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folution are chiefly requifite in a commander; juftice and humanity in a ftatefman, but genius and capacity in a scholar. Great generals and great politicians are found in all ages and countries of the world, and frequently start up, at once, even amongst the greatest barbarians. Sweden was funk in ignorance, when it produced Guftavus Ericfon, and Gustavus Adolphus: Mufcovy, when the Czar appeared and perhaps Carthage, when it gave birth to Hannibal. But England muft pafs through a long gradation of its Spencers, Johnsons, Wallers, Drydens, before it arife at an Addifon or a Pope. A happy talent for the liberal arts and fciences is a kind of prodigy among men. Nature muft afford the richest genius that comes from her hands; education and example must cultivate it from the earliest infancy; and induftry muft concur to carry it to any degree of perfection. No man needs be furprised to fee Kouli-Kan among the Perfians; but Homer in fo early an age among the Greeks is certainly matter of the highest wonder.

A man cannot fhew a genius for war, who is not fo fortunate as to be trufted with command; and it feldom happens in any flate or kingdom, that fc-. veral at once are placed in that fituation. How many Marlboroughs were there in the confederate army, who never rose so much as to the command of a regiment? But I am perfuaded, there has been but one Milton in England within these hundred years; becaufe every one may exert the talents of poetry who is poffeffed of them; and no

one

one could exert them under greater difadvantages than that divine poet. If no man were allowed to write verses, but the perfon who was beforehand named to be laureat, could we expect a poet in ten thousand years?

Were we to diffinguish the ranks of men by their genius and capacity, more than by their virtue and usefulness to the public, great philofophers would certainly challenge the firft rank; and must be placed at the top of mankind. So rare is this character, that, perhaps, there has not, as yet, been above two in the world, who can lay a juft claim to it. At leaft, Galileo and Newton feem to me fo far to excel all the reft, that I cannot admit any other into the fame clafs with them.

Great poets may challenge the fecond place; and this fpecies of genius, though rare, is yet much more frequent than the former. Of the Greek poets that remain, Homer alone feems to merit this character of the Romans, Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius: of the English, Milton and Pope: Corneille, Racine, Boileau, and Voltaire, of the French and Taflo and Ariofto of the Italians.

Great orators and hiftorians are, perhaps, more rare than great poets; but as the opportunities for exerting the talents requisite for eloquence, or acquiring the knowledge requifite for writing history, depend, in fome meafure, upon fortune, we

cannot

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cannot pronounce these productions of genius to be more extraordinary than the former.

I fhould now return from this digreffion, and fhew that the middle flation of life is more favourable to happiness, as well as to virtue and wisdom: but as the arguments that prove this feem pretty obvious, I fhall here forbear infifting on them.

No. I.

ESSAY VIII.

A CHARACTER OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

THERE never was a man, whofe actions and character have been more earnestly and openly canvaffed than those of the prefent minifter, who having governed a learned and free nation for fo long a time, amidst fuch mighty oppofition, may make a large library of what has been wrote for and against him, and is the fubject of above half the paper that has been blotted in the nation within these twenty years. I wish, for the honour of our country, that any one character of him had been drawn with fuch judgment and impartiality, as to have some credit with posterity, and to fhew that our liberty has, once at least, been employed

to

to good purpofe. I am only afraid of failing in the former quality of judgment; but if it fhould be fo, it is but one page more thrown away, after an hundred thousand upon the fame fubject, that have perished and become useless. In the mean time, I fhall flatter myfelf with the pleafing imagination, that the following character will be adopted by future hiftorians.

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, prime minister of Great Britain, is a man of ability, not a genius; good-natured, not virtuous; constant, not magnanimous; moderate, not equitable*. His virtues, in some instances, are free from the alloy of those vices, which usually accompany fuch virtues. He is a generous friend, without being a bitter enemy. His vices, in other inftances, are not compenfated by thofe virtues which are nearly allied to them: his want of enterprize is not attended with frugality. The private character of the man is better than the public; his virtues more than his vices: his fortune greater than his fame. With many good qualities he has incurred the public hatred: with a good capacity he has not escaped ridicule. He would have been esteemed more worthy of his high station, had he never poffeffed it; and is better qualified for the second than for the first place in any government. His miniftry has been more advanta

• Moderate in the exercife of power, not equitable in engroffing it.

geous

geous to his family than to the public, better for this age than for posterity, and more pernicious by bad precedents than by real grievances. During his time trade has flourished, liberty declined, and learning gone to ruin. As I am a man I love him; as I am a scholar, I hate him; as I am a Briton, I calmly with his fall. And were I a member of either house, I would give my vote for removing him from St. James's; but fhould be glad to fee him retire to Houghton-Hall, to pass the remainder of his days in ease and pleasure.

N. B. This Effay, in the edition of 1760, was inferted by way of note to the Effay " On Politics as a Science," after the words in the text, "by the violence of their factions," as follows:

"What our author's opinion was of the famous. minister here pointed at, may be learned from that Effay, printed in the former editions under the title of A Character of Sir Robert Walpole. It was as

follow:

"The author is pleafed to find, that after animofities are laid, and calumny has ceafed, the whole nation almoft have returned to the fame moderate fentiments with regard to this great man; if they are not rather become more favourable to him, by a very natural tranfition, from one extreme to another. The author would not oppose these hu

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