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injuries, in conquering enemies, in ex- | not yet shorn of strength. Let the cry tending the dominions and the renown be once heard-the Philistines be upon of his people? What sea, what shore thee; and at once that sleep will be did he not mark with imperishable me- broken, and those chains will be as morials of his friendship or his ven- flax in the fire. The great parliament geance? The gold of Spain, the steel hath left behind it in our hearts and of Sweden, the ten thousand sails of minds a hatred of tyrants, a just knowHolland, availed nothing against him. ledge of our rights, a scorn of vain and While every foreign state trembled at deluding names; and that the revellers our arms, we sat secure from all assault. of Whitehall shall surely find. The War, which often so strangely troubles sun is darkened; but it is only for a both husbandry and commerce, never moment: it is but an eclipse; though silenced the song of our reapers, or the all birds of evil omen have begun to sound of our looms. Justice was equally scream, and all ravenous beasts have administered; God was freely wor- gone forth to prey, thinking it to be shipped. midnight. Woe to them if they be "Now look at that which we have abroad when the rays again shine forth! taken in exchange. With the restored "The king hath judged ill. Had king have come over to us vices of every he been wise he would have rememsort, and most the basest and most bered that he owed his restoration only shameful,-lust without love-servi- to confusions which had wearied us tude without loyalty foulness of out, and made us eager for repose. He speech-dishonesty of dealing-grinning contempt of all things good and generous. The throne is surrounded by men whom the former Charles would have spurned from his footstool. The altar is served by slaves whose knees are supple to every being but God. Rhymers, whose books the hangman should burn, pandars, actors, and buffoons, these drink a health and throw a main with the King; these have stars on their breasts and gold sticks in their hands; these shut out from his presence the best and bravest of those who bled for his house. Even so doth God visit those who know not how to value freedom. He gives them over to the tyranny which they have desired, Ἵνα πάντες ἐπαύρωνται βασιλῆος.”

would have known that the folly and perfidy of a prince would restore to the good old cause many hearts which had been alienated thence by the turbulence of factions; for, if I know aught of history, or of the heart of man, he will soon learn that the last champion of the people was not destroyed when he murdered Vane, nor seduced when he beguiled Fairfax."

Mr. Cowley seemed to me not to take much amiss what Mr. Milton had said touching that thankless court, which had indeed but poorly requited his own good service. He only said, therefore, Another rebellion! Alas! alas! Mr. Milton! If there be no choice but between despotism and anarchy, I prefer despotism.

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"I will not," said Mr. Cowley, "dis- "Many men," said Mr. Milton, pute with you on this argument. But," have floridly and ingeniously comif it be as you say, how can you main-pared anarchy and despotism; but they tain that England hath been so greatly who so amuse themselves do but look advantaged by the rebellion?" at separate parts of that which is truly one great whole. Each is the cause and the effect of the other; the evils of either are the evils of both. Thus do states move on in the same eternal cycle, which, from the remotest point, brings them back again to the same sad starting-post: and, till both those who govern and those who obey shall learn and mark this great truth, men can expect little through the future, as

"Understand me rightly, Sir," said Mr. Milton. "This nation is not given over to slavery and vice. We tasted indeed the fruits of liberty before they had well ripened. Their flavour was harsh and bitter; and we turned from them with loathing to the sweeter poisons of servitude. This is but for a time. England is sleeping on the lap of Dalilah, traitorously chained, but

they have known little through the past, save vicissitudes of extreme evils, alternately producing and produced.

moreover, that, though it may work some little damage, it will soon cover the fields over which it hath passed with rich vineyards and sweet flowers. But, when the flames are pent up in the mountain, then it is that they have reason to fear; then it is that the earth sinks and the sea swells; then cities are swallowed up; and their place knoweth them no more. So it is in politics: where the people is most closely restrained, there it gives the greatest shocks to peace and order; therefore would I say to all kings, let your demagogues lead crowds, lest they lead armies; let them bluster, lest they massacre; a little turbulence is, as it were, the rainbow of the state; it shows indeed that there is a passing shower; but it is a pledge that there shall be no deluge."

