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and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to fhape and colour. Her ftature was of a height that rose to the majestic. She danced, fhe walked, and rode with equal grace. Her tale for mufic was just, and fhe both fung and played upon the lute with uncommon fkill. Towards the end of her life fhe began to grow fat; and her long confinement, and the coldness of the houfes in which the was imprisoned, brought on a rheumatifm which deprived her of the ufe of her limbs. No man, fays Brantome, ever beheld her perfon without admiration and love, or will read her hiftory without forrow.

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Francis died at Rambouillet, on the laft day of March, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the thirty-third year of his reign. During twenty-eight years of that time, an avowed rivalihip fubfifted between him and the emperor, which involved not only their own dominions, but the greater part of Europe in wars, profecuted with more violent animofity, and drawn out to a greater length, than had been known in any former period. Many circumftances contributed to both. Their animofity was founded in oppofition of intereft, heightened by perfonal emulation, and exafperated not only by mutual injuries, but by reciprocal infults. At the fame time, whatever advantage one feemed to poffefs towards gaining the afcendant, was wonderfully balanced by fome favourable circumftance, peculiar to the other. The emperor's dominions were of great extent, the French king's lay more compact: Francis governed his kingdom with abfolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he fupplied the want of authority by addrefs: the troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprifing; thofe of the latter better disciplined, and more patient of fatigue. The talents and abilities of the two monarchs were as different as the advantages which they poffeffed, and contributed no lefs to prolong the conteft between them. Francis took his 'refolutions fuddenly, profecuted them at first with warmth, and pushed them into execution with a moft adventurous courage; but, being deftitute of the perfeverance neceffary to furmount difficulties, he often abandoned his defigns, or relaxed the vigour of pur

fuit, from impatience, and fometimes from levity.

Charles deliberated long, and determined with coolness; but, having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with inflexible obftinacy, and neither danger nor difcou ragement could turn him afide from the execution of it. The fucceís of their enterprifes was as different as their characters, and was uniformly influenced by them. Francis, by his impetuous activity, often difconcerted the emperor's best-laid fchemes: Charles, by a more calm, but fteady profecution of his defigns, checked the rapidity of his rival's career, and baffled or repulfed his moft vigorous efforts. The former, at the opening of a war or of a campaign, broke in upon his enemy with the violence of a torrent, and carried all before him; the latter, waiting until he faw the force of his rival begin to abate, recovered in the end not only all that he had loft, but made new acquifitions. Few of the French monarch's attempts towards conqueft, whatever promifing afpect they might wear at first, were conducted to an happy iffue: many of the emperor's enterpriies, even after they appeared defperate and impracticable, terminated in the moft profperous manner. Francis was dazzled with the fplendour of an undertaking; Charles was allured by the profpect of its turning to his advantage. The degree, however, of their comparative merit and reputation has not been fixed, either by a ftrict fcrutiny into their abilities for government, or by an impartial confideration of the greatnefs and fuccefs of their undertakings; and Francis is one of thofe monarchs who occupies a higher rank in the temple of fame, than either his talents or performances entitle him to hold. This preeminence he owed to many different circumflances. The fuperiority which Charles acquired by the victory of Pavia, and which from that period he preferved through the remainder of his reign, was fo manifeft, that Francis's ftruggle against his exorbitant and growing dominion, was viewed by most of the other powers, not only with the partiality which naturally arifes from thofe who gallantly maintain an unequal conteft, but with the favour due to one who was refifting a common enemy, and endea. vouring to fet bounds to a monarch equally formidable to them all. The characters of princes too, especially among their contemporaries, depend not only upon their talents for government, but upon their

qualities

qualities as men. Francis, notwithstanding ed as a man have entitled him to greater admiration and praife, than have been beflowed upon the extenfive genius and fortunate arts of a more capable, but lefs amiable rival. Robertfon.

the many errors confpicuous in his foreign policy and domeflic administration, was nevertheless humane, beneficent, generous. He poffeffed dignity without pride; affability free from meannefs, and courtely exempt from deceit. All who had access to him (and no man of merit was ever denied that privilege) refpected and loved him. Captivated with his perfonal qualities, his fubjects forgot his defects as a monarch, and admiring him as the moft accomplished and amiable gentleman in his dominions, they never murmured at acts of mal-adminiftration, which in a prince of lefs engaging difpofitions would have been deemed unpardonable. This admiration, however, must have been temporary only, and would have died away with the courtiers who beflowed it; the illufion arifing from his private virtues must have ceafed, and pofterity would have judged of his public conduct with its ufual impartiality; but another circumftance prevented this, and his name hath been tranfmitted to pofterity with increafing reputation. Science and the arts had, at that time, made little progrefs in France. They were just beginning to advance beyond the limits of Italy, where they had revived, and which had hitherto been their only feat. Francis took them immediately under his protection, and vied with Leo himfelf in the zeal and munificence with which he encouraged them. He invited learned men to his court; he converfed with them familiarly, he employed them in bufinefs; he raised them to offices of dignity, and honoured them with his confidence. That race of men, not more prone to complain when denied the refpect to which they fancy themfelves entitled, than apt to be pleafed when treated with the diftinction which they confider as their due, though they could not exceed in gratitude to fuch a benefactor, ftrained their invention, and employed all their ingenuity in panegyric.

