been interpreted as a superseding of God the Father's power, and usurping the hea vens. THE SOCIAL RIGHTS OF MAN: Being a compilation from the various declarations of Rights, submitted at different periods to the National Assembly and Convention of France, and recently arranged by Count Lanjuinais in his "History of Constitutions." [Continued.] "Tot homines, tot sententiæ."-It cannot then be deemed partiality or prejudice, to prefer one's own opinion to that of others.If you can please but one person in the Any treatment which aggravates the pun. world, why should you not give the prefer-ishment fixed by the law, is criminal. ence to yourself? A generous mind may be compared to the Latin dative, which has no preceding article, and does not declare its case till it comes to the termination. There are many ways of inducing sleep -The thinking of purling rills, or waving woods-Reckoning of numbers-Droppings from a wet sponge, fixed over a brass pan, &c.-But temperance and exercise answer much better than any of these succedane ums. No kind of labour, of commerce, or of culture, can be forbidden to any man: he may fabricate, sell, and transport every sort of production. No man can be deprived of the least portion of his property without his own consent, except when the public wants, legally and plainly ascertained, require it; and on the condition of a just and reasonable indemnity. No contribution ought to be demanded excepting for general utility. All the citiPhysicians ought never to drink.-When-zens, by their representatives, have a right ever any distemper affects themselves, they to assist in the decree of contributions, and always call in foreign aid-thinking, very to observe and demand an account of the justly, that the slightest disorder might im- employment of them. pair the judgment. And yet, methinks, a man may be able to preserve his senses much better, in the first stages of a fever, than after a bottle of wine. The different judgments we are apt to frame upon the deaf and blind, with regard to their respective misfortunes, is owing to our seeing the blind generally in his best situation, and the deaf in his worst-namely, in company. The deaf is certainly the happier of the two, when they are each alone. An epicure desires but one dish; a glutton would have two. A sober man, when drunk, has the same kind of stupidity about him, that a drunken man has when he is sober. The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture. Every tax or contribution is for public utility: it ought to be assessed on those able to contribute, in proportion to their means. The public succours are a sacred debt.Society owes subsistence to the unfortunate citizens, either by procuring them work, or by ensuring the means of subsistence to those who are not in a condition to work: the unfortunate having submitted to the regulations of society, have a right to its protec tion and assistance. The civil authority ought to be so organized, and attended by a civil and legal force, that it should never have occasion to call in the dangerous assistance of the military power, but in the last extremity of incivism. The military power is created for, exists for, and ought only to act in, foreign political relations; so that the soldier ought never Shakespeare may be styled the oracle of (with the above exceptions) to be employed He speaks science without learn-against the citizen. He can only be coming, and writes the language of the present manded against a foreign enemy. nature. times. The advantages of academical learning, as far as it relates to the study of languages, is only this-that the time and labour required to understand an author in the original, fixes the matter and reasoning stronger in dur minds, than a cursory reading in our own language can be supposed to do. By which means, knowledge may be said to be inculcated into us. What persons are by starts, they are by nature. You see them, at such times, off their guard. Habit may restrain vice, and virtue may be obscured by passion-but intervals best discover the man. To have a respect for ourselves, guides our morals; and to have a deference for others, governs our manners. AND Phi Beta Kappa Repository. FIDE AC FIDUCIA. No. 12. NEW-YORK, NOVEMBER 26, 1825. LITERARY. In our last No. we gave a lively sketch of John Bull by the author of the Highlanders. We now present Mrs. Bull, from the same pen. MADAME BULL. That studied elegance of dress, This essence that perfumes the wind, A crowd of conquests are design'd. Lady W M. Montagu's Poems VOL. I. education will amuse and be grateful to him in every intercourse of society. Divest the British beauty of all the auxiliaries of trains, flounces, lace, falbalas, flowers and feathers, &c., and her native excellence will stand the test. But the eye may be misled, and the heart may balance when her powerful rival of the opposite shore enters the list against her in all the recherche, or studied superiority of fashion; with eyes of tender, yet consuming fire, the artillery of which conquer and dazzle at the same time; whose attitudes are symmetrical, whose form often aids its proportions by a thousand allies supIf John Bull be a great object of misre- plied by high dress; whose silken shoe and presentation abroad, Madame Bull has her delicately turned ankle, seem like the base full share, although she is regarded with of a statue which has caused much study to less jealous and severe eyes. Every for- render perfect, or, being otherwise, still eigner who has visited the British capital is strikes and attracts from the many graces convinced of the beauty of its women, and flung over it by the hand of taste, and by I heard a painter, who is an inveterate ene- the manner which comes in so powerfully my to the government of England, nay even to the aid of matter; a foot of moderate dito the nation collectively, assert that "the mensions pleases in a