"This is true," said Mr. Cowley; "yet these admonitions are not less needful to subjects than to sovereigns."

"When will rulers learn that, where liberty is not, security and order can never be? We talk of absolute power; but all power hath limits, which, if not fixed by the moderation of the governors, will be fixed by the force of the governed. Sovereigns may send their opposers to dungeons; they may clear out a senate-house with soldiers; they may enlist armies of spies; they may hang scores of the disaffected in chains at every cross road; but what power shall stand in that frightful time when rebellion hath become a less evil than endurance? Who shall dissolve that terrible tribunal, which, in the hearts of the oppressed, denounces against the oppressor the doom of its wild justice? Who shall repeal the law of self-defence? What arms or discipline shall resist the strength of famine and despair? How often were "Surely," said Mr. Milton; "and, the ancient Cæsars dragged from their that I may end this long debate with a golden palaces, stripped of their purple few words in which we shall both robes, mangled, stoned, defiled with agree, I hold that, as freedom is the filth, pierced with hooks, hurled into only safeguard of governments, so are Tiber? How often have the Eastern order and moderation generally necesSultans perished by the sabres of their sary to preserve freedom. Even the own janissaries, or the bow-strings of vainest opinions of men are not to be their own mutes! For no power which outraged by those who propose to themis not limited by laws can ever be pro- selves the happiness of men for their tected by them. Small, therefore, is end, and who must work with the pasthe wisdom of those who would fly to sions of men for their means. The servitude as if it were a refuge from blind reverence for things ancient is commotion; for anarchy is the sure indeed so foolish that it might make a consequence of tyranny. That govern-wise man laugh, if it were not also somements may be safe, nations must be times so mischievous that it would free. Their passions must have an outlet provided, lest they make one.

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When I was at Naples, I went with Signor Manso, a gentleman of excellent parts and breeding, who had been the familiar friend of that famous poet Torquato Tasso, to see the burning mountain Vesuvius. I wondered how the peasants could venture to dwell so fearlessly and cheerfully on its sides, when the lava was flowing from its summit; but Manso smiled, and told me that when the fire descends freely they retreat before it without haste or fear. They can tell how fast it will move, and how far; and they know,

rather make a good man weep. Yet, since it may not be wholly cured, it must be discreetly indulged; and therefore those who would amend evil laws should consider rather how much it may be safe to spare, than how much it may be possible to change. Have you not heard that men who have been shut up for many years in dungeons shrink if they see the light, and fall down if their irons be struck off? And so, when nations have long been in the house of bondage, the chains which have crippled them are necessary to support them, the darkness which hath weakened their sight is necessary to

preserve it. Therefore release them | lowest menial offices to their memory, not too rashly, lest they curse their are considered, like the equerries and freedom and pine for their prison. chamberlains of sovereign princes, as "I think indeed that the renowned entitled to a high rank in the table of Parliament, of which we have talked so literary precedence. It is, therefore, much, did show, until it became subject somewhat singular that their proto the soldiers, a singular and admirable ductions should so rarely have been moderation, in such times scarcely to examined on just and philosophical be hoped, and most worthy to be an principles of criticism. example to all that shall come after. But on this argument I have said enough and I will therefore only pray to Almighty God that those who shall, in future times, stand forth in defence of our liberties, as well civil as religious, may adorn the good cause by mercy, prudence, and soberness, to the glory of his name and the happiness and honour of the English people."

The ancient writers themselves afford us but little assistance. When they particularise, they are commonly trivial: when they would generalise, they become indistinct. An exception must, indeed, be made in favour of Aristotle. Both in analysis and in combination, that great man was without a rival. No philosopher has ever possessed, in an equal degree, the talent either of And so ended that discourse; and separating established systems into not long after we were set on shore their primary elements, or of connectagain at the Temple-gardens, and there ing detached phenomena in harmonious parted company and the same evening systems. He was the great fashioner I took notes of what had been said, of the intellectual chaos; he changed which I have here more fully set down, its darkness into light, and its discord from regard both to the fame of the into order. He brought to literary men, and the importance of the subject-researches the same vigour and ampli

matter.