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§ 114. The Character of CHARLES V. As Charles was the first prince of his age in rank and dignity, the part which he ačted, whether we confider the greatness, the variety, or the fuccefs of his undertakings, was the moft confpicuous. It is from an attentive obfervation to his conduct, not from the exaggerated praises of the Spanish hiftorians, or the undiitinguishing cenfure of the French, that a jul idea of Charles's genius and abilities is to be collected. He poffeffed qualities fo peculiar, as ftrongly mark his character, and not only diftinguith him from the princes who were his contemporaries, but account for that fuperiority over them which he fo long maintained. In forming his fchemes, he was, by nature as well as by habit, cautious and confiderate. Born with talents, which unfolded themfelves flowly, and were late in attaining maturity, he was accustomed to ponder every fubject that demanded his confideration, with a careful and deliberate attention. He bent the whole force of his mind towards it, and dwelling upon it with ferious application, undiverted by pleafure, and hardly relaxed by any amufement, he revolved it in filence in his own breast: he then communicated the matter to his minifters; and after hearing their opinions, took his refolution with a decifive firmnefs, which feldom follows such flow confultations. In confequence of this, Charles's measures, instead of refembling the defultory and irregular fallies of Henry VIII. or Francis I. had the appearance of a confiftent system, in which all the parts were arranged, the effects were foreseen, and the accidents were provided for. His promptitude in execution was no lefs remarkable than his paSucceeding authors, warmed with their tience in deliberation. He confulted with defcriptions of Francis's bounty, adopted phlegm, but he acted with vigour; and did their encomiums, and refined upon them. not difcover greater fagacity in his choice The appellation of Father of Letters, be- of the meafures which it was proper to ftowed upon Francis, hath rendered his purfue, than fertility of genius in finding memory facred among hiftorians, and they out the means for rendering his purfuit of feem to have regarded it as a fort of im- them fuccefsful. Though he had naturally piety to uncover his infirmities, or to point fo little of the martial turn, that during out his defects. Thus Francis, notwith- the most ardent and bustling period of life, ftanding his inferior abilities, and want of he remained in the cabinet inactive; yet fuccefs, hath more than equalled the fame when he chofe at length to appear at the of Charles. The virtues which he poffeff-head of his armies, his mind was fo formed

for

for vigorous exertions in every direction, that he acquired fuch knowledge in the art of war, and fuch talents for command, as rendered him equal in reputation and fuccefs to the moft able generals of the age. But Charles poffeffed, in the moft eminent degree, the fcience which is of greatest importance to a monarch, that of knowing men, and of adapting their talents to the various departments which he allotted to them. From the death of Chievres to the end of his reign, he employed no general in the field, no minifter in the cabinet, no ambaffador to a foreign court, no governor of a province, whofe abilities were inadequate to the truft which he repofed in them. Though deftitute of that bewitching affability of manner, which gained Francis the hearts of all who approached his perfon, he was no ftranger to the virtues which fecure fidelity and attachment. He placed unbounded confidence in his generals; he rewarded their fervices with munificence; he neither en vied their fame, nor difcovered any jeafoufy of their power. Almoft all the generals who conducted his armies, may be placed on a level with thofe illuftrious perfonages who have attained the highest eminence of military glory; and his advantages over his rivals are to be afcribed fo manifeftly to the fuperior abilities of the commanders whom he fet in oppofition to them, that this might feem to detract, in fome degree, from his own merit, if the talent of difcovering and employing fuch inftruments were not the most undoubted proof of his capacity for government.

There were, nevertheless, defects in his political character, which must confiderably abate the admiration due to his extraordinary talents. Charles's ambition was infatiable; and though there feems to be no foundation for an opinion prevalent in his own age, that he had formed the chimerical project of eftablishing an univerfal monarchy in Europe, it is certain that his defire of being diftinguished as a conqueror involved him in continual wars, which exhausted and oppreffed his fubjects, and left him little leifure for giving attention to the interior police and improvement of his kingdoms, the great objects of every prince who makes the happinefs of his people the end of his government. Charles, at a very early period of life, having added the imperial crown to the kingdoms of Spain, and to the hereditary donmions of the houfes of Auftria and

