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tinctly what kind of regulations you wish for, and what are the changes you think needful, and who are the persons to whom you would entrust the management of the matter,' &c. If again, any of these details are given, it will be easy to find some plausible objection to one or more of these, and to join issue on that point, as involving the whole question. Sancho Panza's Baratarian physician did not at once lay down the decision that his patient was to have no dinner at all; but only objected to each separate dish to which he was disposed to help himself.

The only way to meet a caviller is to expose the whole system of cavilling, and say, 'if I had proposed so and so, you would have had your cavil ready; just as you have now.'

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But in proposing any scheme, the best way is, to guard, in the first instance, against cavils on details, and establish, first that some thing of such and such a character is desirable; then proceeding to settle each of the particular points of detail, one by one. And this is the ordinary course of experienced men; who, as it were, cut a measure into mouthfuls, that it may the more readily swallowed; dividing the whole measure into a series of resolutions; each of which will perhaps pass by a large majority, though the whole at once, if proposed at once as a whole, might have been rejected. For, supposing it to consist of four classes, A, B, C, and D, if out of an assembly of one hundred persons, twenty are opposed to clause A, and eighty in favour of it, and twenty others are opposed to clause B, which is supported by all the rest, and the like with C, and D, then, if the whole were put to the vote at once, there would be a majority of eighty to twenty against it: whereas, if divided, there would be that majority in favour of it.

It is fairly to be required, however, that a man should really have though he may not think it wise to produce it in the first instance-some definite plan for carrying into effect whatever he proposes. Else, he may be one of another class of persons as difficult to negotiate with, and as likely to baffle any measure as the preceding. There are some, and not a few, who cast scorn on any sober practical scheme by drawing bright pictures of a Utopia which can never be realized, either from their having more of imagination than judgment, or from a deliberate design to put one out of conceit with everything that is practicable, in order that nothing may be done.

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E. g. 'What is wanted, is, not this and that improvement in the mode of electing Members of Parliament,-but a Parliament consisting of truly honest, enlightened, and patriotic men. is vain to talk of any system of Church-government, or of improved Church-discipline, or any alterations in our Services, or revision of the Bible-translation; what we want is a zealous and truly evangelical ministry, who shall assiduously inculcate on all the people pure Gospel doctrine. It is vain to cast cannon and to raise troops; what is wanted, for the successful conduct of the war, is an army of well-equipped and well-disciplined men, under the command of generals who are thoroughly masters of the art of war,' &c. And thus one may, in every department of life, go on indefinitely making fine speeches that can lead to no practical result, except to create a disgust for everything that is practical.

When (in 1832) public attention was called to the enormous mischiefs arising from the system of Transportation, we were told in reply, in a style of florid and indignant declamation, that the real cause of all the enormities complained of, was, a 'want of sufficient fear of God; (!) and that the only remedy wanted was, an increased fear of God!' As if, when the unhealthiness of some locality had been pointed out, and a suggestion had been thrown out for providing sewers, and draining marshes, it had been replied that the root of the evil was, a prevailing want of health;-that it was strange, this-the true causeshould have been overlooked;-and that the remedy of all would be to provide restored health!

As for the penal colonies, all that is required to make them efficient, is, we must suppose, to bring in a Bill enacting that 'Whereas, &c., be it therefore enacted, that from and after the first of January next ensuing, all persons shall fear God !"

It is such Utopian declaimers that give plausibility to the objections of the cavillers above noticed.

It is but fair, after one has admitted (supposing it is what ought to be admitted) the desirableness of the end proposed, to call on the other party to say whether he knows, or can think of, any means by which that end can be attained.

1 See Letters to Earl Grey; and also Lectures on Political Economy.

ESSAY XLVIII.

OF FOLLOWERS AND
FRIENDS.