ON THE ATHENIAN ORATORS. (AUGUST 1824.)

"To the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece

To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne."

MILTON.

tude of mind to which both physical and metaphysical science are so greatly indebted. His fundamental principles of criticism are excellent. To cite only a single instance :-the doctrine which he established, that poetry is an imitative art, when justly understood, is to the critic what the compass is to the navigator. With it he may venture upon the most extensive excursions. Without it he must creep cautiously along the coast, or lose himself in a trackless expanse, and trust, at best, to the guidance of an occasional star. It is a discovery which changes a caprice into a science.

THE celebrity of the great classical writers is confined within no limits, except those which separate civilised from savage man. Their works are the common property of every polished nation. They have furnished subjects for the painter, and models for the poet. In the minds of the educated classes throughout Europe, their names are indissolubly associated with the endearing recollections of childhood,the old school room,-the dog-eared grammar, the first prize, the tears so often shed and so quickly dried. So great is the veneration with which tion. Partly, also, it may be attributed they are regarded, that even the editors to the deficiency of materials.

The general propositions of Aristotle are valuable. But the merit of the superstructure bears no proportion to that of the foundation. This is partly to be ascribed to the character of the philosopher, who, though qualified to do all that could be done by the resolving and combining powers of the understanding, seems not to have possessed much of sensibility or imagina

The

and commentators who perform the great works of genius which then

existed were not either sufficiently him, rather a sport than a war; it is a numerous or sufficiently varied to contest of foils, not of swords. He enable any man to form a perfect appears to think more of the grace of code of literature. To require that a the attitude than of the direction and critic should conceive classes of com- vigour of the thrust. It must be acposition which had never existed, and knowledged, in justice to Quintilian, then investigate their principles, would that this is an error to which Cicero be as unreasonable as the demand of has too often given the sanction, both Nebuchadnezzar, who expected his ma- of his precept and of his example. gicians first to tell him his dream and then to interpret it.

With all his deficiencies, Aristotle was the most enlightened and profound critic of antiquity. Dionysius was far from possessing the same exquisite subtilty, or the same vast comprehension. But he had access to a much greater number of specimens; and he had devoted himself, as it appears, more exclusively to the study of elegant literature. His peculiar judgments are of more value than his general principles. He is only the historian of literature. Aristotle is its philosopher. Quintilian applied to general literature the same principles by which he had been accustomed to judge of the declamations of his pupils. He looks for nothing but rhetoric, and rhetoric not of the highest order. He speaks coldly of the incomparable works of Eschylus. He admires, beyond expression, those inexhaustible mines of common-places, the plays of Euripides. He bestows a few vague words on the poetical character of Homer. He then proceeds to consider him merely as an orator. An orator Homer doubtless was, and a great orator. But surely nothing is more remarkable; in his admirable works, than the art with which his oratorical powers are made subservient to the purposes of poetry. Nor can I think Quintilian a great critic in his own province. Just as are many of his remarks, beautiful as are many of his illustrations, we can perpetually detect in his thoughts that flavour which the soil of despotism generally communicates to all the fruits of genius. Eloquence was, in his time, little more than a condiment which served to stimulate in a despot the jaded appetite for panegyric, an amusement for the travelled nobles and the blue-stocking matrons of Rome. It is, therefore, with

Longinus seems to have had great sensibility, but little discrimination. He gives us eloquent sentences, but no principles. It was happily said that Montesquieu ought to have changed the name of his book from L'Esprit des Lois to L'Esprit sur les Lois. In the same manner the philosopher of Palmyra ought to have entitled his famous work, not "Longinus on the Sublime," but "The Sublimities of Longinus." The origin of the sublime is one of the most curious and interesting subjects of inquiry that can occupy the attention of a critic. In our own country it has been discussed, with great ability, and, I think, with very little success, by Burke and Dugald Stuart. Longinus dispenses himself from all investigations of this nature, by telling his friend Terentianus that he already knows everything that can be said upon the question. It is to be regretted that Terentianus did not impart some of his knowledge to his instructor: for from Longinus we learn only that sublimity means height or elevation.* This name, so commodiously vague, is applied indifferently to the noble prayer of Ajax in the Iliad, and to a passage of Plato about the human body, as full of conceits as an ode of Cowley. Having no fixed standard, Longinus is right only by accident. He is rather a fancier than a critic.