Burgundy; this opened to him fuch a vaft field of enterprife, and engaged him in fchemes fo complicated as well as arduous, that feeling his power to be unequal to the execution of these, he had often recourfe to low artifices, unbecoming his fuperior talents; and fometimes ventured on fuch deviations from integrity, as were dishonourable in a great prince. His infidious and fraudulent policy appeared more confpicuous, and was rendered more odious, by a comparifon with the open and undefigning character of his contemporaries, Francis I. and Henry VIII. This difference, though occafioned chiefly by the diverfity of their tempers, must be ascribed in fome degree to fuch an oppofition in the principles of their political conduct, as affords fome excufe for this defect in Charles's behaviour, though it cannot ferve as a juftification of it. Francis and Henry feldom acted but from the impulse of their paffions, and rufhed headlong towards the object in view. Charles's meafures being the refult of cool reflection, were disposed into a regular fyftem, and carried on upon a concerted plan. Perfons who act in the former manner naturally pursue the end in view, without affuming any difguife, or difplaying much addrefs. Such as hold the latter courfe, are apt, in forming, as well as in executing their defigns, to employ fuch refinements, as always lead to artifice in conduct, and often degenerate into deceit. Robertjon.

§ 115. The Character of EPAMINONDAS. Epaminondas was born and educated in that honeft poverty which thofe lefs corrupted ages accounted the glorious mark of integrity and virtue. The inftructions of a Pythagorean philofopher, to whom he was entrusted in his earliest years, formed him to all the temperance and feverity peculiar to that fect, and were received with a docility and pleafure which befpoke an ingenuous mind. Mufic, dancing, and all thofe arts which were accounted honourable diftinctions at Thebes, he received from the greatest mafters. In the athletic exercifes he became confpicuous, but foon learned to apply particularly to thofe which might prepare him for the labours and occafions of a military life. His modeity and gravity rendered him ready to hear and receive inftruction; and his genius enabled him to learn and improve. A love of truth, a love of virtue, tenderness, and humanity, and an exalted patriotifm, he

had

had learned, and foon difplayed. To thefe glorious qualities he added penetration and fagacity, a happiness in improving every incident, a confummate skill in war, an unconquerable patience of toil and diftrefs, a boldness in enterprife, vigour, and magnanimity. Thus did he become great and terrible in war: nor was he lefs diftinguished by the gentler virtues of peace and retirement. He had a foul capable of the most exalted and difinterefted friendfhip. The warmth of his benevolence fupplied the deficiencies of his fortune; his credit and good offices frequently were employed to gain that relief for the neceflities of others, which his own circumftances could not grant them: within the narrow fphere of thefe were his defires regularly confined; no temptations could corrupt him; no profpects of advantage could shake his integrity; to the public he appeared unalterably and folely devoted; nor could neglect or injuries abate his zeal for Thebes. All thefe illuftrious qualities he adorned with that eloquence which was then in fuch repute, and appeared in council equally eminent, equally ufeful to his country, as in action. By him Thebes first rofe to fovereign power, and with him fhe loft her greatness. Leland.

116. A Comparison of the political Principles and Conduct of CATO, ATTICUS, and CICERO.

The three fects which chiefly engroffed the philofophical part of Rome were, the Stoic, the Epicurean, and the Academic; and the chief ornaments of each were, Cato, Atticus, and Cicero; who lived together in ftrict friendship, and a mutual efteem of each other's virtue: but the different behaviour of these three will fhew, by fact and example, the different merit of their feveral principles, and which of them was the best adapted to promote the good of fociety.

The Stoics were the bigots or enthufiafts in philofophy; who held none to be truly wife or good but themfelves; placed perfect happiness in virtue, though ftripped of every other good; affirmed all fins to be equal, all deviations from right equally wicked; to kill a dunghill cock without reafon, the fame crime as to kill a parent; that a wife man could never forgive; never be moved by anger, favour, or pity; never be deceived; never repent; never change his mind. With thefe principles Cato entered into public life;

and acted in it, as Cicero fays, as if he had lived in the polity of Plato, not in the dregs of Romulus.' He made no diftinction of times or things; no allowance for the weakness of the republic, and the power of thofe who oppreffed it: it was his maxim to combat all power not built upon the laws, or to defy it at leaft, if he could not controul it: he knew no way to his end, but the direct; and whatever obftructions he met with, refolved ftill to rufh on, and either to furmount them, or perish in the attempt; taking it for a bafenefs, and confeffion of being conquered, to decline a tittle from the true road. In an age, therefore, of the utmost libertinifm, when the public difcipline was loft, and the government itself tottering, he struggled with the fame zeal against all corruption, and waged a perpetual war with a fuperior force; whilft the rigour of his principles tended rather to alienate his friends, than reconcile enemies; and by provoking the power that he could not fubdue, help to haften that ruin which he was ftriving to avert: fo that after a perpetual courfe of difappointments and repulfes, finding himfelf unable to purfue his old way any farther, inftead of taking a new one, he was driven by his philofophy to put an end to his life.

