in his life, we may be entitled to infer some part of his development with considerable certainty. He certainly possessed great Self-esteem and Love of Approbation. His ambition and desire to shine in eloquence and in discourse, proceeded from the latter;-his irritability of temper, when his opinions were questioned or disregarded, from the former. His Firmness does not appear to have been large, of which various instances may be given in his want of command and of feeling; and his whole writings shew a deficiency of Concentrativeness. He is eloquent and brilliant in the highest degree, and illustrations flow upon him with a copiousness that is equally delightful and surprising; but there is a want of precision and logical sequence in his argument, and an utter disregard of method. In perusing his speeches, we are often dazzled, sometimes instructed, but seldom entirely convinced. All this furnishes a probable explanation of the undeniable fact, that Mr Burke, with all the talents he possessed, did not produce that mighty effect which was to have been expected. He never rose to be a leader, even in the party to which he first belonged; he quarrelled with that party and left them, without ever obtaining the confidence of any other; and he was at last reduced to the humiliating necessity of accepting a pension from that government and that ministry, whose measures and whose influence it had been the business of his whole previous life to oppose and to subvert.

But I shall not trust in delineating his character, even to the knowledge of facts which are now matters of history. I shall take the characters drawn of him by two of his intimate friends and contemporaries, who will not be considered as any way wanting in perspicacity or candour. I allude to no less persons than Dr Johnson and Dr Goldsmith. The former is recorded to have said, that "no one could be five ❝minutes in the company of Mr Burke, though a perfect "stranger to him, and merely driven to take shelter under "the same shed with him during a shower of rain, without "discovering that he was the greatest genius in the world." This exactly corresponds with what has been mentioned of

his equal and full development of all the intellectual faculties, so that no subject could come wrong to him, joined to a very large endowment of Language and Love of Approbation, prompting him to display on all occasions the whole stores of his mind. Goldsmith states this peculiarity in a single line, with his usual felicity, when he tells us, in his poem called "Retaliation," that " Burke shall be tongue with the garnish of brains." He afterwards, in the same jeu d'esprit, goes more minutely into his character, and points out, with almost phrenological precision, both its excellencies and defects:

Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat
To persuade Tommy Townsend to lend him a vote-
Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining,
And thought of convincing, when they thought of dining.
Though equal to all things-for all things unfit,
Too nice for a statesman-too proud for a wit;
For a patriot too cool-for a drudge disobedient,
And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.
In short, 'twas his fate, unemployed or in place, sir,
To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.

I have said that this description is almost phrenological. It is, at any rate, such as will at once suggest to a phrenologist the combination of elemental qualities from which it proceeds; and it corresponds exactly with the development we have mentioned-with some peculiarities which we have no other means of ascertaining. The last six lines are peculiarly striking:

Though equal to all things for all things unfit.

This corresponds with what has been stated, of his possessing every intellectual talent, without that endowment of Concentrativeness and Firmness which should determine his genius steadily to some particular object :

Too nice for a statesman

His very refined taste, proceeding from great Ideality, and a great endowment of the superior sentiments, must have

disgusted him with the insignificant details and petty vexations and crosses which invariably attach themselves to the real business of life of the highest no less than of the lowest kind, in this working-day world. Persons of plain intellect, (I mean no disparagement), like Joseph Hume or the late Mr Whitbread, who are not seduced from their path by any glittering conceits, and who are gifted with much Firmness and Concentrativeness, will be much better fitted for the tasks they respectively undertake, than a man of the varied talents and refined temperament of Burke:

Too proud for a wit.

Though pre-eminently fitted to shine in the ranks of literature, or any department to which he thought fit to direct his talents, his Self-esteem was too great to make him satisfied with this sort of distinction. He aspired at being a leader and a light in politics; and abandoned the secure haven of literature for the stormy sea of state-intrigue, in which he must frequently have been jostled by minds of less refined

construction:

For a patriot too cool

He possessed too little Combativeness and Destructiveness to fit him for being the orator of the mob. He could not, at least it would be quite foreign to his nature to roar at the hustings, to flatter the passions of the multitude at public meetings, or to rant about liberty, tyranny, and usurpation, at public dinners:

For a drudge disobedient.