slipper, which reminds British females excelled all those whom he one of that of Cinderella; lips not putting had ever seen;" he even added, that "the the opening rose to shame, or yet inviting women were goddesses, and the children when finished by a smile, and contrasted by angels," and could not help esteeming both the lily of France which peeps from besexes individually. English ladies are cer- tween them. tainly seen to most advantage at home; An ordinary figure gains by its motions there they shine transcendantly as fond being harmonious; youth and sportiveness wives and tender mothers, as dutiful and af- banish cold calculation, and put to rout the fectionate daughters, and hospitable and scrutinizing cold examiner. There is me. graceful mistresses of a house and family; thod in every thing abroad, even to the manthere, too, in the highest classes, a little agement of a lady's fan, to her brushing a Parisian elegance of dress has a double ef- butterfly from her forehead, or guarding fect from its rarity, whilst the native simpli- against a bee about to invade the honey of city of attire is not rendered homely by the her lips; all these manœuvres leave Macomparisons of rivals in the arts of the toi- dame Bull, fair though she be, in the back lette. The young Quaker pleases in her ground, and exercise the enchantress's wand plain, modest and retiring air and garb, and over the astounded Briton, or other travelthe fine complexion (ce beau sang,) so justly ler. At the same time, the affectation of praised by strangers, seems to need no or- the French ladies leans so much towards namenting, or tricking out; no rich habits ease and good-breeding that it passes someand coquettish airs. The travelled English times unperceived and almost always unlady will always captivate, and even she censured; whilst Madame Bull has certain who has not that advantage, will with beau-stern principles, national adherence to stiff ty and youth, candour and sincerity on her proprieties, cold looks and defensive gravity, side, have a hold on the traveller's heart; which astonish without pleasing, and esand her obliging efforts to express herself in trange without meriting blame. Madame his language by boarding-school French, or Bull, too, when she visits the continent, Italian, her extensive accomplishments and comes not only in all her simplicity, but aş~ sumes something not very unlike stupidity | a most pleasing effect, and prepossess the from a singularity of appearance, often pre-hearer in favour of her who has said so maserved with the most obstinate tenacity; she ny gay and agreeable things to him;-now, so frequently utters the word shocking! as men rather expect to be delighted than that it first terrifies and next creates ridi-instructed by female converse, Madame Bull cule; she cannot feel that relying confi- comes off second best, and all her study and dence in the gentlemen of France, so as to quotation, her memory, wit, and underdance with them as if she was quite at home, standing are wasted on the desert air. or walk with them with an air of kind ac- Having said thus much in the way of quaintance; she hops very often in the qua- comparison, it is but justice to add that when drille, and looks like a serjeant's pike in Mrs. or Miss Bull do fail to please, it is from the waltz; she has none of the bounding ac- a want of attention, not from a want of tivity, the elastic lightness, the playful air means; take off the thick black leather shoe, and countenance, ce doux abandon, of the or cumbrous half-boot, and supply their daughters of Gallia; it rarely occurs to her place by the silken buskin, or thin chaussure to clothe her countenance in a ball-dress, to of the French, and the state of affairs is imarrange a smile for her partner, to delineate mediately changed; replace the cottage an attitude for her vis-a-vis, there is no ex- bonnet, like the sombrero of a bravo of Itaquisite yet innocent flirtation allied with the ly or Spain, or the flapped articles of the feats of her agility; in a word, she does not forts de la Halle (the strong corn-porters,) seem born for that amiable folie which is a by the smart tricked out hats and bonnets of term unknown, or at least not understood the rue Vivienne, and other streets filled by the softer sex of Albion's isle.-Her walk with milliners, and the countenances of is not studied, nor always in harmony with these good ladies will be vastly cleared up; her ensemble; for instance, she may trip in a little manner and a little sprightliness adcourtly robes, or hobble in a light morning-ded to this will so improve the picture, that dress; drag a half train in the mire sooner it will be difficult to recognise it; the imthan elevate its border well above the heel, itation must, however, be well done, or the or a little higher; and walk round-shoulder- portrait will be entirely spoiled. ed, cat-backed, and half double, rather than move erectly on, under the apprehension of being "stared at by the men." A French woman has something of "Nor bashful, nor obtrusive," in her deportment, the play of diffidence grafted on self-confidence, a withdrawing to be followed, a retiring to advance with more effect, the generalship of which beats the "Malo me Galatea petit" of Virgil, out of the field. Ere we take leave of Madame Bull, it must be remembered that this article which is made (by invidious critics) a mere caricature, is not a being of high life, but rather the inhabitant of Bishopsgate-without, or Bishopsgate-within; the prosperous tradesman's wife of East-cheap, or Fleet-street; the travelling companion and partner of ambitious retailers, who must needs take a trip in a steam packet to Calais or Ostend, or be packed with the other live luggage of a day coach to Brighton, and there cross to These anglings with the heart are not un- Dieppe. The cheap rate of travelling has known to the fair of Britain, but they are given