Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/244

Shop. If the one renders us Cowardly and Self-interested the other makes us Clownish and Opiniated; and neither in the one nor in the other is learn'd what an Embassador ought to know; … Cardinal Bessarion was a very fit man to fill a Professor's Chair, to teach the Greek Tongue; as in reality he was one of those, that revived the primitive Knowledge of it in the most Western Parts of Europe, in the fifteenth century; but when he was put into another Profession, and was vested with the Quality of Legate, to negotiate with the first Princes of Christendom, he discover'd his Ignorance, and made it plain that he did not know the first Rudiments of it, by going to see the Duke of Burgundy, before he had visited the King of France … I am so far also from excluding all the Learned from this sort of Employment, that I could wish all that enter upon it were learned; provided that with their Learning, they had also all the other necessary Qualifications. … There is a Habit contracted in reading, which is directly opposite to the constant activity of an Embassador … the School infects with a certain contracting Humour, which is inconsistent with the Character of a well-bred Man. They who study only as much as is requisite to become such, and to make Learning subservient to their Profession, have thereby a great Advantage; tho' good sense always relieves those who have not Study'd. The Study of polite Literature ought to be a Foundation to all the Embassador's Knowledge: There true Morality is to be learn'd … There is no Philosopher that teaches it more agreeably than Horace … Provided we do not strike into Criticism nor Pedantry, we . shall find there the Principles of Honesty, which ought to be the first Quality of the Embassador. The Knowledge of the Civil Law, if it be founded upon that of the History of the Roman Laws, is an admirable Ingredient for a Minister. But there are but few that apply themselves to it; because to speak the Truth, the major Part of the Doctors that teach it, do not understand it; or if they do understand it, they will not give themselves the trouble to teach it to their Scholars … There is nothing but the perfect Knowledge of the State of ancient Rome, and of the Occasions upon which the Laws were enacted, that can give a right judgment of the Intention of the Legislators; as