temperate zone trims between the climate
in which men are roasted and the climate in which they are frozen.
The English Church trims between the Anabaptist madness and the Papist
lethargy. The English constitution trims between Turkish despotism and
Polish anarchy. Virtue is nothing but a just temper between propensities
any one of which, if indulged to excess, becomes vice. Nay, the
perfection of the Supreme Being himself consists in the exact
equilibrium of attributes, none of which could preponderate without
disturbing the whole moral and physical order of the world. [20]
Thus Halifax was a Trimmer on principle. He was also a Trimmer by the
constitution both of his head and of his heart. His understanding was
keen, sceptical, inexhaustibly fertile in distinctions and objections;
his taste refined; his sense of the ludicrous exquisite; his temper
placid and forgiving, but fastidious, and by no means prone either to
malevolence or to enthusiastic admiration. Such a man could not long
be constant to any band of political allies. He must not, however, be
confounded with the vulgar crowd of renegades. For though, like them,
he passed from side to side, his transition was always in the direction
opposite to theirs. He had nothing in common with those who fly from
extreme to extreme, and who regard the party which they have deserted
with all animosity far exceeding that of consistent enemies. His
place was on the debatable ground between the hostile divisions of the
community, and he never wandered far beyond the frontier of either. The
party to which he at any moment belonged was the party which, at that
moment, he liked least, because it was the party of which at that moment
he had the nearest view. He was therefore always severe upon his violent
associates, and was always in friendly relations with his moderate
opponents. Every faction in the day of its insolent and vindictive
triumph incurred his censure; and every faction, when vanquished and
persecuted, found in him a protector. To his lasting honour it must be
mentioned that he attempted to save those victims whose fate has left
the deepest stain both on the Whig and on the Tory name.

He had greatly distinguished himself in opposition, and had thus drawn
on himself the royal displeasure, which was indeed so strong that he was
not admitted into the Council of Thirty without much difficulty and long
altercation. As soon, however, as he had obtained a footing at court,