a whet to female curiosity, and Meesonly practised on great and serious occa- ter Figgins is no longer allowed to view forsions; whilst all these little skirmishings eign parts without the accompaniment (ofwith admiration and desire are brought into ten inharmonious) of wife and daughter, who play in every incident of social life, by the just stay long enough in Paris to miscall Paris belle, at the toilet, at the breakfast every thing, and to bring back with them a table, at the banquet, and at the ball; in number of absurdities judiciously gleaned walking, dancing, conversing, smiling, nay and grafted on the homely stock. Such even at church there is no peace for the representations of English dress and manamateur of the soft sex in France; but inners have doubtless brought them down in England, neutrality, or a suspension of amatory hostilities may long be observed, and even a non-intercourse bill may be obtained, which the provoking glance of a Parisian Galatea, would destroy in a few seconds. The foreign beauty has another and a last advantage over her of domestic growth, it is the talent de plaire, the way to please, not only in the dance and in the other exhibitions of her fair proportions, but, in familiar chitchat; and whilst Madame Bull is deep read and generally well informed, the light transient flowers of French conversation leave the scale of consideration, but the estimate is falsely taken, and I have often wondered at the unfortunate exportations* which have produced those ill effects. * A French gentleman, viewing a Pidcock-like group staring at the Louvre, observed to me, I am told that you have the most beautiful women in the world in England, but you certainly keep them at home." Desire in youth is a passion-in age a vice-While it solicits us it is pardonablebut when we pimp for it-O shameful! THE following sketch of Mr. Theodore Hook, the author of Sayings and Doings, is from the London Critical Gazette. We extract it, not in approbation of its justice, but as a fine specimen of eloquent invective.-ED. 66 door against one so armed? And rarely in any class of the community, can those be found who could submit to so trying an in such as from the superior facility they ordeal. But least of all can it be expected enjoy of gratifying vicious propensities, are the more powerfully stimulated to the indulgence of them. They cannot but fear to provoke attacks to which they must needs submit in silence, ruminating upon the maxim of the poet 66 -Pudet hæc opprobria nobis, Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli." they consequently must receive: nay, in Such a journalist as we have depicted, many instances must do him homage, on the the devil. Nor does it follow that they same principle that Indian savages worship should afterwards repent the step they have taken. he will infallibly be distinguished by that Besides his insinuating manners, contempt for the sphere he has quitted, that profound veneration for every thing connected with the ton, which is inseparable from a parvenu. His new acquaintances, admiring this proof of his discernment, and retaining their dread of his power, will by degrees, persuade themselves that they have obtained an agreeable accession to their circle; and he himself, ere long, dazzled by the objects that surround him, will think he has never before been in his proper element. Like Sly, waking in the bed of the nobleman, he will exclaim, Let us suppose a man whose youthful occupations were breathing forth melodious ballads at Vauxhall, or furnishing melodramatic monstrosities to the stage, shrewd and bustling in his character, possessing a very moderate capital of wit and learning, but quite au fail at making that mediocrity tell. By dint of insinuating manners, joined to some degree of interest, he obtains a colonial appointment, in which certain monies of the public, necessarily pass through his hands. Superior to the petty prejudices respecting the meum and tuum, he nobly disdains to say with the ancient, MEO Sum PAUPER in are," and contrives, by a convenient appropriation of the as alienum, to his own purposes, to obtain a footing among some of the less fastidious of his superiors, who are satisfied with stylish appearances, and are more inquisitive as to what a man has, than what he is. This sunshine, it is true, cannot always last; investigation takes place, and the result, as might be anticipated, is unfavourable to the subject of it. But, secure as the gifted animal which always lights upon its feet, the culprit escapes the apparent peril, resumes his former character, and, becoming a literary adventurer, undertakes the conduct of a journal of scurrilous notoriety, started at a period when party feeling had attained to an almost unexampled height of violence. This journal distinguishes itself in the out- to attempt a delineation of fashionable life, set by the substitution of personal invective how will he execute it? Can this brief and for political discussion, and (such is human superficial acquaintance with his subject nature under the influence of party spirit), qualify him for the undertaking? Certainthe system is no sooner understood, than ly not! but he will not wholly fail. He may ample materials are afforded, from sources want ability to describe the man, but he establishing their authenticity as firmly as will be correct as to the cut of his coat, and their malignity, for attacking the private characters, and ridiculing the foibles and follies of every one belonging to the adverse party, sufficiently elevated in society to attract public attention. And what would be the situation of such an individual as we have imagined, conducting a journal of this description? Would he not inevitably become possessed of an acquaintance with the domestic arrangements, the family connexions, the frailties, failings, and misfortunes of those in the higher walks of life, that would