virtues, the ascription of which would be too gross to impose on his discernment. There will be more danger of a modern courtier imitating the delicacy of the ancient painter, who, being ordered to draw the portrait of a prince who had but one eye, adopted the conciliating expedient of painting him in profile.

exact caution should be inculcated, and the keenest discernment cultivated, in the royal education. All that can improve the judgment, sharpen the penetration, or give enlarged views of the human mind, should be put in exercise. A prince should possess that sort of sight, which, while it takes in remote views, accurately distinguishes near objects. To the eye of the lynx, which no But if the modern flatterer be less gross, mínuteness can elude, should be added that he will be, on that very account, the more of the eagle, which no brightness can blind, dangerous. The refinement of his adulation for whatever dazzles darkens. He should prevents the object of it from putting himacquire that justness, as well as extent of self on his guard. The prince is led, permind, which should enable him to study the haps, to conceive with self-complacency that character of his enemies, and decide upon he is hearing the language of truth, while he that of his friends; to penetrate keenly, but is only the dupe of a more accomplished flatnot invidiously, into the designs of others, terer. He should especially beware of misand vigilantly to scrutinize his own. His taking freedom of manner, for frankness of mind should be stored, not with shifts and sentiment; and of confounding the artful expedients, but with large and liberal plans; familiarities of a designing favourite, with not with stratagems, but resources; not the honest simplicity of a disinterested with subterfuges, but principles; not with friend.

prejudices, but reasons. He should treasure Where, in our more correct day, is the up sound,maxims to teach him to act consist-courtier who would dare to add profaneness ently; be provided with steady measures to flattery so far, as to declare, as was done suited to the probable occasion, together with a promptitude of mind, prepared to vary them so as to meet any contingency.

In no instance will those who have the care of forming the royal pupil find a surer exercise of their wisdom and integrity, than in their endeavours to guard the mind from the deadly poison of flattery. Many kings says the witty South, have been destroyed by poison, but none has been so efficaciously mortal as that drunk in by the ear.'

by the greatest philosopher this country ever produced, in his letter to prince Charles, that, as the Father had been bis Creator, so. he hoped the Son would be his Redeemer *** But what a noble contrast to this base and blasphemous servility in the chancellor of James, does the conduct of the chancellor of his grand-son exhibit! The unbending rectitude of Clarendon not only disdained to flatter, in his private intercourse, a master to whom however his pen is always too parIntellectual taste, it is true, is much refin-tial, but it led boldly and honestly to remoned, since the Grecian sophist tried to cure strate against his flagitious conduct. the melancholy of Alexander by telling him, standing example for all times, to the serthat Justice was painted, as seated near vants and companions of kings, he resolutethe throne of Jupiter, to indicate that rightly reproved his master to his face, while he and wrong depended on the will of kings; all whose actions ought to be accounted just, both by themselves and others.'

Compliments are not now absurd and extravagant, as when the most elegant of Roman poets invited his imperial master to pick cut his own lodging among the constellations: nor, as when the bard of Pharsalia offered to the emperor his choice, either of the sceptre of Jupiter, or the chariot of Apollo; modestly assuring him, that there was not a god in the pantheon, who would not vield his empire to him, and account it an honour to resign in his favour. This meritorious prince, so worthy to displace the gods, was Nero, who rewarded Lucan, not for his adulation, but for being a better poet than himself, with a violent death.

The smooth and obsequious Pliny impro ved on all anterior adulation. Not content with making his emperor the imitator, or the equal of Deity, he makes him a pattern for it; protesting that men needed to make no other prayers to the gods, than that they would continue to be as good and propitious lords to them as Trajan had been.'

