BOOKS.

LORD HALIFAX THE TRIMMER.* WE congratulate Sir Walter Raleigh on having done a piece of literary work perfectly. Some people may think it a small matter to write twenty-eight pages of Introduction to the works of a seventeenth-century statesman, but in reality it is no small matter to accomplish such a task in the manner in which be has accomplished it. As anyone who has tried it knows, the work is difficult beyond compare if it is to be well and truly performed. Nothing is easier, of course, than to write a bad or merely conventional causerie on a great man ; but a good causerie, in the sense of Sainte-Beuve—for that is what an Introduction of this nature really is—demands as much art as a miniature. The physical limits prevent you from saying too much, but how easy it is to achieve the dulness of thinnots and sterility or to be guilty of that fatal want of proportion in the picture which makes it either all head or all body ! None of these faults does Sir Walter Raleigh commit. We get a true picture of Halifax and a true appreciation of his work as a practical statesman, as a political philosopher, as a man of letters, and as a man. Personally we should have liked an attempt to explain the peculiar charm of Halifax's style. We must own, however, that this would have been out of place, or, rather, out of proportion.

It is very tempting to quote from Sir Walter's Introduction, but nevertheless we shall desist, and, even at the risk of tantalizing our readers, insist on their going straight to the book if they want to challenge our dictum that within its limits the Introduction is a perfect piece of work. As for Halifax's pamphlets—he wrote no books—what are we to say on a subject so fascinating ? The greatest-of all the moderates in the realm of politics possessed beside wisdom and divine common sense the quality which is the true test of genius. His words set you on fire, or, to improve the metaphor, when they fall upon the mere red embers of the ordinary mind they make them spring up in flames pure and clear, as when chemical salts are thrown upon a coal fire. The flames enlighten as well as warm, for there was no greater maker of what Bacon • ealled "luciferous" sayings than the great "Trimmer." How lambent, how illuminating to the very depths of the heart is the phrase in " Advice to a Daughter " : "When my Fears prevail, I shrink as if I was struck, at the Prospect of Danger, to which a young Woman must be expos'd." Take as another example of what we mean the passage on Gratitude in " A Character of Charles II." :— " I am of an Opinion, in which I am every Day more confirmed by Observation, that Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with Men, or else• all the Obligations in the World will not create it. An outward Shew may be made to- satisfy Decency, and to prevent Reproach ; but a real Sense of a kind thing is a Gift of Nature, and never was, nor can be acquired."

Wonderful is the reflection that " Now the World is grown sawcy, and expecteth Reasons, and good ones too, before they give up their own Opinions to other Mens Dictates, tho' never so Magisterially deliver'd to them." Delightful, too, the sly hit at those ill-judged friends of religious liberty " who behave themselves as if they thought ill manners necessary to Salvation." What a ray of light comes with the saying, which we have so often quoted in these columns : " Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of paradoxes " —words addressed, in "A Letter to a Dissenter," to the Nonconformists tempted by James II.'s sham indulgence. Lastly, what could more enkindle thought than the first para- graph of the "Political Thoughts and Reflections ": "Every party when they find a Maxim for their tarn, they presently call it a Fundamental" ? " Fundamental," he goes on, " is used as Men use their Friends ; commend them when they have need of them, and when they fall out find a hundred Objections to them." How admirable, too, are two of the reflections, in the "Moral Thoughts. and Reflections," on generally- half confessing" ; " Apologies " : "Explaining is

"Innocence hath a very short style "

Though not the greatest, perhaps the most wonderful-of all Halifax's writings is the " Character of Charles IL" In.

* Th. Works of George Semite, Marquis of Halifax. Edited by W. Raleigh. Oxford; At the Clarendon Preay. 17a. 6d. net.]

character-drawing, indeed, it is perhaps the most complete and finished effort in English literature. A Whig like the present writer begins as he reads to chafe at the apparent partiality of the writer. Yet so faithfully is every touch laid on and so true the workmanship that in the end one is rather horrified by the merciless exposure than disgusted by the apology. A sense of keen and almost exaggerated pity takes the place of hatred. But even though one may be forced to forgive Charles's frailties and even half-condone his perfidies, and to admit certain good qualities, these some- how shock one more than did the conventional impression of pure villainy. In any case the work of analysis is triumphant. Astonishing, not from the scandal, but from its curiously poignant apologetics, is the account of Charles's "Amours, mistresses, &cc." "Mistresses," reflects Halifax, "are in all respects craving creatures," and he then philosophizes on them with one or two reflective strokes which are as original as anything in the packed originalities of his writings. We pass, however, to the following passage :-

"The thing called Sauntering, is a stronger Temptation to Princes than it is to others. The being galled with importunities, pursued from one Room to another with asking Faces ; the dismal Sound of unreasonable Complaints, and ill-grounded Pretences; the Deformity of Fraud ill-disguised; all these would make any Man run away from them; and I used to think it was the Motive for making him walk so fast. So it was more properly taking Sanctuary. To get into a Room, where all Business was to stay at the Door, excepting such as he was disposed to admit, might be very acceptable to a younger Man than be was, and less given to his Ease. He slumbered after Dinner, had the noise of the Company to divert him, without their Solicitations to importune him. In these Hours where he was more unguarded, no doubt the cunning Men of the Court took their times to make their Observations, and there is as little doubt but he made his upon them too."

