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which King Pyrrhus confiders as a difgrace. They know the many opportunities I have had to enrich myself, without cenfure; they are convinced of my difinterested zeal for their profperity: and if I have any thing to complain of, in the return they make me, it is only the excess of their applaufe. What value, then, can I put upon thy gold and filver? What king can add any thing to my fortune? Always attentive to discharge the duties incumbent upon me, I have a mind free from felf-reproach; and I have an honest fame.

SECTION XXV.

Character of JAMES 1. King of England.

No PRINCE, fo little enterprifing and fo inoffenfive, was ever fo much expofed to the oppofite extremes of calumny and flattery, of fatire and panegyric. And the factions which began in his time, being ftill continued, have made his character be as much difputed to this day, as is commonly that of princes who are our contemporaries. Many virtues, however, it must be owned, he was possessed of; but not one of them pure, or free from the contagion of the neighbouring vices. His generofity bordered on profufion, his learning on pedantry, his pacific difpofition on pufillani- ́ mity, his wisdom on cunning, his friendship on light fancy, and boyish fondnefs. While he imagined that he was only maintaining his own authority, he may perhaps be fufpected in fome of his actions, and ftill more of his pretenfions, to have encroached on the

liberties of his people. While he endeavoured, by an exact neutrality, to acquire the good-will of all his neighbours, he was able to preserve fully the esteem and regard of none. His capacity was confiderable, but fitter to difcourfe on general maxims, than to conduct any intricate business.

His intentions were juft, but more adapted to the conduct of private life, than to the government of kingdoms. Awkward in his perfon, and ungainly in his manners, he was ill qualified to command refpect: partial and undiscerning in his affections, he was little fitted to acquire general love. Of a feeble temper, more than of a frugal judgment; expofed to our ridi. cule from his vanity, but exempt from our hatred by his freedom from pride and arrogance. And, upon the whole, it may be pronounced of his character, that all his qualities were fullied with weakness, and embellished by humanity. Political courage he was certainly devoid of; and from thence chiefly is derived the ftrong prejudice, which prevails against his perfonal bravery: an inference, however, which muft be owned, from general experience, to be extremely fallacious.

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SECTION XXVI.

CHARLES V. Emperour of Germany, refigns his Dominions, and retires from the World.

THIS great Emperour, in the plenitude of his power, and in possession of all the honours which can flatter the heart of man, took the extraordinary refolution,

to resign his kingdoms; and to withdraw entirely from any concern in business or the affairs of this world, in order that he might spend the remainder of his days in retirement and folitude. Though it requires neither deep reflection, nor extraordinary difcernment, to difcover that the state of royalty is not exempt from cares and disappointments; though most of those who are exalted to a throne, find folicitude, and fatiety, and difguft, to be their perpetual attendants, in that envied pre-eminence; yet, to defcend voluntarily from the fupreme to a fubordinate station, and to relinquith the pofsefsion of power in order to attain the enjoyment of happiness, seems to be an effort too great for the human mind. Several inftances, indeed, occur in history, of monarchs who have quitted a throne, and have ended their days in retirement. But they were either weak princes, who took this refolution rafhly, and repented of it as foon as it was taken; or unfortunate princes, from whofe hands fome ftrong rival had wrested their fceptre, and compelled them to defcend with reluctance into a private station. Dioclefian is, perhaps, the only prince capable of holding the reins of government, who ever refigned them from deliberate choice; and who continued, during many years, to enjoy the tranquillity of retirement, without fetching one penitent figh, or cafting back one look of defire, towards the power or dignity which he had abandoned.

No wonder, then, that Charles's refignation fhould fill all Europe with aftonishment; and give rife, both among his contemporaries, and among the hiftorians of that period, to various conjectures concerning the motives which determined a prince, whose ruling

passion had been uniformly the love of power, at the age of fifty-fix, when objects of ambition operate with full force on the mind, and are purfued with the greatest ardour, to take a refolution fo fingular and unexpected.

The emperour, in purfuance of his determination, having afsembled the ftates of the Low Countries at Brufsels, feated himfelf, for the laft time, in the chair of state; on one fide of which was placed his fon, and on the other, his fifter the queen of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands, with a fplendid retinue of the grandees of Spain and princes of the empire ftanding behind him. The prefident of the council of Flanders, by his command, explained, in a few words, his intention in calling this extraordinary meeting of the ftates. He then read the inftrument of refignation, by which Charles furrendered to his fon Philip all his territories, jurifdiction, and authority in the Low Countries; abfolving his fubjects there from their oath of allegiance to him, which he required them to transfer to Philip his lawful heir; and to ferve him with the fame loyalty and zeal that they had manifefted, during fo long a courfe of years, in fupport of his government.

Charles then rofe from his feat, and leaning on the fhoulder of the Prince of Orange, because he was unable to stand without fupport, he addrefsed himself to the audience; and, from a paper which he held in his hand, in order to afsift his memory, he recounted, with dignity, but without oftentation, all the great things which he had undertaken and performed, fince the commencement of his adminiftration. He obferved, that from the feventeenth year of his age, he

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had dedicated all his thoughts and attention to public objects, referving no portion of his time for the indulgence of his eafe, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleafure; that either in a pacific or hoftile manner, he had visited Germany nine times, Spain fix times, France four times, Italy feven times, the Low Countries ten times, England twice, Africa as often, and had made eleven voyages by fea; that while his health permitted him to difcharge his duty, and the vigour of his conftitution was equal, in any degree, to the arduous office of governing fuch extenfive dominions, he had never fhunned labour, nor repined under fatigue; that now, when his health was broken, and his vigour exhaufted by the rage of an incurable diftemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire; nor was he so fond of reigning, as to retain the fceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his fubjects, or to render them happy; that inflead of a fovereign worn out with difeafes, and fcarcely half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to govern, and who added to the vigour of youth all the attention and fagacity of maturer years; that if, during the courfe of a long adminiftration, he had committed any material error in government, or if, under the prefsure of fo many and great affairs, and amidst the attention which he had been obliged to give to them, he had either neglected or injured any of his fubjects, he now implored their forgiveness; that, for his part, he should ever retain a grateful sense of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the remembrance of it along with him to the place of his retreat, as his fweeteft confolation, as well as the best reward

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