less abhorrence. Humanity will draw a veil over this part of her character which it cannot approve, and may, perhaps, prompt some to impute her actions to her situation more than to her dispositions, and to lament the unhappiness of the former rather than accuse the perverseness of the latter. Mary's sufferings exceed, both in degree and in duration, those tragical distresses which fancy has feigned to excite sorrow and commiseration; and while we survey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties; we think of her faults with less indignation, and approve of our tears as if they were shed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure virtue.

With regard to the queen's person, a circumstance not to be omitted in writing the history of a female reign, all contemporary authors agree in ascribing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance and elegance of shape of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according to the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a dark grey, her complexion was exquisitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to shape and colour. Her stature was of a height that rose to the majestic. She danced, she walked, and rode with equal grace. Her taste for music was just, and she both sung and played upon

the lute with uncommon skill. "No man," says Brantome, "ever beheld her "ever beheld her person without

admiration and love, or will read her history without sorrow."

ROBERTSON.

CXLVIII.

CONQUEST OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The only accession which the Roman empire received, during the first century of the Christian Era, was the province of Britain. In this single instance the successors of Cæsar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the former, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the pleasing though doubtful intelligence of a pearl fishery attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of Continental measures.

After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid, maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part or the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various tribes of Britons possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up

arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down or turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successfully subdued.

Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the imperial generals, who maintained the national glory when the throne was disgraced by the weakest or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed the Roman arms round every part of the Island.

The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and ensure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland; for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient. The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom were on every side removed from before their eyes.

GIBBON.

CXLIX.

GENIUS AND METHOD.

At seven o'clock the company sat down to cards, and Messrs. Le Roy, Grimm, the Abbé Galiani, and I, began to converse.

A dispute arose between Grimm and Le Roy about genius and method. Grimm detests method: it is, according to him, the pedantry of literature. Those that can do nothing, he maintained, but arrange, had better not give themselves the trouble; those who can learn nothing but by means of arrangements, had as well remain ignorant. "But," said Le Roy, "it is method which makes genius available.” "And which spoils it." They said a great many things which it is not worth while mentioning to you; and they would have said a great many more, had not Galiani interrupted them.

“I remember a fable, my friends, which I must tell you. It is rather long, perhaps, but it won't tire you.

"One day, in the middle of a wood, there arose a dispute about singing, between the nightingale and the cuckoo. Each gave preference to his own talent. What bird,' said the cuckoo, has so simple, natural, and measured a song as I?'- What bird,' said the nightingale, ‘has a song so sweet, varied, light,

H

and brilliant as mine?' 'I say few things,' said the cuckoo, but they have weight and order, and one remembers them.' 'I am fond of talking,' said the nightingale, but what I say is always new, and never wearies. I enchant the woods, the cuckoo saddens them. He is so attached to his mother's lesson, that he never hazards a note he has not learned from her. I acknowledge no teacher: I laugh at rules; and it is when I break through them that I am most admired. Where is the comparison between your dull method and my happy flights?'

"The cuckoo made many attempts to interrupt the nightingale. But nightingales sing for ever, and never listen: it is a little failing of theirs. Our friend, carried away by her ideas, ran on without minding her rival's

answer.

"At last, however, they agreed to refer the matter to some arbitrator. But where were they to find an enlightened and impartial judge? They set out in search of one.

"In crossing a meadow, they fell in with an ass of the most grave and solemn aspect. Such length of ears never was seen since the creation of the species. 'Ah!' said the cuckoo, we are in luck. Our quarrel is an affair of the ear, and here is an admirable pair of them. This is the very judge we want."