CHAP. XII. Of Pride which is produced in a Nation by the Remembrance of the Heroifm and Valour of its Anceflors. The examples of anceftry offer a laudable incitement to enterprize. The value of ancestral fame among the Greeks and Romans, and its influence on the warlike atchievements of the modern. Arabians. Its ufes among the Scythian nations, from the policy of Odin, in framing his religious infitutes. The death of Odin confirmed his doctrines. - Hereditary bravery of the Goths, of the ancient Germans, the Huns, the Ja panese, and the Helvetians. CHAP. XIII. Of Pride arifing in a Nation, from the Reputation acquired by Arts and Sciences.-The fuperior gratifications of a mind elevated by fcience.-A number of eminent men conftitute the true dignity of a nation.-The great obligation of the Greeks to their poets and tages for the luftre of their actions.-The patronage of the arts in Rome, and the veneration paid to the busts of ilustrious men. -The perfection of Attic elegance under Pericles, and the allowed pre-eminence of the Grecian fchool. The progrefs and present state of the arts and sciences in Italy. —A view of the estimation of knowledge in England, and the honours beftowed upon genius and talents. The polifhed merits of the French writers; their rapid advances in philofophical and liberal difcuffion, and their obligations to the writings of the Ength for this dawning fpirit of liberty.-Inference drawn from the foregoing obfervations. CHAP. XIV. Of Pride produced in a Nation by its Conftitution.-General remarks on governments connected with the pride of the. governed. CHAP. XV. Of republican Pride. -A definition of republican liberty. -Its first principle is obedience to the laws. The difference between legal and moral equality, and the CHAP. XVI. Of Pride in Monarchies.-The nature of pride under a monarchical government.—The temperate fyftem of our mo narchies unknown to the ancients, and virtually fupported by writers of the first rank-The Duke de Choifeul's plan for correcting the abufes of government.-A monarchy the belt field for the exercise of genius and ability.-The glory of a king infeparable from that of his fubjects, and attainable as well in peace as in war.-Picture of a good monarch, and of the happinefs of his people. CHAP. XVII. Reflections on fome Advantages and Disadvantages of national Pride, as founded upon real Excellencies.-An elevation of heart not incompatible with true humility, and neceffary to the accomplishment of a noble action. The bad effects of too much diffi dene. The humility of a dependant units man for the purposes of fociety. The advantages of felfemulation. --The noble prefumption tion of Cæfar while imprifoned in the island of Pharmacula.The neceffity of youthful emulation, with an anecdote of the author's fon.-Inftances of juvenile ardour among the ancients.-The Duke de Cnoiteul's plan of educa tion for the French youth.-The love of his country the dearest fenB & timent -- timent of a good citizen, and paramount to all other focial ties.Striking examples of the amor patrie, drawn from ancient hiftory.An elevated turn in the principles of a nation, refines and ennobles the actions of its citizens.-The importance of a noble pride in the decay of national virtue, or what is termed an alteration of times.Ideas of national debafement, and of the irregularities of ftruggling patriotifm.-Great national emergencies restore the true eftimation of talents.-The defects of great minds flow from a degenerated pride.-Inftances of this degeneracy, and obfervations on its various appearances.-A too ardent love of our country endangers our philanthropy. National inftances. The prefent state of patriotifm confidered, and a general view of the inherent qualities of pride. EXTRACT. The Picture of a perfect Monarchy. "IT has been obferved, that the art of governing with honour requires but one talent and one virtue, refpectively dependant on each other; this virtue is that of philanthropy, and the proper application of it is the talent required. When a king is feriously and heartily inclined to do good, and employs with fcrupulous difcernment the moft infallible means in his power to accomplish this glorious purpofe, the honour that arifes to him from his efforts only returns to its own fource. A king, who unites every part of his territories by the bands of confidence and love into one body, of which he is the foul, who encourages population and induftry, who promotes agriculture and trade, who awakens and rewards the arts, who calls talents into action, and gives protection to virtue; fuch a king accumulates in the lap of peace an immenfe treasure of glory, without its cofting his fubjects a fingle tear, or the world one drop of blood; an harvest which is reaped by the hand which fowed it, and enjoyed by thole who affift in collecting it. "This ever-exifting intimate connection between the glory of a monarch and that of his fubjects, is the chief "The fpirit of rapine in a monarch cannot, it is true, induce any one of his fubjects, who is in his right fenfes, to boast of it: the man who is in the fervice of his king and his country, bad caufe; he may have received the may carry arms in a good or in a fword from the hand of justice or from that of ambition; he cares not why or wherefore; he is neither looked to as the author, the juftifier, or the guarantee of the plan he carries into execution; his perfonal honour is fecured to him, and he is the more rewith which he executes his duty: an fpected in proportion to the energy extraordinary strength of mind, and talents of the first rate, may make him feel the mifery which they occafion in the world, and may fupprefs the emotions of pride; but when the genius of war animates a royal breaft, and far fuperior to the furprifing difclofure of natural powers, far fuperior to the effects of a fpirit of contention, it is founded on juftice, then