Imatges de pàgina
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practical beau ideal, (if so startling a catechresis may be allowed ;) but certain royal doctors, who are benevolent enough to take the constitutions of the European states under their own special management, by prescribing a course of steel to the two first named countries, and stirring up intestine commotions in the latter, have for the present allayed all those symptoms that threatened to render them so independent of the regular diplomatists and practitioners.

Republicanism formed the basis of all the earlier systems of theoretic goverment, though it must be confessed that the examples of Greece and Italy offered little encouragement for its practical adoption. Placed in perpetual collision with one another, and rendered pugnacious by the tendency of all their institutions, the petty states of the former had no other method of avoiding national subjection than by a system of individual slavery. Each citizen of Sparta kept a Helot in his house, in order that he himself might become the Helot of the state, acquiescing in a course of domestic and public oppression as the sole security against its external infliction, and boasting that collective liberty to which every individual was a stranger. "The fear of ill exceeds the ill we fear;" to guard against tyranny from one they practised it against all. Wealth, talents, virtue, influence, no sooner attracted attention than they were marked for destruction, lest they should be directed against the institutions of the state, whose greatest benefactors were thus its surest victims; and few could rival the services of Socrates, Aristides, or Coriolanus, without a certainty of encountering their fate. America has solved the long-contested problem as to the aptitude of a republic for large and powerful states, and the possible co-existence of pacific and dignified politics with private freedom. That whole continent will probably settle under similar institutions, and will assuredly get

the start of those European states which, by clinging to antiquated forms, will but accelerate their own decrepitude and superannuation. England, who by her liberty has surmounted all her disadvantages, and rendered herself the first country in the civilized world, will not, we may safely predict, forfeit her commanding pre-eminence over the inhabitants of both hemispheres, or lose her proud distinction of teaching the nations how to live."

It would be hard indeed, if, after so many thousand years of unceasing experiment, the world had not made some progress in the art of goverment; and we may at least flatter ourselves that we have achieved an improvement upon Plato's forlorn hope of "a good despot combined with a good legislator," as the best practical administrator of a state. However iniquitous the means by which so many of the smaller sovereignties have become merged and absorbed in the large ones, the result has been unquestionably beneficial to human happiness; for the chance of war is not only diminished, by lessening the rivalry and collision of numerous petty governments, but when hostilities do occur, they interfere much less extensively with individual comforts and privileges. Ancient philosophers, sages, and poets, were obliged to quit the study for the camp, to— "exchange their pens for truncheons, ink for blood;" and in spite of their fine intellects perform all those vulgar bodily functions of soldiers, for which the thinness of the population would not afford substitutes. Among the large masses into which nations are now thrown, there will generally be found volunteers enough for so pleasant a profession as that of cutting throats; so that the studious, the idle, the peaceful, the cowardly, and the domestic, may tranquilly pursue the bent of their several inclinations, upon the very easy term of making the pocket. a protection for the person, and paying in taxes what they want in pugnaciousness. It was said of the

ancient government of France, that it was an absolute monarchy moderated by songs; and there is no despotism now existing in Europe that is not tempered in the same, manner by the the spirit of the age, the habitudes of the people, and the institutions of manners. Paul wanted to drag St. Petersburg backwards to the petty tyrannies and barbarous observances of the ancient. czars; it was contrary to existing usages, so they "strangled him while he prated." Selim endeavoured to advance Constantinople by introducing European tactics and forms; this was equally at variance with national opinions, and he shared the fate of his northern neighbour. Such is the inexorable tribunal to which despots are amenable, and in their exemption from which more limited monarchs may find an abundant compensation for the restriction of their power.

Looking out, then, upon the world in general, we may safely pronounce, that though its inhabitants do not manifest any immediate approximation towards the Millennium, they have decidedly advanced in happiness and tranquillity. Security for person and property is universal in the civilized portions of the earth; domestic comforts are diffused throughout all classes; the guardianship of the law, and the sanctions of morality and religion, however momentarily interrupted, were never more equally expanded, or influentially recognized; all ranks may pursue the developments of their fancies or talents without interruption; and if the Europeans in general have good reasons, at the present moment, for complaining of the Holy Alliance and its liberticide plans, almost every individual may exclaim, and none with more justice than an English

man

"Of all the evils that mankind endure,

How small the share that kings can cause or cure!"

349

AN ADDRESS TO A TEA-KETTLE.

For many a verse inspired by tea,
(A never-failing Muse to me,)
My kettle, let this tribute flow,
Thy charms to blazon,

And tell thy modest worth, although
Thy face is brazen.

Let others boast, the madd'ning bowl,
That raises but to sink the soul,
Thou art the Bacchus that alone
I wish to follow;

From thee I tipple Helicon,
My best Apollo !

'Tis night-my children sleep-no noise
Is heard, except thy cheerful voice;
For when the wind would gain mine ear,
Thou sing'st the faster,

As if thou wert resolved to cheer
Thy lonely master.

And so thou dost-those brazen lungs
Vent no deceit like human tongues ;
That honest breath was never known
To turn informer;

And for thy feelings-all must own

That none are warmer.

Of late, another eye and ear

Would mark thy form, thy music hear:
Alas! how soon our pleasures Ay,
Returning never!

That ear is deaf-that friendly eye
Is closed for ever!

Be thou, then, now, my friend, my guide,
And humming wisdom by my side,
Teach me so patiently to bear

Hot-water troubles,

That they may end, like thine, in air,
And turn to bubbles.

Let me support misfortune's fire
Unhurt, and when I fume with ire,
Whatever friend my passions sees
And near me lingers,

Let him still handle me with ease,
Nor burn his fingers.
Hh

VOL. II.

O may my memory, like thy front,
When I am cold, endure the brunt
Of vitriol envy's keen assaults,

And shine the brighter,

And ev'ry rub but make my faults
Appear the lighter!

TO THE LADIES OF ENGLAND.

BEAUTIES!-(for dressed with so much taste,
All may with such a term be graced,)
Attend the friendly stanza,

Which deprecates the threatened change
Of English modes for fashions strange,
And French extravaganza.

What! when her sons renown have won
In arts and arms, and proudly shown
A pattern to the nations,

Shall England's recreant daughters kneel
At Gallic shrines, and stop to steal
Fantastic innovations?

Domestic-simple-chaste-sedate-
Your fashions now assimilate

Your virtues and your duties:
With all the dignity of Rome,
The Grecian Graces find a home
In England's classic beauties.

When we behold so fit a shrine,
We deem its inmate all divine,

And thoughts licentious bridle;
But if the case be tasteless, rude,
Grotesque, and glaring-we conclude
It holds some worthless idol.

Let Gallia's nymphs of ardent mind,
To every wild extreme inclined,
In folly be consistent;
Their failings let their modes express,
From simpleness of soul and dress
For ever equi-distant.

True to your staid and even port,
Let mad extremes of every sort

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