render him truly formidable? "Viscera magnarum domuum, dominus que futurus," Into their company he must be admitted, as a matter of course; for who among them, unless all his family and connexions be sans peur, sans reproche, shall dare to shut his "Or do I dream? or have I dreamed till now! I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things: the colour of his buttons. He will "mark, learn, and inwardly digest" all those little peculiarities of gesture and manner that escape the notice of those to whom custom has rendered them familiar. He will display an intimacy with the details of the domestic economy scarcely exceeded by the menials of the mansion. His vocabulary of wines will be such as to astonish a butler; his nomenclature of viands calculated to provoke envy in a cook. Moreover, he will carefully note down all those eccentric modes of expression, whose absurdity fashion alone could sanction, and whose novelty will be sure to attract his attention. À picture composed of such materials, can readily be imposed upon the indolent and vain, in an humbler situation, as genuine. Nor will it be without interest for persons of a very different description. The exhibitor, with the inquisitiveness usually attaching to men of little minds and low ideas, will register on the tablets of his brain, all the whispers of scandal; and set down as ridiculous all that approximates to that sphere of life, in which the tempora acta of his life were spent. Hence fear will not fail to assure him readers among those whom he is so well qualified to exhibit in a ludicrous, or even a worse point of view. EPICUREAN APHORISMS. Sobriety is the conscience of weak sto machs. Place no confidence in bad eaters. They are in general envious, foolish, or wicked. Abstinence is an anti-social virtue. No good king ever made a sumptuary law. Tyrants alone can arrogate the right of life and death over the stomachs of their subjects. Marshal de Mouchy pretended that pigeon's flesh has a consoling virtue. When he lost any friend or relation, he used to say to his cook,-"Give me roast pigeons today; for I have observed that after having eaten a couple of pigeons I always rise from the table much less unhappy. The fate of the mushroom is truly ridiculous; it is eulogized and abused with an equal extravagance. Nero called it the flesh of the gods. A grave confessor bestowed upon it the epithet of a murderous and regicide fungus. It has, in fact, occasioned the deaths of Tiberius, Claudian, the wife and children of Euripides, Pope Clement VII., King Charles VI., the widow of Czar Alexis, and numerous others. There are men whom nature has treated like spoiled children. The historian De Thou mentions one of his relations, M. de Samblacy, Bishop of Bourges, who was continually eating. Six meals were regularly served to him every day, and yet he was never satisfied. This worthy prelate, grateful, gormandizing, and pious, always said grace on rising from table. The ancient abbots were such lovers of the juice of the grape, that in all their writings they call the church the vineyard of the Lord. It was Meleager, King of Macedonia, who brought the first turkies into Greece, in the year of the world 3559. The Greeks named these birds after their prince, Meleagrides. Sophocles, in one of his tragedies, introduces a chorus of turkies bewailing the death of Meleager. SUICIDE OF ANIMALS. A doubt has been raised-whether brute animals ever commit suicide: to me it is obvious that they do not, and cannot. Some years ago, however, there was a case reported in all the newspapers of an old ram who had committed suicide (as it was alleged) in the presence of many witnesses. Not having any pistols or razors, he ran for a short distance, in order to aid the impetus of his descent, and leaped over a precipice, at the foot of which he was dashed to pieces. His motive to the "rash act," as the papers called it, was supposed to be mere tædium vita. But, for my part, I doubted the accuracy of the report. Not long afterwards a case occurred in Westmoreland which strengthened my doubts. A fine young blood horse, who could have no possible reason for making away with himself, unless it were the high price of oats at that time, was found one morning dead in his field. The case was certainly a suspicious one: for he was lying by the side of a stone wall, the upper part of which wall his skull had fractured, and which had returned the compliment by fracturing his skull. It was argued, therefore, that in default of ponds, &c. he had deliberately hammered with his head against the wall; this, at first, seemed the only solution: and he was generally pronounced felo de se. However, a day or two brought the truth to light. The field lay upon the side of a hill: and, from a mountain which rose above it, a shepherd had witnessed the whole catastrophe, and gave evidence which vindicated the character of the horse. The day had been very windy; and the young creature being in high spirits, and, caring evidently as little for the corn question as for the bullion question, had raced about in all directions; and at length, descending too steep a part of the field, had been unable to check himself, and was projected by the impetus of his own descent like a battering ram against the wall. X. Y. Z. Sir Thomas More, and other remarkable persons, have been censured for behaving too lightly at the point of death. But perhaps there is a certain heaviness of heart, that may occasion a lightness of head, and give people the appearance of a bravery which they do not feel-like that kind of temerity with which cowards are sometimes inspired by despair. As this may be the case, a neglect of a proper gravity and decorum, upon so seriMake no assertions after dinner, whose ous and interesting an occasion, should no truth you have not ascertained while fast-more be imputed to them as a fault, than the delirium of a fever. |