BAUDOUIN, (reflections suggested by his character).

Baudouin A famous civilian of the sixteenth century. ⁵⁵ was a man of wit, learning, eloquence, and dexterity: he was a handsome man; and he understood the intrigues of the court; some of the qualities, which I have specified, were very eminent in him. Great princes employed him several times, in matters of consequence, which put him in the way of preferment; and yet he could never advance himself much, and I think, did not die very rich. How many persons, inferior in every respect to this great civilian, rise very high, attain to great offices, maintain themselves in them, acquire a good name, great riches, and much authority ! They have nothing shining in them; they do not excel in any thing, nor have any eminent qualities: in vain do we look for that in them which excites admiration; we shall sooner find it in other persons; who, nevertheless, continue always in a mean condition, how often soever they have had a favourable opportunity of raising themselves. Most of those who consider this train of human affairs, find something in it which displeases and vexes them; and they discharge their spleen on what they call the injustice or blindness of fortune. They seldom hit the true reason of it; and consider but little another cause, which oftener produces these failures than they imagine. They ought to know that eminent qualities will not raise a man to the height which they seem to promise, unless they are seconded by some other qualities, or

not crossed by certain defects; for, not being seconded, or being crossed, they are an insufficient cause, and consequently, according to the laws of mechanism, they must fail of their effect. Now this is the case of many of those who are men of great parts: they want certain things, with which these noble talents would perform wonders, and without which they can neither advance nor support them. Their qualities are not well sorted; there is not that harmony and proportion between them which ought to be, so that instead of assisting, they ruin one another. It is therefore no wonder if a man do not raise himself, and even if he miscarry, with such an equipage. As for those who attain to a great fortune, and maintain themselves in it without having any eminent qualities, there may be such a concert, or such a proportion between their good and bad qualities, that they reciprocally support each other, and form thereby a complete principle, which is sufficient for the production of a thousand profitable adventures. It is with this as with machines; for, how coarsely soever they are made, they will play better if their parts be arranged and proportioned as they ought to be, than the most admirable machine would do, if some pieces were taken from it, or if some were added to it which did not correspond with the rest.

It is not enough to join to a knowledge of the world that of books, much wit and eloquence, and several other eminent qualities; if you are otherwise rude, capricious, indiscreet, lazy, timorous, selfish, subject to mean jealousies, presumptuous, incapable of following a tedious business, inconstant, more disposed to begin a hundred new projects, than to support the fatigue of carrying on the same business for some time; I say, if you be a man of such a stamp, and if, notwithstanding your great qualities, you do not raise yourself, do not

blame fate, the iniquity of the age, or the malignity of your neighbours; but blame yourself for it: impute the cause of it to the disproportion between the qualities which have been allotted you. It may be observed that some persons of this stamp do themselves justice; they know the mixture which renders all their fine talents useless; and if they mur-mur, it is not against their neighbours, but against their own temper and against nature, which counter-balances whatever qualification she had given them for rising in the world. However, I do not intend to comprehend in this hypothesis a great number of particular cases, in which the causes of a bad or good fortune are altogether external. Many who, notwithstanding their eminent qualities, remain in obscurity, have had no favourable opportunity of raising their condition; and others who have attained to great preferment without merit, have found themselves in such an active current of circumstances, that they have had no occasion to second it by incapacity. But remember, thatBaudouin did not want opportunities; they were often thrown in his way.—Art.Baudouin.