April 24. Forsyth, in his Principles of Moral Science, observes of our passions, neatly and justly, that every one of them leads us to the very same actions, which an enlightened understanding, had we been possessed of it, would have led us to perform. By this we are trained in the way we should go; and when we have acquired extensive views of truth and excellence, are under no necessity of changing our conduct, but continue to perform the same actions with different purposes; reason, or the desire of perfection, being now become the motive, as blind inclination or passion formerly was. It is the first part of this proposition that I unqualifiedly affirm as just.

May 4. The Edinburgh Reviewers, under Mrs. Opie's Tales, state it as their opinion, that no character can be natural which is not pretty common, and that all the fine traits of natural expression, noted, quoted, and remembered from the dramatists, and greater poets, which are regarded as examples of originality in the conception of character, consist mainly in the exquisite adaptation of common and familiar feelings to peculiar situations. This is very profound, and I conceive just.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. BY SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
(Continued from p. 242.)

CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE THIRD.*

WE possess unsuspected descriptions of his character from observers of more than ordinary sagacity, who had an interest in watching its development before it was surrounded by the dazzling illusions of power and fame. Among the most valuable of these witnesses were some of the subjects and servants of Louis XIV. At the age of eighteen the Prince's good sense, knowledge of affairs, and seasonable concealment of his thoughts, attracted the attention of Gourville, a man of experience and discernment. St. Evremond, though himself distinguished chiefly by vivacity and accomplishments, saw the superiority of William's powers through his silence and coldness. After long intimacy, Sir W. Temple describes his great endowments and excellent qualities: his (then almost singular) combination of charity and religious zeal; his desire, rare in every age, to grow greater rather by the service than the servitude of his country; language so manifestly considerate, discriminating, and unexaggerated, as to bear on it the inimitable stamp of truth, in addition to the weight which it derives from the probity of the writer. But of all those who have given opinions of the young Prince, there is none whose testimony is so important as that of Charles II. That monarch, in the early part of his reign, was desirous of gaining an ascendant in Holland by the restoration of the House of Orange, and of subverting the government of De Witt, whom he never forgave for his share in the Treaty with the English Republic. Some retrospect (of the intrigues of Charles II.) is necessary to explain the experiment by which that monarch both ascertained and made known the ruling principles of his nephew's mind. When the French army had advanced into the heart of Holland, the fortitude of the Prince was unshaken. Louis offered to make him sovereign of the remains of the country, under the protection of France and England.

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*See character of William, by Mackintosh, in his Review of Burke's Letters against the Regicide Peace, quoted in his Life, p. xxviii.

But at that moment of extreme peril, he answered with his usual calmness, 'I never will betray a trust, nor sell the liberties of my country, which my ancestors have so long defended. All around him disappeared. One of his very few confidential friends, after having long expostulated with him on his fruitless obstinacy, at length asked him, if he had considered how and where he should live after Holland was lost. I have thought of that,' he replied; I am resolved to live on the lands I have left in Germany. I had rather pass my life in hunting there, than sell my country or my liberty to France at any price.' Buckingham and Arlington were sent from England to try, whether, beset by peril, the love of sovereignty might not seduce him. The former often said, ' Do you not see that the country is lost? The answer of the Prince to the profligate buffoon, spoke the same unmoved resolution with that which he had made to Zuleystein or Fagel; but it naturally rose a few degrees towards animation: 'I see it is in great danger, but there is a sure way of never seeing it lost; and that is, to die in the last ditch.' The perfect simplicity of these declarations may, perhaps, authorize us to rank them among the most genuine specimens of true magnanimity which genuine nature has produced. Perhaps the history of the world does not hold out a better example how high above the reach of fortune the pure principle of obedience to the dictates of conscience, unalloyed by interest, passion, or ostentation, can raise the mind of a virtuous man. To set such an example is an unspeakably more signal service to mankind, than all the outward benefits which flow to them from the most successful virtue. It is independent of events, and it burns most brightly in adversity; the only agent, perhaps, of power to call forth the native greatness of soul which lay hid under the cold and unattractive deportment of the Prince of Orange.

