48 



Why have Plutarch's Lives been the favorite volumes of the wife and 

 great, in every country, where letters are known ? and why have they 

 contributed fo largely to the formation of flatefmen and heroes ? — they open 

 to us the fecret receffes and fanftuaries of mind ; they unlock the calket 

 of the human bread ; and expofe to view the minute fprings of aftion. 

 It is the duty and the intereft of every body, but it is doubly the duty 

 and the intereft of thofe, to whom the ta/k of governing men is confided, 

 to ftudy the human heart, and to confider well the fprings, the moft fre- 

 quent and powerful motives of human aftion. 



Notwithftanding a diligent ftudy of hiftory fupplies much of that kind 

 of knowledge, which is requifite for the purpofe of managing the paflions 

 and prejudices of men, and of applying them in the produftion of great 

 political movements, and important revolutions ; yet, neither the ftudy 

 of hiftory, nor an acquaintance with the theoretical writers on govern- 

 ment and morals will fufEce, without the aid of a practical and felf-ac- 

 quired experience of the ways of men, which in the critical moments, and 

 cardinal turns and viciffitudes of fortune, fliould be combined with natu- 

 ral fagacity. We have read of many artful adventurers, like Cromwell, 

 who have been able to acquire this moft important knowledge, and to 

 apply it fuccefsfully, in the accompliftiment of their daring fchemes, and 

 in the direftion and government of their fellow men ; and this without 

 any aid from literature, or the ftudy of books. It is thus we often fee, 

 that the knowledge and ufe of the moft efficacious and draftic medicines 

 refts with irregular and unauthorized empirics, who are openly defpifed, 

 and fecretly envied, by the graduated pradlitioner. Yet fliould not men 

 be difcouraged, on this account, from reforting to the aid of fcience ; or 

 think, that diligence and regular ftudies are indifferent to their fuccefs. 



To this knowledge of the human mind we may attribute, in moft 

 inftances, the furprifmg aggrandizement of obfcure and low-born indi- 

 vidual ; the eifed which fecmingly light and trivial incidents have on the 

 deftinies of men ; and the mighty and ftupendous commotions and revo- 

 lutions, which take place in ftates and empires, by the intervention of 

 mean and defpifed agents, and the operation of apparently inadequate 



caufes ; 



