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Volume 60

Law, Governance and Technology Series

Series Editors
Pompeu Casanovas
Spanish National Research Council (IIIA-CSIC), Research Institute on
Artificial Intelligence, Barcelona, Spain

Giovanni Sartor
University of Bologna and European University Institute of Florence,
Florence, Italy

The Law, Governance and Technology Series is intended to attract


manuscripts arising from an interdisciplinary approach in law, artificial
intelligence and information technologies. The idea is to bridge the gap
between research in IT law and IT-applications for lawyers developing
a unifying techno-legal perspective. The series will welcome proposals
that have a fairly specific focus on problems or projects that will lead to
innovative research charting the course for new interdisciplinary
developments in law, legal theory, and law and society research as well
as in computer technologies, artificial intelligence and cognitive
sciences. In broad strokes, manuscripts for this series may be mainly
located in the fields of the Internet law (data protection, intellectual
property, Internet rights, etc.), Computational models of the legal
contents and legal reasoning, Legal Information Retrieval, Electronic
Data Discovery, Collaborative Tools (e.g. Online Dispute Resolution
platforms), Metadata and XML Technologies (for Semantic Web
Services), Technologies in Courtrooms and Judicial Offices (E-Court),
Technologies for Governments and Administrations (E-Government),
Legal Multimedia, and Legal Electronic Institutions (Multi-Agent
Systems and Artificial Societies).
Editors
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade,
Pedro Miguel Fernandes Freitas and Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de
Abreu

Legal Developments on Cybersecurity


and Related Fields
Editors
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade
School of Law, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Pedro Miguel Fernandes Freitas


Faculty of Law Oporto, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal

Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de Abreu


School of Law, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

ISSN 2352-1902 e-ISSN 2352-1910


Law, Governance and Technology Series
ISBN 978-3-031-41819-8 e-ISBN 978-3-031-41820-4
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41820-4

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive


license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
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Contents
Legal Developments on Cybersecurity and Related Fields:​
Introductory Notes and Presentation
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade,
Pedro Miguel Freitas and Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de Abreu
Part I Cybersecurity, Cyberdefence and Law
Getting Critical:​Making Sense of the EU Cybersecurity Framework
for Cloud Providers
Ian Walden and Johan David Michels
Cyber Operations Targeting Space Systems.​Legal Questions and
the Context of Privatisation
Bruno Reynaud de Sousa
Legal Management of the Concept of Risk in Reversible Operations
Against Space Assets
Giulia Pavesi
Knowledge Management and Continuous Improvement in
Cyberspace
Joã o Manuel Assis Barbas
Information Security Metrics:​Challenges and Models in an All-
Digital World
Henrique Santos, Teresa Pereira and André Oliveira
Cyberterrorism and the Portuguese Counter-Terrorism Act
Pedro Miguel Fernandes Freitas
Part II Cybersecurity and Law: Specific Topics
Towards Cyber Security Regulation of Software in the European
Union
Arno R. Lodder and Joeri J. Toet
The Importance of the Computer Undercover Agent as an
Investigative Measure Against Cybercrime:​A Special Reference to
Child Pornography Crimes
Almudena Valiñ o Ces
Post-Mortem Data Protection and Succession in Digital Assets
Under Spanish Law
Marta Otero Crespo
The Suitability of the Regime of Technological Measures for
Copyright Protection in the Face of Modern Cybersecurity Risks
Pedro Dias Venâ ncio
Digital Signatures and Quantum Computing
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade and
José Carlos Bacelar Almeida
No Words Needed?​Emojis as Evidence in Judicial Proceedings
Ana Rodríguez Á lvarez
Part III Cybersecurity, Ethics and Fundamental Rights
Bug Bounties:​Ethical and Legal Aspects
Joã o Paulo Magalhã es
Profiling and Cybersecurity:​A Perspective from Fundamental
Rights’ Protection in the EU
Alessandra Silveira
Legal Developments on Smart Public Governance and
Fundamental Rights in the Digital Age
Isabel Celeste Fonseca and Joel A. Alves
Biometric Signatures in the Context of Regulation (EU) nr.​910/​
2014 and the General Data Protection Regulation:​The Evidential
Value and Anonymization of Biometric Data
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade, Ana Silva and
Ricardo Guimarã es
Cybersecurity Issues in Electronic Communications and Some
Insights on Digital Literacy and Technological Infrastructures’
Demands:​Anticipations of the European Digital Decade Through
the Lens of a Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles
Joana Covelo de Abreu
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
F. A. Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade et al. (eds.), Legal Developments on Cybersecurity
and Related Fields, Law, Governance and Technology Series 60
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41820-4_1

Legal Developments on Cybersecurity


and Related Fields: Introductory Notes
and Presentation
Francisco Antó nio Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade1 ,
Pedro Miguel Freitas2 and Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de Abreu1
(1) School of Law, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
(2) Porto Faculty of Law, Universidade Cató lica Portuguesa, Porto,
Portugal

Francisco António Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade (Corresponding


author)
Email: [email protected]

Pedro Miguel Freitas


Email: [email protected]

Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de Abreu


Email: [email protected]

Francisco António Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade holds a PhD in


Law (Legal Privatistic Sciences) from University of Minho and a MSc in
Electronic Information Management from the University of Sheffield
(United Kingdom). He is auxiliary professor at Universidade do Minho
Law School and he has been, for 11 years, the Director of the Master
Course in Law and Informatics. He is also lecturer in the same Master in
the Units of “Cryptography, Electronic Identification and Documents”,
“Privacy and Data Protection”, “Electronic Commerce and Electronic
Contracting”. He is an integrated member of JUSGOV—Research Center
on Justice and Governation at University of Minho Law School.

Pedro Miguel Freitas holds a PhD in Public Legal Sciences (Criminal


Sciences branch) from the Law School of the University of Minho,
Portugal. Lecturer and researcher in the areas of Criminal Law and
Procedure, Cybercrime and Criminology at the Universidade Cató lica
Portuguesa (Portugal). He is a founding member of the Lusophone
Institute of Criminal Justice and a member of the Secure Platform for
Accredited Cybercrime Experts. Participated in teaching courses
organized by the University of Massachusetts Lowell (USA), the
University of Turin (Italy), the Polytechnic University of Valencia
(Spain), and the Jean Piaget University (Angola), among others.
Currently coordinates the Postgraduate Course on Law and Technology
at the Universidade Cató lica Portuguesa, Portugal.

