FLATTERY.

I FIND not one monument of flattery in remote antiquity there is no flattery in Hesiod-none in Homer, Their stories are not addressed to a Greek, elevated to some dignity, nor to his lady; as each canto of Thomson's Seasons is dedicated to some person of rank, or as so many forgotten epistles in verse have been dedicated, in England, to gentlemen or ladies of quality, with a brief eulogy, and the arms of the patron or patroness placed at the head of the work.

Nor is there any flattery in Demosthenes. This way of asking alms harmoniously began, if I mistake not, with Pindar. No hand can be stretched out more emphatically.

It appears to me that, among the Romans, great flattery is to be dated from the time of Augustus. Julius Cæsar had scarcely time to be flattered. There is not, extant, any dedicatory epistle to Sylla, Marius, or Carbo, nor to their wives, or their mistresses. I can well believe that very bad verses were presented to Lucullus and to Pompey; but, thank God, we have them not.

It is a great spectacle to behold Cicero equal in dignity to Cæsar, speaking before him as advocate for a king of Bithynia and Lesser Armenia named Deiotarus, accused of laying ambuscades for him, and even designing to assassinate him. Cicero begins with acknowledging that he is disconcerted in his presence. He calls him the vanquisher of the world-" victorem orbis terrarum." He flatters him: but this adulation does not yet amount to baseness; some sense of shame still remains.

But with Augustus there are no longer any bounds: the senate decrees his apotheosis during his lifetime. Under the succeeding emperors, this flattery becomes. the ordinary tribute, and is no longer anything more than a style. It is impossible to flatter any one, when the most extravagant adulation has become the ordinary currency.

Not always brief we fear.-T.

In Europe, we have had no great monuments of flattery before Louis XIV. His father, Louis XIII. had very little incense offered him; we find no mention of him, except in one or two of Malherbe's odes. There, indeed, according to custom, he is called "thou greatest of kings" as the Spanish poets say to the king of Spain, and the English poets (laureate) to the king of England; but the better part of his praises is bestowed on cardinal Richelieu, whose soul is great and fearless; who practises so well the healing art of government, and who knows how to curé all our evils:

Dont l'âme toute grande est une âme hardie,
Qui pratique si bien l'art de nous secourir,
Que, pourvu qu'il soit cru, nous n'avons maladie
Qu'il ne sache guèrir.*

Upon Louis XIV. flattery came in a deluge. But he was not like the man said to have been smothered by the rose-leaves heaped upon him; on the contrary, he thrived the more.

Flattery, when it has some plausible pretext, may not be so pernicious as it has been thought: it sometimes encourages to great acts; but its excess is vicious, like the excess of satire.

La Fontaine says, and pretends to say it after Æsop:→→→→

On ne peut trop louer trois sortes de personnes;

Les dieux, sa maitresse, et son roi.

Esope le disait; j'y souscris quant àm oi:

Ces sont maximes toujours bonnes.

Your flattery to three sorts of folks apply ;-
You cannot say too civil things

To gods, to mistresses and kings;

So honest Æsop said and so say I.

Honest Æsop said no such thing; nor do we find that he flattered any king, or any concubine.

It must not be thought that kings are in reality flattered by all the flatteries that are heaped upon them; for the greater part never reach them.

* From one of Malherbe's odes. Why, then, did not Richelieu cure Malherbe of the malady of writing such dull verses.

One very common folly of orators, is that of exhausting themselves in praising some prince who will never hear of their praises. But what is most lamentable of all is, that Ovid should have praised Augustus even while he was dating " de Ponto."

The perfection of the ridiculous might be found in the compliments which preachers address to kings, when they have the happiness of exhibiting before their majesties. "To the reverend father Gaillard, preacher to the king." Ah! most reverend father, dost thou preach only for the king? Art thou like the monkey at the fair, which leaps "only for the king?"

FORCE (PHYSICAL).

WHAT is force?' where does it reside? whence does it come? does it perish? or is it ever the same?

