XXXI. WHO THINK TOO MUCH OF THE PAST. THIS is the curse of leisure; and the penalty paid for indolence of mind. I have, of late,' said Johnson, ' turned my thoughts with a very useless earnestness upon past incidents: an unpleasant incident is almost ' certain to hinder my rest.' The best antidote for this disorder is continual occupation of the head or hand. It was wise, therefore, in Sir Thomas Lawrence, to seek relief in continual occupation. 'I have round me,' said he to a friend, all ' that ought to satisfy the solitary artist; and, as enthusiasm is still not dead within me, I live over the days of past greatness, in the profession that I love; and thus 'make the happiness I do not find.' Indolence is the parent of melancholy;-an agreeable occupation that of cheerfulness and content. There is, in fact, no worldly happiness equal to that arising from honest and successful industry. XXXII. WHO ARE ALWAYS CONCERNING THEMSELVES ABOUT THE FUTURE. PERSONS of this sort feel never at ease or at home. They are travellers, as it were. Nothing is present but their anxieties. Watts seems to have been wiser:I am not concern'd to know What to-morrow's fate can do; Michael, the archangel, gives an equal advice to Adam:: -'Let no man seek Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall In apprehension than in substance, feel, Why then know that we cannot prevent? Well do I remember the time when an old grey gipsy came from her tent under the boughs of a large oak:— 'As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew, And traced the line of life with searching view, How throbbed my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears, Rogers; Pleasures of Memory. When I met the gipsy I put faith in her prophecies; how truly she predicted a splendid fortune, may be now too easily shown! This is the boast of Satan : -' I lend men oft my aid, Oft my advice by presages and signs, Par. Regained, b. i. v. 393. XXXIII. WHO TAKE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE OF TIME. In the correspondence of Wolsey with Henry VIII., published in the Government collection of State Papers, we find a letter addressed to the king, asking for the see of Winchester within one hour after his hearing of the death of Fox, bishop of that see. Taking time by the forelock is very important to worldly success; but to be too active leads to injustice. Where the race is open for the competition of all, those who steal the start, ought never to be permitted to gain the plate. XXXIV. WHO TRUST TO TIME. NONE but great minds do this: all others are impatient in the race. The greatest of men have trusted to time witness Homer, Camoens, Cervantes, Salvator Rosa, Domenichino, Wren, and Handel. To be neglected by their contemporaries,' says some one, was the penalty they paid for the glory of surpassing 'them.' Milton was too great for his day. From Milton to Hume the transition is scarcely to be vindicated; but Hume had his period of neglect, also, as well as his period of fame. From the world at home he experienced, for many years, little but mortification. At one time an object of fear; at others of hatred and rancour; and such contempt and neglect did his writings experience, that nothing but the breaking out of a war prevented him from changing his name, forsaking his country, and retiring to a remote province in France, where he might be entirely forgotten. In matters of fact and faith, too, philosophers must often trust to time; time being the greatest of friends both to philosophy and fact: 'Here Time's huge fingers grasp his giant mace, And dash proud Superstition from her base; Rend her strong towers and gorgeous fanes, and shed Darwin; Loves of the Plants, ii. 1. 183. Who would not encounter every species of persecution to be classed with such men as Wickliffe, Kepler, and Galileo? XXXV. WHOM TIME FAILS TO AVENGE. 'If ever man to misery was born, 'Tis mine to suffer, and 'tis mine to mourn.' SUCH was the pathetic lament of Laertes. Who has more reason to mourn than those whose lot compels them to seek solace in the hope that posterity will do them justice? Call me cold-hearted!' exclaimed Lord Byron. As well might you say, that glass is not brittle ' which has been cast down a precipice, and lies dashed to pieces at the foot!' This may be true; but who dashed the mirror down? who but himself? The polypus increases its numbers by being parted by a knife; hence the more numerous the divisions, the more numerous the increase. When a man makes divisions of himself, of whom has he right to complain? Posterity, if just to others, will be equally just to him. Abuse and wrong have made me proud, and will always do so;-praise and appreciation humble. The insight into men and things, obtained by long watching and deep sufferings, reminds me of the cir cumstance, that it is to the practical science of the optician, that natural philosophers are mainly indebted for their increase of knowledge in respect to astronomy, anatomy, entomology, botany, and other subjects of natural history. Knowledge is not only power, but pleasure. She sings thus:— 'From the high mountain's grassy side; A guiltless feast I bring; A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied, XXXVI. INTRIGUERS. PLOTINUS calls craft a defluxion of the intellect. 'No ' injury penetrates more deeply,' we are told, than the discovery of a subtle contrivance to make us the dupe ' of another's artifice.' According to Xenophon, however, to be deceived by a friend carries with it its own apology and it certainly does. These observations remind me of Lord Clarendon's characteristics of Sir Harry Vane, and John, Duke of Lauderdale; and of what Sir William Temple says of William III. The first was of rare dissimulation, and could comply, whenever it was not seasonable to contradict, without losing ground by the condescension. He knew, in fact, how far he could go; as a coachman knows by his splinter-bars whether or not his coach can follow; and as a cat, by the length of her whiskers, knows whether she can creep through a hole without the risk of trusting her body. John, Duke of Lauderdale, loved pleasure, and yet was of great parts, flattering and dissembling; fit for 'intrigues and contrivances.' |