And from his mantle's fide there fhone afar,
A fix'd, and, I believe, a real ftar.

In his fair hand (what need was there of more?)
No arms, but th' English bloody cross, he bore,
Which when he tow'rds th' affrighted tyrant bent,
And fome few words pronounc'd (but what they meant,
Or were, could not, alas! by me be known,
Only, I well perceiv'd, Jefus was one)

He trembled, and he roar'd, and filed away
Mad to quit thus his more than hop'd-for prey.
Such rage inflames the wolf's wild heart and eyes
(Robb'd, as he thinks unjustly, of his prize)
Whom unawares the fhepherd fpies, and draws
The bleating lamb from out his ravenous jaws :
The fhepherd fain himfelf would he affail,
But fear above his hunger does prevail,
He knows his foe too ftrong, and must be gone;
He grins, as he looks back, and howls, as he
goes on.

HE liberty of a people confifts in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government: the liberty of a private man, in being mafter of his own time and actions, as far as may confift with the laws of God and of his countrey. Of this latter only we are here to discourse, and to enquire what estate of life does beft feat us in the poffeffion of it. This liberty of our own actions, is such a fundamental privilege of human nature, that God himself, notwithflanding all his infinite power and right over us, permits us to enjoy it, and that too after a forfeiture made by the rebellion of Adam. He takes fo much care for the intire prefervation of it to us, that he fuffers neither his providence nor eternal decree to break or infringe it. Now for our time, the fame God, to whom we are but tenants at-will for the whole, requires but the feventh part to be paid to him, as a fmall quitrent, in acknowledgement of his title. It is man only that has the impudence to demand our whole time, though he never gave it, nor can reftore it, nor is able to pay any confiderable value for the leaft part of it. This birth-right of mankind above all other creatures, fome are forced by hunger to fell, like Efau, for bread and broth: but

the greatest part of men make fuch a bargain for the delivery up of themfelves, as Thamar did with Judah; instead of a kid, the neceffary provifions for human life, they are contented to do it for rings and bracelets. The great dealers in this world may be divided into the ambitious, the covetous, and the voluptuous; and that all these men fell themselves to be flaves though to the vulgar it may feem a Stoical paradox, will appear to the wife fo plain and obvious, that they will fearce think it deferves the labour of argumentation.

Let us firft confider the ambitious; and thofe, both in their progrefs to greatnefs, and after the attaining of it. There is nothing truer than what Salluft* fays, "Do"minationis in alios fervitium fuum mercedem dant;" they are content to pay fo great a price as their own fervitude, to purchase the domination over others. The first thing they must refolve to facrifice, is their whole time; they must never ftop, nor ever turn afide, whilft they are in the race of glory, no not like Atalanta for golden apples. Neither indeed can a man ftop himself if he would, when he is in this career:

Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas †.

"En.

Pray, let us but confider a little, what mean, fervile things men do for this imaginary food. We cannot fetch a greater example of it, than from the chief men of that nation which boafted moft liberty. To what pitiful bafeñefs did the nobleit Romans fubmit themfelves, for the obtaining of a prætorfhip, or the confular dignity! They put on the habit of fuppliants, and ran about on foot, and in dirt, through all the tribes, to beg voices; they flattered the pooreft artifans; and carried a nomenclator with them, to whisper in their ear every man's name, left they fhould mistake it in their falutations; they fhook the hand, and kiffed the check, of every popular tradefman; they flood all day at every market in the public places, to fhew and ingratiate themfelves to the rout; they employed all their friends to folicit for them; they kept open tables in every ftreet; they diftributed wine, and bread, and money, even to the vileft of the people. Romanos rerum dominos !" Behold the maflers of the world begging from door to door! This particular humble way of greatnefs is now out of fafhion; but yet every ambitious perfon is fill in fome fort a Roman candidate. He must feaft and bribe, and attend and flatter, and adore many beafts, though not the beaft with many heads. Catiline, who was fo proud that he could not content himself with a lefs power than Sylla's, was yet fo humble, for the attaining of it, as to make himself the most contempti ble of all fervants; to be a public bawd, to provide whores, and fomething worfe, for all the young gentlemen of Rome, whofe hot lufts and courage, and heads, he thought he might make ufe of. And, fince I happen here to propofe Catiline for my inftance (though there be thoufand of examples for the fame thing), give me leave to tranferibe the character which Cicero § gives of this noble flave, becaufe it is a general defeription of all ambitious men, and which Machiavel perhaps would fay ought to be the rule of their life and actions:

"This man (fays he, as most of you may well remember) had many artificial touches and ftrokes, that looked like the beauty of great virtucs; his intimate converfation was with the worst of men, and yet he seemed to be an admirer and lover of the best; he was furnished with all the nets of luft and luxury, and yet wanted not the arms of labour and induftry: neither do I believe that there was ever any monfter of nature, compofed out of fo many different and disagreeing parts. Who more acceptable, fometimes, to the most honourable perfons; who more a favourite to the most infamous? who, Lometimes, appeared a braver champion; who, at other times, a bolder enemy to his Countrey? who more diffolute in his pleafures; who more patient in his toils? who rapacious in robbing; who more profufe in giving? Above all things, this was remarkable and admirable in him, the arts he had to acquire the good opinion and kindness of all forts of men, to retain it with great complailance, to communicate all

more

Fragm. ed. Maittaire p. 116. +Virg. Georg. i. 514. Virg. En. i. 282. § Orat. pro. M.

Calio.

things to them, to watch and ferve all the occafions of their fortune, both with his money, and his intereft, and his induftry; and, if need were, not by sticking at any wickedness whatfoever that might be useful to them, to bend and turn about his own nature and laveer with every wind; to live feverely with the melancholy, merrily with the pleafant, gravely with the aged, wantonly with the young, defperately with the bold, and debauchedly with the luxurious: with this variety and multiplicity of his natureas he made a collection of friendships with all the moft wicked and restless of all nations; fo, by the artificial fimulation of fome virtues, he made a fhift to enfnare some honeft and eminent perfons into his familiarity. Neither could so vaft a defign as the destruction of this empire have been undertaken by him, if the immanity of fo many vices had not been covered and disguised by the appearances of fome excellent qualities."

I fee, methinks, the character of an Anti-Paul," who became all things to "all men," that he might destroy all; who only wanted the affiftance of fortune, to have been as great as his friend Cæfar was a little after him. And the ways of Cæfar to compaís the fame ends (I mean till the civil war, which was but another manner of fetting his countrey on fire) were not unlike thefe, though he used afterward his unjust dominion with more moderation than I think the other would have done. Salluft therefore, who was well acquainted with them both, and with many fuch like gentlemen of his time, fays, "that it is the nature of ambition, to make men lyars and cheaters; to hide the truth in their breafts, and flew, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own intereft; and to make a good countenance without the help of a good will." And can there be freedom with this perpetual contraint? what is it but a kind of rack, that forces men to fay what they have no mind to?

I have wondered at the extravagant and barbarous ftratagem of Zopirus, and more at the praises which I find of fo deformed an action; who, though he was one of the feven grandees of Perfia, and the fon of Megabifes, who had freed before his countrey from an ignoble fervitude, flit his own nofe and lips, cut off his own ears, fcourged and wounded his whole body, that he might, under pretence of having been mangled fo inhumanly by Darius, be received into Babylon (then befieged by the Perfians), and get into the command of it by the recommendation of fo cruel a fufferance, and their hopes of his endeavouring to revenge it. It is great pity the Babylonians fufpected not his falfehood, that they might have cut off his hands too, and whipt him back again. But the defign fucceeded; he betrayed the city, and was made governor of it. What brutish mafter ever punifhed his offending flave with fo little mercy, as ambition did this Zopirus? and yet how many are there, in all nations, who imitate him, in fome degree, for a lefs reward; who, though they endure not fo much corporal pain for a fmall preferment or fome honour (as they call it), yet tick not to commit actions, by which they are more fhamefully and more laftingly ftigmatized! But you may fay, though thefe be the most ordinary and open ways to greatnefs, yet there are narrow, thorny, and little-trodden paths too, through which fome men find a paffage by virtu ous induftry. I grant, fometimes they may; but then, that induftry muit be fuch, as cannot confift with liberty, though it may with honefty.