Joana Rita de Sousa Covelo de Abreu is a Professor of European


Union law at the University of Minho – School of Law, Portugal. She acts
within the European Union Law, namely devoting her attention to EU
Procedure, Data Transfer and Interoperability within European e-
Government and e-Justice paradigms. She is the Coordinator of the Jean
Monnet Module eUjust—“EU Procedure and credits’ claims:
approaching electronic solutions under e-Justice paradigm”. She was an
appointed expert to the modernization of judicial cooperation in civil
matters (DG Justice and Consumers—European Commission), in 2018,
namely concerning discussing Commission’s proposals on taking of
evidence and service of documents’ Regulations. Editor of UNIO—EU
Law Journal and its official blog “Thinking & Debating Europe – The
official blog of UNIO”.
This book presents an innovative approach to cybersecurity issues,
aiming not only to analyse the legal landscape of the European Union
and its Member States, but to do it in an interdisciplinary way. Its
interdisciplinary style is based on the need to understand cybersecurity
demands on wider terms, approaching not only traditional matters but
also emerging topics. Cybersecurity cannot be solely equated in the
light of cybercrime and/or cyber defence; it also has to be thought
through the lens of specific approaches, related to different legal fields,
without forgetting ethical demands and fundamental rights protection,
particularly, personal data protection. Only by doing so is it possible to
understand its importance and role in the exercise of public power, the
essential role it can play in fundamental values of Member States and of
the European Union (such us the rule of law) and in providing trust,
transparency and effectiveness to market relations and public
administration interactions.
Furthermore, the book relies on the expertise of the authors to
introduce insights on ICT components and technologies as their holistic
understanding is relevant to perceive each and every “cyber”
phenomenon.
Insofar, the Joint Communication of the European Commission and
the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy establishing “The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital
Decade” [JOIN(2020) 18 final], understand cybersecurity as “an
integral part of Europeans’ security” and it is “therefore essential for
building a resilient, green and digital Europe”. As these European
entities perceive it, there are very strong “cross-sector
interdependences” since “[t]ransport, energy and health,
telecommunications, finance, security, democratic processes, space and
defence are heavily reliant on network and information systems that
are increasingly interconnected”, which lead to deeper security issues
that demand new legal and technical approaches.
In this sense, as presented in the European Commission’s
Communication “2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the
Digital Decade” [COM(2021) 118 final], cybersecurity demands the
deepening of digital literacy, especially concerning specialists in this
key area, and gender balancing on ICT specialists’ sphere.
Furthermore, “digital infrastructure serving citizens, SMEs, the
public sector and large companies require high performance computing
and comprehensive data infrastructures” but “data produced in Europe
is generally stored and processed outside Europe, and its value is also
extracted outside Europe”, which “can bring risks in terms of
cybersecurity” even if business models based on generating and
exploiting data must retain their free choice.
This led to the need of a Declaration of rights and principles to the
Digital Decade of 2021–2030, where transparency, reliability, data
protection and security gain a relevant focus.
In fact, threats to cybersecurity usually have a cross-border
expression: in the European Union, it was understood that a
cyberattack on critical facilities of one Member State can impact the
Union as a whole. In this sense, Member States must rely on
governmental bodies that can promote cybersecurity demands and are
able to articulate with their counterparts of other Member States. This
includes sharing useful information and good practices. The NIS
Directive was created to foster cooperation between national
governmental bodies while NIS2 Directive, which entered into force on
January 16th, 2023, seeks the adoption of a set of measures for a high
common level of cybersecurity across the European Union. Member
States will have until October 18th, 2024 to transpose its terms into
their own national legal orders.
Therefore, if the NIS Directive intended to enhance Union’s “cyber
resilience” (recital 2 of Directive nr. 2022/2555), the fact is that
cybersecurity requirements posed to different operators are quite
variable among Member States when it comes to “their level of detail
and the method of supervision” which led to “additional costs and […]
difficulties for entities that offer goods and services across borders”
(recital 4 of Directive nr. 2022/2555). These differences “entail a
fragmentation of the internal market and […] its functioning, affecting
in particular the cross-border provision of services” which could
enhance some Member States’ vulnerabilities to cyber threats, “with
potential spill-over effects across the Union” (recital 5 of the mentioned
Directive).
The NIS2 Directive establishes out minimum rules regarding the
functioning of a coordinated regulatory framework with a wide range
of entities foreseen in its scope of application which enhances its
effectiveness and achieves its main goal of improving the cybersecurity
environment in the European Union.
An interdisciplinary approach was needed since cybersecurity must
be applicable in heterogenous contexts and technological changes and
developments make it inviable to solely implement stable and uniform
ethical guidelines. Therefore, the intervention of the legislator and the
action of control authorities, both national and supranational, is
necessary.
This book consists of three major parts:
– Part 1, under the topic “Cybersecurity, cyberdefence and law”, aims at
addressing new cybersecurity demands where legal orders are called
upon to present new regulatory solutions while also revaluating
cybersecurity traditional domains in a new light;
– Part 2, “Cybersecurity and law: specific topics”, focuses on emerging
and old cybersecurity issues and how they can be addressed now
and in the future;
– Part 3, “Cybersecurity, ethics and fundamental rights”, brings
contributions on current fundamental rights’ framework and the
ethical demands that might model new regulatory solutions that do
not undermine fundamental values while promoting market
freedom. In other words, this part examines the ethical and legal
considerations, specifically those at the European Union level, and,
particularly, issues such as profiling, evidence value and
anonymization.
Part 1 is opened by the contribution of Ian Walden and Johan David
Michaels, with the topic “Getting critical. Making sense of the EU
security framework for cloud providers”. In their contribution, these
authors try to unravel how the EU cybersecurity regulatory framework
impacts cloud computing services’ providers in order to perceive if this
legal setting can enhance the Union’s digital economy and if cloud
services can be seen as a critical infrastructure within the new legal
approaches on the matter.
Bruno Reynaud de Sousa authored the chapter addressing the topic
“Cyber operations targeting space systems. Legal questions and the
context of privatisation”. In this chapter, the author aims at exposing
how cybersecurity issues can arise as space is more and more
perceived as “the future frontier of the global economy and society”,
especially in regards to outer space, earth observation and remote
sensing experiences benefiting from private sector innovation.
The following chapter—“A legal assessment of the concept of risk in
reversible operations through cyber and electronic means”—is
authored by Giulia Pavesi. The objective of this chapter is to deepen
legal assessment of the concept of risk, particularly that pertaining to
space infrastructures, and the need for legal obligations upon States
from an International Public Law and International Space Law
perspective.
Joã o Manuel Assis Barbas authored the following chapter under the
theme of “Knowledge management and continuous improvement in
cyberspace”. In this contribution, the author aims to prove “the
synergetic correlation between cyberspace, knowledge management
and continuous improvement” without undermining the importance of
cybersecurity issues, and draw relevant conclusions.
Henrique Santos, Teresa Pereira and André Oliveira, authoring the
chapter entitled “Information security metrics: challenges and models
in an all-digital world”, explore the subject of information security
metrics and its role in monitoring, preventing and early detection of
threats and the endeavour of an agile approach to cybersecurity.
Part 1 is concluded with a chapter authored by Pedro Miguel Freitas
entitled “Cyberterrorism and the Portuguese counter-terrorism act”.
This chapter considers the international doctrine on the
conceptualisation of cyber-terrorism and the Portuguese approach to
the subject.
Part 2, which is dedicated to the theme “Cybersecurity and law:
specific topics”, begins with a chapter authored by Arno Lodder and
Joeri Toet, dealing with the following theme: “Towards cybersecurity
regulation of software in the European Union”. The authors discuss the
European legal framework applicable to software, not only equating
legislative initiatives but also how principles and legal regime
stemming from the GDPR can be useful in finding suitable solutions.
The following contribution, authored by Almudena Valiñ o Ces, is
titled “The importance of the computer undercover agent as an
investigative measure against cybercrime: a special reference to child
pornography crimes”. Based on the sensitivity that “[t]he Internet is a
scenario in which a wide range of criminal activities can be carried out”,
the author understands that it also poses new challenges since it is very
difficult to identify those committing crimes – the ones known as
“cybercriminals”. In this sense, the author aims to know if an
undercover computer agent can play a vital role in combating crimes
associated with child pornography crimes as “it represents a specific
measure of technological investigation”.
Marta Otero Crespo addresses the topic “Post-Mortem data
protection and succession in digital assets under Spanish law”. Here,
the author aims to clarify the interaction amongst data protection,
contract law and inheritance law, from the Spanish legal standpoint.
Pedro Dias Venâ ncio contributed to the book with a chapter titled
“The suitability of the regime of technological measures for copyright
protection in the face of modern cybersecurity risks”. In this chapter,
the author evaluates the need to equate new ways of digitally
protecting copyright and related rights before economic exploitation in
the digital market where technological protection measures (TPM) gain
relevance. These measures are analysed from a legal standpoint,
mobilising international, European and national standards to
understand their feasibility and adequacy in the current era of
digitalization.
Francisco C. P. Andrade and José Carlos Bacelar de Almeida wrote an
interdisciplinary chapter on “Digital signatures and quantum
computing”. The chapter explores the threats of quantum computing for
the services of electronic identification, in accordance with Regulation
910/2014, and the particular risks related to digital signatures.
Finally, Ana Rodríguez Á lvarez presents the chapter “No words
needed? Emojis as evidence in judicial proceedings”. Being aware that
emojis are a part of our daily communications as a complement to what
their user feels, thinks or even wanted to express in words without
success, the author analyses the potential of emojis as evidence before
courts, highlighting the doubts and challenges they might pose to
judicial action in the present and future.
Part 3, which is dedicated to “Cybersecurity, ethics and fundamental
rights”, begins with the contribution of Joã o Paulo Magalhã es, titled
“Bug bounties: ethical and legal aspects”. The author discusses the role
of bug bounty programs in organisations, particularly when the number
of vulnerabilities and the cost of detecting them becomes lower, which
poses economic, ethical and legal issues, and requires the attention of
national and international cybersecurity authorities.
In the next chapter, “Profiling and cybersecurity: a perspective from
fundamental rights’ protection in the EU”, Alessandra Silveira examines
the relationship between data protection and AI systems, focusing on
GDPR’s legal solutions for defending individuals against certain AI
applications, such as profiling and automated decisions. The author
assesses whether legal remedies are available to challenge automated
inferences that are not reasonably justified, considering the
fundamental referral stemming from Article 8 of the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The third chapter—“Legal developments on smart public
governance and fundamental rights in the digital age”–, is authored by
Isabel Celeste Fonseca and Joel Alves. They reflect on the obligation of
public administration to explore digital solutions for “smartification of
public governance” while still strictly respecting citizens’ fundamental
rights and freedoms.
Francisco C.P. Andrade, Ana Silva and Ricardo Guimarã es analyse
“Biometric signatures in the context of Regulation (EU) nr. 920/2014
and the general data protection regulation: the evidential value and
anonymization of biometric data”. This approach combines the analyses
of two important EU regulations, the General Data Protection
Regulation and the eIDAS Regulation, and explores the topics of
evidence and anonymization.
The book concludes with Joana Covelo de Abreu’s chapter on
“Cybersecurity issues in electronic communications and some insights
on digital literacy and technological infrastructures’ demands –
anticipations of the European Digital Decade through the lens of a
Declaration on digital rights and principles”. The author examines the
digital divide in the European Union and its impact on cybersecurity
demands, which has prompted political policymakers in the European
Union to adopt two major goals in the digital decade: to enhance digital
literacy and skills, and to establish secure and high-performing
sustainable digital infrastructures. This chapter explores whether these
goals can be achieved and if the European Declaration on digital rights
and principles can “deploy and foster this digital decade”.
This book owes its existence to its authors and their invaluable
contributions. Since the very beginning they demonstrated full
availability to meet rigorous deadlines and cooperate intensively with
the Scientific Editors. Such dedication warrants special recognition.
Special mention should also be given to JusGov—Research Centre
on Justice and Governance, as it provided a platform for the Scientific
Editors to convene and engage in discussions on new and disruptive
scenarios concerning cybersecurity. In this sense, Patrícia Jeró nimo—
former Director of JusGov—played a vital role to this book’s debut.
Finally, the Scientific Editors would like to express their gratitude to
Springer for its unwavering support, which has helped them to turn this
book into a reality.
Part I
Cybersecurity, Cyberdefence and Law
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
F. A. Carneiro Pacheco de Andrade et al. (eds.), Legal Developments on Cybersecurity
and Related Fields, Law, Governance and Technology Series 60
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41820-4_2

Getting Critical: Making Sense of the EU


Cybersecurity Framework for Cloud
Providers
Ian Walden1 and Johan David Michels1
(1) Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of
London, London, UK

Ian Walden (Corresponding author)


Email: [email protected]

Johan David Michels


Email: [email protected]

Abstract
In this chapter, we review how the EU cybersecurity regulatory
framework impacts providers of cloud computing services. We examine
the evolving regulatory treatment of cloud services as an enabler of the
EU’s digital economy and question whether all cloud services should be
treated as critical infrastructure. Further, we look at how the
safeguarding and incident notification obligations under the General
Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and the Network and Information
Systems Directive (‘NISD’) apply to cloud providers. We also consider
how these obligations will develop under the NIS 2 Directive (‘NIS2’)
and look at what newly developed voluntary assurance mechanisms
mean for cloud providers, including codes of conduct and certification
schemes. We conclude that, since cloud providers are typically subject
to both NISD and GDPR and to jurisdiction from multiple regulators,
they face divergent regulatory approaches, which can lead to
unintended outcomes and high compliance costs.

