sible greatness and glory have passed
away, they have found a far greater charm in Mary's beauty and
misfortune than in her great rival's pride and power.

There is often thus a great difference in the comparative interest we
take in persons or scenes, when, on the one hand, they are realities
before our eyes, and when, on the other, they are only imaginings which
are brought to our minds by pictures or descriptions. The hardships
which it was very disagreeable or painful to bear, afford often great
amusement or pleasure in the recollection. The old broken gate which a
gentleman would not tolerate an hour upon his grounds, is a great beauty
in the picture which hangs in his parlor. We shun poverty and distress
while they are actually existing; nothing is more disagreeable to us;
and we gaze upon prosperity and wealth with never-ceasing pleasure. But
when they are gone, and we have only the tale to hear, it is the story
of sorrow and suffering which possesses the charm. Thus it happened that
when the two queens were living realities, Elizabeth was the center of
attraction and the object of universal homage; but when they came to be
themes of history, all eyes and hearts began soon to turn instinctively
to Mary. It was London, and Westminster, and Kenilworth that possessed
the interest while Elizabeth lived, but it is Holyrood and Loch Leven
now.

It results from these causes that Mary's story is read far more
frequently than Elizabeth's, and this operates still further to the
advantage of the former, for we are always prone to take sides with the
heroine of the tale we are reading. All these considerations, which have
had so much influence on the judgment men form, or, rather, on the
feeling to which they incline in this famous contest, have, it must be
confessed, very little to do with the true merits of the case. And if we
make a serious attempt to lay all such considerations aside, and to look
into the controversy with cool and rigid impartiality, we shall find it
very difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. There are two
questions to be decided. In advancing their conflicting claims to the
English crown, was it Elizabeth or Mary that was in the right? If
Elizabeth was right, were the measures which she resorted to to secure
her own rights, and to counteract Mary's pretensions, politically
justifiable? We do not propose to add our own to the hundred decisions
which various writers have given to this quest