The secret of Charles's nature Halifax discovers, and no doubt truly, in his love of ease. That governed everything, and in the end deprived him of it. When courtiers and mistresses knew that he would pay any price almost to keep them from worrying him, they used this weakness as the engine of his undoing. They deprived him of his ease in order to be bought off. Just so a man who is known to loathe street musicians and to be willing to pay them almost anything to go away is sure to be more pestered than a man who has not the same passionate love of quiet :—

" That Men have the less Ease for their loving it so much, is so far from a wonder, that it is a natural Consequence, especially in the case of a Prince. Ease is seldom got without some pains, but it is yet seldomer kept without them. He thought giving would make Men more easy to him, whereas he might have known it would certainly make them more troublesome. . . . The Love of Ease is an Opiate, it is pleasing for the time, quieteth the Spirits, but it bath its Effects that seldom fail to be most fatal. The immoderate Love of Ease inaketh a Man's Mind pay a passive Obedience to anything that happened : It reduceth the Thoughts from having Desire to be content.'

Very damning is a passage that follows hard on that we have just quoted :—

" It must be allowed he had a little Over-balance on the well- natured Side, not Vigour enough to be earnest to do a kind Thing, much less to do a harsh one ; but if a hard thing was done to another man, he did not eat his Supper the worse for it. It was rather a Deadness than 'Severity of Nature, whether it proceeded from a Dissipation of Spirits, or by the Habit of Living in which he was engaged."

Of a piece with the wretched King's failure to achieve ease, for all the sacrifices he made to it, is the ironic failure of his efforts

in regard to his health :-

"He had not more Application to anything than the Preserva- tion of his Health ; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that with as little Intermission as any Man in the World. He understood it very well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable with his Pleasures, than it really was. It is natural to have such a Mind to reconcile these, that 'tis the easier for any Man that goeth about it, to be guilty of that Mistake. This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to those Entertainments; and then he thought by great Exercise to make Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects' of his Blood being too much raised. The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than Nature allowed. Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life; so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any precise Time, when we cease to be young, we either flatter ourselves that we always continue to be so, or at least forget how much we are mistaken in it."

So much for this kindly and all-pardoning Tacitus of the seventeenth century. We have not, we regret to say, space to deal adequately with the "Trimmer." We must, however, quote therefrom the magnificent passage in which Halifax shows how passionate was his patriotism. There at any rate he was no man of cold, clammy views, but " burns with a hard gem-like flame " :— " Our Trimmer is far from Idolatry in other things, in one thing only he cometh near it, his Country is in some degree his Idol ; he doth not Worship the Sun, because 'tie not peculiar to us, it rambles about the World, and is less kind to us than others ; but for the Earth of England, tho perhaps inferior to that of many places abroad, to him there is Divinity in it, and he would rather dye, than see a spire of English Grass trampled down by a Foreign Trespasser: He thinketh there are a great many of his mind, for all plants are apt to taste of the Soyl in which they grow, and we that grow here, have a Root that produceth in us a Stalk of English Juice, which is net to be changed by grafting or foreign infusion ; and I do not know whether any thing less will prevail, than the Modern Experiment, by which the Blood of one Creature is transmitted into another ; according to which, before the French blood can be let into our Bodies, every drop of our own

must be drawn out of them." •

We note that in all the quotations we have given we have represented Halifax the philosopher. He was in truth much more than this, and had in him plenty of practical statesman- ship. Take the admirable passage in regard to sea-power which is an introduction to his pamphlet "A Rough Draught of a New Model at Sea, 1694" :—

"I will make no other Introduction to the following Discourse, than that as the Importance of our being strong at Sea, was ever very great, so in our present Circumstances it is grown to be much greater ; because, as formerly our Force of Shipping contributed greatly to our Trade and Safety, so now it is become indispensibly necessary to our very Being. It may be said now to England, Martha, Martha, thou art busy about many things, but one thing is necessary. To the Question, What shall we do to be saved in • this World ? there is no other Answer but this, Look to your Moate. The first Article of an English-mans Political Creed must be, That he believeth in the Sea, to., without that there needeth no General Council to pronounce him incapable of Salvation here. We are in an Island, confin'd to it by God Almighty, not as a Penalty but a Grace, and one of the greatest that can be given to Mankind. Happy Confinement, that bath made us Free, Rich, and Quiet; a fair Portion in this World, and very well worth the preserving ; a Figure that ever bath been envied, and could never be imitated by our Neighbours. Our Situation bath made Great- ness abroad by Land Conquests unnatural things to us. It is true, we have made Excursions, and glorious ones too, which make our Names great in History, but they did not last. Admit the English to be Giants in Courage, yet they must not hope to succeed in making War against Heaven, which seemeth to have enjoyned them to acquiesce in being happy within their own Circle. • It is no Paradox to say, that England hath its Root in the Sea, and a deep one too, from whence it sendeth its Branches into both the Indies. We may say further in our present Case, That if Allegiance is due to Protection, ours to the Sea is due from that Rule, since by that, and by that alone, we are to be protected ; and if we have of late suffered Usurpation of other. Methods, contrary to the Homage we owe to that which must preserve us, it is time now to restore the Sea to its right; and as there is no Repentance effectual without Amendment, so there is not a moment to be lost in the going about it."

Let two sentences from the " Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections " stand as l'envoi to what we have written of

Halifax

"The Impudence of a Bawd is Modesty, compared with that of a Convert.'

"The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory."