CHAPTER XI.
AN INTERVIEW.
I WENT a little out of my way, on departing from Paris, to visit LordBolingbroke, who at that time was in the country. There are some menwhom one never really sees in capitals; one sees their masks, notthemselves: Bolingbroke was one. It was in retirement, however briefit might be, that his true nature expanded itself; and, weary of beingadmired, he allowed one to love, and, even in the wildest course of hisearlier excesses, to respect him. My visit was limited to a few hours,but it made an indelible impression on me.
"Once more," I said, as we walked to and fro in the garden of histemporary retreat, "once more you are in your element; minister andstatesman of a prince, and chief supporter of the great plans which areto restore him to his throne."
A slight shade passed over Bolingbroke's fine brow. "To you, my constantfriend," said he, "to you,--who of all my friends alone remained true inexile, and unshaken by misfortune,--to you I will confide a secret thatI would intrust to no other. I repent me already of having espoused thiscause. I did so while yet the disgrace of an unmerited attainder tingledin my veins; while I was in the full tide of those violent and warmpassions which have so often misled me. Myself attainted; the bestbeloved of my associates in danger; my party deserted, and seeminglylost but for some bold measure such as then offered,--these were allthat I saw. I listened eagerly to representations I now find untrue; andI accepted that rank and power from one prince which were so rudelyand gallingly torn from me by another. I perceive that I have actedimprudently; but what is done, is done: no private scruples, no privateinterest, shall make me waver in a cause that I have once pledged myselfto serve; and if I _can_ do aught to make a weak cause powerful, and adivided party successful, I will; but, Devereux, you are wrong,--this is_not_ my element. Ever in the paths of strife, I have sighed for quiet;and, while most eager in pursuit of ambition, I have languished the mostfondly for content. The littleness of intrigue disgusts me, and while_the branches_ of my power soared the highest, and spread with the mostluxuriance, it galled me to think of the miry soil in which that powerwas condemned to strike _the roots_,* upon which it stood, and by whichit must be nourished."
* "Occasional Writer," No. 1. The Editor has, throughout this work,usually, but not invariably, noted the passages in Bolingbroke'swritings, in which there occur similes, illustrations, or strikingthoughts, correspondent with those in the text.
I answered Bolingbroke as men are wont to answer statesmen who complainof their calling,--half in compliment, half in contradiction; but hereplied with unusual seriousness,
"Do not think I affect to speak thus: you know how eagerly I snatchany respite from state, and how unmovedly I have borne the loss ofprosperity and of power. You are now about to enter those perilouspaths which I have trod for years. Your passions, like mine, are strong!Beware, oh, beware, how you indulge them without restraint! They are thefires which should warm: let them not be the fires which destroy."
Bolingbroke paused in evident and great agitation; he resumed: "I speakstrongly, for I speak in bitterness; I was thrown early into the world;my whole education had been framed to make me ambitious; it succeededin its end. I was ambitious, and of all success,--success in pleasure,success in fame. To wean me from the former, my friends persuaded meto marry; they chose my wife for her connections and her fortune, andI gained those advantages at the expense of what was better thaneither,--happiness! You know how unfortunate has been that marriage, andhow young I was when it was contracted. Can you wonder that it failed inthe desired effect? Every one courted me; every temptation assailed me:pleasure even became more alluring abroad, when at home I had no longerthe hope of peace; the indulgence of one passion begat the indulgence ofanother; and, though my better sense _prompted_ all my actions, it never_restrained_ them to a proper limit. Thus the commencement of my actionshas been generally prudent, and their _continuation_ has deviated intorashness, or plunged into excess. Devereux, I have paid the forfeit ofmy errors with a terrible interest: when my motives have been pure, menhave seen a fault in the conduct, and calumniated the motives; when myconduct has been blameless, men have remembered its former errors,and asserted that its present goodness only arose from some sinisterintention: thus I have been termed crafty, when I was in reality rash,and that was called the inconsistency of interest which in reality wasthe inconsistency of passion.* I have reason, therefore, to warn youhow you suffer your subjects to become your tyrants; and believe me noexperience is so deep as that of one who has committed faults, and whohas discovered their causes."
