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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and the royal robes in which majesty is entitled 

 to wrap itself, when to majesty seemcth good. 

 Sir William Hamilton, again, devoted too many 

 of the best hours of his early manhood to fishing 

 a baronetcy (which he fancied necessary to his 

 well-being) out of the obscurity of the seven- 

 teenth century. But for those lost hours, the 

 Philosophy of the Conditioned might have been 

 more completely thought out. Bacon and (in a 

 lesser degree) Scott afford melancholy examples 

 of a similar weakness, and its vexatious, not to 

 say tragic, consequences. 



Again, though a contempt for titles and deco- 

 rations (especially since their relative value has 

 changed) has been common enough for many a 

 day, one cannot help thinking that the refusal of 

 them has in not a few cases proceeded from the 

 same motive which made others seek them. The 

 weakness of false pride was shown not more by 

 the Macedonian conqueror who proclaimed him- 

 self a god, than by the philosopher in the tub 

 who was rude to him. Indeed, it was an excel- 

 lent answer that Alexander made when some one 

 praised Antipater in his hearing because that 

 officer refused to follow the Asiatic fashions 

 which were being adopted by his colleagues, and 

 continued to wear black while they wore purple. 

 " Yes," said the king ; " but Antipater is all pur- 

 ple within." The virtue of some persons is un- 

 pleasantly ferocious. One cannot help regretting, 

 for instance, that Bentham, when the Czar Alex- 

 ander sent him a diamond ring, did not decline it 

 — if he must have declined it — with less of a 

 flourish of trumpets. There is something that 

 jars on one's mind in that message about its not 

 being his mission to receive diamond rings from 

 emperors, but to teach nations the lessons of wis- 

 dom — or words much to that effect. Who had ever 

 supposed it was his mission to receive diamond 

 rings from anybody ? The humility of men who 

 are much talked about is seldom a perfectly genu- 

 ine article. Did they really think nothing of 

 themselves they would be more than human. 

 Anent this matter, there is a curious story told 

 of St. Philip Neri, who was commissioned by the 

 pope to inquire into the truth of certain miracles 

 alleged to have been worked by a nun. St. Phil- 

 ip employed a very simple test. He resolved to 

 ascertain whether the nun had true humility, 

 which, as one of the cardinal virtues, must be 

 possessed by any one before he or she can re- 

 ceive the gift of performing signs and wonders. 

 Entering her cell with a pair of dirty boots on, 

 he pulled them off, threw them at her head, and 

 ordered her to clean them. Vehement and shrilly 



expressed was the indignation of the lady ; where- 

 at St. Philip reported to his holiness that a new 

 saint had not arisen to edify the Church. 



Among the rare instances of true Christian 

 humility with which we meet in that long record 

 of struggles for precedence designated as history, 

 is one singularly affecting. Madame Mailly, the 

 first mistress of Louis XV., is said, after her loss 

 of the king's favor, to have led a life of unaffect- 

 ed piety and devotion. As the French annalist 

 quaintly puts it, " She loved God as she had 

 loved the king." One day, being late for church, 

 she had some difficulty in reaching her usual 

 seat. Several persons had to rise to let her pass, 

 chairs had to be pushed back, and some little 

 confusion resulted. An ill-tempered man snarled 

 out, " that it was a pretty noise to make for a 



." " Since you know her," replied Madame 



de Mailly, " pray the good God for her." Still, 

 Madame de Mailly would have done better to 

 be punctual. 



It is to be feared that the most common 

 weaknesses of great men are of the same kind as 

 those of little men. Formidable indeed would 

 be the full and accurate list of illustrious glut- 

 tons, illustrious tipplers, and illustrious persons 

 who smoked more tobacco than was good for 

 them. In some rare cases, their weakness occa- 

 sionally brought forth their strength : the con- 

 versation of Addison, many a speech of Sheri- 

 dan's and of the younger Pitt's, a few songs of 

 Schiller's, were doubtless instances of the power 

 of wine to stimulate the mental faculties. In- 

 deed, Schiller seems to have for a long time habit- 

 ually written under the influence of a bottle of 

 Rhenish, with which he would lock himself up in 

 the evening, and write cheerily through the hours 

 of the night. But unquestionably the most as- 

 tonishing feat of this kind was Blackstone's com- 

 position of his " Commentaries " over successive 

 bottles of port. One feels almost respect for the 

 hardness of a head which could think out so 

 clearly under such an influence some of the stiff- 

 est points of a jurisprudence which, so to say, 

 had neither head nor tail. In speaking of the 

 classic age of English eloquence, one must ex- 

 cept the greatest name of all from the list of 

 Bacchic orators. Fox could drink, and alas ! get 

 drunk ; but, as a rule, he appears to have post- 

 poned his sacrifices to Dionysus till after the de- 

 bates, which he could the more easily do as he 

 lived chiefly by night. Pitt would jestingly com- 

 plain that in this respect his rival took a mean 

 advantage of him. He himself rose tolerably 

 early, and being generally prime-minister — the 