Keywords Cybersecurity – Regulation – Data protection law – Critical


infrastructure – Cloud computing – Cloud services – Risk management
– Incident notification
Ian Walden is Professor of Information and Communications Law at
the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of
London. His publications include Media Law and Practice (2009), Free
and Open Source Software (2013), Computer Crimes and Digital
Investigations (2nd ed., 2016) and Telecommunications Law and
Regulation (5th ed., 2018). Ian has been a visiting professor at the
universities of Texas, Melbourne and KU Leuven. Ian has been involved
in law reform projects for the World Bank, European Commission,
Council of Europe, Commonwealth and UNCTAD, as well as numerous
individual states. Ian was an ‘expert nationaux détaché’ to the European
Commission (1995–1996); Board Member and Trustee of the Internet
Watch Foundation (2004–2009); on the Executive Board of the UK
Council for Child Internet Safety (2010–2012); the Press Complaints
Commission (2009–2014); a member of the RUSI Independent
Surveillance Review (2014–2015); a member of the Code Adjudication
Panel at the Phone-paid Services Authority (2016–2021); a member of
the European Commission Expert Group to support the application of
the GDPR (2017–2021), and is a Non-Executive Board Member of the
Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (2020-). Ian is a solicitor and
Of Counsel to Baker McKenzie. Ian leads Queen Mary’s qLegal initiative
and is a principal investigator on the Cloud Legal Project and co-author
of Cloud Computing Law (2nd edn., 2021).

Johan David Michels is a Researcher in the Microsoft-funded Cloud


Legal Project, a PhD candidate at Queen Mary University of London
(QMUL), and a guest teacher at the London School of Economics (LSE).
He has over 10 years’ experience working in law and policy, including at
the communications regulator Ofcom and at the United Nations war
crimes tribunal in The Hague. He has lectured and taught seminars at
QMUL and LSE covering e-Commerce, IP, and information security and
the law. He is a co-author of Cloud Computing Law (2nd edn., OUP,
2021) and has published articles on a range of technology law issues,
including cloud contracts, copyright, crypto-currency, and
cybersecurity. He holds LLMs from the LSE (with distinction, 2014) and
from the University of Amsterdam (cum laude, 2009) and studied at
Columbia Law School in New York (2008). His PhD looks at the legal
protection of digital assets.

1 Introduction
The EU cybersecurity regulatory framework has developed rapidly over
recent years, both in terms of breadth and depth. In 2018, the General
Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’)1 and the Network and Information
Systems Directive (‘NISD’)2 came into force. In 2019, the EU
Cybersecurity Act followed.3 In 2023, the Network and Information
Systems 2 Directive (‘NIS2’) came into force, which replaces the NISD.4
In this chapter, we review what these developments mean for providers
of cloud computing services (‘cloud providers’). We start by examining
the evolving treatment of cloud computing services as an enabler of the
EU’s digital economy and as critical infrastructure. Then, we review the
two core components of the EU cybersecurity framework, namely: (i)
safeguarding obligations (including voluntary schemes of assurance),
and (ii) incident notification obligations. Finally, we consider issues of
jurisdiction, oversight, and enforcement. Throughout, we reflect
critically on the evolving regulatory framework and highlight strengths
and shortcomings.
Our focus is on the security requirements the GPDR and NISD
impose on cloud providers directly and generally. We do not cover EU
legislation that imposes security requirements on cloud customers and
so might impact cloud providers indirectly, as part of the supply chain,
through contract negotiations. Nor do we examine sectoral
requirements, such as the Regulation on Digital Operational Resilience
in the financial sector (‘DORA’), which applies both to financial entities
and to designated cloud providers directly as critical third-party ICT
service providers to the financial sector.5 Finally, we do not cover the
Directive on Critical Entities’ Resilience (‘CERD’), which replaces the
European Critical Infrastructure Directive.6 Cloud providers are
covered directly by the CERD as ‘critical entities’. This means Member
States can identify them as critical providers and include them in their
risk assessments and strategies.7 However, the CERD does not impose
cybersecurity obligations on cloud providers directly, since their
physical security is already regulated as part of cybersecurity under the
NISD.8 Other elements of the EU cybersecurity framework beyond the
scope of this chapter include strengthening and harmonizing criminal
law,9 and the provision of trust services.10

2 Scope: Cloud as a Regulated Activity


In a little over 10 years, cloud computing has become the dominant
paradigm for data processing. Survey evidence indicates that, as of
2020, 90% of companies used cloud services, running half of their
workload and storing half of their data in the public cloud.11 As a result,
the market for public cloud services grew to $270bn in 2020.12 As cloud
computing spread, it raised challenges for applying existing laws and
regulations, not least with respect to data protection laws.13 However,
until recently, cloud computing was not a distinct regulated activity,
separate from other models for processing data, such as outsourcing.
With the NISD, that changed. In 2018, the provision of cloud services
became the subject of separate regulatory treatment in the context of
cybersecurity.
Cloud computing offers data processing capacity in a flexible,
efficient, and readily-accessible manner.14 Accessing remote computing
resources depends on connectivity over communications networks
such as the public internet. As examined below, this communications
network infrastructure is treated as a separate regulated activity from
the networking that comprises part of a cloud computing service. Cloud
computing is typically distinguished into three service types:
infrastructure-as-a-service (‘IaaS’), platform-as-a-service (‘PaaS’) and
software-as-a-service (‘SaaS’).15 The deployment of cloud computing
can also be divided into different categories, such as public cloud,
private cloud, community schemes, and hybrid implementations.16
While these distinctions do not fully reflect the reality of this large and
diverse sector, they can aid legal and policy analysis by highlighting
different technical and market conditions.
The NISD imposes obligations specifically on providers of cloud
computing services, while the GDPR is of general application, but
creates complex issues when applied to some cloud providers. This
section critically examines this twin-track regulatory approach. Given
the prevalence of cloud computing, we question whether it is useful to
distinguish between the regulation of cloud services specifically on the
one hand, and generic behaviours, such as processing personal data, on
the other. This approach can create a regulatory mess that obscures
rather than clarifies cybersecurity obligations and imposes
unnecessary additional compliance burdens.

2.1 Cloud Providers as Regulated Providers of


Critical Infrastructure
Under the NISD, the term ‘networks’ is shorthand for electronic
communication networks,17 as defined under the New Regulatory
Framework,18 although public electronic communications network
(read: external service providers) are excluded from the NISD regime.19
By contrast, the notion of ‘information systems’ encompasses both on-
premises devices for ‘processing digital data’, as well as the external
provision of processing capacity in the form of services such as cloud
computing.20 Cloud computing services primarily fall under the concept
of information society services, regulated under the eCommerce
Directive.21 This covers services provided by electronic means, at a
distance, and at the request of the service recipient. These services are
also referred to as ‘OTT’, since they are provided ‘over-the-top’ of the
underlying electronic communications networks.
Telecoms networks typically had monopolistic origins and a utility-
like nature. As a result, security (in terms of confidentiality, integrity
and availability) has always been a key element of the EU regulatory
framework. It was traditionally described as an ‘essential requirement’,
embodying the ‘general public interest’.22 However, until 2009, the
regulator was tasked with ensuring security,23 through instruments
such as prior authorisation.24 This changed with the 2009 reform,
which imposed safeguarding and incident notification obligations
directly on operators.25 In addition, sectoral data protection rules
added another layer of security obligations upon providers of ‘publicly
available electronic communication services’.26
In contrast, the regulation of information society services started
from the opposite end of the spectrum. In the early 2000s, these newly
emerging services were subjected to a light-touch regulatory approach,
designed primarily to facilitate their development. At the height of the
first dot.com boom, security was not considered a key regulatory need,
because the marketplace for these emerging services was characterised
by diversity, innovation, and consumer choice.
The regulation of information society services has changed with the
NISD and the reform of telecommunications law. First, the NISD
imposed safeguarding and notification obligations on digital services
providers (or ‘DSPs’), which included cloud computing services.
Second, the European Electronic Communications Code extended the
scope of what constitutes an ‘electronic communications service’, and
as a consequence the safeguarding and notification obligations, to
encompass operators of ‘interpersonal communication services’, which
includes cloud-based messaging services.27 These developments
therefore represented a fundamental regulatory shift for cloud services,
aligning their regulatory obligations more closely with those of
telecoms network operators. The marketplace of information society
services has also fundamentally changed over the past two decades,
with increased uptake of cloud services, as well as the development of
complex supply chains and ever more nuanced service differentiation.
This raises the question: should all cloud service be treated as akin
to critical infrastructure? The Commission’s original proposal for an
NISD listed six types of market operators:
1. e-commerce platforms;

