652 C L E 
gene, Banisteria, Bauhinia, Bignonia, Cissamph- 
los, Ophioxylum, Passjflora, Paullinia, Plu¬ 
meria, Strychnos, and Vinca. 
CLEMA'TITIS, f. in botany. See Aristolochia, 
Bauhinia, Clematis, and Eupatorium. 
CLE'MENCET (Charles), born at Painblanc in the 
diocefie of Autun, entered of the congregation of St. Maur 
in 1722, at the age of eighteen. After having taught rhe¬ 
toric at Pont-le-Voy, he was called to Paris in the monaf- 
tery of the white-cloak friars, where he died in 177S. 
Bleffed with a happy memory, and a difpolition to in- 
duftry, he continued to write till his death. The fruits 
of his application are, 1. V art de verifier les dates, 1750, 
4to. reprinted, with very great alterations and additions, 
1770, fol. The hiftorical part contains the film and fub- 
ftance of univerfal hiftory from the birth of Chrill to our 
times; and it is executed with the utmoft attention to 
chronological precilion and learning. 2. General Hiltory 
of Port-Royal, 10 vols. nmo. and feveral other works of 
lefs importance. 
CLE'MENCY,yi \_clcmence, Fr. dementia, Lat.] Mercy; 
remiffion of feverity; willingnefs to fpare ; tenderuefs in 
punilhing.—I have dated the true notion of clemency, 
mercy, compaffion, good-nature, humanity, or whatever 
elfe it may be called, fo far as is confident with wifdom. 
Addifon. —Mildnefs ; foftnefs : 
Then in the clemency of upward air 
We’ll fcour our tpots, and the dire thunder fear. Drydeti. 
Clemency is not only the privilege, the honour, and 
the duty, of a prince, but it is alfo his fecurity, and better 
than all his garrifons, forts, and guards, to preferve him¬ 
feif and his dominions in fafety : it is the brighted jewel 
in a monarch’s crown. As meeknefs moderates anger, 
fo clemency moderates ptlniffiment. That prince is there¬ 
fore truly royal who maders himfeif, looks upon all inju¬ 
ries as below him, and governs by equity and reafon, not 
by padion. Clemency is profitable for all; wears well in 
private perfons, but is much more beneficial in princes. 
To place the advantages and amiabilities of clemency in 
their true light, we have felefted the following examples 
from ancient hiftory: 
Avidius Cadius having revolted from the emperor Mar¬ 
cus Aurelius, and attempted to leize the government, the 
emprefs Faudina, in a letter which die wrote to her huf- 
band, prefied him to purfue the accomplices of Cadius 
with the utmod feverity. But the emperor, hearkening 
only to the impulle of his own good-nature, returned her 
the following anfwer : “ I have read your letter, my dear 
Faudina, wherein you advife me to treat the accomplices 
of Cadius with the utmod feverity, which you think they 
well deferve. This I look upon as a pledge of the love 
you bear to your hulband and children : but give me 
leave,'my dear Faudina, to fpare the children of Caf- 
dus, his fon-in-law, and his wife; and to write to the 
ienate in their behalf. Nothing can more recommend a 
Homan emperor to the edeem of the world, than cle¬ 
mency ; this placed Caefar among the gods; this conl'e- 
crated Augudus; this procured to your father the title 
of Pius. I am grieved even for the death of Cadius ; and 
wifli it had been in my jiower to lave him. Be therefore 
fatisfied, and do not abandon yourfelf to revenge. Marcus 
Aurelius Antonius is protefted by the gods.” Some of 
his friends openly blaming his clemency, and taking the 
liberty to tell him that Cadius would not have been fo 
generous, had fortune proved favourable to him, the 
emperor immediately replied, “ We have not lived nor 
ferved the gods fo ill as to think they would favour Caf- 
fius.” He added, “ The misfortunes of fome of his pre- 
deceffors were entirely owing to their own ill conduft 
and cruelties, and that no good prince had ever been 
overcome or dain by an ul'urper. Nero, Caligula, and 
Domitian, (faid he,) dtferved the doom that overtook 
them : neither Otho nor Vitellius were equal to the em¬ 
pire 5 and the downfall of Galba was occafioned by his 
C L E 
avarice, an unpardonable fault in a prince." Vulcat. Gall. 
p. 32. 
