surely the brute beast's condition and manner of living, to which what we have mentioned doth nearly approach, is to be esteemed better than man's, and wit and reason was in vain bestowed on him. All Things not Made for Man. There are infinite other creatures without this earth, which no considerate man can think were made only for man, and have no other use. For my part, I cannot believe that all the things in the world were so made for man, that they have no other use. and For it seems to me highly absurd and unreasonable to think that bodies of such vast magnitude as the fixed stars were only made to twinkle to us; nay, a multitude of them there are that do not so much as twinkle, being, either by reason of their distance or of their smallness, altogether invisible to the naked eye, and only discoverable by a telescope; and it is likely, perfecter telescopes than we yet have may bring to light many more; who knows how many lie out of the ken of the best telescope that can possibly be made? And I believe there are many species in nature, even in this sublunary world, which were never yet taken notice of by man, and consequently of no use to him, which yet we are not to think were created in vain; but may be found out by, and of use to, those who shall live after us in future ages. But though in this sense it be not true that all things were made for man, yet thus far it is, that all the creatures in the world may be some way or other useful to us, at least to exercise our wits and understandings, in considering and contemplating of them, and so afford us subject of admiring and glorifying their and our Maker. Seeing, then, we do believe and assert that all things were in some sense made for us, we are thereby obliged to make use of them for those purposes for which they serve us, else we frustrate this end of their creation. Now, some of them serve only to exercise our minds. Many others there be which might probably serve us to good purpose, whose uses are not discovered, nor are they ever like to be, without pains and industry. True it is, many of the greatest inventions have been accidentally stumbled upon, but not by men supine and careless, but busy and inquisitive. Some reproach methinks it is to learned men that there should be so many animals still THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX. GEORGE SAVILLE, Marquis of Halifax (16301695), was a distinguished statesman, orator, and political writer. In the contests between the crown and the parliament after the restoration of Charles II. he was alternately in high favour with both parties as he supported or opposed the measures of each. To popery he was decidedly hostile, yet his attachment to the House of Stuart led him to speak and vote against the bill excluding the Duke of York (James II.) from the succession to the throne. For this he was elevated to the dignity of marquis, keeper of the privy seal, and president of the council. He retained his offices till his opposition to the proposed repeal of the Test Acts caused his dismissal. After the flight of James, Halifax was chosen speaker of the House of Lords, but he again lost favour, and joined the ranks of the Opposition. He was a Trimmer, as Lord Macaulay says, from principle, as well as from constitution: 'every faction in the day of its insolent and vindictive triumph incurred his censure; and every faction when vanquished and persecuted found in him a protector.' His political tracts, according to the same authority, well deserve to be studied for their literary merit, and fully entitle him to a place among English classics. They consist of short treatises, entitled Advice to a Daughter, The Character of a Trimmer, Anatomy of an Equivalent, Letter to a Dissenter, &c. The modern character of Halifax's style, no less than his logic and happy illustration, is remarkable. He might have contested the palm with Dryden as a master of English. Importance of Laws. All laws flow from that of nature, and where that is not the foundation, they may be legally imposed, but they will be lamely obeyed. By this nature is not meant that which fools and madmen misquote to justify their excesses. It is innocent and uncorrupted nature that which disposes men to choose virtue without its being described, and which is so far from inspiring ill thoughts into us, that we take pains to suppress the good ones it infuses. The civilised world has ever paid a willing subjection to laws. Even conquerors have done homage to them; as the Romans, who took patterns of good laws, even from those they had subdued, and at the same time that they triumphed over an enslaved people, the very laws of that place did not only remain safe, but became victorious. Their new masters, instead of suppressing them, paid them more respect than they had from those who first made them; and by this wise method they arrived to such an admirable constitution of laws, that to this day they reign by them. This excellency of them triumphs still, and the world pays now an acknowledgment of their obedience to that mighty empire, though so many ages after it is dissolved. And by a later instance, the kings of France, who in practice use their laws pretty familiarly, yet think their picture is drawn with most advantage upon their seals when they are placed in the court of justice; and though the hieroglyphic is not there of so much use to the people as they could wish, yet it shews that no prince is so great as not to think fit for his own credit at least to give an outward when he refuses a real worship to the laws. They are to mankind that which the sun is to plants whilst it cherishes and preserves them. Where they have their force, and are not clouded or suppressed, everything smiles and flourishes; but where they are darkened, and not suffered to shine out, it makes everything to wither and decay. They secure men not only against one another, but against themselves too. They are a sanctuary to which the crown has occasion to resort as often as the people, so that it is an interest, as well as a duty, to preserve them. Political Agitation not always Hurtful. Our government is like our climate. There are winds