2. internet payment gateways;


3. social networks;

4. search engines;

5. cloud computing services; and,

6. application stores.28

This list was intended to be non-exhaustive, meaning that the measures


could extend to other types of service providers.29 According to the
Commission, the distinguishing criterion was information society
services that “enable the provision of other information services”,
meaning services which “underpin downstream information society
services or on-line activities”.30 The Proposal explicitly excluded
“software developers and hardware manufacturers”, a distinction that
remains in the final version.31 In the final version of the NISD, the list of
DSPs became exhaustive and was trimmed down from six to three. Yet
the NISD rationale for the inclusion of the listed categories of DSPs
became even more vague. The limitation to supply chains for the
provision of other information society services disappeared, since all
types of persons and entities rely on DSP services. Instead, the NISD
stated that such services “could be an important resource for their
users” and therefore reliance may be a source of vulnerability as “users
might not always have alternatives available” [emphasis added].
Further, “many businesses in the Union increasingly rely” on DSPs “for
the smooth functioning” of their businesses. As a result, disruption of
DSP services could impact “key economic and societal activities in the
Union”. 32
At face value, this seems a remarkably weak basis upon which to
justify the imposition of a regulatory regime, with no evidence data
proffered to support it. The stated rationale suggests two possible
underlying factors: (i) widespread uptake and reliance; and (ii) limited
alternative suppliers. As noted above, survey evidence certainly
indicates that the use of cloud services is widespread. However, the
degree to which users rely on such services “for the smooth functioning
of their business” would seem to differ per service, depending on its
functionality. SaaS services in particular support a wide range of
different operational functions, from advertising on social media to
backing-up files. Not all of these functions are equally ‘critical’.
In terms of available ‘alternatives’, this could be as a result of market
concentration and/or vendor lock-in, due to high switching costs. While
a full market assessment lies beyond the scope of this paper, it could be
argued that there is significant market concentration in the IaaS sector,
particularly in the form of the hyperscale providers AWS, Microsoft
Azure and Google Cloud.33 Similar to telecoms networks, the IaaS
market features high sunk costs and therefore may tend towards
oligopoly. However, market conditions appear to differ at the PaaS and
SaaS layers, although some have expressed concerns that market power
at the IaaS layer might enable hyperscale providers to influence the
markets for PaaS and SaaS.34 However, a competition-led rationale
would seem difficult to justify given the current scale and diversity of
the market, especially at the SaaS layer. The imposition of additional
cybersecurity obligations could also have the counterproductive effect
of entrenching market concentration by increasing regulatory costs
that are borne most easily by larger operators. 35
In terms of vendor lock-in, the ease of switching between cloud
providers would depend on service type, as well as the applications
deployed and the amount and format of data stored in the cloud. The
on-demand, self-service nature of cloud services certainly provides
customers with flexibility that should support switching, although, in
practice, migrating applications and large data sets can be technically
challenging, costly and time-consuming. Nonetheless, regulation has
been introduced to facilitate porting of data between service providers,
designed to lower switching costs.36 Further, in February 2022, the
Commission proposed a new regulation referred to as the ‘Data Act’.37
This imposes obligations on “providers of data processing services” to
remove obstacles to porting data, as well as obligations on IaaS-
providers specifically to support switching.38 Second, there is a greater
potential capability of cloud users to self-provision some or all of the
facilities received ‘as-a-service’. This distinguishes cloud from other
‘critical’ infrastructures that are not generally replicable in-house.
Third, in terms of security, where a business completely relies on a
single cloud provider for its “smooth functioning”, such ‘single-sourcing’
would itself seem to be a poor security practice – and potentially an
issue of corporate governance in terms of meeting obligations to ensure
business continuity.39 In sum, the argument for treating all cloud
services as critical infrastructure, akin to telecoms networks, appears
under-developed, at best, and weak, at worst.
Finally, the NISD distinction between software offered ‘as-a-product’
and ‘as-a-service’ also seems problematic, as well as being an age-old
debate with the field of computer law. 40 The only justification proffered
for excluding hardware manufacturers and software developers from
the regime is that they are “already subject to existing rules on product
liability”.41 Although liability incentives are one element of a
comprehensive policy response to enhancing security, they are more
complex and convoluted tools for signalling and facilitating behavioural
change than the imposition of direct compliance obligations. This is
even more true in respect of product liability, where the regime has
largely fallen into disuse.42 Further action is needed in this space and
has begun. In 2022, the Commission adopted a measure on the
cybersecurity of radio equipment;43 while the UK enacted the Product
Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, which
requires manufacturers, importers or distributors of ‘relevant
connectable products’, such as IoT devices, to implement certain
security requirements.44
The NIS2 promotes providers of cloud computing services to
‘essential entities’ (the new ‘higher’ category that replaces operators of
essential services or ‘OES’), together with data centre providers and
content delivery network (‘CDN’) providers. Cloud, data centre, and
CDN providers fall in the ‘digital infrastructure’ category of essential
entities. alongside Internet Exchange Point (‘IXP’) providers, Domain
Name System (‘DNS’) service providers, and Top Level Domain (‘TLD’)
registries (which are all currently regulated as OES under the NISD). In
addition, the NIS2 introduces “ICT service management” as a new
category of essential entity, which includes managed service providers.
By contrast, online marketplaces and online search engines remain
merely ‘important entities’ (the new ‘lower’ category that replaces
DSPs), together with newly regulated social networking service
platforms. 45 In its proposal, the Commission had stated that the
recategorization took into account both “the level of criticality of the
sector or of the type of service, as well as the level of dependency of
other sectors or types of service”. Unfortunately, the Commission failed
to provide analysis or evidence to indicate how these factors have been
measured and assessed.46 Treating all cloud services as essential (as
opposed to merely important) is particularly problematic since, as we
have argued above, the argument for treating all cloud services as
critical is itself under-developed.
Further, the NIS2 also alters the definition of cloud computing in
three respects. First, it is unclear whether the current definition under
NISD covers private cloud, which arguably does not involve ‘shareable’
resources, since it typically entails physically separated hardware for
each customer.47 We have previously argued that private cloud should
be considered critical, since disruption of private cloud could equally
have far-reaching effects on key economic and societal activities, given
the widespread adoption of corporate hybrid cloud strategies.48 The
new definition under NIS2 explicitly includes all deployment models,
including private cloud. That said, private cloud deployments might not
involve access to an “elastic pool of shareable” resource (defined as
different users being served “from the same underlying equipment”),
which remains part of the NIS2 definition of cloud.49 The definition
therefore seems internally inconsistent. Second, cloud services should
enable “on-demand administration”, which is described as the
capability for a “user to unilaterally self-provision”.50 While part of the
standard NIST definition, 51 it is not immediately obvious why this
characteristic is a necessary part of the new legal definition, unless the
implication is that self-provision generates greater security risks. Third,
it must involve remote access to resources. This could be interpreted as
excluding on-premises private cloud services, 52 although the use of on-
premises resources can be viewed either as a security risk or a
mitigation measure. The amended definition of cloud still contains
ambiguities, that might make it more difficult for service providers to
determine whether they fall within the regulation’s scope.53
2.2 Cloud Providers as Regulated Processors of
Personal Data
The GDPR applies generally to the processing of personal data. Under
the GDPR, security is a critical component of the compliance regime.
Controllers have an obligation to comply with, and be able to
demonstrate compliance with, the ‘integrity and confidentiality’
principle, by which they should ensure that any personal data is
processed with ‘appropriate security’.54 This principle is then
elaborated into specific obligations on both controller and processor to
implement ‘appropriate technical and organisational measures’; which
are examined further below in Sect. 3. While controllers and processors
share certain obligations, the compliance burden sits more heavily with
the controller than the processor. It is therefore important to consider
the different roles of cloud computing providers under the GDPR
regime, as controller, joint controller, processor and/or sub-
processor.55
With respect to personal data placed on a cloud service by a
customer, cloud providers are normally viewed as processors or sub-
processors, processing data on behalf of the customer as controller.
This is likely to be more obviously the case the further down the cloud
supply chain, with PaaS and IaaS providers exercising less control over
the customer’s processing activity than a SaaS provider, who may,
depending on the nature of the processing activity and relationship
with the customer, be considered a joint controller in respect of certain
personal data.56 Conversely, for personal data generated through use of
the cloud service by the cloud customer and its users, as meta-data, the
cloud provider will generally be acting as the controller. However, any
determination of the regulatory status of a provider of cloud computing
services will ultimately be based on their actual role in the particular
circumstances, rather than any designation contained in contractual
statements.57
While the GDPR operates on the presumption that the controller
issues instructions to the processor, in the cloud market, the service
provider as processor will generally determine the conditions under
which the service is used and thereby the ability of the controller to
meet its compliance obligations. Indeed, given the size of some of the
Another random document with
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marked touches, and it ends in vapid flippancy and impertinence.
Among our neighbours on the Continent, Moliere and Rabelais
carried the freedom of wit and humour to an almost incredible
height; but they rather belonged to the old French school, and even
approach and exceed the English licence and extravagance of
conception. I do not consider Congreve’s wit (though it belongs to
us) as coming under the article here spoken of; for his genius is any
thing but merry. Lord Byron was in the habit of railing at the spirit
of our good old comedy, and of abusing Shakspeare’s Clowns and
Fools, which he said the refinement of the French and Italian stage
would not endure, and which only our grossness and puerile taste
could tolerate. In this I agree with him; and it is pat to my purpose. I
flatter myself that we are almost the only people left who understand
and relish nonsense. We are not ‘merry and wise,’ but indulge our
mirth to excess and folly. When we trifle, we trifle in good earnest;
and having once relaxed our hold of the helm, drift idly down the
stream, and delighted with the change are tossed about ‘by every
little breath’ of whim or caprice,
‘That under Heaven is blown.’

