that Tully whom he so idolized, his philosophy was the most conveniently
worn of any person's I ever met. When it would have been in the way--at
the supper of an actress, in the /levees/ of a court, in the boudoir of
a beauty, in the arena of the senate, in the intrigue of the
cabinet--you would not have observed a seam of the good old garment.
But directly it was wanted--in the hour of pain, in the day of peril, in
the suspense of exile, in (worst of all) the torpor of tranquillity--my
extraordinary friend unfolded it piece by piece, wrapped himself up in
it, sat down, defied the world, and uttered the most beautiful
sentiments upon the comfort and luxury of his raiment, that can possibly
be imagined. It used to remind me, that same philosophy of his, of the
enchanted tent in the Arabian Tale, which one moment lay wrapped in a
nut-shell, and the next covered an army.


* I know well that it has been said otherwise, and that Bolingbroke has
been accused of timidity for not staying in England, and making Mr.
Robert Walpole a present of his head. The elegant author of "De Vere"
has fallen into a very great though a very hackneyed error, in lauding
Oxford's political character, and condemning Bolingbroke's, because the
former awaited a trial and the latter shunned it. A very little
reflection might perhaps have taught the accomplished novelist that
there could be no comparison between the two cases, because there was no
comparison between the relative danger of Oxford and Bolingbroke.
Oxford, as their subsequent impeachment proved, was far more numerously
and powerfully supported than his illustrious enemy: and there is really
no earthly cause for doubting the truth of Bolingbroke's assertion;
namely, that "He had received repeated and certain information that a
resolution was taken, by those who had power to execute it, to pursue
him to the scaffold." There are certain situations in which a brave and