William, who from the peace of Nimeguen was the acknowledged chief of the confederacy gradually forming to protect the remains of Europe, had seen slowly and silently removed all the obstacles to its formation except those which arose from the unhappy jealousies of the friends of liberty at home, and the fatal progress towards absolute monarchy in England. Nothing but an extraordinary union of wariness with perseverance, two qualities which he possessed in a higher degree, and united in greater proportions than perhaps any other man, could have fitted him for that incessant, unwearied, noiseless exertion, which alone suited his difficult situation. His mind, naturally dispassionate, became by degrees stedfastly and intensely fixed upon the single object of his high calling. Brilliant only on the field of battle; loved by none but a few intimate connections; considerate and circumspect in council; in the execution of his designs bold even to rashness, and inflexible to the verge of obstinacy, he held his onward course with a quiet and even pace, which bore down opposition, or blasted the sallies of enthusiasm, and disappointed the subtle contrivances of a refined policy. Good sense, which in so high a degree as his, is one of the rarest of human endowments, had full scope for its exercise in a mind seldom invaded by the disturbing passions of fear and anger. With all his determined firmness, no man was ever more solicitos not to provoke or keep up needless enmity. It is no wonder that he should be influenced by this principle in his dealings with Charles and James, for there are traces of it even in his rare and transient intercourse with Louis XIV. He caused it to be intimated to him, that he was ambitious of being restored to his Majesty's favour; to which it was haughtily answered, that when such a disposition was shown in his conduct, the King would see what was

to be done! Yet Davaux believed that the prince really desired to avoid the enmity of Louis, as far as was compatible with his duties to Holland and his interests in England. In a conversation of Gourville's, which affords one of the most characteristic specimens of intercourse between a practised courtier and a man of plain inoffensive temper, when the minister had spoken to him in more soothing language, he professed his warm wish to please the King, and proved his sincerity by adding, that he never could neglect the safety of Holland, and that the decrees of reunion, together with other marks of projects of universal monarchy, were formidable obstacles to good understanding. It was probably soon after these attempts, that he made the remarkable declaration-Since I cannot earn his Majesty's favour, I must endeavour to earn his esteem."

CHARLES THE Second.

The death of Charles the Second gave William some hopes of an advantageous change in English policy. Many worse men, and more tyrannical kings than that prince, few persons of more agreeable qualities and brilliant talents, have been seated on a throne. But his transactions with France probably afford the most remarkable instance of a king with no sense of national honour, or of regal independence, the last vestiges which departing virtue might be expected to leave behind in a royal bosom.

DR. ROBERTSON.

Inferior probably to Mr. Gibbon in the vigour of his powers, unequal to him perhaps in comprehension of intellect and variety of knowledge, the Scottish historian has far supassed him in simplicity and perspicuity of narrative, in picturesque and pathetic description, in the sober use of figurative language, and in the delicate perception of that scarcely discernible boundary which separates ornament from exuberance, and elegance from affectation. He adorns more chastely in addressing the imagination, he narrates more clearly for the understanding, and he describes more affectingly for the heart. The defects of Dr. Robertson arise from a less vigorous intellect; the faults of Mr. Gibbon from a less pure taste. If Mr. Gibbon be the greater man, Dr. Robertson is the better writer.

GROTIUS.

The reduction of the law of nations to a system, was reserved for Grotius. It was by the advice of Lord Bacon and Peiresk that he undertook this arduous task. He produced a work which we now indeed justly deem imperfect, but which is perhaps the most complete that the world has yet owed, at so early a stage in the progress of society, to the genius and learning of one man. So great is the uncertainty of posthumous reputation, and so liable is the fame even of the greatest men to be obscured by those new fashions of thinking and writing, which succeed each other so rapidly among polished nations, that Grotius, who filled so large a space in the eye of his contemporaries, is now perhaps known to some of my readers only by name. Yet if we fairly estimate both his endowments and his virtues, we may justly consider him as one of the most memorable men who have done honour to modern times. He combined the discharge of the most important duties of active and public life with the attainment of that exact and various learning which is generally the portion only of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate and a magistrate, and he composed the most valuable works on the law of his own country;