MODERN POLICY. 273 



were retained in a composed and settled go- 

 vernment, it would be altogether distasteful ; 

 and so, on the contrary. 



Therefore, if religion be fashionable, you can 

 scarcely distinguish him from a saint : he does 

 not only reverence the holy ministers, but, if 

 need be, he can preach himself: if cunctation 

 prevails, he acts Fabius : if the buckler must be 

 changed for a sword, he personates Marcellus : 

 if mildness be useful, Soderini of Venice was not 

 more a lamb than he : if severities are requisite, 

 Nero's butcheries are sanctities, compared with 

 his : as Alcibiades, in Plutarch, shifted disposi- 

 tion as he altered place (being voluptuous and 

 jovial in Ionia, frugal and retired in Lacedae- 

 mon) so he proportions himself to time, place, 

 person, religion, with such a plausibleness, as 

 if he had been born only to serve that opinion, 

 which he harboured but as a guest, while it 

 continued in sway : having a room in his heart, 

 if occasion be, to lodge the contrary, and to cry 

 it up with as much ardour, as he once used to 

 extol the former. And thus, like a subtle Pro- 

 teus, he assumes that shape that is most in 

 grace, and of most profitable conducement to 

 his ends. All his consultations turn upon the 

 hinge of self-interest.* 



* In eo stant consilia, quod sibi conducere putat. 

 VOL. ir. T 



