seems to have been employed in producing it. Vauban was another whose simplicity of character this great painter of manners praises. It is still the same test he uses when, summing up the noble qualities of M. de Saint-Louis, he says of him, “I never knew a man whose heart was more straight, more simple, or more true *.” Such persons have not the weight upon them which impedes others in every good direction. Alphonso, king of Arragon, used to say, that if he had lived in the time of the Roman republic, he would have advised the raising of a temple "Jovi positorio," where, before entering the senate, its members might have deposed their hatreds, perturbations, and cupidities; as if he had wished to imply that it was by becoming young again thus that they might have rendered the greatest service to the state, and preserved it. In which opinion Cardinal Palæotus coincides, only observing, "that St. Peter had already pointed out the same method in his words, 'Deponentes omnem malitiam et omnem dolum et simulationes et invidias et omnes detractiones;' by which sentence, indeed, he seems to call on them to become like young people; and he would leave some, perhaps, very little of their own to take with them into the house +.' The simplicity of early life is recognized by poets as furnishing a safeguard when men are placed in circumstances of greatest temptation. Therefore thinking that the other possesses it, Piccolomini says to Wallenstein "There is a pure and noble soul within thee Knows not of this unblest, unlucky doing. Which hath polluted thee-and innocence, It will not let itself be driv'n away." To find this character we have not, in the present instance, to look to a distance. "Ce n'est pas à moi," writes an illustrious foreigner, "qu'il faut apprendre ce qu'était notre cher Tom. Quand je l'ai revu homme après une assez longue séparation, c'était encore la nature candide et franche de son enfance. Dans ma longue vie je n'ai pas rencontré des jeunes gens de *Tom. xi. 247. + Sermo ad Senatores et Magistratus. vingt-et-un ans tels que Tom." Like an earlier blossom of his race, he was indeed a fair example of untainted youth. "Just of his word, in ev'ry thought sincere, Who knew no wish but what the world might hear This is the disposition which, above all, wisest poets invoke for those whom they best love, saying with Longfellow "Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, In thy heart the dew of youth, On thy lips the smile of truth. For a smile of God thou art.” What is all the polished or eloquent language of orators and philosophers compared with the expression of a frank and innocent nature! "I have often wished," says Lamb, turning from the former, "that I lived in the golden age, when shepherds lay stretched upon flowers,-the genius there is in a man's natural idle face, that has not learned his multiplication-table! before doubt, and propositions, and corollaries got into the world +." "Love and tongue-tied simplicity," says some one, "speak most to my capacity." And yet with all this charm there is something in it that awes. Yes, next to what we can imagine it would be to hear speak God Himself as to Moses, the most conscience-striking and impressive thing in the world is to hear speak a human heart. Among grown-up people it is not often that we hear it; but we do hear it sometimes. An academician can hear it speak in some aged priest, one of your old school, from the altar. A king, if he is not unlucky in his choice, can hear it from the lips of a director in the confessional; as when the Père de la Chaise, as the king himself related, replied to Louis XIV., who reproached him for his over great goodness, "Ce n'est pas moi qui suis bon, mais vous qui êtes dur‡.” * Pope, Epitaph on the Honourable Robert Digby. Every one, if he chose, might hear it sometimes speak in a thoughtful boy, in a woman, and in a child; but when we do hear it on a great occasion, we experience an emotion that nothing else in the world can ever produce. We feel tears steal into our eyes, a cold shudder runs through our nerves; we are impressed in a way that we cannot describe, and that no one, perhaps, can conceive who has not heard it. Veracity," exclaims a great contemporary, "true simplicity of heart, how valuable are these always! He that speaks what is really in him, will find men to listen, though under never such impediments." The heart is always for prompt expression, for prompt action. It does not wait and deliberate; and this can be witnessed in the young, who follow their first thoughts. And how often would it be well if men in that respect would imitate them! "The heart of Venice," says the historian of its stones, "is shown only in her hastiest counsels; her worldly spirit recovers the ascendancy whenever she has time to calculate the probabilities of advantage." So it is with many men wearing long beards. Then they speak like Roebuck to Leanthe, and say, "O child! boys of your age are continually reading, and filling your heads with notions of love and honour; but when you come to my years, you'll understand better things." To whom a boy may reply, "And must I be