of behaviour either in prosperity or adversity, are alike ungraceful in man that is born to die. Moderation in both circumstances is peculiar to generous minds; men of that sort ever taste the gratifications of health, and all other advantages of life, as if they were liable to part with them, and when bereft of them, resign them with a greatness of mind which shows they know their value and duration. The contempt of pleasure is a certain preparatory for the contempt of pain: without this the mind is as it were taken suddenly by an unforeseen event; but he that has always, during health and prosperity, been abstinent in his satisfactions, enjoys, in the worst of difficulties, the reflection that his anguish is not aggravated with the comparison of past pleasufes which upbraid his present condition. Tully tells us a story after Pompey, which gives us a good taste of the pleasant manner the men of wit and philosophy had in old times of alleviating the distresses of life by the force of reason and philosophy. Pompey, when he came to Rhodes, had a curiosity to visit the famous philosopher Posidonius; but finding him in his sick bed, he bewailed the misfortune that he should not hear a discourse from him; but you may, answered Posidonius; and immediately entered into the point of stoical philosophy, which says pain is not an evil. J. ADDISON

4II. THE HIGHEST PROSPERITY A FORERUNNER OF DECAY IN SOCIETY AS WELL AS INDIVIDUALS. But it is not only in the lives of individuals that man's shortsighted impatience and temerity are thus tacitly rebuked by the course of events; examples still more striking are furnished by the history of states and institutions. The moment of the highest prosperity is often that which immediately precedes the most ruinous disaster, and (as in the case not only of a Xerxes, a Charles the Bold, a Philip the Second, and a Napoleon, but of Athens, and Sparta, and Carthage, and Venice,) it is the sense of security which constitutes the danger, it is the consciousness of power and the desire of exerting it that causes the downfall. It is not however these sudden and signal reverses, the fruit of overweening arrogance and insatiable ambition, that we have here principally to observe; but rather an universal law, which manifests itself no less in the moral world than in the physical, according to which the period of inward languor, corruption,

and decay, which follows that of maturity, presents an aspect more dazzling and commanding, and to those who look only to the surface, inspires greater confidence and respect, than the season of youthful health, of growing but unripened strength. The power of the Persians was most truly formidable when they first issued from their comparatively narrow territory to overspread Asia with their arms. But at what period of their history does the Great King appear invested with such majesty as when he dictated the peace of Antalcidas to the Greeks? And yet at this very time the throne on which he sate with so lofty a port was so insecurely based, that a slight shock would have been sufficient, as was soon proved, to level it with the dust.

412. IT was nearly at the same juncture that Sparta seemed to have attained the summit of her power: her old enemy had been reduced to insignificance; her two most formidable rivals converted into useful dependents; her refractory allies chastised and cowed: in no quarter of the political horizon, neither in nor out of Greece, did it seem.possible for the keenest eye to discover any prognostics of danger: her empire, says the contemporary historian, appeared in every respect to have been now established on a glorious and solid base. Yet in a few years the Spartan women saw for the first time the smoke of the flames with which a hostile army ravaged their country in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital, and a Spartan embassy implored the pity of the Athenians, and pleaded the magnanimity with which Sparta in her day of victory, had preserved Athens from annihilation, as a motive for the exercise of similar generosity towards a fallen enemy. The historian sees in this reverse the judgment of the gods against treachery and impiety. But when we inquire about the steps by which the change was effected, we find that the mistress of Greece had lost nearly a thousand of her subjects and about four hundred of her citizens in the battle of Leuctra. C. THIRLWALL

413. CHARLES V.-THE DISASTERS WHICH BEFEL HIS ARMY IN HIS EXPEDITION AGAINST ALGIERS. But how far soever the emperor might think himself beyond the reach of any danger from the enemy, he was suddenly exposed to a more dreadful calamity, and one against which human prudence and human efforts availed nothing. On the second day

after his landing, and before he had time for anything but to disperse some light-armed Arabs who molested his troops on their march, the clouds began to gather, and the heavens to appear with a fierce and threatening aspect; towards the evening rain began to fall, accompanied with violent wind; and the rage of the tempest increasing during the night, the soldiers, who had brought nothing ashore but their arms, remained exposed to all its fury, without tents, or shelter, or cover of any kind. The ground was soon so wet that they could not lie down on it; their camp, being in a low situation, was overflowed with water, and they sunk at every step to the ankles in mud; while the wind blew with such impetuosity, that, to prevent their falling, they were obliged to thrust their spears into the ground, and to support themselves by taking hold of them. Philip was too vigilant an officer to allow an enemy in such distress to remain unmolested.

