enemies, even when they are successful, are ashamed to own it. Nothing but power full of truth has the prerogative of triumphing, not only after victories, but in spite of them, and to put conquest herself out of countenance. She may be kept under and suppressed, but her dignity still remains with her, even when she is in chains. Falsehood, with all her impudence, has not enough to speak ill of her before her face; such majesty she carries about her, that her most prosperous enemies are fain to whisper their treason; all the power upon the earth can never extinguish her; she has lived in all ages; and let the mistaken zeal of prevailing authority christen any opposition to it with what name they please, she makes it not only an ugly and an unmannerly, but a dangerous thing to persist. She has lived very retired indeed, nay, sometimes so buried, that only some few of the discerning parts of mankind could have a glimpse of her; with all that, she has eternity in her, she knows not how to die, and from the darkest clouds that shade and cover her, she breaks from time to time with triumph for her friends, and terror to her enemies.

Our Trimmer, therefore, inspired by this divine virtue, thinks fit to conclude with these assertions: that our climate is a Trimmer, between that part of the world where men are roasted, and the other where they are frozen; that our church is a Trimmer, between the phrenzy of Platonic visions, and the lethargic ignorance of popish dreams; that our laws are Trimmers, between the excess of unbounded power, and the extravagance of liberty not enough restrained; that true virtue has ever been thought a Trimmer, and to have its dwelling in the middle between the two extremes; that even God Almighty Himself is divided between His two great attributes, His mercy and His justice.

(From the Same.)

CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS ON THE

CHARACTER OF CHARLES II.

AFTER all this, when some rough strokes of the pencil have made several parts of his picture look a little hard, it is a justice that would be due to every man, much more to a prince, to make some amends, and to reconcile men as much as may be to it by the last finishing.

He had as good a claim to a kind interpretation as most men. First, as a prince : living and dead, generous and well-bred men will be gentle to them; next, as an unfortunate prince in the beginning of his time, and a gentle one in the rest.

A prince neither sharpened by his misfortunes while abroad, nor of his power when restored, is such a shining character, that it is a reproach not to be so dazzled with it, as not to be able to see a fault in its full light. It would be a scandal in this case to have an exact memory. And if all who are akin to his vices, should mourn for him, never prince would be better attended to his grave. He is under the protection of common frailty, that must engage men for their own sakes not to be too severe, where they themselves have so much to answer.

If he had sometimes less firmness than might have been wished, let the kindest reason be given, and if that should be wanting, the best excuse. I would assign the cause of it to be his loving at any rate to be easy, and his deserving the more to be indulged in it, by his desiring that everybody else should be so.

If he sometimes let a servant fall, let it be examined whether he did not weigh so much upon his master, as to give him a fair excuse. That yieldingness, whatever foundations it might lay to the disadvantage of posterity, was a specific to preserve us in peace for his time. If he loved too much to lie upon his own down-bed of ease, his subjects had the pleasure, during his reign, of lolling and stretching upon theirs. As a sword is sooner broken upon a feather-bed than upon a table, so his pliantness broke the blow of a present mischief much better than a more immediate resistance would perhaps have done.

Ruin saw this, and therefore removed him first to make way for further over-turnings.

If he dissembled, let us remember, first, that he was a king, and that dissimulation is a jewel of the crown; next, that it is very hard for a man not to do sometimes too much of that, which he concludeth necessary for him to practise. Men should consider, that as there would be no false dice, if there were no true ones, so if dissembling is grown universal, it ceaseth to be foul play, having an implied allowance by the general practice. He that was so often forced to dissemble in his own defence, might the better have the privilege sometimes to be the aggressor, and to deal with men at their own weapon.

Subjects are apt to be as arbitrary in their censure, as the most assuming kings can be in their power. If there might be matter for objections, there is not less reason for excuses; the defects laid to his charge, are such as may claim indulgence from mankind.

Should nobody throw a stone at his faults but those who are free from them, there would be but a slender shower.

(From A Character of King Charles II.)