All we then want is to proclaim a truce with reason, and to be pleased


with as little expense of thought or pretension to wisdom as possible.
This licensed fooling is carried to its very utmost length in
Shakspeare, and in some other of our elder dramatists, without,
perhaps, sufficient warrant or the same excuse. Nothing can justify
this extreme relaxation but extreme tension. Shakspeare’s trifling
does indeed tread upon the very borders of vacancy: his meaning
often hangs by the very slenderest threads. For this he might be
blamed if it did not take away our breath to follow his eagle flights, or
if he did not at other times make the cordage of our hearts crack.
After our heads ache with thinking, it is fair to play the fool. The
clowns were as proper an appendage to the gravity of our antique
literature, as fools and dwarfs were to the stately dignity of courts
and noble houses in former days. Of all people, they have the best
right to claim a total exemption from rules and rigid formality, who,
when they have any thing of importance to do, set about it with the
greatest earnestness and perseverance, and are generally grave and
sober to a proverb.[7] Poor Swift, who wrote more idle or nonsense
verses than any man, was the severest of moralists; and his feelings
and observations morbidly acute. Did not Lord Byron himself follow
up his Childe Harold with his Don Juan?—not that I insist on what
he did as an illustration of the English character. He was one of the
English Nobility, not one of the English People; and his occasional
ease and familiarity were in my mind equally constrained and
affected, whether in relation to the pretensions of his rank or the
efforts of his genius.
They ask you in France, how you pass your time in England
without amusements; and can with difficulty believe that there are
theatres in London, still less that they are larger and handsomer than
those in Paris. That we should have comic actors, ‘they own,
surprises them.’ They judge of the English character in the lump as
one great jolter-head, containing all the stupidity of the country, as
the large ball at the top of the Dispensary in Warwick-lane, from its
resemblance to a gilded pill, has been made to represent the whole
pharmacopœia and professional quackery of the kingdom. They have
no more notion, for instance, how we should have such an actor as
Liston on our stage, than if we were to tell them we have parts
performed by a sea-otter; nor if they were to see him, would they be
much the wiser, or know what to think of his unaccountable twitches
of countenance or nondescript gestures, of his teeth chattering in his
head, his eyes that seem dropping from their sockets, his nose that is
tickled by a jest as by a feather and shining with self-complacency as
if oiled, his ignorant conceit, his gaping stupor, his lumpish vivacity
in Lubin Log or Tony Lumpkin; for as our rivals do not wind up the
machine to such a determined intensity of purpose, neither have they
any idea of its running down to such degrees of imbecility and folly,
or coming to an absolute stand still and lack of meaning, nor can
they enter into or be amused with the contrast. No people ever laugh
heartily who can give a reason for their doing so: and I believe the
English in general are not yet in this predicament. They are not
metaphysical, but very much in a state of nature; and this is one
main ground why I give them credit for being merry,
notwithstanding appearances. Their mirth is not the mirth of vice or
desperation, but of innocence and a native wildness. They do not
cavil or boggle at niceties, and not merely come to the edge of a joke,
but break their necks over it with a wanton ‘Here goes,’ where others
make a pirouette and stand upon decorum. The French cannot,
however, be persuaded of the excellence of our comic stage, nor of
the store we set by it. When they ask what amusements we have, it is
plain they can never have heard of Mrs. Jordan, nor King, nor
Bannister, nor Suett, nor Munden, nor Lewis, nor little Simmons,
nor Dodd, and Parsons, and Emery, and Miss Pope, and Miss Farren,
and all those who even in my time have gladdened a nation and
‘made life’s business like a summer’s dream.’ Can I think of them,
and of their names that glittered in the playbills when I was young,
exciting all the flutter of hope and expectation of seeing them in their
favourite parts of Nell, or Little Pickle, or Touchstone, or Sir Peter
Teazle, or Lenitive in the Prize, or Lingo, or Crabtree, or Nipperkin,
or old Dornton, or Ranger, or the Copper Captain, or Lord Sands, or
Filch, or Moses, or Sir Andrew Aguecheek, or Acres, or Elbow, or
Hodge, or Flora, or the Duenna, or Lady Teazle, or Lady Grace, or of
the gaiety that sparkled in all eyes, and the delight that overflowed all
hearts, as they glanced before us in these parts,
‘Throwing a gaudy shadow upon life,’—

and not feel my heart yearn within me, or couple the thoughts of
England and the spleen together? Our cloud has at least its rainbow
tints; ours is not one long polar night of cold and dulness, but we
have the gleaming lights of fancy to amuse us, the household fires of
truth and genius to warm us. We can go to a play and see Liston; or
stay at home and read Roderick Random; or have Hogarth’s prints of
Marriage à la Mode hanging round our room. ‘Tut! there’s livers
even in England,’ as well as ‘out of it.’ We are not quite the forlorn
hope of humanity, the last of nations. The French look at us across
the Channel, and seeing nothing but water and a cloudy mist, think
that this is England.
——‘What’s our Britain
In the world’s volume? In a great pool a swan’s nest.’

If they have any farther idea of us, it is of George III. and our Jack
tars, the House of Lords and House of Commons, and this is no great
addition to us. To go beyond this, to talk of arts and elegances as
having taken up their abode here, or to say that Mrs. Abington was
equal to Mademoiselle Mars, and that we at one time got up the
‘School for Scandal,’ as they do the ‘Misanthrope,’ is to persuade
them that Iceland is a pleasant summer-retreat, or to recommend the
whale-fishery as a classical amusement. The French are the cockneys
of Europe, and have no idea how any one can exist out of Paris, or be
alive without incessant grimace and jabber. Yet what imports it?
What! though the joyous train I have just enumerated were, perhaps,
never heard of in the precincts of the Palais-Royal, is it not enough
that they gave pleasure where they were, to those who saw and heard
them? Must our laugh, to be sincere, have its echo on the other side
of the water? Had not the French their favourites and their
enjoyments at the time, that we knew nothing of? Why then should
we not have ours (and boast of them too) without their leave? A
monopoly of self-conceit is not a monopoly of all other advantages.
The English, when they go abroad, do not take away the prejudice
against them by their looks. We seem duller and sadder than we are.
As I write this, I am sitting in the open air in a beautiful valley, near
Vevey: Clarens is on my left, the Dent de Jamant is behind me, the
rocks of Meillerie opposite: under my feet is a green bank, enamelled
with white and purple flowers, in which a dew-drop here and there
still glitters with pearly light—
‘And gaudy butterflies flutter around.’

Intent upon the scene and upon the thoughts that stir within me, I
conjure up the cheerful passages of my life, and a crowd of happy
images appear before me. No one would see it in my looks—my eyes
grow dull and fixed, and I seem rooted to the spot, as all this
phantasmagoria passes in review before me, glancing a reflex lustre
on the face of the world and nature. But the traces of pleasure, in my
case, sink into an absorbent ground of thoughtful melancholy, and
require to be brought out by time and circumstances, or (as the
critics tell you) by the varnish of style!
The comfort, on which the English lay so much stress, is of the
same character, and arises from the same source as their mirth. Both
exist by contrast and a sort of contradiction. The English are
certainly the most uncomfortable of all people in themselves, and
therefore it is that they stand in need of every kind of comfort and
accommodation. The least thing puts them out of their way, and
therefore every thing must be in its place. They are mightily offended
at disagreeable tastes and smells, and therefore they exact the utmost
neatness and nicety. They are sensible of heat and cold, and
therefore they cannot exist, unless every thing is snug and warm, or
else open and airy, where they are. They must have ‘all appliances
and means to boot.’ They are afraid of interruption and intrusion,
and therefore they shut themselves up in in-door enjoyments and by
their own firesides. It is not that they require luxuries (for that
implies a high degree of epicurean indulgence and gratification), but
they cannot do without their comforts; that is, whatever tends to
supply their physical wants, and ward off physical pain and
annoyance. As they have not a fund of animal spirits and enjoyments
in themselves, they cling to external objects for support, and derive
solid satisfaction from the ideas of order, cleanliness, plenty,
property, and domestic quiet, as they seek for diversion from odd
accidents and grotesque surprises, and have the highest possible
relish not of voluptuous softness, but of hard knocks and dry blows,
as one means of ascertaining their personal identity.
OF PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE
SEEN

The New Monthly Magazine.]