a false, treacherous villain when I come to your years, Sir? Are falsehood and perjury essential to the perfect state of manhood?" When the others will only exclaim, "Pshaw! children always talk thus foolishly; you understand nothing, boy." And in fact there are many whom Saint-Simon's description of M. du Maine would fit as if it were made for them: "With a mind like that not of an angel, but of a demon, whom he resembled in malignity, in darkness, in perversity of soul, in disservices to all, in services to no one, in deeply laid projects, in pride the most haughty, in exquisite falsehood, in artifices without number, in dissimulations without measure, and in the power of seduction when he chose to seduce t." Upon the whole, simplicity or truthfulness is a trait that belongs eminently to the first age; and the importance of study Carlyle, Past and Present. + Tom. vi. 3. ing it appears from the fact that too often in after life it yields to the action of elements which agree not with its nature. The Roman children used to wear the 'bulla' for the reason, as Plutarch says, "that they should not wish to be men before their time." There was wisdom at all events, as far as it went, in the admonition. But here another subject, closely allied to the last, another theme, by some perhaps thought fit only for the perambulators, must be glanced at before we close the chapter. We must notice in childhood not alone innocence and simplicity, but that which may bear the general name of goodness, for which the word in ancient languages was said to be derived from what is to be admired-ȧyalóv, from ȧyaoróv, as Plato says *. O virtue, virtue, ever and endless virtue! If any thing on earth could satisfy the human mind, it might be the goodness of early youth; and, by the way, perhaps, if one might venture to suggest it here among the flowers, a contemplation of it might be of great use in tempering some very grave men's notions of the Deity; for what must be the goodness of the Creator, who has imparted such features of it to boys and girls, and made children what they are! Finding them here seated under these boughs, we might say with truth, "Loquitur eorum voce virtus ipsa tecum;" what seems to speak to you through them is goodness itself, which in persons of mature years will be found sometimes to give place to speakers of rather a different kind, though often in the world more thought of and admired. Only let John speak to you, and I defy you to conceive even a goodness different from what he reflects. What spoke to you. also in both these boys, for of others we must not tell, was honour. Soft as they were, both were not the less what the Duc de Saint-Simon calls "de l'ancienne roche;" both were "E'en as just as e'er my conversation cop'd withal; With the eldest, whose years admitted of a fuller grasp of things, "good without noise, without pretension great," there never was but one question to be answered when a difficulty great or small arose. He did not ask, is a thing politic? indeed, I believe he did not know the word, at least, no one ever heard him use it; is it respectable in the way of the world, is it prudent, is it customary for persons in my station? He asked only, is it just? Truly of him one might have said, "justissimus unus, et servantissimus æqui." Cardinal Palæotus, addressing the scholars of the academy of Bologna, and taking for his text the words, "Bonitatem, disciplinam et scientiam doce me," declares that he refers all correction and improvement to themselves, content with reminding, them that they are not alone scholars, but Christian scholars. If there were any thing to reform in their manners, he knows that they would not be offended at his pointing it out; but he does not even pretend to point out defects to them; they can themselves best judge; and to their ingenuous discretion he leaves all *. With the grown world, whatever it may say or theoretically agree to, there is a thought always at the bottom which esteems but little childlike qualities. What is the value of this thought? We have the most intelligent on our side, when we decree it worthless. “In children," says an acute observer, “we see the wisdom of our Creator, imparting to them feelings and passions, and adapting them to their end. In them we can see clearly, how well adapted to their purpose are love, sympathy, hope, and fear t." "An excellent and fine nature," says the Père Boutauld, "is nothing else but the excellence and beauty of a noble soul communicated to the passions." "Perform well what is just," says our Lord, in Deuteronomy; and on this passage, Rodriguez even, though writing for recluses, observes, that the actions upon which all our good, and all our advancement and perfection depend, are no others than the common and ordinary actions we perform every day. Now, there are no keener judges to determine when these are well or ill performed than children. “O K—,” said little John, the other day, to his brother, "when one asks you civilly to do a thing, you ought to do it readily.” * Palæot. De Bononiensis Ecclesiæ Administratione, Serm. ad Schol. 552. † Lord Brougham, Nat. Theol. |