His Self-esteem, which we have already seen, must have been large, would make it equally unpalatable to him to cringe to power, or to lend himself unreservedly as the tool of a party. In short, he would neither be led nor driven, either in the opinions he was to hold, or the conduct he was to pursue, without knowing the reason why :

And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.

He possessed too great Conscientiousness to follow his party all lengths, when he thought them in the wrong. A remarkable instance of this occurred on the occasion of his quar

BURKE, FOX, AND PITT.

relling with, and separation from, Mr Fox. not here which of them was absolutely in the right; but I inquire I believe no one will deny, that Mr Burke acted on this occasion from a conscientious regard to what he thought was right, though, perhaps, there was also in his conduct more irritation than can be justified, or than was called for, by this sentiment alone. This irritation I attribute to his Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, which were wounded by Mr Fox's contemptuous treatment of the principles and views contained in his famous "Reflections on the Revolu❝tion in France."

The whole character affords a remarkable example of the great importance of Firmness and Concentrativeness in enabling the intellectual powers to work with full effect; and, upon the whole, we may apply to it what was said by the dying Israel of his first-born,-" Reuben, thou art my might " and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of digni"ty, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, thou "shalt not excel."

It is important to observe the contrast between the other two characters, for they were contrasted in a very remarkable degree. I never had the happiness of hearing Mr Pitt, but I once enjoyed the high gratification of hearing a speech from his great rival,-and never will the impression which it made be effaced from my mind. I can compare its effect to nothing more apt than to that of being in a storm at sea. It seemed to rouse and stir up every faculty and feeling of the mind to the most intense state of excitement, accompanied with that kind of glorying and sense of inward greatness characteristic of the true sublime,-as if there was a feeling of an increase of personal dignity, even in the being admitted to the privilege of hearing such a man. It is well known, that in his public speaking Mr Fox's ideas and words did not begin to flow readily until he had raised himself into a state of excitement almost resembling rage, and that then they came upon him with a rapidity nearly too great for utterance. This was said to form a striking contrast to the mildness, the suavity and urbanity of his manners in private

life, where he is known to have been as much beloved by his personal friends, as he was admired and idolized by his party -as a public leader. These opposite qualities, which he thus displayed, are easily explained on the phrenological system, by supposing, what must have been the fact, that he possessed at once a great development of Combativeness and Destructiveness, and also of Benevolence. The one of these qualities does not, as has been said, neutralize the others, as an alkali and an acid: they remain both of them in high activity in one and the same character, either alternately, or at one and the same time. Destructiveness may often come in aid of Benevolence, or of Justice, or of the other superior sentiments resisting every species of fraud, oppression, and wrong. Thus, in the character given of himself by Job, he says, "I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth" It is evident from the busts of Mr Fox, and also from what is known of his life and character, that he had a considerable share of the lower propensities, as well as of those higher powers which add dignity to character;—and in him, at least in the latter parts of his life, these lower powers added a force and an overwhelming energy to his mind, which otherwise it could not have possessed. His speaking was also characterized by very considerable Ideality and Hope, and probably a great endowment of the Love of Approbation. The former quality, Ideality, cultivated by a classical education, conferred such a portion of refined taste, as would prevent him from offending, even in the midst of what appeared the uncontrolled bursts of passion, and to infuse into all his conceptions the glow of genius and the splendour of eloquence. To a great endowment of Hope, joined with Benevolence, it was probably owing, that this great man was led to form too flattering expectations of the advantages to be derived to the world and the cause of liberty, by what took place at the first breaking out of the French revolution, and to see, amidst all the horrors and the blood of that distracted period, symptoms of the commencement of a new and a better order of things, the downfall of tyranny, and the regeneration and ultimate happiness