LONDON,September 13,O.S.1748.
DEAR BOY:I have more than once recommended to you the "Memoirs"of the Cardinal de Retz,and to attend particularly to the political reflections interspersed in that excellent work.I will now preach a little upon two or three of those texts.
In the disturbances at Paris,Monsieur de Beaufort,who was a very popular,though a very weak man,was the Cardinal's tool with the populace.
Proud of his popularity,he was always for assembling the people of Paris together,thinking that he made a great figure at the head of them.The Cardinal,who was factious enough,was wise enough at the same time to avoid gathering the people together,except when there was occasion,and when he had something particular for them to do.However,he could not always check Monsieur de Beaufort;who having assembled them once very unnecessarily,and without any determined object,they ran riot,would not be kept within bounds by their leaders,and did their cause a great deal of harm:upon which the Cardinal observes most judiciously,'Que Monsieur de Beaufort me savoit pas,que qui assemble le peuple,l'emeut'.
It is certain,that great numbers of people met together,animate each other,and will do something,either good or bad,but oftener bad;and the respective individuals,who were separately very quiet,when met together in numbers,grow tumultuous as a body,and ripe for any mischief that may be pointed out to them by the leaders;and,if their leaders have no business for them,they will find some for themselves.The demagogues,or leaders of popular factions,should therefore be very careful not to assemble the people unnecessarily,and without a settled and well-considered object.Besides that,by making those popular assemblies too frequent,they make them likewise too familiar,and consequently less respected by their enemies.Observe any meetings of people,and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers:when the numbers are very great,all sense and reason seem to subside,and one sudden frenzy to seize on all,even the coolest of them.
Another very just observation of the Cardinal's is,That,the things which happen in our own times,and which we see ourselves,do not surprise us near so much as the things which we read of in times past,though not in the least more extraordinary;and adds,that he is persuaded that when Caligula made his horse a Consul,the people of Rome,at that time,were not greatly surprised at it,having necessarily been in some degree prepared for it,by an insensible gradation of extravagances from the same quarter.This is so true that we read every day,with astonishment,things which we see every day without surprise.
We wonder at the intrepidity of a Leonidas,a Codrus,and a Curtius;and are not the least surprised to hear of a sea-captain,who has blown up his ship,his crew,and himself,that they might not fall into the hands of the enemies of his country.I cannot help reading of Porsenna and Regulus,with surprise and reverence,and yet I remember that I saw,without either,the execution of Shepherd,--[James Shepherd,a coach-painter's apprentice,was executed at Tyburn for high treason,March 17,1718,in the reign of George I.]--a boy of eighteen years old,who intended to shoot the late king,and who would have been pardoned,if he would have expressed the least sorrow for his intended crime;but,on the contrary,he declared that if he was pardoned he would attempt it again;that he thought it a duty which he owed to his country,and that he died with pleasure for having endeavored to perform it.Reason equals Shepherd to Regulus;but prejudice,and the recency of the fact,make Shepherd a common malefactor and Regulus a hero.
Examine carefully,and reconsider all your notions of things;analyze them,and discover their component parts,and see if habit and prejudice are not the principal ones;weigh the matter upon which you are to form your opinion,in the equal and impartial scales of reason.It is not to be conceived how many people,capable of reasoning,if they would,live and die in a thousand errors,from laziness;they will rather adopt the prejudices of others,than give themselves the trouble of forming opinions of their own.They say things,at first,because other people have said them,and then they persist in them,because they have said them themselves.
The last observation that I shall now mention of the Cardinal's is,"That a secret is more easily kept by a good many people,than one commonly imagines."By this he means a secret of importance,among people interested in the keeping of it.And it is certain that people of business know the importance of secrecy,and will observe it,where they are concerned in the event.To go and tell any friend,wife,or mistress,any secret with which they have nothing to do,is discovering to them such an unretentive weakness,as must convince them that you will tell it to twenty others,and consequently that they may reveal it without the risk of being discovered.But a secret properly communicated only to those who are to be concerned in the thing in question,will probably be kept by them though they should be a good many.Little secrets are commonly told again,but great ones are generally kept.
Adieu!