But the refined sycophant of modern days is more likely to hide the actual blemishes, and to veil the real faults of a prince from himself, than to attribute to him incredible VOL. IL

8

A

thought it his duty to defend him, somewhat too strongly, indeed, to others. He boldly besought the king, not to believe that he had a prerogative to declare vice to be virtue.' And in one of the noblest speeches on record, in answer to a dishonourable request of the king, that he would visit some of his majesty's infamous associates; he laid before him with a lofty sincerity, the turpitude of a man in his dignified office, being obliged to countenance persons scandalous for their vices, for which by the laws of God and man, they ought to be odious and exposed to the judgment of the church and state. In this instance superior to his great rival Sully, that no desire of pleasing the king, no consideration of expediency, could induce him to visit the royal mistresses, or to countenance the licentious favourites.

Princes have generally been greedy of praise in a pretty exact proportion to the pains which they have taken not to deserve it. Henry the VIIIth was a patron of learned men, and might himself be accounted learned. But his favourite studies, instead of preserving him from the love of flattery, served to lay him open to it. Scholastic divinity, the fashionable learning of the times,

*See Howell's Letters.

as Burnet observes, suited his vain and con- | tentious temper, and as ecclesiastics were to be his critics, his pursuits of polemical theology brought him in the largest revenue of praise; so that there seemed to be a contest between him and them, whether they could offer, or he could swallow, the most copious draughts of flattery.

Princes have in all ages complained that they have been ill served. But, is it not because they have not always carefully selected their servants? Is it not because they have too often bestowed confidence on the unwise, and employments on the unworthy? Because, while they have loaded the undeserving with benefits, they have neglected to reward those who have served them well, and to support those who have served them long? Is it not because they have sometimes a way of expecting every thing, while they seem to exact nothing? And have not too many been apt to consider that the bonour of serving them is itself a sufficient reward?

But the reign of James the first was the great epocha of adulation in England; and a prince who had not one of the qualities of a warlike, and scarcely one of the virtues of a pacific king, received from clergy and laity, from statesmen, philosophers, and men of letters, praises not only utterly repugnant to truth and virtue, but directly contrary to that frankness of manners, and magnanimity By a close study of the weaknesses and of spirit, which had formerly characterized passions of a sovereign, crafty and designing Englishmen. This ascription of all rights, favourites have ever been on the watch to and all talents, and all virtues, to a prince, establish their own dominion, by such approbold through fear, and presumptuous be-priate means, as seem best accommodated to cause he wished to conceal his own pusillan imity, rebounded, as was but just, on the flatterers; who, in return for their adulation, were treated by him with a contempt, which not the boldest of his predecessors had ever ventured to manifest. His inquiry of bis company at dinner, whether he might not take his subjects' money when he needed it, without the formality of parliament, indicates, that one object was always uppermost in his mind; his familiar intercourse was employed in diving into the private opinions of men, to discover to what length his oppressive schemes might be carried; and his public conduct occupied in putting those schemes into practice.

the turn of those weaknesses and passions. If Leonore Concini, and the dutchess of Marlborough, obtained the most complete ascendency over their respective queens, both probably by artful flattery at first, they afterwards secured and preserved it by a tyranny the most absolute. In connexions of this nature, it is usually on the side of the sovereign, that the caprice and the haughtiness are expected; but the domineering favourite of Anne exclusively assumed to herself all these prerogatives of despotic power, and exercised them without mercy, on the intimidated and submissive queen; a queen, who, with many virtues, not having had the discernment to find out, that the opposite extreme to what is wrong, is commonly wrong also, in order to extricate herself from her captivity to one favourite, fell into the snares spread for her by the servility of another. Thus, whether the imperious dutchess, or the obsequious Masham, were lady of the ascendant, the sovereign was equally infatuated, equally misled.