Thou art careful, frugal, painful; we commend a fervant fo, but not a friend.

Well then, we muft acknowledge the toil and drudgery which we are forced to endure in this afcent; but we are epicures and lords when once we are gotten up into the high places. This is but a fhort apprenticeship, after which we are made free of a royal company. If we fall in love with any beauteous woman, we must be content that they fhould be our miftre fles whilft we woo them; as foon as we are wedded and enjoy, it is we fhall be the mailers.

I am willing to flick to this fimilitude in the cafe of greatnefs: we enter into the bonds of it, like thofe of matrimony; we are bewitched with the outward and painted beauty, and take it for better or worse, before we know its true nature and interior inconveniencies. A great fortune (fays Seneca) is a great fervitude; but many are of

De Bell. Catil. c. x.

that opinion which Brutus imputes (I hope, untruly *) even to that patron of liberty, his friend Cicero: "We fear (fays he to Atticus) death, and banishment, and poverty, a great deal too much. Cicero, I am afraid, thinks these to be the worst of evils; and, if he have but fome perfons, from whom he can obtain what he has a mind to, and others who will flatter and worship him, feems to be well enough contented with an honourable fervitude, if any thing indeed ought to be called honourable in fo base and contumelious a condition." This was fpoken as became the bravest man who was ever born in the bravest commonwealth. But with us generally, no condition paffes for fervitude, that is accompanied with great riches, with honours, and with fervice of many inferiors. This is but a deception of the fight through a falfe medium; for if a groom ferve a gentleman in his chamber, that gentleman a lord, and that lord a prince; the groom, the gentleman, and the lord, are as much fervants one as the other; the circumftantial difference of the one's getting only his bread and wages, the fecond a plentiful, and the third a fuperfluous eitate, is no more intrinfical to this matter, than the difference between a plain, a rich, and gaudy livery. I do not fay, that he who fells his whole time and his own will for one hundred thousand, is not a wifer merchant than he who does it for one hundred pounds; but I will swear, they are both merchants, and that he is happier than both, who can live contentedly without felling that eftate to which he was born. But this dependance upon fuperiors is but one chain of the lovers of

power:

Amatorem trecentæ

Pirithoum cohibent catena f.

Let us begin with him by break of day: for by that time he is befieged by two or three hundred fuitors; and the hall and antichambers (all the out-works) poffeffed by the enemy: as foon as his chamber opens, they are ready to break into that, or to corThis is fo effential a part of greatness, that whofoever rupt the guards, for entrance. is without it, looks like a fallen favourite, like a perfon difgraced, and condemned to do what he pleases all the morning. There are fome who, rather than want this, are contented to have their rooms filled up every day with murmuring and curfing creditors, Now I would fain and to charge bravely through a body of them to get to their coach. know which is the worst duty, that of any one particular perfon who waits to speak with the great man, or the great man's, who waits every day to speak with all

company.

Aliena negotia centum

Per caput, & circa faliunt latus

a hundred bulineffes of other men (many unjuft, and moft impertinent) fly continually about his head and ears, and ftrike him in the face like Dorres. Let us contemplate him a little at another fpecial feene of glory, and that is his table. Here he seems to be the lord of all nature: the earth affords him her belt metals for his dishes, her best vegetables and animals for his food; the air and fea fupply him with their choiceft birds and fifhes; and a great many men, who look like mafters, attend upon him; and yet, when all this is done, even all this is but table d'hofte; it is crowded with people for whom he cares not, with many parafites and fome fpies, with the moft burdenfome fort of guells, the endeavourers to be witty.