But as the Stoics exalted human nature too high, fo the Epicureans depreffed it too low; as thofe raifed it to the heroic, thefe debased it to the brutal state; they held pleasure to be the chief good of man; death the extinction of his being; and placed their happiness, confequently, in the fecure enjoyment of a pleasurable life; efteeming virtue on no other account than as it was a handmaid to pleasure, and helped to enfure the poffeffion of it, by preferving health and conciliating friends. Their wife man, therefore, had no other duty, but to provide for his own ease, to decline all ftruggles, to retire from public affairs, and to imitate the life of their gods, by paffing his days in a calm, contemplative, undisturbed repose, in the midft of rural fhades and pleafant gardens. This was the fcheme that Atticus followed: he had all the talents that could qualify a man to be ufeful to fociety; great parts, learning, judgment, candour, benevolence, generofity, the fame love of his country, and the fame fentiments in politics, with Cicero; whom he was always advifing and urging to act, yet determined never to act himfelf; or never, at least,

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reduce by force, and conciliating it, if poffible, to the intereft of the ftate. This was what he had advised, and what he practifed; and it will account, in a great meafure, for thofe parts of his conduct which are the mott liable to exception, on the account of that complaifance which he is fuppofed to have paid, at different times, to the feveral ufurpers of illegal power. Middleton.

fo far as to difturb his cafe, or endanger his fafety. For though he was fo ftrictly united with Cicero, and valued him above all men, yet he managed an intereft all the while with the oppofite faction, and a friendship even with his mortal enemies, Clodius and Antony; that he might fecure, against all events, the grand point which he had in view, the peace and tranquillity of his life. Thus two excellent men, by their mistaken notions of virtue, drawn from their principles of philofophy,

were made ufelefs in a manner to their country, each in a different extreme of life: the one always acting and expofing himself to dangers, without the profpect of doing good; the other, without attempting to do any, refolving never to act at all.

Cicero chofe the middle way, between the obftinacy of Cato, and the indolence of Atticus; he preferred always the readieft road to what was right, if it lay open to him; if not, he took the next that feemed likely to bring him to the fame end; and in politics, as in morality, when he could not arrive at the true, contented himself with the probable. He often compares the ftatefman to the pilot, whofe art confifts in managing every turn of the winds, and applying even the most perverse to the progrefs of his voyage; fo as, by changing his courfe, and enlarging his circuit of failing, to arrive with fafety, though later, at his defined port. He mentions likewife an obfervation, which 'long experience had confirmed to him, that none of the popular and ambitious, who afpired to extraordinary commands, and to be leaders in the republic, ever chofe to obtain their ends from the people, till they had first been repulfed by the fe

nate.

This was verified by all their civil diffenfions, from the Gracchi down to Cafar: fo that when he faw men of this fpirit at the head of the government, who, by the splendour of their lives and actions, had acquired an afcendant over the populace, it was his conftant advice to the fenate, to gain them by gentle compliances, and to gratify their thirft of power by voluntary grants of it, as the best way to moderate their ambition, and reclaim them from defperate councils. He declared contention to be no longer prudent than while it either did fervice, or at least no hurt; but when faction was grown too ftrong to be withflood, that it was time to give over fighting; and nothing left but to extract fome good out of the ill, by mitigating that power by patience, which they could not

117. The Character of Lord Towns

HEND.

Lord Townshend, by very long experience, and unwearied application, was certainly an able man of bufinefs, which was his only paífion. His parts were neither above nor below it; they were rather flow, a defect of the fafer fide. He required time to form his opinion; but when formed, he adhered to it with invincible firmness, not to fay obftinacy, whether right or wrong, and was impatient of contradiction.

He was a moft ungraceful and confufed fpeaker in the houfe of lords, inelegant in his language, perplexed in his arguments, but always near the ftrefs of the question.

His manners were coarfe, ruftic, and feemingly brutal; but his nature was by no means fo; for he was a kind husband to both his wives, a moft indulgent father to all his children, and a benevolent matter to his fervants; furè tefts of real goodnature, for no man can long together fimulate or diffimulate at home.

He was a warm friend, and a warm enemy; defe&s, if defects they are, infeparable in human nature, and often accompanying the moff generous minds.

Never minitter had cleaner hands than he had. Mere domeftic œconomy was his only care as to money; for he did not add one acre to his eftate, and left his younger children very moderately provided for, though he had been in confiderable and lucrative employments near thirty years.

As he only loved power for the fake of power, in order to preferve it he was obliged to have a moft unwarrantable complaifance for the interests and even dictates of the electorate, which was the only way by which a British minifter could hold either favour or power during the reigns of king George the Firft and Second.

The coarfenefs and imperioufnefs of his manners made him difagreeable to queen Caroline.

Lord Townshend was not of a temper

to

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