So wide a system of foreign alliances and designs helped to make Henry both cautious and crafty. [Sidenote: Lewis VII.] Nearer home his ability was tasked by Lewis VII., whose whole policy consisted in a habit of pious falsehood, who really acted upon the principle which Henry ironically formulated, and who by either cowardice or faithlessness made himself far more dangerous than by his strength. [Sidenote: Henry’s mismanagement of his children. ] Henry was a kind and loving father, but his political game led him to sacrifice the real interest of his children to the design for their advancement. They soon found out that he used them like chess-men, and could not see the love which prompted his design. To his people he was a politic ruler, a great reformer and discipliner; not a hero or patriot, but a far-seeing king who recognized that the well-being of the nation was the surest foundation of his own power. As a lawgiver or financier, or supreme judge, he made his hand felt everywhere; and at the beginning of his reign, when the need of the reforms was forcibly impressed on the minds of his subjects by their recent misery, his reforms were welcomed; he was popular and beloved. By and by, when he had educated a new generation, and when the dark cloud of sin and sorrow and ingratitude settled down upon him, they forgot what he had done in his early days; but they never forgot how great a king he was. We may not say that he was a good man; but his temptations were very great, and he was sinned against very much by his wife and children. It is only in a secondary sense that he was a good king, for he loved his power first and his people only second; but he was good so far as selfish wisdom and deep insight into what is good for them could make him. In his early years he gave promise of something more than this, and some share of the blame that attends his later short-comings must rest with those who scrupled at nothing that might humiliate and disappoint him. In appearance, we are told, Henry was a tall, stout man, with a short neck, and projecting but very expressive eyes; he was a careless dresser, a great hunter, a man of business rather than a model of chivalry; capable of great exertion, moderate in meat and drink, and anything but extravagant in personal as opposed to official expenditure. He was a builder of halls and castles, not very much of churches; but that may easily be accounted for. We are glad to have him pictured for us even with this scanty amount of detail, for he is well worth the trouble of an attempt at least to realize his outward presentment. Every one knows Henry VIII. by sight; it might be as well if we had as definite an impression of Henry II. [Sidenote: Plan of reform. ]