Pharamond would often, to satisfy a vain Fool of Power in his Country, talk to him in a full Court, and with one Whisper make him despise all his old Friends and Acquaintance.  He was come to that Knowledge of Men by long Observation, that he would profess altering the whole Mass of Blood in some Tempers, by thrice speaking to them.  As Fortune was in his Power, he gave himself constant Entertainment in managing the mere Followers of it with the Treatment they deserved.  He would, by a skilful Cast of his Eye and half a Smile, make two Fellows who hated, embrace and fall upon each other’s Neck with as much Eagerness, as if they followed their real Inclinations, and intended to stifle one another.  When he was in high good Humour, he would lay the Scene with Eucrate, and on a publick Night exercise tho Passions of his whole Court.  He was pleased to see an haughty Beauty watch the Looks of the Man she had long despised, from Observation of his being taken notice of by Pharamond; and the Lover conceive higher Hopes, than to follow the Woman he was dying for the Day before.  In a Court where Men speak Affection in the strongest Terms, and Dislike in the faintest, it was a comical Mixture of Incidents to see Disguises thrown aside in one Case and encreased on the other, according as Favour or Disgrace attended the respective Objects of Men’s Approbation or Disesteem. Pharamond in his Mirth upon the Meanness of Mankind used to say,

’As he could take away a Man’s Five Senses, he could give him an Hundred.  The Man in Disgrace shall immediately lose all his natural Endowments, and he that finds Favour have the Attributes of an Angel.’  He would carry it so far as to say, ’It should not be only so in the Opinion of the lower Part of his Court, but the Men themselves shall think thus meanly or greatly of themselves, as they are out or in the good Graces of a Court.’

A Monarch who had Wit and Humour like Pharamond, must have Pleasures which no Man else can ever have Opportunity of enjoying.  He gave Fortune to none but those whom he knew could receive it without Transport:  He made a noble and generous Use of his Observations; and did not regard his Ministers as they were agreeable to himself, but as they were useful to his Kingdom:  By this means the King appeared in every Officer of State; and no Man had a Participation of the Power, who had not a Similitude of the Virtue of Pharamond.

R.

[Footnote 1:  Pharamond, or Faramond, was the subject of one of the romances of M. de Costes de la Calprenede, published at Paris (12 vols.) in 1661.  It was translated into English (folio) by J. Phillips in 1677.]

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No. 77.  Tuesday, May 29, 1711.  Budgell.

      ’Non convivere licet, nec urbe tota
      Quisquam est tam prope tam proculque nobis.’

      Mart.