1830.] a Lover (if Literature. 419 



man of remarkable sagacity, singularly well acquainted with the state of 

 England, and familiar with the course of public transactions in all 

 times and nations. But in his delight at the progress of the French 

 Revolution, he boldly predicted that the same formidable process must be 

 inevitably undergone by this country. On a man of more unprejudiced 

 mind, the whole aspect of the empire must have irresistibly impressed 

 the directly opposite conviction : but Home Tooke wished, and there- 

 fore believed. He was perfectly certain that the overthrow of ranks, 

 at least, must come within a short period. " I trust," said he^ in the 

 utmost sincerity of familiar intercourse, (( we shall live to see the day, 

 when the distinctions of title will be abolished, and we may eat our 

 mutton without being teazed with such childish objects as ribbons, 

 stars and garters." 



He perpetually predicted the immediate downfall of the whole system 

 of the country, and sneered habitually at the attempts to revive credit. 

 On hearing of the bankruptcies, frequent at that period, he could not 

 dissemble his rebel gratification. " You are not going," he would say, 

 " you are gone ; it is not a slight hurt, but a mortal gangrene." 



The society of princes is hazardous to their inferiors, from the diffi- 

 culty of paying them either too little deference or too much. To natter, 

 without the appearance of intending to natter, is the delicate point. 

 " Zimmerman," said Frederic the Great, sourly, to the celebrated phy- 

 sician, " I suppose you have in your time helped many a man into the 

 other world !" Zimmerman turned with the quick retort, " Not so 

 many as your Majesty." The king stared at this freedom " nor with 

 so much honour to myself," happily continued the bowing physician. 



Great elegance may be shewn in inscriptions for grottos, fountains, 

 &c. What can be more graceful than the motto on the sun-dial in the 

 gardens of Schcenbrun, near Vienna, " Horas non numero nisi serenas." 



A fountain in Paris has this inscription, which it would be difficult to 

 surpass, for moral feeling or poetic beauty. 



" Quae tibi donat aquam, latet hospita nympha sub imo; 

 Sic tu, quum dederis dona, latere velis." 



Striking pleasantries seldom occur in conversation, even among acknow- 

 ledged wits : and still seldomer in public life, as may easily be conceived 

 from the eager mirth which is excited at the bar, or in the senate, by 

 the dullest of dull jests. Yet the late Mr. Windham now and then 

 said some happy things. In the debate on the Walcheren expedition, 

 when the ministers stated that its object was to take Antwerp by a 

 coup-de-main, <( Take Antwerp by a coup-de-main" said Windham 

 contemptuously j " Antwerp, with every inch of the road covered with 

 dykes, batteries and inundations ? Why, they might as well talk of a 

 coup-de-main in the Court of Chancery F The oddity and force of the 

 illustration excited great applause. 



He made a capital simile on the state of the ministry, soon after the 

 Whigs had seen Percival fixed in power by the Prince Regent. " We 

 waste powder and shot upon them/' said he, " they are like wildfowl 

 in a lake : we may knock them down fast enough, but the difficulty is 

 to get them out." 



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