“A man so various, that he seem’d to be, Not one, but all mankind’s epitome: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, His every thing by starts, and nothing long: But in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon. In squandering wealth was his peculiar art, Nothing went unrewarded, but desert: Beggar’d by fools, when still he found too late, He had his jest, and they--had his estate.” At the time of King Charles’s death, he went into the country, and on the 16th of April, 1688, he died at a servant’s house at Rickby Meerside, from a cold caught by sitting on the ground after fox-hunting. Pope in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst, thus alludes to his death. “In the worst inn’s worst room, with mat half hung, The floors of plaister, and the walls of dung; On once a flock bed, but repaired with straw, With tape tied curtains, never meant to draw; The George and Garter dangling from that bed, Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, Great Villiers lies. Alas! how chang’d from him, That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim.” ❦ [Sidenote: A Portrait.] Strong intellect, perception quick and clear, Talents more prone to dazzle than to warm, Virtues which serve those talents to endear, Feelings which lend a fascinating charm; A winning countenance and glowing soul, Insinuating manners soft and mild, Genius, submitting to the proud control Of Judgment, Reason’s best and favourite child: Nature design’d this creature to be great, But _Vanity_ behind the matron stole, And ere she closed the volume of his fate, Wrote her own name, and propertied the whole. ❦ [Sidenote: Churchyards in Denmark.] It is customary in Denmark to surround each grave with doleful or cheerful shrubs, at the fancy of the survivors: thus alternate thickets of roses and of cypress, of lilacs and of juniper, give the air of a garden to every churchyard. ❦ _Machiavelli._ Machiavelli naquit à Florence le 9 Mai 1469, d’une noble famille Italienne. Il entra aux affaires en 1494, à 24 ans. En 1498 il était Secrétaire du Conseil des Dix, et pendant 14 ans employé dans les plus graves négociations. Machiavelli a acquis une grande réputation parmi les hommes, surtout comme auteur du _Prince_, ouvrage qu’il écrivit après la chute de la république de Florence. Il mourut en 1527, le 22 Juin, de douleur d’entrailles. Le Grand Duc Leopold a fait placer cette épitaphe très remarquable sur son tombeau: _Tanto nomini, nullum par elogium_. Machiavelli était doué d’une incroyable perspicacité. Il était tout esprit, et tout étude; le plus grand observateur des faits; il a prodigieusement travaillé et pratiqué le mécanisme social, et le caractère humain. ❦ [Sidenote: Dante.]