When Seleucus was informed of the refolution Deme¬ 
trius had taken of refigning himlelf his prifoner, he was 
exceedingly pleafed, and having given the necelfary di¬ 
rections for the reception of fo great a perfon, he could 
not help, even in the prefence of his whole court, break¬ 
ing out into thele words : “ It is not the fortune of De¬ 
metrius which has thus provided for his fafety, but mine, 
which hath been watchful for my glory. I thank her 
more for this, than for all the favours Hie hath done me, 
becaufe I eileem an aft of clemency more honourable 
than any viftory.” Accordingly, after he had provided 
for his own fecurity, he did all that could be thought of 
to make confinement ealy to Demetrius. He ordered 
him royal entertainments within doors, a fine liable of 
horfes, and the ufe of a noble park without. To give 
him a relilh for thefe pleafures, hopes were clierifhed, and 
promifes of liberty intermixed; and Seleucus feemed in¬ 
clined to have done much more for him, had he not been 
overruled by the inlinuations of his minifters. Pint, in 
Demet. 
Diodorus Siculus takes occafion, from the thirty ty¬ 
rants of Athens, whofe immoderate ambition induced 
them to treat their country with the utmolt exceflive 
cruelties, to cbferve how unfortunate it is for perfons in 
power to want a fenfe of honour, and to difregard either 
the prelent opinion, or the judgment pollerity will form 
of their conduft; for, from the contempt of reputation, 
the tranlition is too common to that of virtue itfelf. 
They may, perhaps, by the awe of their power, fupprels, 
for fome time, the public voice, and impofe a forced ii- 
lence upon cenfure; but the more conllraint they lay upon 
it during their lives, the more liberal will it be after their 
deaths of complaints and reproaches, and the more in¬ 
famy and imputation will be affixed to their memories. 
The power of the thirty was of a lhort duration ; their 
guilt immortal, which will be remembered with abhor¬ 
rence throughout all ages, whiilt their names are recorded 
in hiftory only to lender them odious, and to make their 
crimes deteftabie. He applies the fame refleftion to the 
Lacedemonians, who, after having made themfelves maf- 
ters of Greece by a wife and moderate conduft, fell from 
that glory through the feverity, haughtinefs, and injuf- 
tice, with which they treated their allies. Diodorus con¬ 
cludes his refleftion with a maxim very true, though very 
little known. “ The greatnefs and majefty of princes,’' 
fays he, (and the lame may be faid of all perfons in high 
authority,) “can be lupported only by clemency and 
jultice, with regard to their fubjefts; as, on the contrary, 
they are ruined and deftroyed by a cruel and oppreffive 
government, which never fails to draw upon them the 
hatred of their peopled’ 
Leonidas, the Lacedemonian, having with three hun¬ 
dred men only, difputed the pafs of Thermopylae againft: 
the whole army of Xerxes, and being killed in that en¬ 
gagement, Xerxes, by the advice of Mardonius, one of 
his generals, caufed his dead body to be hung upon a 
gallows, making thereby the intended difliononr of his 
enemy his own immortal lhame. But fome time after, 
Xerxes being defeated, and Mardonius flain, one of the 
principal citizens of ADgina came and addrelfed himfeif 
to Paufanias, defiring him to avenge the indignity that 
Mardonius and Xerxes had fliewn to Leonidas, by treat¬ 
ing Mardonius’s body after the fame manner. As a far¬ 
ther motive for doing fo, he added, that, by thus latisfy- 
ing the manes of thole who were killed at Thermopylae, 
he would be fure to immortalize his own name through¬ 
out all Greece, and make his memory precious to the 
latell pollerity. “ Carry thy bafe counlels elfewhere,” re¬ 
plied Paufanias ; “ thou mult have a very wrong notion of 
true glory to imagine, that the way for me to acquire it 
is to refemble the barbarians. If the elleem of the peo¬ 
ple of .fEgina is not to be purchafed but by fuch a pro¬ 
ceeding, I lhall be content with preferving that of the 
a Lacedemonians, 