But the royal person whom we presume to advise, may, from the very circumstance of her sex, have more complicated dangers to resist; against which her mind should be early fortified. The dangers of adulation are doubled, when the female character is combined with the royal. Even the vigorous mind of the great Elizabeth did not guard her against the powerful assaults of That attachments formed without judgthe flattery paid to her person. That mas-ment, and pursued without moderation, are culine spirit was as much the slave of the likely to be dissolved without reason; and most egregious vanity, as the weakest of her that breaches the most trivial in themselves sex could have been. All her admirable prudence and profound policy, could not may be important in their consequences, preserve her from the childish and silly levity with which she greedily invited the compliments of the artful minister of her more

the trifling cause which, by putting an end were never more fully exemplified than in to the intercourse between the above named beautiful rival. Even that gross instance of queen and dutchess, produced events the Melvil's extravagance enchanted her, when, the duke was fighting her majesty's battles most unforeseen and extraordinary. While as she was playing on Mary's favourite in- abroad, and his dutchess supporting his instrument, for the purpose of being over-terest against a powerful party at court; a heard by him, the dissembling courtier af fected to be so ravished by her skill, as to pair of gloves of a new invention, sent first burst into her apartment, like an enraptured to have them before the queen, who had orby the milliner to the favourite (impatient man, who had forgotten his reverence in his dered a similar pair,) so incensed her majesadmiration. It was a curious combat in the great mind of Elizabeth, between the offend-ty, as to be the immediate cause, by driving ed pride of the queen, and the gratified vani- duke of his command, compelling the conthe dutchess from her post, of depriving the ty of the woman; but Melvil knew his trade federates to agree to a peace, preserving in knowing human nature;-he calculated Louis from the destruction which awaited justly The woman conquered. him, making a total revolution in parties at home, and determining the fate of Europe.*

*The requisition was allowed in a phrase as disgustingly servile, by bishop Neile; as it was pleasantly evaded by Andrews.

* Examen du Prince.

To a monarch more eager to acquire fame virtuous friends maintained their entire inthan to deserve it, to pension a poet will be fluence, every thing looked favourable.-a shorter cut to renown than to dispense But when his sycophants had succeeded in blessings to his country. Louis XII, instead making Seneca an object of ridicule; and of buying immortality of a servile bard, when Tigellinus was preferred to Burrhus, earned and enjoyed the appellation of father all that followed was a natural consequence. of his people; that people whom his brill- The abject slavery of the people, the servile iant successor, Louis the great, drained and decress of the senate, the obsequious acquiplundered, or in the emphatic language of escence of the court, the prostrate homage the prophet, peeled und scattered to provide of every order, all concurred to bring out money for his wars, his mistresses, his build-his vices in their full luxuriance, and Rome, ings, and his spectacles. Posterity, howev- as was but just, became the victim of the er has done justice to both kings, and le bien monster she had pampered. Tacitus, with aime is remembered with affectionate vene- his usual honest indignation, declares, that ration, while le grand is regarded as the fab- as often as the emperor commanded banishricator of the ruin of his race. ments or ordered assassinations, so often were thanks and sacrifices decreed to the gods!

How totally must adulation have blunted the delicacy of the latter prince, when he could shut himself up with his two royal But, in our happier days, as subjects, it is historiographers, Boileau and Racine, to presumed, indulge no such propensities, so hear them read portions of his own history. under our happier constitution, have they no Deservedly high as was the reputation of such opportunities. Yet powerful, though these two fine geniuses, in the walks of poet- gentler, and almost unapparent means, may ry, was that history likely to convey much be employed to weaken the virtue, and intruth or instruction to posterity, which, after jure the fame of a prince. To degrade his being composed by two pensioned poets, character, he need only be led into one vice, was read by them to the monarch, who was idleness; and be attacked by one weapon, to be the hero of the tale? Sovereigns, in-flattery. Indiscriminate acquiescence and deed, may elect poets to record their ex- soothing adulation will lay his mind open to ploits, but subjects will read historians. the incursion of every evil without his being The conquest of every town and village aware of it; for his table is not the place was celebrated by Boileau in hyperbolic where he expects to meet an enemy, consesong; and the whole pantheon ransacked quently, he is not on his guard against him. for deities, who might furnish some faint And where he is thus powerfully assailed, idea of the glories of the immortal Louis.- the kindest nature, the best intentions, the The time, however, soon arrived, when the gentlest manners, and the mildest disposiauthor of the adulatory ode on the taking of tions, cannot be depended on for preserving Namur, in which the king and the gods were him from those very corruptions, to which again identified, was as completely over-the worst propensities lead; and there is a turned by the incomparable travesty of our witty Prior, as the conqueror of Namur himself was, by its glorious deliverer

degree of facility, which, from softness of temper, becomes imbecility of mind.

