CHAPTER XXII.

On the graces of deportment.-The dispositions necessary for business. Habits of domestic life.

"THOSE," says Lord Bacon, "who are accomplished in the forms of urbanity, are apt to please themselves in it so much, as seldom to aspire to higher virtue." Notwithstanding the general truth of the maxim, and the high authority by which it comes recommended, yet condescending and gracious manners should have their full share in finishing the royal character; but they should have only their due share. They should never be resorted to as a substitute for that worth, of which they are the best decoration. In all the graces of deportment, whatever appears outwardly engaging, should always proceed from something deeper than itself. The fair fabric, which is seen, must be supported by a solid foundation, which is out of sight; the loftiest pyramid must rise from the broadest base; the most beautiful flower from the most valuable root; sweetness of manners must be the effect of benevolence of heart; affability of speech should proceed from a well-regulated temper; a solicitude to oblige should spring from an inward sense of the duty owing to our fellow-creatures; the bounty of the hands must result from the feeling of the heart; the proprieties of conversation, from a sound internal principle; kindness, attention, and all the outward graces, should be the effect of habits and dispositions lying in the mind, and ready to shew themselves in action, whenever the occasion presents itself.

Just views of herself, and of what she owes to the

world, of that gentleness which Christianity inculcates, and that graciousness which her station enjoins, will, taking the usual advantages into the account, scarcely fail to produce in the royal pupil a deportment, at once dignified and engaging. The firmest substances alone are susceptible of the most exquisite polish, while the meanest materials will admit of being varnished. True fine breeding never betrays any tincture of that vanity, which is the effect of a mind struggling to conceal its faults; nor of that pride, which is not conscious of possessing any. This genuine politeness resulting from illustrious birth, inherent sense, and implanted virtue, will render superfluous the documents of Chesterfield, and the instructions of Castiglione."

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But the acquisition of engaging manners, and all the captivating graces of deportment, need less occupy the mind of the royal person, as she will acquire these attractions by a sort of instinct, almost without time or pains. They will naturally be copied from those illustrious examples of grace, ease, and condescending dignity, which fill, and which surround the throne. And she will have the less occasion for looking to remote or foreign examples, to learn the true arts of popularity, while the illustrious personage who wears the crown continues to exhibit not only a living pattern by what honest means the warm affections of a people are won, but by what rectitude, piety, and patriotism they may be preserved and increased, under every succession of trial, and every vicissitude of circumstance.

Among the habits which it is important for a prince to acquire, there is not one more essential than a love of business. Lord Bacon has, among

Balthasar Castiglione was born in the duchy of Mantua, in 1478, and died at Toledo in 1520. His book "Il Cortegiano" or "The Courtier," has been translated into English, and will repay perusal.-ED.]

his essays, an admirable chapter, both of counsel and caution, respecting despatch in affairs, which, as it is short and pointed, the royal pupil might commit to memory. He advises to measure despatch not by the time of sitting to business, but by the advancement of the business itself; and reprobates the affectation of those who, "to gain the reputation of men of despatch, are only anxious for the credit of having done a great deal in a little time; and who abbreviate, not by contracting, but by cutting off," On the other hand, procrastination wears out time, and accomplishes nothing. Indistinctness also in the framing of ideas, and confusion in the disorderly disposition of them, perplex business as much as irresolution impedes it. Julius Cæsar was a model in this respect; with all his turbulence of ambition, with all his eagerness of enterprise, with all his celerity of despatch, his judgment uniformly appears to have been cool and serene; and, even in the midst of the most complicated transactions, no perplexity is ever manifest in his conduct, no entanglement in his thoughts, no confusion in his expressions. Hence, we cannot but infer, that an unambiguous clearness in the planning of affairs, a lucid order in arranging, and a persevering, but not precipitate, despatch in conducting them, are the unequivocal marks of a superior mind.

Yet, though distribution, order, and arrangement are the soul of business, even these must not be too minute, "for he that does not divide," says the great authority above cited, will never enter clearly into business; and he who divides too much, will not come out of it clearly."

A prince should come to the transaction of business, with a prepared, but not with a prejudiced mind; and the mind which is best furnished for the concern which it is about to investigate, while it

will be least liable to be drawn aside by persuasion, will be most open to truth, and most disposed to yield to conviction, because it will have already weighed the arguments, and balanced the difficulties.

A great statesman of that nation to which we are rather apt to ascribe steadiness than rapidity, has bequeathed a valuable lesson to princes for the despatch of business. It is well known, that De Wit assigned it as the chief reason why he had himself been enabled to prosecute such a multiplicity of concerns so easily, was " by always doing one thing at a time.”

It is therefore important, not only fully to possess the mind with the affair which is under consideration, but to bestow on it an undivided attention, an application which cannot be diverted by irrelevant or inferior objects; and to possess a firmness which cannot be shaken from its purpose by art or flattery; cautions the more necessary, as we are assured by a penetrating observer, that even the strong mind of Elizabeth was not always proof against such attacks. One of the secretaries of this great queen never came to her to sign bills, that he did not first take care to engage her in deep discourse about other weighty business, that, by thus pre-occupying her mind, he might draw off her attention from the bills to which he wanted her signature.

For the private habits of life, and propriety of conduct to those around her, queen Mary, as described by bishops Burnet and Fowler, seems to have been a model. Her goodness was the most unostentatious, her gentleness the most unaffected, her piety the most inwoven into her habits, her charity the best principled, and her generosity the most discriminating! Vanity and self-love seem to have been not merely outwardly repressed, from a See especially bishop Burnet's Essay on Queen Mary.

sense of decorum, but to have been inwardly extinguished; and she did not want the veil of art, to conceal faults which were not working within. She seems to have united consummate discretion, with the most conscientious sincerity. She could deny, says her admiring biographer, the most earnest solicitations with a true firmness, when she thought the person for whom they were made did not merit them. She possessed one quality of peculiar value in her station—a gentle, but effectual method of discouraging calumny. If any indulged a spirit of censoriousness in her presence, continues he, she would ask them, if they had read archbishop Tillotson's sermon on evil speaking? or give them some other pointed, but delicate reproof.

Princes should never forget, that where sincerity is expected, freedom must be allowed; and, that they who shew themselves displeased at truth, must not be surprised if they never hear it. In all their intercourse, they should not only be habituated to expect from others, but to practise themselves, the most simple veracity; they should no more employ flattery, than exact it. It will be necessary for them to bear in mind, that such is the selfishness of the human heart, that we are not disinterested in our very praises; and that, in excessive commendation, we commonly consider ourselves more than the person we commend. It is often rather a dis

guised effect of our own vanity, than any real admiration of the person we extol. That flattery which appears so liberal is, in fact, one of the secret artifices of self-love; it looks generous, but it is in reality covetous; and praise is not so much a free gift, as a mercenary commerce, for which we hope to receive, in return, more than an equivalent.

Is there not something far more cunning than noble in that popular art, which Pliny recommends, "to be liberal of praise to another for any thing in