Modern writers have been prevented by many causes from supplying the deficiencies of their classical predecessors. At the time of the revival of literature, no man could, without great and painful labour, acquire an accurate and elegant knowledge of the ancient languages. And, unfortunately, those grammatical and philological studies, without which it was impossible

* ̓Ακρότης καὶ ἐξοχή τις λόγων ἐστὶ τὰ ὕψη.

to understand the great works of Athe- I were "fools called into a circle by Greek nian and Roman genius, have a ten-invocations." The Iliad and Æneid dency to contract the views and deaden were to them not books, but curiosities, the sensibility of those who follow them with extreme assiduity. A powerful mind, which has been long employed in such studies, may be compared to the gigantic spirit in the Arabian tale, who was persuaded to contract himself to small dimensions in order to enter within the enchanted vessel, and, when his prison had been closed upon him, found himself unable to escape from the narrow boundaries to the measure of which he had reduced his stature. When the means have long been the objects of application, they are naturally substituted for the end. It was said, by Eugene of Savoy, that the greatest generals have commonly been those who have been at once raised to command, and introduced to the great operations of war, without being employed in the petty calculations and manœuvres which employ the time of an inferior officer. In literature the principle is equally sound. The great tactics of criticism will, in general, be best understood by those who have not had much practice in drilling syllables and particles.

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or rather reliques. They no more admired those works for their merits than a good Catholic venerates the house of the Virgin at Loretto for its architecture. Whatever was classical was good. Homer was a great poet, and so was Callimachus. The epistles of Cicero were fine, and so were those of Phalaris. Even with respect to questions of evi· dence they fell into the same error. The authority of all narrations, written in Greek or Latin, was the same with them. It never crossed their minds that the lapse of five hundred years, or the distance of five hundred leagues, could affect the accuracy of a narration; that Livy could be a less veracious historian than Polybius;— --or that Plutarch could know less about the friends of Xenophon than Xenophon himself. Deceived by the distance of time, they seem to consider all the Classics as contemporaries; just as I have known people in England, deceived by the distance of place, take it for granted that all persons who live in India are neighbours, and ask an inhabitant of Bombay about the health of an acquaintance at Calcutta. It is to be hoped that no barbarian deluge will ever again pass over Europe. But, should such a calamity happen, it seems not improbable that some future Rollin or Gillies will compile a history of England from Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs, Miss Lee's Recess, and Sir Nathaniel Wraxall's Memoirs.

I remember to have observed among the French Anas a ludicrous instance of this. A scholar, doubtless of great learning, recommends the study of some long Latin treatise, of which I now forget the name, on the religion, manners, government, and language of the early Greeks. "For there," says he, 'you will learn every thing of importance that is contained in the Iliad and It is surely time that ancient literaOdyssey, without the trouble of reading ture should be examined in a different two such tedious books." Alas! it had manner, without pedantical prepossesnot occurred to the poor gentleman that sions, but with a just allowance, at the all the knowledge to which he attached same time, for the difference of circumso much value was useful only as it stances and manners. I am far from illustrated the great poems which he pretending to the knowledge or ability despised, and would be as worthless which such a task would require. All for any other purpose as the mythology that I mean to offer is a collection of of Caffraria, or the vocabulary of Ota-desultory remarks upon a most interestheite. ing portion of Greek literature.

Of those scholars who have disdained It may be doubted whether any comto confine themselves to verbal criti-positions which have ever been produced cism few have been successful. The in the world are equally perfect in their ancient languages have, generally, a ma-kind with the great Athenian orations. gical influence on their faculties. They Genius is subject to the same laws

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