For there is hardly a fault a sovereign can Little Will, the scourge of France, commit, to which flattery may not incline No godhead, but the first of men. him. It impels to opposite vices, to apathy A prince should be accustomed to see and to ambition which inflames the heart, to anand egotism, the natural failings of the great; know things as they really are, and should be taught to dread that state of delusion, in ger which distorts it, to hardness which deadens, and to selfishness which degrades it. which the monarch is the only person igno- He should be taught, as the intrepid Masilrant of what is doing in his kingdom. It lon* taught his youthful prince, that the flatwas to little purpose that the sovereign last tery of the courtier, contradictory as the asnamed, when some temporary sense of re-sertion may seem, is little less dangerous than morse was excited by an affecting represent- the disloyalty of the rebel. Both would beation of the miseries of the persecuted pro- tray him; and the crime of him who would testants, said, that he hoped God would dethrone, and of him who would debase his not impute to him as a crime, punishments prince, however they may differ in a politiwhich he had not commanded.' Delusive cal, differ but little in a moral view: nay, hope! It was crime enough for a king to the ill effects of the traitor's crime may, to be ignorant of what was passing in his do- the prince at least, be bounded by time, extend to eternity. while the consequences of the flatterer's may

minions.

There have been few princes so ill disposed, as not to have been made worse by unmeasured flattery. Even some of the most depraved Roman emperors began their career with a fair promise. Tiberius set out with being mild and prudent; and even Nero, for a considerable time, either wore the mask, or did not need it. While his two

*See Boileau's Ode sur la prise de Namur by Louis, and Prior's Poem on the taking of Namur, by King William

CHAP. XVIII.

Religion necessary to the well-being of slates.

THE royal pupil should be informed, that there are some half Christians, and half phi

* See Masillon's Sermons, abounding equally in the sublimest piety and the richest eloquence,

losophers, who wish, without incurring the But how little the avowed sceptic, or even discredit of renouncing religion, to strip it of its value, by lowering its usefulness. They have been at much pains to produce a per suasion, that however beneficial Christianity may be to individuals, and however properly it may be taken as the rule of their conduct, it cannot be safely brought into action in political concerns; that the intervention of its spirit will rarely advance the public good, but, on the contrary, will often necessarily obstruct it; and in particular, that the glory and elevation of states must be unavoidably attended with some violation even of those laws of morality, which, they allow, ought to be observed in other cases.*

the paradoxical Christian seems to understand the genius of our religion; and how erroneous is their conception of the true elementary principles of political prosperity, we learn from one, who was as able as either to determine on the case. only a politican but a king, and eminently He who was not acquainted with the duties of both characters, has assured us, that RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION. stinct of the unsophisticated heart, and every And does not every inclear result of dispassionate and enlarged observation, unite in adopting as a moral axiom this divinely recorded aphorism!

