CHARACTERS. 



463 



the gifts which she had with- 

 held from his person. At once 

 a scholar and a man of the world, 

 he had equally profited by study 

 and experience. Besides his clas- 

 sical acquirements, he possessed a 

 vast fund of information in almost 

 every branch of human knowledge ; 

 and his conversation and letters 

 prove him scarcely less master of 

 the French and Spanish, than of 

 his native language. With intense 

 and indefatigable application, he 

 united great strength of memory, 

 quickness of comprehension, and 

 grace of expression ; and a fertility 

 of resource which extorts our ad- 

 miration. He possessed the talent 

 of insinuation in the highest de- 

 gree, and a natural air of sincerity, 

 frankness, and candour, which sel- 

 dom failed of persuading when he 

 wished to persuade, or of deceiving 

 when it was his interest to deceive. 

 He was irritable and impetuous ; 

 but he was so far master of pas- 

 sions highly dangerous to a nego- 

 tiator, that in all his conversations, 

 which are exactly detailed by the 

 French and English envoys, we 

 never discover, amidst the most ve- 

 hement sallies, a single instance in 

 which he was provoked to betray 

 his purposes, or unveil his impene- 

 trable secrecy, either by look or 

 gesture. Temperate in his habits 

 and mode of life, he made a boast, 

 which is uncontradicted by his con- 

 temporaries, that, amidst the va- 

 rious avocations of his high station, 

 he had strictly conformed to the 

 decorum and duties of his eccle- 

 Biastical profession. 



*♦ Though gentle to inferiors, he 

 was pertinacious, and impatient of 

 contradiction, proud and overbear- 

 ing with his equals and superiors, 



and scarcely deigned to curb his 

 haughty spirit, even in the presence 

 of his sovereigns. By the confes- 

 sion, even of his friends, he pos- 

 sessed in a high degree that vindic- 

 tive spirit which is attributed to 

 his countrymen ; and in a still 

 higher, that dissimulation with 

 which they are equally charged. 

 His ambition was lofty and un- 

 bounded ; but little scrupulous with 

 regard to the means, provided he 

 attained the end, he often debased 

 the grandeur of his designs by the 

 manner of their execution. In a 

 word, he was one of those gigantic 

 characters which form a compound 

 of extraordinary qualities and ex- 

 traordinary defects; born to rise 

 in defiance of every obstacle ; to 

 change the fate of nations ; and 

 alike distinguished from the rest of 

 mankind, in success and adversity, 

 power and disgrace." 



We cannot omit the contrast 

 drawn between Alberoni and Rip- 

 perda. 



" In reviewing the transitory ad- 

 ministration of Ripperda, we na- 

 turally draw a comparison between 

 him and his predecessor Alberoni. 

 Both were men of abilities and ex- 

 tensive knowledge, and both the 

 architects of their own fortune : 

 Alberoni rising to power by the 

 native energy of his character, 

 Ripperda by dexterously availing 

 himself of times and circumstances. 

 One, however, seemed born to 

 command ; the other to figure in a 

 secondary sphere. One always ap- 

 peared superior to his situation, 

 struck before he threatened, veiled 

 his means and designs with a mys- 

 terious secrecy, which redoubled 

 their effect, rose with new vigour 

 from defeat; and for a time ba- 