[January, 1826.
‘Come like shadows—so depart.’

B—— it was, I think, who suggested this subject, as well as the


defence of Guy Faux, which I urged him to execute. As, however, he
would undertake neither, I suppose I must do both—a task for which
he would have been much fitter, no less from the temerity than the
felicity of his pen—
‘Never so sure our rapture to create
As when it touch’d the brink of all we hate.’

Compared with him I shall, I fear, make but a common-place piece of


business of it; but I should be loth the idea was entirely lost, and
besides I may avail myself of some hints of his in the progress of it. I
am sometimes, I suspect, a better reporter of the ideas of other
people than expounder of my own. I pursue the one too far into
paradox or mysticism; the others I am not bound to follow farther
than I like, or than seems fair and reasonable.
On the question being started, A—— said, ‘I suppose the two first
persons you would choose to see would be the two greatest names in
English literature, Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Locke?’ In this A——, as
usual, reckoned without his host. Every one burst out a laughing at
the expression of B——’s face, in which impatience was restrained by
courtesy. ‘Yes, the greatest names,’ he stammered out hastily, ‘but
they were not persons—not persons.’—‘Not persons?’ said A——,
looking wise and foolish at the same time, afraid his triumph might
be premature. ‘That is,’ rejoined B——, ‘not characters, you know. By
Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac Newton, you mean the Essay on the Human
Understanding, and the Principia, which we have to this day. Beyond
their contents there is nothing personally interesting in the men. But
what we want to see any one bodily for, is when there is something
peculiar, striking in the individuals, more than we can learn from
their writings, and yet are curious to know. I dare say Locke and
Newton were very like Kneller’s portraits of them. But who could
paint Shakspeare?’—‘Ay,’ retorted A——, ‘there it is; then I suppose
you would prefer seeing him and Milton instead?’—‘No,’ said B——,
‘neither. I have seen so much of Shakspeare on the stage and on
book-stalls, in frontispieces and on mantle-pieces, that I am quite
tired of the everlasting repetition: and as to Milton’s face, the
impressions that have come down to us of it I do not like; it is too
starched and puritanical; and I should be afraid of losing some of the
manna of his poetry in the leaven of his countenance and the
precisian’s band and gown.’—‘I shall guess no more,’ said A——.
‘Who is it, then, you would like to see “in his habit as he lived,” if you
had your choice of the whole range of English literature?’ B—— then
named Sir Thomas Brown and Fulke Greville, the friend of Sir Philip
Sidney, as the two worthies whom he should feel the greatest
pleasure to encounter on the floor of his apartment in their
nightgown and slippers, and to exchange friendly greeting with
them. At this A—— laughed outright, and conceived B—— was jesting
with him; but as no one followed his example, he thought there
might be something in it, and waited for an explanation in a state of
whimsical suspense. B—— then (as well as I can remember a
conversation that passed twenty years ago—how time slips!) went on
as follows. ‘The reason why I pitch upon these two authors is, that
their writings are riddles, and they themselves the most mysterious
of personages. They resemble the soothsayers of old, who dealt in
dark hints and doubtful oracles; and I should like to ask them the
meaning of what no mortal but themselves, I should suppose, can
fathom. There is Dr. Johnson, I have no curiosity, no strange
uncertainty about him: he and Boswell together have pretty well let
me into the secret of what passed through his mind. He and other
writers like him are sufficiently explicit: my friends, whose repose I
should be tempted to disturb, (were it in my power) are implicit,
inextricable, inscrutable.
“And call up him who left half-told
The story of Cambuscan bold.”

‘When I look at that obscure but gorgeous prose-composition (the


Urn-burial) I seem to myself to look into a deep abyss, at the bottom
of which are hid pearls and rich treasure; or it is like a stately
labyrinth of doubt and withering speculation, and I would invoke the
spirit of the author to lead me through it. Besides, who would not be
curious to see the lineaments of a man who, having himself been
twice married, wished that mankind were propagated like trees! As
to Fulke Greville, he is like nothing but one of his own “Prologues
spoken by the ghost of an old king of Ormus,” a truly formidable and
inviting personage: his style is apocalyptical, cabalistical, a knot
worthy of such an apparition to untie; and for the unravelling a
passage or two, I would stand the brunt of an encounter with so
portentous a commentator!’—‘I am afraid in that case,’ said A——,
‘that if the mystery were once cleared up, the merit might be lost;‘—
and turning to me, whispered a friendly apprehension, that while B
—— continued to admire these old crabbed authors, he would never
become a popular writer. Dr. Donne was mentioned as a writer of the
same period, with a very interesting countenance, whose history was
singular, and whose meaning was often quite as uncomeatable,
without a personal citation from the dead, as that of any of his
contemporaries. The volume was produced; and while some one was
expatiating on the exquisite simplicity and beauty of the portrait
prefixed to the old edition, A—— got hold of the poetry, and
exclaiming ‘What have we here?’ read the following:—
‘Here lies a She-Sun and a He-Moon there,
She gives the best light to his sphere,
Or each is both and all, and so
They unto one another nothing owe.’

There was no resisting this, till B——, seizing the volume, turned to
the beautiful ‘Lines to his Mistress,’ dissuading her from
accompanying him abroad, and read them with suffused features and
a faltering tongue.
‘By our first strange and fatal interview,
By all desires which thereof did ensue,
By our long starving hopes, by that remorse
Which my words’ masculine persuasive force
Begot in thee, and by the memory
Of hurts, which spies and rivals threaten’d me,
I calmly beg. But by thy father’s wrath,
By all pains which want and divorcement hath,
I conjure thee; and all the oaths which I
And thou have sworn to seal joint constancy
Here I unswear, and overswear them thus,
Thou shalt not love by ways so dangerous.
Temper, oh fair Love! love’s impetuous rage,
Be my true mistress still, not my feign’d Page;
I’ll go, and, by thy kind leave, leave behind
Thee, only worthy to nurse in my mind.
Thirst to come back; oh, if thou die before,
My soul from other lands to thee shall soar.
Thy (else Almighty) beauty cannot move
Rage from the seas, nor thy love teach them love,
Nor tame wild Boreas’ harshness; thou hast read
How roughly he in pieces shiver’d
Fair Orithea, whom he swore he lov’d.
Fall ill or good, ’tis madness to have prov’d
Dangers unurg’d: Feed on this flattery,
That absent lovers one with th’ other be.
Dissemble nothing, not a boy; nor change
Thy body’s habit, nor mind; be not strange
To thyself only. All will spy in thy face
A blushing, womanly, discovering grace.
Richly cloth’d apes are called apes, and as soon
Eclips’d as bright we call the moon the moon.
Men of France, changeable cameleons,
Spittles of diseases, shops of fashions,
Love’s fuellers, and the rightest company
Of players, which upon the world’s stage be,
Will quickly know thee.... O stay here! for thee
England is only a worthy gallery,
To walk in expectation; till from thence
Our greatest King call thee to his presence.
When I am gone, dream me some happiness,
Nor let thy looks our long hid love confess,
Nor praise, nor dispraise me; nor bless, nor curse
Openly love’s force, nor in bed fright thy nurse
With midnight startings, crying out, Oh, oh,
Nurse, oh, my love is slain, I saw him go
O’er the white Alps alone; I saw him, I,
Assail’d, fight, taken, stabb’d, bleed, fall, and die.
Augur me better chance, except dread Jove
Think it enough for me to have had thy love.’

Some one then inquired of B—— if we could not see from the
window the Temple-walk in which Chaucer used to take his exercise;
and on his name being put to the vote, I was pleased to find that
there was a general sensation in his favour in all but A——, who said
something about the ruggedness of the metre, and even objected to
the quaintness of the orthography. I was vexed at this superficial
gloss, pertinaciously reducing every thing to its own trite level, and
asked ‘if he did not think it would be worth while to scan the eye that
had first greeted the Muse in that dim twilight and early dawn of
English literature; to see the head, round which the visions of fancy
must have played like gleams of inspiration or a sudden glory; to
watch those lips that “lisped in numbers, for the numbers came”—as
by a miracle, or as if the dumb should speak? Nor was it alone that he
had been the first to tune his native tongue (however imperfectly to
modern ears); but he was himself a noble, manly character, standing
before his age and striving to advance it; a pleasant humourist
withal, who has not only handed down to us the living manners of his
time, but had, no doubt, store of curious and quaint devices, and
would make as hearty a companion as Mine Host of Tabard. His
interview with Petrarch is fraught with interest. Yet I would rather
have seen Chaucer in company with the author of the Decameron,
and have heard them exchange their best stories together, the
Squire’s Tale against the Story of the Falcon, the Wife of Bath’s
Prologue against the Adventures of Friar Albert. How fine to see the
high mysterious brow which learning then wore, relieved by the gay,
familiar tone of men of the world, and by the courtesies of genius.
Surely, the thoughts and feelings which passed through the minds of
these great revivers of learning, these Cadmuses who sowed the teeth
of letters, must have stamped an expression on their features, as
different from the moderns as their books, and well worth the
perusal. Dante,’ I continued, ‘is as interesting a person as his own
Ugolino, one whose lineaments curiosity would as eagerly devour in
order to penetrate his spirit, and the only one of the Italian poets I
should care much to see. There is a fine portrait of Ariosto by no less
a hand than Titian’s; light, Moorish, spirited, but not answering our
idea. The same artist’s large colossal profile of Peter Aretine is the
only likeness of the kind that has the effect of conversing with “the
mighty dead,” and this is truly spectral, ghastly, necromantic.’ B——
put it to me if I should like to see Spenser as well as Chaucer; and I
answered without hesitation, ‘No; for that his beauties were ideal,
visionary, not palpable or personal, and therefore connected with
less curiosity about the man. His poetry was the essence of romance,
a very halo round the bright orb of fancy; and the bringing in the
individual might dissolve the charm. No tones of voice could come
up to the mellifluous cadence of his verse; no form but of a winged
angel could vie with the airy shapes he has described. He was (to our
apprehensions) rather “a creature of the element, that lived in the
rainbow and played in the plighted clouds,” than an ordinary mortal.
Or if he did appear, I should wish it to be as a mere vision, like one of
his own pageants, and that he should pass by unquestioned like a
dream or sound—
——“That was Arion crown’d:
So went he playing on the wat’ry plain!”’