These assertions, respecting the political Author of all things had admitted such an It would, indeed be strange, if the great disadvantages of religion, have not been ur- anomaly in his moral government; if in diged merely by the avowed enemies of Chris-rect contradiction to that moral ordination tian principle, the Bolingbrokes, the Hob- of causes and effects, by which, in the case beses, and the Gibbons: but there is a more of individuals, religion and virtue generally sober class of sceptics, ranged under the tend, in the way of natural consequence, to banners of a very learned and ingenious happiness and prosperity, irreligion and vice, sophist, who have not scrupled to maintain, to discomfiture and misery, the Almighty that the author of Christianity has actually should have established the directly opposite forbidden us to improve the condition of this tendencies, in the case of those multiplicaworld, to take any vigorous steps for prevent- tions of individuals, which are called civil ing its misery, or advancing its glory. An- communities. It is a supposition so contraother writer, an elegant wit, but whimsical ry to the divine procedure, in every other and superficial, though doubtless a sincere instance, that it would require to be proved Christian, who would be shocked at the ex- by incontestible evidence. It would indeed cess to which impiety has carried the position, amount to a concession, that the moral Auhas yet afforded some countenance to it, by thor of the world had appointed a premium, intimating, that God has given to men a re- as it were, for vice and irreligion; the very ligion which is incompatible with the whole idea is profaneness. Happily it is clearly economy of that world which he has created, contrary also both to reason and experience. and in which he has thought proper to place Providence, the ordinations of which will them. He allows, that government is es-ever exhibit marks of wisdom and goodness, sential to men, and yet asserts, that it cannot in proportion to the care with which they be managed without certain degrees of vio- are explored, has, in this instance, as well as lence, corruption, and imposition, which yet in others, made our duty coincident with Christianity strictly forbids. al patience under injuries, must every day ditional motive for pursuing that course, That perpetu- our happiness; has furnished us with an adprovoke new insults, and injuries, yet is this, which is indispensable to our eternal welfare, says he, enjoined.' The same positions are also repeatedly af- als and of communities, productive also of by rendering it, in the case both of individufirmed, by a later, more solid, and most ad-temporal good. It was not enough to make mirable writer, whose very able defence of the paths of virtue lead to the fulness of joy' the divine authority of Christianity and the hereafter, they are even now rendered to Holy Scriptures, naturally obtains credit for those who walk in them, 'paths of pleasantany opinions which are honoured with his ness and peace.' support.

·

It may be expected, that those who ad- ference to the most established principles of It would not be difficult to prove, by a revance such propositions, should at least pro- human nature, that those dispositions of duce proofs from history, that those states, mind, and principles of conduct, which, both in the government of which Christian prin- directly and indirectly, tend to promote the ciples have been most conspicuous, other good order of civil communities, are, in gencircumstances being equal, have either fail- eral, produced or strengthened by religion. ed through error, or sunk through impo-The same temper of mind which disposes a tence; or in some other way have suffered man to fear God, prompts him to honour the from introducing principles into transactions to which they were inapplicable.

* It were to be wished that Cromwell had been the only ruler who held, that the rules of morality must be dispensed with on great political occasions. + Mr. Bayle.

king. The same pride, self-sufficiency, and impatience of control, which are commonly duce civil insubordination and discontent. the root and origin of impiety, naturally proOne of the most acute of our political writers has stated, that all government rests on opinSoame Jenyns. It is true, he puts the remark of the people, of the right to power in their in the mouth of refined and speculative observion; on the opinion entertained by the mass ers.' But he afterwards affirms in his own proper governors, or on the opinion of its being their person-That such is indeed the Christian Revela- own interest to obey. Now, religion naturally confirms both these principles; and

tion.

nation and anarchy? Is it not in our crowded cities, in our large manufacturing towns, where wealth is often too dearly purchased at the price of morality and virtue? And if we resort to individual instances, who is the man of peace and quietness? Who is the least inclined to meddle with them that are given to change? Is it not the man of religious and domestic habits; whose very connex

es for his adherence to the cause of civil order, and to the support of the laws and institutions of his country?