W. ROBERTSON

414. LETTER. Nothing can be more amiable, more virtuous, better disposed, than our present Master. He applies himself thoroughly to his affairs, he understands them to an astonishing degree. His faculties seem to me equal to his good intentions, and nothing can be more agreeable or satisfactory than doing business with him. A most uncommon attention, a quick and just conception, great mildness, great civility, which takes nothing from his dignity, caution, and firmness, are conspicuous in the highest degree; and I really think none of them over or underdone. After so much panegyric on the Master, you will not expect any on his Ministers. You know them as well as I do, so I shall say nothing concerning them, but that if three of the number can agree, they may do everything for themselves, their friends, and their country. Whoever unnecessarily breaks this important triumvirate will deserve public execration, and perhaps may have it; for I think the Nation for once desires quiet both at home and abroad.

415. LETTER TO MR NICHOLLS. I must not close my letter without giving you one principal event of my history; which was, that (in the course of my late tour) I set out one morning before five o'clock, the moon shining through a dark and misty autumnal air, and got to the sea

coast time enough to be at the sun's levee. I saw the clouds and dark vapours open gradually to right and left, rolling over one another in great smoky wreaths, and the tide, as it flowed gently in upon the sands, first whitening, then slightly tinged with gold and blue; and all at once a little line of insufferable brightness that (before I can write these five words) was grown to half an orb, and now to a whole one, too glorious to be distinctly seen. It is very odd it makes no figure on paper; yet I shall remember it as long as the Sun, or at least as long as I shall endure. I wonder whether any body ever saw it before: I hardly believe it.

T. GRAY

416. THE ORIGIN OF MOURNING APPAREL. The custom of representing the grief we have for the loss of the dead by our habits, certainly had its rise from the real sorrow of such as were too much distressed to take the proper care they ought of their dress. By degrees it prevailed, that such as had this inward impression upon their minds, made an apology for not joining with the rest of the world in their ordinary diversions by a dress suited to their condition. This therefore was at first assumed by such only as were in real distress; to whom it was a relief that they had nothing about them so light and gay as to be irksome to the gloom and melancholy of their inward reflections, or that they might misrepresent them to others. In process of time this laudable distinction of the sorrowful was lost, and mourning is now worn by heirs and widows. You see nothing but magnificence and solemnity in the equipage of the relict, and an air of release from servitude in the pomp of a son who has lost a wealthy father.

417. CHARACTER OF JULIUS CÆSAR. Howbeit, he did not stoop to any petty and mean artifices, as they do which are ignorant in state-employments and depend not so much upon the strength of their own wits, as upon the counsels and brains of others, to support their authority; for he was skilled in the turnings of all human affairs, and transacted all matters, especially those of high consequence, by himself and not by others. He was singularly skilful to avoid envy and found it not impertinent to his ends, to decline that, though it were with some diminution of his dignity. For

aiming at a real power, he was content to pass by all vain pomp and outward shows of power throughout his whole life; till at last, whether high-flown with the continual exercise of power or corrupted with flatteries, he affected the ensigns of power (the style and diadem of a king) which was the bait that wrought his overthrow. This is true, that he harboured the thoughts of a kingdom from his very youth: and hereunto the example of Sylla and the kindred of Marius and his emulation of Pompey and the corruption and ambition of the times did prick him forward: but then he paved his way to a kingdom after a wonderful and strange manner: at first, by a popular and seditious power; afterwards by a military power and that of a general in war. For there was required to effect his ends; first, that he should break the power and authority of the senate; which, as long as it stood firm, was adverse and an hindrance that no man could climb to sovereignty and imperial command.

418. CHARACTER OF JULIUS CÆSAR. Neither was he much inclined to works of perpetuity; for he established nothing for the future; he founded no sumptuous buildings; he procured to be enacted no wholesome laws, but still minded himself: and so his thoughts were confined within the circle of his own life. He sought indeed after fame and reputation, because he thought they might be profitable to his designs: otherwise, in his inward thoughts, he propounded to himself rather absoluteness of power than honour and fame. For as for honour and fame, he pursued not after them for themselves; but because they were the instruments of power and greatness. And therefore he was carried on through a natural inclination, not by any rules that he had learned, to affect the sole regiment; and rather to enjoy the same than to seem worthy of it. And by this means he won much reputation amongst the people, who are no valuers of true worth: but amongst the nobility and great men, who were tender of their own honours, it procured him no more than this, that he incurred the brand of an ambitious and daring man. Neither did they much err from the truth who thought him so; for he was by nature exceeding bold, and never did put on any show of modesty except it were for some purposes. Yet notwithstanding, he so attempered his boldness, that it neither impeached him of rashness nor was burdensome to men, nor rendered his nature