ON THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN

You may love your children without living in the nursery; and you may have a competent and discreet care of them, without letting it break out upon the company, or exposing yourself by turning your discourse that way, which is a kind of laying children to the parish; and it can hardly be done anywhere, that those who bear it will be so forgiving as not to think they are overcharged with them. A woman's tenderness to her children, is one of the least deceitful evidences of her virtue; but yet the way of expressing it, must be subject to the rules of good breeding. And though a woman of quality ought not to be less kind to them than mothers of the meanest rank are to theirs, yet she may distinguish herself in the manner, and avoid the coarse methods which in women of a lower size might be more excusable. You must begin early to make them love you, that they may obey you. This mixture is nowhere more necessary than in children. And I must tell you, that you are not to expect returns of kindness from yours, if you have any, without grains of allowance; and yet it is not so much a defect in their good-nature, as a shortness of thought in them. Their first insufficiency maketh them lean so entirely upon their parents for what is necessary, that the habit of it maketh them continue the same expectations for what is unreasonable; and as often as they are denied, so often they think they are injured. And whilst their desires are strong, and their reasons yet in the cradle, their anger looketh no further than the thing they long for and cannot have; and to be displeased for their own good, is a maxim they are very slow to understand. So that you may conclude, the first thoughts of your children will have no small mixture of mutiny; which being so natural, you

must not be angry, except you would increase it. You must deny them as seldom as you can; and when there is no avoiding it, you must do it gently; you must flatter away their ill-humour, and take the next opportunity of pleasing them in some other thing, before they either ask or look for it. This will strengthen your authority by making it soft to them; and confirm their obedience by making it their interest. You are to have as strict

a guard upon yourself amongst your children, as if you were amongst your enemies. They are apt to make wrong inferences, to take encouragement from half words, and misapply what you may say or do, so as either to lessen their duty, or to extend their liberty further than is convenient. Let them be more in awe of your kindness, than of your power. And above all, take heed of supporting a favourite child in its impertinence, which will give right to the rest of claiming the same privilege. If you have a divided number, leave the boys to the father's more peculiar care, that you may with greater justice pretend to a more immediate jurisdiction over those of your own sex. You are to live so with them, that they may never choose to avoid you, except when they have offended; and then let them tremble, that they may distinguish. But their penance must not continue so long, as to grow too severe upon their stomachs, that it may not harden instead of correcting them. The kind and sevére part must have their several turns seasonably applied; but your indulgence is to have the broader mixture, that love rather than fear may be the root of their obedience.

(From The Lady's New-Year's-Gift, or, Advice to a

Daughter.)

SAMUEL PEPYS

[Samuel Pepys, 1633-1703, clerk of the Acts of the Navy Board (1660), and afterwards Secretary of the Admiralty till 1689, Fellow, and some time President, of the Royal Society, published in 1690 a short statement of the condition of the Navy for ten years past-Memoires relating to the State of the Royal Navy of England. His shorthand Diary (1660-1669), preserved in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, was edited by Lord Braybrooke in 1825, about half of the original being suppressed. A fuller edition was published by the Rev. Mynors Bright (1875-1879); the first volumes of another by Mr. H. B. Wheatley appeared in 1893, representing the whole of the original MS., with some small exceptions.]

It is as impossible as it is fortunately unnecessary to attempt to sum up the series of entries in Pepys's Diary. Where everything is particular, and all things are treated by the chronicler as if there were no differences of value among them, there can be no description of the chronicle; it may be copied or repeated, it cannot be described; the atoms of Pepys's impressions must be taken as he gives them or not at all. No one wishes to be told about Pepys; talk about Pepys is quotation from the Diary, and he talks best who remembers most, and has least to say about it in the way of commentary.

There is a possible misapprehension of Pepys's character, which may be removed by argument, if it is anywhere entertained. Pepys is so little reticent about his follies, blunders, and misfortunes that he may create in some minds the impression that he was a booby and a ridiculous person. The Diary in truth, with all its particularity and sincerity, is unjust to its author. The reader has to remind himself that it is microscopic, and that to get a just view of Pepys one ought not to know all about him. It may be difficult to understand where there was room for all his work, in the perpetual trade of morning draughts and suppers,