Captain C. muttered something about Columbus, and M. C. hinted


at the Wandering Jew; but the last was set aside as spurious, and the
first made over to the New World.
‘I should like,’ said Miss D——, ‘to have seen Pope talking with
Patty Blount; and I have seen Goldsmith.’ Every one turned round to
look at Miss D——, as if by so doing they too could get a sight of
Goldsmith.
‘Where,’ asked a harsh croaking voice, ‘was Dr. Johnson in the
years 1745–6? He did not write any thing that we know of, nor is
there any account of him in Boswell during those two years. Was he
in Scotland with the Pretender? He seems to have passed through
the scenes in the Highlands in company with Boswell many years
after “with lack-lustre eye,” yet as if they were familiar to him, or
associated in his mind with interests that he durst not explain. If so,
it would be an additional reason for my liking him; and I would give
something to have seen him seated in the tent with the youthful
Majesty of Britain, and penning the Proclamation to all true subjects
and adherents of the legitimate Government.’
‘I thought,’ said A——, turning short round upon B——, ‘that you of
the Lake School did not like Pope?’—‘Not like Pope! My dear sir, you
must be under a mistake—I can read him over and over for
ever!’—‘Why certainly, the “Essay on Man” must be masterpiece.’—‘It
may be so, but I seldom look into it.’—‘Oh! then it’s his Satires you
admire?’—‘No, not his Satires, but his friendly Epistles and his
compliments.’—‘Compliments! I did not know he ever made
any.’—‘The finest,’ said B——, ‘that were ever paid by the wit of man.
Each of them is worth an estate for life—nay, is an immortality.
There is that superb one to Lord Cornbury:
“Despise low joys, low gains;
Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains;
Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains.”

‘Was there ever more artful insinuation of idolatrous praise? And


then that noble apotheosis of his friend Lord Mansfield (however
little deserved), when, speaking of the House of Lords, he adds—
“Conspicuous scene! another yet is nigh,
(More silent far) where kings and poets lie;
Where Murray (long enough his country’s pride)
Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde!”

‘And with what a fine turn of indignant flattery he addresses Lord


Bolingbroke—
“Why rail they then, if but one wreath of mine,
Oh! all accomplish’d St. John, deck thy shrine?”

‘Or turn,’ continued B——, with a slight hectic on his cheek and his
eye glistening, ‘to his list of early friends:
“But why then publish? Granville the polite,
And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write;
Well-natured Garth inflamed with early praise,
And Congreve loved and Swift endured my lays:
The courtly Talbot, Somers, Sheffield read,
Ev’n mitred Rochester would nod the head;
And St. John’s self (great Dryden’s friend before)
Received with open arms one poet more.
Happy my studies, if by these approved!
Happier their author, if by these beloved!
From these the world will judge of men and books,
Not from the Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cooks.”’

Here his voice totally failed him, and throwing down the book, he
said, ‘Do you think I would not wish to have been friends with such a
man as this?’
‘What say you to Dryden?’—‘He rather made a show of himself,
and courted popularity in that lowest temple of Fame, a coffee-
house, so as in some measure to vulgarize one’s idea of him. Pope, on
the contrary, reached the very beau-ideal of what a poet’s life should
be; and his fame while living seemed to be an emanation from that
which was to circle his name after death. He was so far enviable (and
one would feel proud to have witnessed the rare spectacle in him)
that he was almost the only poet and man of genius who met with his
reward on this side of the tomb, who realized in friends, fortune, the
esteem of the world, the most sanguine hopes of a youthful ambition,
and who found that sort of patronage from the great during his
lifetime which they would be thought anxious to bestow upon him
after his death. Read Gay’s verses to him on his supposed return
from Greece, after his translation of Homer was finished, and say if
you would not gladly join the bright procession that welcomed him
home, or see it once more land at Whitehall-stairs.’—‘Still,’ said Miss
D——, ‘I would rather have seen him talking with Patty Blount, or
riding by in a coronet-coach with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu!’
E——, who was deep in a game of piquet at the other end of the
room, whispered to M. C. to ask if Junius would not be a fit person to
invoke from the dead. ‘Yes,’ said B——, ‘provided he would agree to
lay aside his mask.’
We were now at a stand for a short time, when Fielding was
mentioned as a candidate: only one, however, seconded the
proposition. ‘Richardson?’—‘By all means, but only to look at him
through the glass-door of his back-shop, hard at work upon one of
his novels (the most extraordinary contrast that ever was presented
between an author and his works), but not to let him come behind
his counter lest he should want you to turn customer, nor to go
upstairs with him, lest he should offer to read the first manuscript of
Sir Charles Grandison, which was originally written in eight and
twenty volumes octavo, or get out the letters of his female
correspondents, to prove that Joseph Andrews was low.’
There was but one statesman in the whole of English history that
any one expressed the least desire to see—Oliver Cromwell, with his
fine, frank, rough, pimply face, and wily policy;—and one enthusiast,
John Bunyan, the immortal author of the Pilgrim’s Progress. It
seemed that if he came into the room, dreams would follow him, and
that each person would nod under his golden cloud, ‘nigh-sphered in
Heaven,’ a canopy as strange and stately as any in Homer.
Of all persons near our own time, Garrick’s name was received
with the greatest enthusiasm, who was proposed by J. F——. He
presently superseded both Hogarth and Handel, who had been
talked of, but then it was on condition that he should act in tragedy
and comedy, in the play and the farce, Lear and Wildair and Abel
Drugger. What a sight for sore eyes that would be! Who would not
part with a year’s income at least, almost with a year of his natural
life, to be present at it? Besides, as he could not act alone, and
recitations are unsatisfactory things, what a troop he must bring with
him—the silver-tongued Barry, and Quin, and Shuter and Weston,
and Mrs. Clive and Mrs. Pritchard, of whom I have heard my father
speak as so great a favourite when he was young! This would indeed
be a revival of the dead, the restoring of art; and so much the more
desirable, as such is the lurking scepticism mingled with our
overstrained admiration of past excellence, that though we have the
speeches of Burke, the portraits of Reynolds, the writings of
Goldsmith, and the conversation of Johnson, to show what people
could do at that period, and to confirm the universal testimony to the
merits of Garrick; yet, as it was before our time, we have our
misgivings, as if he was probably after all little better than a
Bartlemy-fair actor, dressed out to play Macbeth in a scarlet coat and
laced cocked-hat. For one, I should like to have seen and heard with
my own eyes and ears. Certainly, by all accounts, if any one was ever
moved by the true histrionic æstus, it was Garrick. When he followed
the Ghost in Hamlet, he did not drop the sword, as most actors do
behind the scenes, but kept the point raised the whole way round, so
fully was he possessed with the idea, or so anxious not to lose sight of
his part for a moment. Once at a splendid dinner-party at Lord ——’s,
they suddenly missed Garrick, and could not imagine what was
become of him, till they were drawn to the window by the convulsive
screams and peals of laughter of a young negro boy, who was rolling
on the ground in an ecstasy of delight to see Garrick mimicking a
turkey-cock in the court-yard, with his coat-tail stuck out behind,
and in a seeming flutter of feathered rage and pride. Of our party
only two persons present had seen the British Roscius; and they
seemed as willing as the rest to renew their acquaintance with their
old favourite.
We were interrupted in the hey-day and mid-career of this fanciful
speculation, by a grumbler in a corner, who declared it was a shame
to make all this rout about a mere player and farce-writer, to the
neglect and exclusion of the fine old dramatists, the contemporaries
and rivals of Shakspeare. B—— said he had anticipated this objection
when he had named the author of Mustapha and Alaham; and out of
caprice insisted upon keeping him to represent the set, in preference
to the wild hair-brained enthusiast Kit Marlowe; to the sexton of St.
Ann’s, Webster, with his melancholy yew-trees and death’s-heads; to
Deckar, who was but a garrulous proser; to the voluminous
Heywood; and even to Beaumont and Fletcher, whom we might
offend by complimenting the wrong author on their joint
productions. Lord Brook, on the contrary, stood quite by himself, or
in Cowley’s words, was ‘a vast species alone.’ Some one hinted at the
circumstance of his being a lord, which rather startled B——, but he
said a ghost would perhaps dispense with strict etiquette, on being
regularly addressed by his title. Ben Jonson divided our suffrages
pretty equally. Some were afraid he would begin to traduce
Shakspeare, who was not present to defend himself. ‘If he grows
disagreeable,’ it was whispered aloud, ‘there is G—— can match him.’
At length, his romantic visit to Drummond of Hawthornden was
mentioned, and turned the scale in his favour.
B—— inquired if there was any one that was hanged that I would
choose to mention? And I answered, Eugene Aram.[8] The name of
the ‘Admirable Crichton’ was suddenly started as a splendid example
of waste talents, so different from the generality of his countrymen.
This choice was mightily approved by a North-Briton present, who
declared himself descended from that prodigy of learning and
accomplishment, and said he had family-plate in his possession as
vouchers for the fact, with the initials A. C.—Admirable Crichton! H
—— laughed or rather roared as heartily at this as I should think he
has done for many years.
The last-named Mitre-courtier[9] then wished to know whether
there were any metaphysicians to whom one might be tempted to
apply the wizard spell? I replied, there were only six in modern times
deserving the name—Hobbes, Berkeley, Butler, Hartley, Hume,
Leibnitz; and perhaps Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusets man.[10] As
to the French, who talked fluently of having created this science,
there was not a title in any of their writings, that was not to be found
literally in the authors I had mentioned. [Horne Tooke, who might
have a claim to come in under the head of Grammar, was still living.]
None of these names seemed to excite much interest, and I did not
plead for the re-appearance of those who might be thought best fitted
by the abstracted nature of their studies for their present spiritual
and disembodied state, and who, even while on this living stage, were
nearly divested of common flesh and blood. As A—— with an uneasy
fidgetty face was about to put some question about Mr. Locke and
Dugald Stewart, he was prevented by M. C. who observed, ‘If J——
was here, he would undoubtedly be for having up those profound
and redoubted scholiasts, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.’ I said
this might be fair enough in him who had read or fancied he had read
the original works, but I did not see how we could have any right to
call up these authors to give an account of themselves in person, till
we had looked into their writings.
By this time it should seem that some rumour of our whimsical
deliberation had got wind, and had disturbed the irritabile genus in
their shadowy abodes, for we received messages from several
candidates that we had just been thinking of. Gray declined our
invitation, though he had not yet been asked: Gay offered to come
and bring in his hand the Duchess of Bolton, the original Polly:
Steele and Addison left their cards as Captain Sentry and Sir Roger
de Coverley: Swift came in and sat down without speaking a word,
and quitted the room as abruptly: Otway and Chatterton were seen
lingering on the opposite side of the Styx, but could not muster
enough between them to pay Charon his fare: Thomson fell asleep in
the boat, and was rowed back again—and Burns sent a low fellow,
one John Barleycorn, an old companion of his who had conducted
him to the other world, to say that he had during his lifetime been
drawn out of his retirement as a show, only to be made an exciseman
of, and that he would rather remain where he was. He desired,
however, to shake hands by his representative—the hand, thus held
out, was in a burning fever, and shook prodigiously.
The room was hung round with several portraits of eminent
painters. While we were debating whether we should demand speech
with these masters of mute eloquence, whose features were so
familiar to us, it seemed that all at once they glided from their
frames, and seated themselves at some little distance from us. There
was Leonardo with his majestic beard and watchful eye, having a
bust of Archimedes before him; next him was Raphael’s graceful
head turned round to the Fornarina; and on his other side was
Lucretia Borgia, with calm, golden locks; Michael Angelo had placed
the model of St. Peter’s on the table before him; Corregio had an
angel at his side; Titian was seated with his Mistress between himself
and Giorgioni; Guido was accompanied by his own Aurora, who took
a dice-box from him; Claude held a mirror in his hand; Rubens
patted a beautiful panther (led in by a satyr) on the head; Vandyke
appeared as his own Paris, and Rembrandt was hid under furs, gold
chains and jewels, which Sir Joshua eyed closely, holding his hand so
as to shade his forehead. Not a word was spoken; and as we rose to
do them homage, they still presented the same surface to the view.
Not being bonâ-fide representations of living people, we got rid of
the splendid apparitions by signs and dumb show. As soon as they
had melted into thin air, there was a loud noise at the outer door,
and we found it was Giotto, Cimabue, and Ghirlandaio, who had
been raised from the dead by their earnest desire to see their
illustrious successors—
‘Whose names on earth
In Fame’s eternal records live for aye!’

