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128. Short Account of the Portugueze-The following laconic character of the Portugueze, was (with justice) given me by an English lady who resides there. "The Portugueze (said she) are peacocks in the streets, slovens in their own houses, gluttons at other men's tables, and thieves and dunces from the cradle to the grave."

The ignorance of the people, in general, is greatly owing to the villainy of the clergy, who fill them with superstition to keep them in awe, and deprive them of all the advantages of education. You never meet, in any state, potentate, or republic, a Portugueze of any exalted abilities.

The kingdom of Portugal is most undoubtedly governed by the elergy; they possess and enjoy every thing, and are certainly the only class who can be said to live; they lead the whole nation through such superstitious paths, that the rich cannot retain their wealth when the church stands in need of it. Indeed their appearance does credit to the public who maintains them; for, no Roman Catholic can excel their ecclesiastical fat and jollity; nor have Venus and Bacchus truer or stricter votaries; for, the nun and the bottle are their sole objects of real adoration.

The Portugueze are slaves from the nature of their government, and the tyranny of the clergy renders them at once the most abject wretches in the world. They are proud amidst poverty, and indolent though starving in a country which will almost cultivate itself. Nothing can equal the serenity of the air; it is certainly the softest and the mildest in the universe; and, though it inspires the weak and sickly of other nations with new life and spirits, it makes none of these happy impressions on the Portugueze. The men are of a morose, gloomy, disposition, much given to jealousy and envy, extremely slothful, and naturally cowards. The men are very vain of their military abilities, without that cardinal qualification, prowess;-and although without courage, will presumptively assert, that their army and the maritime power of England would conquer the world. Alas! they do not merit the very name of soldiers. It does not appear to me, that there are any people fit to bear arms but the clergy; especially if there is any thing in the size or appearance of soldiers, or even if arms require strength to wield them. I often divert myself, at the window, with a priest begging of the country-people, as they come to market, for departed souls detained in purgatory: some bestow an orange, some an onion, some a clove of garlic, and some, more generously, a turnip,-for which he gives in return an infallible benediction, and then staggers to his monastery under the load. The whore of Babylon refuses nothing; and, of all concubines in the universe, she is the worst. I really believe I shall leave Portugal with a worse opinion than Lord Tyrawly did. He said, he knew but two gentlemen in the kingdom :-the French ambassador, and Frier Austin of the English nunnery;-which are certainly two more than I have the happiness to be acquainted with.-Maxims and Observations.

129. The necessities that exist are in general created by the superfluities that are enjoyed. —Zimmerman.

130. Conciliate all Men.-We are obliged to various duties of humanity, upon account of common interest, benefit, and advantage. The welfare and safety, the honour and reputation, the pleasure and quiet of our lives are concerned, in our maintaining a loving correspondence with all men. For so uncertain is our condition, so obnoxious are we to manifold necessities, that there is no man, whose good-will we may not need, whose good word may not stand us in stead, whose helpful endeavour may not sometimes oblige us. The great Pompey, who triumphed over nations, the admired darling of Fortune, was beholden at last to a slave for the composing his ashes, and celebrating his funeral obsequies. The honour of the greatest men depends on the estimation of the least, and the good-will of the meanest peasant is a brighter ornament to the fortune, a greater accession to the grandeur of a prince, than the most radiant gem in his royal diadem. However the spite and enmity of one (and him the most weak otherwise and contemptible person,) may happen to spoil the content of our whole life, and deprive us of the most comfortable enjoyments thereof; may divert our thoughts from our delightful employments, to a solicitous care of self-preservation and defence; may discompose our mind with vexatious passions; may, by false reports, odious suggestions, and slanderous defamations, blast our credit, raise a storm of general hatred, and conjure up thousands of enemies against us; may by insidious practices, supplant and undermine us, prejudice our welfare, endanger our estate, and involve us in a bottomless gulf of trouble: it is but reasonable, therefore, if we desire to live securely, comfortably, and quietly, that by all honest means we should endeavour to purchase the good-will of all men, and provoke no man's enmity needlessly; since any man's love may be useful, and every man's hatred is dangerous. Barrow.

131. Intelligence.-Dr Rawley, in his life of Lord Bacon, says, "In bis conversations he contemned no man's observations, but would light his torch at every man's candle." Intelligence has no attachment to the opinion it has formed, but only to the truth it may contain; and, knowing that error insinuates itself under the guise of truth, through the same inlets by which truth is admitted, it is ever diffident of its attainments, and blesses the detector of errors as a benefactor and a friend.

Montague's Thoughts, f.c.

132. Devotion.-Devotion is the opium of the soul. Taken in moderation, it exhilarates, revives, and strengthens; but too strong a dose intoxicates, enfeebles, and destroys.-Rousseau.

133. Difference between Northern and Southern Genius.-The southern wits are like cucumbers, which are commonly all good in their kind; but at best are all insipid fruit; while the northern geniuses are like melons, of which not one in fifty is good: but when it is so it is an exquisite relish.-Berkeley.

134. General Washington.-It is curious to remark how ill we reason on human nature, from being accustomed to view it under the disguise which the unequal governments of the world have always imposed upon it. During the American war, and especially towards its close, General Washington might be said to possess the hearts of all the Americans. His recommendation was law, and he was able to command the whole power of that people for any purpose of defence. The Philosophers of Europe considered this as a dangerous crisis to the cause of freedom. They knew, from the example of Cæsar and Sylla and Marius and Alcibiades and Pericles and Cromwell, that Washington would never lay down his arms, till he had given his country a master. But after he did lay them down, then came the miracle,-his virtue was cried up to be more than human; and it is by this miracle of virtue in him, that the Americans are supposed to enjoy their liberty at this day.

