172 STATESMEN AND SAGES even from the monarch whom he served, still not only maintained his own sta- tion, but possessed time and zeal to frame and execute gigantic projects for the advancement of his country and of his age. It makes no small part of Henry IV. 's glory that he conceived a plan for diminishing the power of the House of Austria. Richelieu, without either the security or the advantages of the king and the warrior, achieved it. Not only this, but he dared to enter upon the war at the very same time when he was humbling that aristocracy which had hitherto composed the martial force of the country. The effects of his domestic policy were indeed more durable than those of what he most prided himself upon, his foreign policy. He it was, in fact, who founded the French monarchy, such as it existed until near the end of the eighteenth century a grand, indeed, rather than a happy result. He was a man of penetrating and commanding intellect, who visibly influenced the fortunes of Europe to an extent which few princes or ministers have equalled. Unscrupu- lous in his purposes, he was no less so in the means by which he effected them. But so long as men are honored, not for their moral excellences, but for the great things which they have done for themselves, or their country, the name of Riche- lieu will be recollected with respect, as that of one of the most successful states- men that ever lived. As a patron of letters and of the arts, Richelieu has acquired a reputation al- most rivalling that of his statesmanship. His first and earliest success in life had been as a scholar supporting his theses ; and, as it is continually observed that great men form very erroneous judgments of their own excellences, he ever prided himself especially in his powers as a penman. WILLIAM BRADFORD* BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS G 1 (1589-1657) REATNESS is not allied to rank alone, nor is heroism to blood. The noblest of the Pilgrims of Plymouth was sprung from the people. For generations the little farming village of Austerfield, a royal manor of the West Riding of Yorkshire close to the Nottingham line, had known the fam- ily of Bradfurth or Bradford as a race of tenant-yeomen who, besides tilling the lands of the Mortons, possessed also, a free- hold of their own. But no man or woman of the Bradford name had given it prominence or worth until, on March 19, 1589, William Brad- ford was born in that low-roofed farm-house on the great plain of York. Puritan writers speak of Austerfield as a " profane and irreligious " village in which was
- Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.
MASSACHUSETTS.