YOSTLY followers are not to be liked, lest, while a man

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maketh his train longer, he make his wings shorter. reckon to be costly, not them alone which charge the purse, but which are wearisome and importune' in suits. Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, recommendation, and protection from wrongs. Factious followers are worse to be liked, which follow not upon affection to him with whom they range themselves, but upon discontentment conceived against some other; whereupon commonly ensueth that ill intelligence that we many times see between great personages. Likewise glorious followers, who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconvenience, for they taint business through want of secrecy; and they export honour from a man, and make him a return in envy. There is a kind of followers, likewise, which are dangerous, being indeed espials," which inquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales of them to others; yet such men many times are in great favour, for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales. The following by certain estates of

1 Importune. Importunate.

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'More shall thy penytent sighs, his endlesse mercy please;

Than their importune suits which dreame that wordes God's wrathe appease.'

-Surrey.

2 Upon. In consequence of. Upon pity they were taken away; upon ignorance they were again demanded.'-Hayward.

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Espials. Spials; spies.

7 Officious. Useful; doing good offices.

'Yet, not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious; but to thee, earth's habitant.'-Milton.
Orders of men. See page 204.

s Estates of men.

men, answerable to that which a great man himself professeth (as of soldiers to him that hath been employed in the wars, and the like), hath ever been a thing civil,' and well taken even in monarchies, so it be without too much pomp or popularity: but the most honourable kind of following is to be followed as one that apprehendeth to advance virtue and desert in all sorts of persons; and yet, where there is no eminent odds in sufficiency,' it is better to take with the more passable than with the more able: and, besides, to speak truth in base times, active men are of more use than virtuous. It is true, that in government it is good to use men of one rank equally: for to countenance some extraordinarily is to make them insolent, and the rest discontent, because they may claim a due; but contrariwise in favour, to use men with much differences and election, is good; for it maketh the persons preferred more thankful, and the rest more officious; because all is of favour. It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first, because one cannot hold out that proportion. To be governed (as we call it) by one, is not safe, for it shows softness, and gives a freedom to scandal and disreputation; for those that would not censure or speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly of those that are so great with them, and thereby wound their honour; yet to be distracted with many, is worse, for it makes men to be of the last impression, and full of change. To take advice

1 Civil. Decorous.

"Where civil speech and soft persuasion hung.'-Pope.

2 Apprehend. To conceive; to take in as an object.

'Can we want obedience, then,

To Him, or possibly his love desert,

Who formed us from the dust, and placed us here,

Full to the utmost measure of what bliss

Human desires can seek, or apprehend.-Milton.

3 Sufficiency. Ability. See page 275.

4 Discontent. Discontented. The discountenanced and discontent, these the Earl singles out, as best for his purpose.'-Hayward.

Difference. Distinction. Our constitution does not only make a difference between the guilty and the innocent, but even among the guilty, between such as are more or less observed.'—Addison.

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Under a shepherd softe and negligent,

The wolfe hath many a sheep and lambe to rent.'-Chaucer.

7 Disreputation. Disrepute. 'Gluttony is not in such disreputation among men as drunkenness.'-Bishop Taylor.

of some few friends, is ever honourable; for lookers-on many times see more than gamesters; and the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont' to be magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other.

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Henry Taylor, in the Statesman, has a good remark on the advantage of trusting thoroughly rather than partially. For there are some who will be more likely to betray one secret, if one only is confided, than if they felt themselves confidants altogether. They will then, he thinks, be less likely to give a boastful proof of the confidence reposed in them, by betraying it.

"A kind of followers which bear tales.'

It is observable that flatterers are usually tale-bearers. Thus we have in Proverbs the caution, He that goeth about as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets; therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.'

'Lookers-on many times see more than gamesters.'

This proverbial maxim, which bears witness to the advantage sometimes possessed by an observant by-stander over those actually engaged in any transaction, has a parallel in an Irish proverb:

Is iait an tiomany;de an te bios ar an gclojde.

He is a good hurler that's on the ditch.

1 Wont. Accustomed. See page 437.

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