But every body pays him great refpect; every body commends his meat, that is, his money; every body admires the exquifite dreffing and ordering of it, that is, his clerk of the kitchen, or his cook: every body loves his hospitality, that is, his vanity. But I defire to know why the honeft inn-keeper, who provides a public table for his profit, hould be of a mean profeflion; and he, who does it for his honour, a munificent prince. You will fay, becaufe one fells, and the other gives: nay, both fell, though for different things; the one for plain money, the other for I know not what jewels, whofe value

* This parenthesis does honour to the writer's fenfe, as well as candour. HURD. † Hor. 3 Od iv. 79.

Hor. 2 Sat. vi. 34.

is in cuftom and in fancy. If then his table be made "a fnare" (as the Scripture* fpeaks)" to his liberty," where can he hope for freedom? There is always, and every where, fome reftraint upon him. He is guarded with crowds, and shackled with formalities. The half hat, the whole hat, the half smile, the whole fmile, the nod, the embrace, the pofitive parting with a little bow, the comparative at the middle of the room, the fuperlative at the door; and, if the perfon be pan huper febaftus, there is a hyperfuperlative ceremony then of conducting him to the bottom of the ftairs, or to the very gate as if there were fuch rules fet to thefe Leviathans, as are to the fea, "Hitherto fhalt thou go, and no further.”

Perditur hæc inter mifero lux ‡,

Thus wretchedly the precious day was lost.

How many impertinent letters and vifits must he receive, and fometimes anfwer both too as impertinently! He never fets his foot beyond his threshold, unless, like a funeral, he have a train to follow him; as if, like the dead corpfe, he could not ftir, till the bearers were all ready. "My life (fays Horace, fpeaking to one of these magnificos) is a great deal more eafy and commodious than thine, in that I can go into the market, and cheapen what I please, without being wondered at; and take my horfe and ride as far as Tarentum, without being miffed." It is an unpleasant constraint to be always under the fight and obfervation, and cenfure, of others; as there may be vanity in it, fo methinks there should be vexation, too, of spirit: and I wonder how princes can endure to have two or three hundred men ftand gazing upon them whilft they are at dinner, and taking notice of every bit they eat. Nothing feems greater and more lordly than the multitude of domestic fervants; but even this too, if weighed seriously, is a piece of fervitude; unless you will be a rvant to them (as many men are), the trouble and care of yours in the government of them all, is much more than that of every one of them in their obfervance of you. I take the profeffion of a school-mafter to be one of the most ufeful, and which ought to be of the moft honourable in a common wealth; yet certainly all his fafces and tyrannical authority over fo many boys takes away his own liberty more than theirs.

I do but flightly touch upon all thefe particulars of the flavery of greatnefs: I fhake but a few of their outward chains; their anger, hatred, jealoufy, fear, envy, grief, and all the et cætera of their paffions, which are the fecret, but conftant, tyrants and torturers of their life, I omit here, because, though they be fymptoms most frequent and violent in this difcafe, yet they are common too in fome degree to the epidemical disease of life itself.

But the ambitious man, though he be fo many ways a flave (o toties fervus !) yet he bears it bravely and heroically; he ftruts and looks big upon the ftage; he thinks himfelf a real prince in his masking-habit, and deceives too all the foolith part of his spectators: he is a flave in faturnalibus. The covetous man is a downright fervant, a draughthorfe without bells or feathers: ad metalla damnatus, a man condemned to work in mines, which is the lowest and hardest condition of fervitude; and, to increase his mifery, a worker there for he knows not whom: "He heapeth up riches, and knows not who "fhall enjoy them §;" it is only fure, that he himself neither fall nor can enjoy them. He is an indigent, needy flave; he will hardly allow himfelf cloaths and board

wages:

Unciatim vix de demenfo fuo,

Suum defraudans genium, comparfit mifer || ;

He defrauds not only other men, but his own genius; he cheats himself for money. But the fervile and miferable condition of this wretch is fo apparent, that I leave it as evident to every man's fight, as well as judgment.

It leems a more difficult work to prove that the voluptuous man too is but a fervant : what can be more the life of a freeman, or, as we fay ordinarily, of a gentleman,

Pf. lxix. 22. † Job xxxviii. 11. Her. 2 Sat. vi. 59. $ Pf. xxxix. 6. || Phorm. A& I. Sc. i. ver. 43