264 



you ; but on my soul, you will repent it," and so went away in 

 anger, using other fierce and ominous words.* 



Some may think, that he betrayed want of discrimination in the 

 choice of his favourites ; but he knew them well, though he gave 

 way to an excessive partiality. This was his great failing. It is 

 not my business to aggravate, nor my inclination to excuse it, yet I 

 must beg leave to say a word in 'extenuation. Favouritism is a 

 pernicious vice in a king, and was carried by James to a criminal 

 excess : but we are most apt to blame those faults, to which we are 

 least tempted or exposed. We, who enjoy domestic happiness and 

 friendly society at home, and hospitality abroad at pleasure ; who 

 may walk the streets, resort to public places, and travel to the 

 country or to foreign parts ; who can select and change our compa- 

 nions at will, and are free from constraint in our behaviour and con- 

 versation, cannot well imagine the condition of a king, living like a 

 man in a steeple, in a solitary elevation ; a stranger, perhaps, to 

 domestic enjoyment, at variance with his own children, and sur- 

 rounded with intrigues in his own family ; secluded from friends and 

 intimate acquaintances ; debarred from social intercourse, and wast- 

 ing his life in tedious formalities; a state prisoner, confined to the 

 purlieus of his palace, or to the passage from one palace to another ; 

 obliged to consult and comply with advisers whom he dishkes, 

 imposed upon him by some obnoxious faction ; rivalled by his own 

 son, whose influence increases with his father's years, till he estab- 

 lishes a hostile court, thwarts him in his favourite measures, and 

 embitters his latter days with vexation and chagrin. It is not ne- 

 cessary, that all of these miseries should combine : a few of them are 

 sufficient to render a king an object of pity. How will such a being 



* Racket's Life of Williams, p. 63, apud Aikin. 



