But who would trust the quiet of their lives
with the extravagancies of their countrymen, when they are just in the
giddiness of their turning; when the ground was tottering under them
at every moment; and none could guess whether the next heave of the
earthquake would settle them on the first foundation, or swallow it?
Both of them knew mankind exactly well, for both of them began that
study in themselves, and there they found the best part of human
composition; the worst they learned by long experience of the folly,
ignorance, and immorality of most beside them. Their philosophy, on
both sides, was not wholly speculative, for that is barren, and
produces nothing but vain ideas of things which cannot possibly be
known, or, if they could, yet would only terminate in the
understanding; but it was a noble, vigorous and practical philosophy,
which exerted itself in all the offices of pity, to those who were
unfortunate, and deserved not so to be. The friend was always more
considered by them than the cause; and an Octavius, or an Antony in
distress, were relieved by them, as well as a Brutus or a Cassius; for
the lowermost party, to a noble mind, is ever the fittest object of
good-will. The eldest of them, I will suppose, for his honour, to have
been of the academic sect, neither dogmatist nor stoick; if he were
not, I am sure he ought, in common justice, to yield the precedency to
his younger brother.
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