which are sometimes loud and unquiet, and yet with all the trouble they give us, we owe great part of our health unto them. They clear the air, which else would be like a standing pool, and, instead of refreshment, would be a disease unto us. There may be fresh gales of asserting liberty without turning into such storms of hurricane as that the state should run any hazard of being cast away by them. These strugglings, which are natural to all mixed governments, while they are kept from growing into convulsions, do, by a natural agitation from the several parts, rather support and strengthen than weaken or maim the constitution; and the whole frame, instead of being torn or disjointed, comes to be the better and closer knit by being thus exercised. But whatever faults our government may have, or a discerning critic may find in it, when he looks upon it alone, let any other be set against it, and then it shews its comparative beauty. Let us look upon the most glittering outside of unbounded authority, and upon a nearer inquiry we shall find nothing but poor and miserable deformity within. Let us imagine a prince living in his kingdom as if in a great galley, his subjects tugging at the oar, laden with chains, and reduced to real rags, that they may gain him imaginary laurels. Let us represent him gazing among his flatterers, and receiving their false worship; like a child never contradicted, and therefore always cozened, or like a lady complimented only to be abused; condemned never to hear truth, and consequently never to do justice, wallowing in the soft bed of wanton and unbridled greatness; nor less odious to the instruments themselves than to the objects of his tyranny; blown up into an ambitious dropsy, never to be satisfied by the conquest of other people, or by the oppression of his own. By aiming to be more than a man, he falls lower than the meanest of them; a mistaken creature, swelled with panegyrics, and flattered out of his senses, and not only an incumbrance but a nuisance to mankind—a hardened and unrelenting soul; and, like some creatures that grow fat with poisons, he grows great by other men's miseries; an ambitious ape of the divine greatness; an unruly giant that would storm even heaven itself, but that his scaling-ladders are not long enough-in short, a wild and devouring creature in rich trappings, and with all his pride, no more than a whip in God Almighty's hand, to be thrown into the fire when the world has been sufficiently scourged with it. This picture, laid in right colours, would not incite men to wish for such a government, but rather to acknowledge the happiness of our own, under which we enjoy all the privileges reasonable men can desire, and avoid all the miseries many others are subject to. Party Nicknames-The Trimmer. Amongst all the engines of dissension there has been none more powerful in all times than the fixing names "pon one another of contumely and reproach. And the reason is plain in respect of the people, who, though generally they are incapable of making a syllogism, or forming an argument, yet they can pronounce a word; and that serves their turn to throw it with their dull malice at the head of those they do not like. Such things ever begin in jest, and end in blood; and the same word which at first makes the company merry, grows in time to a military signal to cut one another's throats. .... This innocent word 'Trimmer' signifies no more than this, that if men are together in a boat, and one part of the company would weigh it down on one side, another would make it lean as much to the contrary; it happens there is a third opinion of those who conceive it would do as well if the boat went even without endangering the passengers. Now, 'tis hard to imagine by what figure in language, or by what rule in sense, this comes to be a fault, and it is much more a wonder it should be thought a heresy. Truth and Moderation. The want of practice, which repeals the other laws, has no influence upon the law of truth, because it has root in heaven and an intrinsic value in itself that can never be impaired. She shews her greatness in this, that her enemies, even when they are successful, are ashamed to own it. Nothing but power full of truth has the prerogative of triumphing, not only after victories, but in spite of them, and to put conquest herself out of countenance. She may be kept under and suppressed, but her dignity still remains with her, even when she is in chains. Falsehood, with all her impudence, has not enough to speak ill of her before her face. Such majesty she carries about her, that her most prosperous enemies are fain to whisper their treason. All the power upon She has lived in the earth can never extinguish her. all ages; and, let the mistaken zeal of prevailing authority christen an opposition to it with what name they please, she makes it not only an ugly and unmannerly, but a dangerous thing to persist. She has lived very retired indeed-nay, sometimes so buried, that only some few of the discerning part of mankind could have a glimpse of her. With all that, she has eternity in her; she knows not how to die, and from the darkest clouds that shade and cover her, she breaks from time to time with triumph for her friends and terror to her enemies. Our Trimmer, therefore, inspired by this divine virtue, thinks fit to conclude with these assertions: That our climate is a trimmer between that part of the world where men are roasted, and the other where they are frozen that our church is a trimmer, between the frenzy of Platonic visions and the lethargic ignorance of popish dreams: that our laws are trimmers, between the excess of unbounded power and the extravagance of liberty not enough restrained: that true virtue has ever been thought a trimmer, and to have its dwelling between the two extremes: that even God Almighty himself is divided between His two great attributeshis mercy and justice. In such company, our Trimmer is not ashamed of his name, and willingly leaves to the bold champions of either extreme the honour of contending with no less adversaries than nature, religion, liberty, prudence, humanity, and common-sense. 349 |