S-j^ THE BEE, OR Feb. 2 



order of things has been inverted. Some virtues loft 

 their name ; and what had been religious, exemplary, 

 and perfect above the reach of unaffifted nature, ceafed 

 to be fo. The Proteflant then feized the pencil, and, 

 viewing Becket, drew a portrait, on which were feen no 

 lines of former beauty. On both fides is much partial 

 iudgment. The ancient hiftorians, I know, who lie be- 

 fore me, wrote with too warm an impreffion. The glare 

 of miracles, they thought, was flafliing round them ; 

 and the praifesof Rome and of Europe echoed in their 

 ears. It is an apotheofis which they celebrate. But 

 becaufe this is too much, can we fit down with too lit- 

 tle, and fay that we are juft ? 



" With fome enthufiafm on my mind, I confefs, I have 

 defcribed the conduft of Becket. Every where I faw 

 him great as other men, and on fome occafions I faw 

 him greater. Real excellence there may be ; but it is, 

 by comparing only, that we judge. By his fide, the 

 contemporary men of the day, the greateft the aera 

 could produce in church or ftate, lofe all their fplendor. 

 Alexander * is an irrefolute and timid politician : The 

 prelates of England bafely deferting a caufe, which their 

 own confciences held facred, are courtly fycophants, and 

 excite contempt : The facred college of cardinals, brib- 

 ed by gold, forget their dignity, and bartering away the 

 privileges of the Roman fee, publicly pod up their ve- 

 nality, and become the fliame of Chriftendom : Henry, 

 the lord of many people, whom Europe then admired, 

 and whom pofterity has called the greateft of Englifli 

 kings, through the quarrel which hinifelf provoked, is 

 wayward, vindictive, timorous, and deceptions, never 

 fiiewing one exertion which became a king, and evet 

 induiging a train of afFeftions, which would have dif- 

 cracd his loweft vafial : Becket, from the beginning, 

 is firm, dauntlefs, compuied, and manly; like a deep 

 arid majcftic river, he proceeds even in his courfe, hard- 

 ly rufilc;d by rocks of oppofition, and true to the level 

 he had taken. 



• The Pope. 



