first and prudent afterwards "-who without good advice make war, and with pitiful stint of action and energy carry it on, or let it carry on itself, and so carry them away. There is point and purpose in the proverbial maxim of New England, "Be sure you are right, and then go ahead." The hero of one of Herr Scharling's Danish novels is meant to typify the national character: the Danish people, he tells us in his preface, are exceedingly calm, slow to take any determination, and still slower to act; hence they often become the object of scorn and ridicule to their adversaries until the extreme moment of danger arrives, when they shake off their spiritual lethargy, put out all their strength, and come off conquerors. Discussing the morale of revolutions, Edinburgh's most popular professor of moral philosophy declared them to be the very last resource of the thinking and the good, but still a resource; and when, said he, the rare imperious cases do occur, the patriot will lift his arm with reluctance, but when it is lifted, will wield it with all the force he can command, having first "made that calculation in which his own happiness and his own life have scarcely been counted as elements." Before you commence anything, counsels a later, but now a late, philosopher, provide as if all hope were against you: when you set about it, act as if there were not such a thing as fear. As with the advice in Crabbe's Tales of the Hall, "Ere yet the choice be made, no choice debate, But, having chosen, dally not with fate." The same poet's contrast of the brothers James and Robert, in another tale, is to the purpose: "They both were brave, but Robert loved to run Professor Blunt says of Henry the Eighth, when it had come to be a question whether the King should put down the monks, or the monks the King, that he had no alternative but to try a fall with them, and accordingly, having been slow (considering his temperament) to get into the quarrel, he still "acted as Lord Bacon would have advised, and being in it 'COCHLEA CONSILIIS, IN FACTO VOLUCRIS: 291 bore himself bravely." Contrasting the characters of Francis the First and Charles the Fifth, Robertson describes the former as taking his resolutions suddenly, prosecuting them at first with warmth, and pushing them into execution with a most adventurous courage; but being destitute of the perseverance necessary to surmount difficulties, he often abandoned his designs, or relaxed the vigour of pursuit from impatience, and sometimes from levity. Charles, on the other hand, "deliberated long, and determined with coolness; but having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with inflexible obstinacy, and neither danger nor discouragement could turn him aside from the execution of it." Cochlea consiliis, in facto esto volucris, runs the Latin adage. The speaking Bridge in the Biglow Papers is clear upon the subject, and the reverse of mealy-mouthed : "We've got to fix this thing for good an' all; 'Twunt du to think thet killin' aint perlite,— Mr. Froude accounts it the misfortune of Elizabeth, that while she could hesitate indefinitely when action was immediately necessary, the "perturbations of her mind," as Knowles called them, at other times swayed her into extremes, and she allowed sudden provocations to tempt her to the most illjudged precipitancy. Contrast this temper of hers with Philip's of Spain: to be slow and silent, to take every precaution to ensure success, and then to deliver suddenly at last the blow which had been long vaguely impendingthis was the Spanish method. Contrast it, again, with Mary Stuart's. In the summer of 1565, for instance, while Randolph had to keep writing that "when council is once taken, nothing is so needful as speedy execution," and while Elizabeth was keeping the Congregation in suspense, Mary was all fire, energy, and resolution-so that as post after post came in from Scotland, the English queen lost her breath at the rapidity of her royal cousin's movements, and resolution on Elizabeth's part became more impossible as the need of it became more pressing. Yet, "so easy it would be for her to strike Mary Stuart down, if she had but half the promptitude of Mary herself." "From the moment she [Mary] had first taken the field, she had given her enemies no rest." Elizabeth's policy with regard to the revolted Netherlands was marked by the same taint; Mr. Motley laments that the stealthy but quick-darting tactics of Walsingham were not allowed to prevail over the solemn, stately, ponderous proceedings of Burghley, who yet was by far too fast for his irresolute mistress-so inopportunely irresolute. Burghley himself could be earnestly eloquent in his appeals to her: was this a moment to linger? was it wise to indulge any longer in doubtings and dreamings, and in yet a little more foldings of the arms to sleep, while that insatiable malice of the Spaniard was growing hourly more formidable, and approaching nearer and nearer? In the troublous times for England of 1672, we find John Evelyn noting in his Diary, with sad-hearted reference to the loss in sea-fight of "my Lord Sandwich," that the latter was "prudent as well as valiant," "was for deliberation and reason" before risking an encounter, whereas those who egged him on were "for action and slaughter without either." There being no help for it, and as if with a resentful sense of being misconstrued as timid, Sandwich at last "entered like a lion, and fought like one too," but this time with fatal issue. Hinc ille lachrymæ. The great minister, his contemporary, Colbert, had the character of being slow in conceiving his plans, and cautious in deciding upon their execution, courting and listening to advice at every stage; but when once his resolve was fixed, his will knew no obstacles, but found or made a way straight to the mark. Alberoni was all anxiety to avoid war in 1717, but war becoming inevitable, he "bent all his energies," says a historian of it, "to its successful prosecution," and showed himself no imitator of some preceding Spanish ministers, who, in difficult circumstances, had left all for the saints to do, or their allies. Earl Stanhope has a note of admiration for the contrast between Washington's 293 first forbearance and his subsequent determination-his reluctance to draw the sword, and his "magnanimity in persevering." His, it has been suggested, might fitly have been the motto which Spaniards of the old time and the old type used to engrave on their Toledo blades: "Never draw me without reason; never sheathe me without honour." He decided surely, though he deliberated slowly. Pitt was declared at the time by those who knew him best, to have been dragged into the contest with France "with as much reluctance as a man of conscientious principles into a duel; but when once forced into the conflict, he fought as for dear life. In no manner a man after his own heart was that prominent actor in the strife, the Duke of Brunswick, whom historians describe as bold even to rashness in the original conception of a campaign, but vacillating and irresolute when he came to carry it into execution. Pitt knew Wellington only as young Arthur Wellesley, but even as early as 1806, his last year of life, he was able to affirm that never had he met any military officer with whom it was so satisfactory to converse. "He states every difficulty before he undertakes any service, but none after he has undertaken it," were the warm words of the dying statesman to his dear old friend Lord Wellesley, in praise of his brother Arthur. It was said by Prince Albert to be peculiar to Sir Robert Peel that, in great things, as in small, all the difficulties and objections occurred to him first: he would anxiously consider them, pause, and warn against rash resolutions; but, having convinced himself, after a long and careful investigation, that a step was right to be taken, "all his caution and apparent timidity changed into courage and power of action." Happy the complete man that combines in himself what Beaumont and Fletcher's Duke is for parcelling out between himself and his generals: 66 Nor will we e'er be wanting in our counsels, As we doubt not your action." Prompt energy of action following upon sage deliberation in counsels, is the way to win. § V. CHARACTER BETOKENED BY DRESS. Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3. POLONIUS has an eye to dress. He is observant of apparel, because he is a student of character; and the apparel oft proclaims the man. And in this, as in other matters, the old politician finds it politic to preach up the golden mean. If the young man, his son, would get on in the world, let him pay a proper, but no improper, attention to costume. Let Laertes be careful to dress well, but never to be overdressed. Let him pay handsomely to look handsome; but let him avoid exaggerated or "loud" garments, not less than sordid or squalid ones. 66 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the man." The shrewd old Lafeu, of All's Well that Ends Well, distrusts young Bertram's friend, Parolles, from the moment he casts eyes on him. "But I hope your lordship thinks him not a soldier? . . . Pray you, sir, who's his tailor? . . . Believe this of me, There can be no kernel in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes: trust him not in matter of heavy consequence." Chesterfield's affinity to Polonius as a paternal counsellor is elsewhere recognized in these pages; and to his young Laertes that pink of politeness in the peerage writes: "Your dress (as insignificant a thing as dress is in itself) is now become an object worthy of some attention; for I confess I cannot help forming some opinion of a man's sense and character from his dress; and I believe most people do as well as myself." Any affectation whatsoever in dress, his lordship takes to imply a flaw in the understanding. Most of the young fellows he observed in London society displayed, to his eye, some character or other by their dress; some affecting the tremendous, and wearing a big fiercely-cocked hat, an enormous sword, a short waistcoat, and a black cravat; and these he professedly should |