Barlow's Advice to the Privileged Orders.

135. Meaning of" do as you would be done to.”—The saying, “do as you would be done to," is often misunderstood, for it is not thus meant, that I, a private man, should do to you, a private man, as I would have you do to me; but do as we have agreed to do one to another by public agreement. If the prisoner should ask the judge whether he would be contented to be hanged, were he in his case, he would answer no. Then, says the prisoner, do as you would be done to; neither of them must do as private men, but the judge must do by him as they have publicly agreed; that is, both judge and the prisoner have consented to a law, that if either of them steal, he shail be hanged.—Selden.

136. Progress of Truth.-Two centuries ago it was a prevalent opinion in England, and now is a prevalent opinion in Spain, that monasteries and nunneries were wise and holy institutions. Intelligence explained, that they were pernicious; that, under the guise of sanctity, they were pregnant with crime. "The fish ponds of nunneries always," says Burton, 66 contained the skeletons of Children." The ruins of these edifices now stand as monuments of the progress and power of truth. Again, in India, it is the custom for a widow to burn herself to death at the funeral of her husband; and the deluded victims believe that this self-destruction is founded on wisdom. Intelligence has warned the community that it is erroneous; and much time will not elapse before the people are convinced that these sacrifices are not right.-Montague's Thoughts.

Those

137. Insurrections against despotism are always salutary. which occur in a free state are always dangerous, even to liberty itself; and are grievous wounds which sometimes bleed for ages.-St Just.

138. Calmness under contradiction is demonstrative of great stupidity, or strong intellect.-Zimmerman.

139. The Republican form of Government.-Montesquieu, Voltaire, and many other respectable authorities, have accredited the principle, that republicanism is not convenient for a great state. Rousseau and others take no notice of the distinction between great and small states, in deciding, that this is the only government proper to ensure the happiness, and support the dignity of man. Of the former opinion was a great majority of the constituting national assembly of France. Probably not many years will pass, before a third opinion will be universally adopted, never to be laid aside; That the republican principle is not only proper and safe for the government of any people; but, that its propriety and safety are in proportion to the magnitude of the society and the extent of the territory.

Barlow's advice to the Privileged Orders.

140. Events produce no change in certain dispositions; such may be safe friends tho' they can never be pleasing companions. Some dispositions are easily offended, and pleased with difficulty; others pleased easily, and offended with difficulty. The first class are generally quarrelsome; the second, weak brained.-Zimmerman.

141.-Men as well as Measures. To reform, and not to chastise, I am afraid is impossible; and that the best precepts, as well as the best laws, would prove of small use, if there were no example to enforce them. To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting, indeed, but it is fighting with shadows. My greatest comfort and encouragement to proceed, has been to see, that those who have no shame, and no fear of any thing else, have appeared touched by these satires.

Pope.

142. Enthusiasm.—I have always looked upon alchymy in natural philosophy, to be like enthusiasm in divinity, and to have troubled the world much to the same purpose.-Sir W. Temple.

143. Different Stages of Life.-There is a time which precedes reason, when, like other animals we live by instinct alone; of which the memory retains no vestiges. There is a second term when reason discovers itself, when it is formed, and might act, if it were not hoodwinked as it were, and manacled by vices of the constitution, and a chain of passions, which succeed one another, till the third and last age: reason then being in its force, naturally should assert its dignity, and control the appetites; but it is impaired and benumbed by years, sickness, and pains, and shattered by the disorders of the declining machine: yet these years, with their several imperfections constitute the life of man.- -Bruyere.

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144. The Advantages of Truth.-Let him that is sceptical as to the vast importance of truth cast his eye down the long catalogue of crimes and cruelties which stain the annals of the past, and examine the melioration which has taken place in the practices of the world, and he will not again inquire into the nature of those advantages which follow the destruction of error. All the liberality of thinking which now prevails, the spirit of resistance to tyranny, the contempt of priestcraft, the comparative rarity and mildness of religious persecution, the mitigation of national prejudices, the disappearance of a number of mischievous superstitions, the abolition of superfluous, absurd, and sanguinary laws, are so many exemplifications of the benefits resulting from the progress of moral and political truth. They are triumphs, all of them, over established error, and imply, respectively, either the removal of a source of misery or a positive addition to the sources of happiness. It is impossible for a moment to imagine, that if moral and political science had been thoroughly understood, the barbarity here noticed would have existed. A pernicious custom or an absurd law can never long prevail amidst a complete and universal appreciation of its character.

Essays on the Formation of Opinion.

145. Permanency of Civil Government.-One of the ends of civil government is its own preservation; and the best form of government would be defective, if it did not provide for its own permanency; yet, in truth, no provisions are absolutely sufficient if they can be changed for the better; many things, therefore, in the English, as in every, constitution, are to be vindicated and accounted for solely from their tendency to maintain the government in its present state, and the several parts of it in possession of the powers which the constitution has assigned to them; and because, I would wish it to be remarked, that such a consideration is always subordinate to another-the_value and usefulness of the constitution itself.

Paley.

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