thereby strengthens the very foundations of the powers of government. It establishes the right to power of governors, by teaching, that there is no power but of God;' it confirms in subjects the sense of its being their interest to obey by the powerful intervention of its higher sanctions and rewards: they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation.' Religion teaches men to consider their lotions, pursuits and hopes, are so many pledg in life, as a station assigned to them, by Him, who has a right to dispose of his creatures as he will. It therefore tends to prevent in the great mass of the community, which must It is the more extraordinary that any wriever be, comparatively speaking, poor, the ters, not deliberately hostile to the cause of disposition to repine at the more favoured religion and virtue, should have given any lot, and superior comforts of the higher degree of countenance to the pernicious erorders; a disposition which is the real source ror, which we have been so long combatting; of the most dangerous and deadly dissen- because the opposite opinion has been laid sions. down, as an incontestible axiom, by those Religion, again, as prompting men to view who will not be suspected of any extravaall human events as under the divine direc-gant zeal for the credit of religion, but, who tion, to regard the evils of life as the dispen- speak the dictates of strong sense and deep sation of Heaven, and often as capable of observation Hear then the able, but proflibeing rendered conducive to the most essen-gate Machiavel-Those princes and comtial and lasting benefit, disposes men to bear monwealths, who would keep their governall their sufferings with resignation and ments entire and uncorrupt, are above all cheerfulness. Whereas, on the contrary, things, to have a care of religion and its certhey who are not under its power, are often emonies, and preserve them in due venerainclined to revenge on their rulers, the mis- tion, for in the whole world, there is not a fortunes, which unavoidably result from nat-greater sign of imminent ruin, than when ural causes, as well as those which may be God and his worship are despised.'-' A more reasonably supposed to have owed their prince therefore, ought most accurately to existence to human imprudence and actual regard, that his religion be well-founded, and misconduct. then his government will last; for there is no surer way, than to keep that good and united. Whatever therefore occurs, that may any way be extended to the advantages and reputation of the religion they design to establish, by all means, they are to be propagated and encouraged; and the wiser the prince. the more sure it is to be done.'— And if this care of divine worship were regarded by christian princes, according to the precepts and instructions of him who gave it at first, the states and commonwealths of Christendom would be much more happy and firm."*

Again, if from contemplating these questions in their principles and elements, we proceed to view them, as they have been ex hibited and illustrated by history and experience, we shall find the same positions established with equal clearness and force Is there any proposition more generally admitted, than that political communities tend to decay and dissolution, in proportion to the corruption of their morals? How often has the authority of the poet been adduced (an author acute and just in his views of life, but not eminent for being the friend of morals or religion) to prove the inefficacy of laws, to Machiavel, it will be said, was at once an avert the progress of a state's decline and infidel and a hypocrite, who did not believe fall, while it should be carried forward, too the truth of that religion, the observance of surely, in the downward road, by the general which he solicitously enforced. Be it so; corruption of manners. We have already it still deducts nothing from the force of the exemplified these truths, in enumerating the argument as to the political uses of religion. causes of the fall of Rome.* On more than -For if the mere forms and institutions, one occasion, that state had owed its pre-the outward and visible signs' of Christianservation to its reverence for the awful sancity, were acknowledged to be, as they really tion of an oath. This principle, and indeed are, of so great value, by this shrewd politithe duty which is so closely connected with cian, what might not be the effect of its init, of truth and general fidelity to engage ward and spiritual grace? ments, are the very cement which holds to- When two able men of totally opposite gether societies, and indeed all, whether principles and characters, pointedly agree greater or smaller, associations of men; on any important topic, there is a strong preand that this class of virtues is founded and sumption that they meet in a truth. Such bottomed on religion, is undeniably evident. an unlooked for conformity may be found, If we pass from the page of history to a in two writers, so decidedly opposite to each review of private life, are we not led to ex- other, as our incomparable bishop Butler, actly the same conclusions? Where do the and the Florentine secretary above cited. politicians, who reason from the evidence Who will suspect Butler of being a visionaof facts, expect to find a spirit of insubordi- ry enthusiast? Yet has he drawn a most

* Chap. viii.

*Machiavel's Discourses on Livy.