* This I do believe to be the real (though perhaps it is a new) light inwhich Lord Bolingbroke's life and character are to be viewed. The samewriters who tell us of his ungovernable passions, always prefix to hisname the epithets "designing, cunning, crafty," etc. Now I will ventureto tell these historians that, if they had studied human nature insteadof party pamphlets, they would have discovered that there are certainincompatible qualities which can never be united in one character,--thatno man can have violent passions _to which he is in the habit ofyielding_, and be systematically crafty and designing. No man can be allheat, and at the same time all coolness; but opposite causes not unoftenproduce like effects. Passion usually makes men changeable, so sometimesdoes craft: hence the mistake of the uninquiring or the shallow; andhence while------writes, and------compiles, will the characters of greatmen be transmitted to posterity misstated and belied.--ED.
"Apply, my dear Lord, that experience to your future career. Youremember what the most sagacious of all pedants,* even though he was anemperor, has so happily expressed,--'Repentance is a goddess, and thepreserver of those who have erred.'"
* The Emperor Julian. The original expression is paraphrased in thetext.
"May I _find_ her so!" answered Bolingbroke; "but as Montaigne orCharron would say,* 'Every man is at once his own sharper and his ownbubble.' We make vast promises to ourselves; and a passion, an example,sweeps even the remembrance of those promises from our minds. One is tooapt to believe men hypocrites, if their conduct squares not with theirsentiments; but perhaps no vice is more rare, for no task is moredifficult, than systematic hypocrisy; and the same susceptibility whichexposes men to be easily impressed by the allurements of vice rendersthem at heart most struck by the loveliness of virtue. Thus, theirlanguage and their hearts worship the divinity of the latter, whiletheir conduct strays the most erringly towards the false shrinesover which the former presides. Yes! I have never been blind to thesurpassing excellence of GOOD. The still, sweet whispers of virtue havebeen heard, even when the storm has been loudest, and the bark of Reasonbeen driven the most impetuously over the waves: and, at this moment, Iam impressed with a foreboding that, sooner or later, the whispers willnot only be heard, but their suggestion be obeyed; and that, far fromcourts and intrigue, from dissipation and ambition, I shall learn,in retirement, the true principles of wisdom, and the real objects oflife."
* "Spirit of Patriotism."
Thus did Bolingbroke converse, and thus did I listen, till it wastime to depart. I left him impressed with a melancholy that was rathersoothing than distasteful. Whatever were the faults of that mostextraordinary and most dazzling genius, no one was ever more candid* inconfessing his errors. A systematically bad man either ridicules what isgood or disbelieves in its existence; but no man can be hardened in vicewhose heart is still sensible of the excellence and the glory of virtue.
* It is impossible to read the letter to Sir W. Windham without beingremarkably struck with the dignified and yet open candour which itdisplays. The same candour is equally visible in whatever relates _tohimself_, in all Lord Bolingbroke's writings and correspondence; andyet candour is the last attribute usually conceded to him. But never wasthere a writer whom people have talked of more and read less; and Ido not know a greater proof of this than the ever-repeated assertion(echoed from a most incompetent authority) of the said letter to Sir W.Windham being the finest of all Lord Bolingbroke's writings. It is anarticle
of great value to the history of the times; but, as to allthe higher graces and qualities of composition, it is one of theleast striking (and on the other hand it is one of the most verballyincorrect) which he has bequeathed to us (the posthumous works alwaysexcepted). I am not sure whether the most brilliant passages, the mostnoble illustrations, the most profound reflections, and most usefultruths, to be found in all his writings, are not to be gathered fromthe least popular of them,--such as that volume entitled "PoliticalTracts."--ED.
BOOK V.