Finding them gone, they had no ambition to be seen after them,


and mournfully withdrew. ‘Egad!’ said B——, ‘those are the very
fellows I should like to have had some talk with, to know how they
could see to paint when all was dark around them?’
‘But shall we have nothing to say,’ interrogated G. J——, ‘to the
Legend of Good Women?’—‘Name, name, Mr. J——,’ cried H—— in a
boisterous tone of friendly exultation, ‘name as many as you please,
without reserve or fear of molestation!’ J—— was perplexed between
so many amiable recollections, that the name of the lady of his choice
expired in a pensive whiff of his pipe; and B—— impatiently declared
for the Duchess of Newcastle. Mrs. Hutchinson was no sooner
mentioned, than she carried the day from the Duchess. We were the
less solicitous on this subject of filling up the posthumous lists of
Good Women, as there was already one in the room as good, as
sensible, and in all respects as exemplary, as the best of them could
be for their lives! ‘I should like vastly to have seen Ninon de l’Enclos,’
said that incomparable person; and this immediately put us in mind
that we had neglected to pay honour due to our friends on the other
side of the Channel: Voltaire, the patriarch of levity, and Rousseau,
the father of sentiment, Montaigne and Rabelais (great in wisdom
and in wit), Moliere and that illustrious group that are collected
round him (in the print of that subject) to hear him read his comedy
of the Tartuffe at the house of Ninon; Racine, La Fontaine,
Rochefoucault, St. Evremont, &c.
‘There is one person,’ said a shrill, querulous voice, ‘I would rather
see than all these—Don Quixote!’
‘Come, come!’ said H——; ‘I thought we should have no heroes,
real or fabulous. What say you, Mr. B——? Are you for eking out your
shadowy list with such names as Alexander, Julius Cæsar,
Tamerlane, or Ghengis Khan?’—‘Excuse me,’ said B——, ‘on the
subject of characters in active life, plotters and disturbers of the
world, I have a crotchet of my own, which I beg leave to
reserve.’—‘No, no! come, out with your worthies!’—‘What do you
think of Guy Faux and Judas Iscariot?’ H—— turned an eye upon him
like a wild Indian, but cordial and full of smothered glee. ‘Your most
exquisite reason!’ was echoed on all sides; and A—— thought that B
—— had now fairly entangled himself. ‘Why, I cannot but think,’
retorted he of the wistful countenance, ‘that Guy Faux, that poor
fluttering annual scare-crow of straw and rags, is an ill-used
gentleman. I would give something to see him sitting pale and
emaciated, surrounded by his matches and his barrels of gunpowder,
and expecting the moment that was to transport him to Paradise for
his heroic self-devotion; but if I say any more, there is that fellow G
—— will make something of it. And as to Judas Iscariot, my reason is
different. I would fain see the face of him, who, having dipped his
hand in the same dish with the Son of Man, could afterwards betray
him. I have no conception of such a thing; nor have I ever seen any
picture (not even Leonardo’s very fine one) that gave me the least
idea of it.’—‘You have said enough, Mr. B——, to justify your choice.’
‘Oh! ever right, Menenius,—ever right!’
‘There is only one other person I can ever think of after this,’
continued H——; but without mentioning a name that once put on a
semblance of mortality. ‘If Shakspeare was to come into the room, we
should all rise up to meet him; but if that person was to come into it,
we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment!’
As a lady present seemed now to get uneasy at the turn the
conversation had taken, we rose up to go. The morning broke with
that dim, dubious light by which Giotto, Cimabue, and Ghirlandaio
must have seen to paint their earliest works; and we parted to meet
again and renew similar topics at night, the next night, and the night
after that, till that night overspread Europe which saw no dawn. The
same event, in truth, broke up our little Congress that broke up the
great one. But that was to meet again: our deliberations have never
been resumed.
ON THE CONVERSATION OF LORDS

The New Monthly Magazine.]


[April, 1826.
‘An infinite deal of nothing,’—Shakspeare.

The conversation of Lords is very different from that of authors.


Mounted on horseback, they stick at nothing in the chace, and clear
every obstacle with flying leaps, while we poor devils have no chance
of keeping up with them with our clouten shoes and long hunting-
poles. They have all the benefit of education, society, confidence,
they read books, purchase pictures, breed horses, learn to ride,
dance, and fence, look after their estates, travel abroad:—authors
have none of these advantages, or inlets of knowledge, to assist them,
except one, reading; and this is still more impoverished and clouded
by the painful exercise of their own thoughts. The knowledge of the
Great has a character of wealth and property in it, like the stores of
the rich merchant or manufacturer, who lays his hands on all within
his reach: the understanding of the student is like the workshop of
the mechanic, who has nothing but what he himself creates. How
difficult is the production, how small the display in the one case
compared to the other! Most of Correggio’s designs are contained in
one small room at Parma: how different from the extent and variety
of some hereditary and princely collections!
The human mind has a trick (probably a very natural and
consoling one) of striking a balance between the favours of wisdom
and of fortune, and of making one thing a gratuitous and convenient
foil to another. Whether this is owing to envy or to a love of justice, I
will not say: but whichever it is owing to, I must own I do not think it
well founded. A scholar is without money: therefore (to make the

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