It has pleased us to denominate 'force' that weight which one body exercises upon another. Here is a ball of two hundred pounds weight on this floor: it presses the floor, you say, with a 'force' of two hundred pounds. And this you call a 'dead force.' But are not these words 'dead' and 'force' a little contradictory? Might we not as well say 'dead alive'-yes and no at once?

This ball 'weighs.' Whence comes this 'weight?' and is this weight a 'force?' If the ball were not impeded, would it go directly to the centre of the earth? Whence has it this incomprehensible property?

It is supported by my floor; and you freely give to my floor the "vis inertia"- "inertia" signifying inactivity,' 'impotence.' Now is it not singular that impotence' should be denominated 'force?"

What is the living force which acts in your arm and your leg? What is the source of it? How can it be supposed that this force exists when you are dead? Does it go and take up its abode elsewhere, as a man goes to another house when his own is in ruins?

How can it have been said that there is always the same force in nature. There must, then, have been

always the same number of men, or of active beings equivalent to men.

Why does a body in motion communicate its force to another body with which it comes in contact?

These are questions which neither geometry, nor mechanics, nor metaphysics can answer. Would you arrive at the first principle of the force of bodies, and of motion, you must ascend to a still superior principle. Why is there "anything?"

FORCE-STRENGTH.

THESE words have been transplanted from simple to figurative speech. They are applied to all the parts of a body that are in motion, in action;-the force of the heart, which some have made four hundred pounds, and some three ounces; the force of the viscera, the lungs, the voice; the force of the arm.

The metaphor which has transported these words into morals has made them express a cardinal virtue. Strength, in this sense, is the courage to support adversity, and to undertake virtuous and difficult actions; it is the "animi fortitudo."

The strength of the mind is penetration and depth"ingenii vis." Nature gives it as she gives that of the body: moderate labour increases, and excessive labour diminishes it.

The force of an argument. consists in a clear exposition of clearly-exhibited proofs, and a just conclusion: with mathematical theorems it has nothing to do; because the evidence of a demonstration can be made neither more nor less; only it may be arrived at by a longer or a shorter path, a simpler or more complicated method. It is in doubtful questions that the force of reasoning is truly applicable.

The force of eloquence is not merely a train of just and vigorous reasoning, which is not incompatible with dryness; this force requires floridity, striking images, and energetic expressions. Thus it has been said, that the sermons of Bourdaloue have most force, those of Massillon more elegance. Verses may have strength,

and want every other beauty. The strength of a line in our language consists principally in saying something in each hemistich.

Strength in painting is the expression of the muscles, which, by feeling touches, are made to appear under the flesh that covers them. There is too much strength when the muscles are too strongly articulated. The attitudes of the combatants have great strength in the battles of Constantine, drawn by Raphael and Julio Romano; and in those of Cæsar, painted by Le Brun. Inordinate strength is harsh in painting and bombastic in poetry.

Some philosophers have asserted that force is a property inherent in matter; that each invisible particle, or rather monad, is endowed with an active force; but it would be as difficult to demonstrate this assertion as it would be to prove that whiteness is a quality inherent in matter, as the Trevoux Dictionary says in the article INHERENT.

The strength of every animal has arrived at the highest when the animal has attained its full growth. It decreases when the muscles no longer receive the same quantity of nourishment; and this quantity ceases to be the same when the animal spirits no longer communicate to the muscles their accustomed motion. It is probable that the animal spirits are of fire, inasmuch as that old men want motion and strength in proportion as they want warmth.

FRANCHISE,

A WORD which always gives an idea of liberty in whatever sense it is taken; a word derived from the Franks, who were always free: it is so ancient, that when the Cid besieged and took Toledo, in the eleventh century, franchies or franchises were given to all the French who went on this expedition, and who established themselves at Toledo. All walled cities had franchises, liberties, and privileges, even in the greatest anarchy of feudal power. In all countries possessing