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supreme felicity of these men, to stun all companies with noisy information; to still doubt, and overbear opposition, with certain knowledge or authentic intelligence. A liar of this kind, with a strong memory or brisk imagination, is often the oracle of an obscure club, and, till time discovers his impostures, dictates to his hearers with uncontrouled authority; for if a public question be started, he was present at the debate; if a new performance of literature draws the attention of the public, he has patronized the author, and seen his work in manuscript; and who that lives at a distance from the scene of action, will dare to contradict a man, who reports from his own eyes and ears, and to whom all persons and affairs are thus intimately known?

200.

[St John's College Voluntary Classical, 1850.]

He was a young man of so virtuous a habit of mind, that no temptation or provocation could corrupt him; so great a lover of justice and integrity, that no example, necessity, or even the barbarity of this war, could make him swerve from the most precise rules of it; and of that rare piety and devotion, that the court, or camp, could not shew a more faultless person, or to whose example young men might more reasonably conform themselves. His personal valour, and courage of all kinds, (for he had sometimes indulged so much to the corrupt opinion of honour, as to venture himself in duels,) was very eminent, insomuch as he was accused of being too prodigal of his person; his affection and zeal, and obedience to the king, was such as became a branch of that family. And he was wont to say, "that if he had not understanding to know the uprightness of the cause, nor loyalty enough to inform him of the duty of

a subject, yet the very obligations of gratitude to the king, on the behalf of his house, were such, as his life was but a due sacrifice:" and therefore, he no sooner saw the war unavoidable, than he engaged all his brethren, as well as himself, in the service; and there were then three more of them in command in the army, where he was so unfortunately cut off.

[Trinity College Scholarship Examinations, 1850.]

201. ABOUT ten miles from Ariminum, and twice that distance from Ravenna, the frontier of Italy and Gaul was traced by the stream of the Rubicon. This little river is formed by the union of three mountain-torrents, and is nearly dry in the summer, like most of the watercourses on the Eastern side of the Apennines. In the month of November the wintry flood might present a barrier more worthy of the important position which it once occupied: but the Northern frontier of Italy had long been secure from invasion, and the channel was spanned by a bridge of no great dimensions. Cæsar seems to have made his last arrangements in secret, and concealed his design till the moment he had fixed for its accomplishment. On the morning of the fifteenth he sent forward some cohorts to the river, while he remained himself at Ravenna, and shewed himself at a public spectacle throughout the day. He invited company to his table, and entertained them with his usual ease and affability. It was not till sunset that he made an excuse for a brief absence, and then, mounting a car yoked with mules, hired from a mill in the vicinity, hastened with only a few attendants to overtake his soldiers at the appointed spot. In his anxiety to avoid the risk of being encountered and his movements divulged, he left

the high road, and soon lost his way in the bye-paths of the country. One after another the torches of his party became extinguished, and he was left in total darkness. It was only by taking a peasant for a guide and alighting from his vehicle that he at last reached his destination. [Jesus College, 1850.]

202. CESAR was unwilling, however, to leave their movements free by retiring from the advanced position he had himself taken up: and, accordingly, he proceeded to execute the bold and hazardous operation of constructing an entrenched camp in the face of his antagonists. He could not have kept his ground through the night without placing his men behind the protection of a fosse or rampart: but while the two first lines retained their arms and battle array, he appointed the third to excavate a ditch in their rear, and thus imposed upon the enemy, who believed that the whole force was equally prepared for the combat. Had the progress of these latter works been discovered, the Pompeians might have charged the two first lines with advantage, unsupported as they were at the moment by the third. It was thus that the Nervians, while part of the Roman troops were engaged in entrenching their camp, had made their attack, so sudden and so nearly successful. Cæsar was so apprehensive of a similar result, that he would not allow the men in the trenches to raise a rampart behind the fosse, but contented himself with the protection of the fosse alone. As soon as this line was made defensible, being excavated to the depth of fifteen feet, which was accomplished by the veterans before nightfall, he executed the usual manoeuvres, by which the legionaries were thrown within their entrenchments through the

prætorian gate. He was now secure against a sudden attack, and was enabled to complete the remaining faces of his camp at his leisure. [Jesus College, 1850.]

203.

I HAVE always considered that there is no greater incentive to the performance of duty in every situation, and that nothing upholds discipline and good order in a regiment to a greater degree, than the sentiments and spirit of the officers belonging to it. No man dares to neglect his duty, or to conduct himself in a manner unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, if he knows that his brother officers will notice his misconduct with their disapprobation, or that it will be attended by the loss of their esteem: and I am convinced that I should carry into execution the intentions of the Commander in chief in a very inadequate manner, if I did not guard myself against the notion, that the existence of such sentiments and such a spirit is disapproved of at head quarters or by me. [Chancellor's Medals, 1851.]

204. In order to give a sanction to his new measures the king invited Temple from his retreat and appointed him ambassador to Holland. That wise minister, reflecting on the unhappy issue of his former undertakings, resolved, before he embarked anew to acquaint himself as far as possible with the real intention of the king in those measures which he seemed again to have adopted. After blaming the dangerous schemes before described, which Charles was desirous to excuse, he told his majesty very plainly that he would find it extremely difficult if not absolutely impossible to introduce into England the same system of government and religion which was established in France; that the universal bent of the

nation was against both; and it required ages to change the genius and sentiments of a people; again, that in France the commonalty being poor and dispirited, were of no account; the nobility engaged by the prospect of numerous offices, civil and military, were entirely, attached to the court: but that in England the king had few offices to bestow, and could not himsen even subsist, much less maintain an army, except by the voluntary supplies of his parliament; that if he had an army on foot, yet if composed of Englishmen, they would never be prevailed on to promote ends which the people so much feared and hated: and that foreign troops, if few, would tend only to inflame hatred and discontent; and how to raise and bring over many at once or to maintain them, it was very difficult to imagine.

[Classical Tripos, 1851.]

205. EDUCATION, in the most extensive sense of the word, may comprehend every preparation that is made in our youth for the sequel of our lives; and in this sense I use it. Some such preparation is necessary for children of all conditions, because without it they must be miserable, and probably will be vicious, when they grow up, either from want of the means of subsistence, or from want of rational and inoffensive occupation. In civilised life, every thing is effected by art and skill. Whence a person who is provided with neither (and neither can be acquired without exercise and instruction) will be useless; and he that is useless, will generally be at the same time mischievous to the community. So that to send an uneducated child into the world is injurious to the rest of mankind; it is little better than to turn out a mad dog or a wild beast into the streets. [Classical Tripos, 1851.]

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