every feeling mind exalts itfelf with the king, and is juftly proud of a monarch who, broiling in the mid-day fun, and covered with duft and blood, performs wonders at the head of his fubjects. "Of fuch a king his fubjects will with juice be proud; who has paffed the days of his youth in folitude; who has fhook hands with misfortune, in the years of pleafure; and in the feafon of tranquil enjoyment has learned to be a king, a philofopher, a legiflator, a hero, and a afylum; and oppreffed innocence a fhield: the fpirit of perfecution will recoil through its own fubterraneous paffages to the dungeons of despair, and the injured will be revenged, when, by an ineftimable piece of good fortune, philofophy, united to fovereign power, aflifts in chacing from the throne thofe vices which are deftructive of the rights of man. Every path to fame will be open to the people, when the monarch treads each path before them; and no nobler incentive to literary exertions can exift, than when the royal pen flows with genius and wit; when the hiftory it traces is truth, and the poetry it produces is pregnant with thought and fpirit. Favourites will become fincere, and politicians honeft, if he tears the mask of flattery from the face of falsehood, and that of policy from cunning.-Innocence will never murmur against its judges, and juftice and equity will ceafe bleeding at every pore, if the monarch fhews his indignation against the fpirit of litigation, and forces it back to the hell it came from; leaving its encouragers and protectors, the lawyers and their dependants, to get their bread by honeft means, or ftarve. "The fubjects of fuch a king will cherish the moft juftifiable pride, when he extends his regard as well to the humbleft among them as to his choiceft friends; when he adopts every measure requifite to ensure the meanest peafant as much real happinefs as the highest peer; when his prefence fills the court with the awe of majesty, and the cottage of the labourer with cheerfulness and content. "The foul of fuch a monarch will animate his army; when in war, he fhares with his foldiers the fatigue of a march, the inclemencies of the feason, and the want of all conveniencies, and often of the neceffaries of life; when he fmiles with complacency on their bands, as they pafs in review before him; when he mixes in the middle of them, cordially preffes their rough hands, and infpires their fouls with the fame heroic hilarity he himself feels at the fight of them; when he goes into their tents and converfes with cafe and familiarity, gaily with the merry, tenderly with the unhappy; inquiring with fympathy after their wounds, and fharing the fmart of them; ftriving to conquer the impatience of fuffering, and fupporting the heroifm of their fouls even in death; when within fight of the enemy, by a penetrating and quick glance of all that is necessary to the fuccefs of a comprehentive and well-combined plan, he regulates the prefent by his experience of the paft; always can feize the fleeting, the decifive moment of advantage, and prefling forward at the head of his troops, carrying the banner of death before him, in the very heat of the battle, furrounded by innumerable and imminent dangers, and fighting in the thickeft throngs of the enemy, can, with an unshaken prefence of mind, obferve, at one glance, both danger and deliverance. "The fubjects of fuch a king will with joy, in the midst of numerous and impending perils, look forward to the day on which his glory will be firmly established; when they behold the moft powerful and warlike nations, and who are the best appointed to ftrive for the empire of the world, rife up against him; their country attacked on all fides, nearly over-run by its enemies, and fhaken to its very foundations; their monarch, long unacquainted with reft and eafe, in order to procure thefe comforts to his fubjects, watching many a tedious night, while protected and fecured by his plans and precautions, they lie in foft and undisturbed repofe; when they fee him, ever more fudden than danger, more vigilant than artifice, impetucus and irrefiftible as the whirlwind of heaven, flying with his fuccour from one province to another, and delivering innocence from deftruction and rapine, wherever they appear; when, by his unheard-of exploits, he extorts admiration as well from his noble-minded enemies as from his moft zealous friends, and attracts the eyes of the whole world; when he is quick, vigorous, eager, and impreffive, often making powerful and decifive exertions, fometimes ftriking fhort of his aim, fometimes receiving injury from the recoil of his blow; not following circumftances, but bending them to his purpofe; not removing obftacles, but overleaping them; and ever greatest where he has to redress a fault; when, vanquished, fometimes by nature, fometimes by numbers, fome. fometimes by heroes whom he has formed and taught to conquer, he ever knows how to pluck deliverance from danger, and redemption from the brink of a precipice; when every misfortune is but the never-failing forerunner of a great and furprifing effort of courage and prudence; when his loffes lead him to new victories, and refembling nothing but himfelf, great and unexampled both in profperity and calamity, he now triumphis over his enemies, and now aver his misfortunes. "Every patriotic foul will more than ever glow for him, when, over the widely-extended graves of the victors and the vanquished, the wearied world fhall re-echo with the joyful found of peace, and the monarch, greater even than in war,. thall, on the feftive day of his return to his royal city, fical away from the loud acclamations and heartfelt exultations and bleflings of the multitude, to vifit in folitude a neighbouring field of battle, and calling the adjacent peafantry around him, fhall inquire with solicitude and earneftnefs after their prefem fituation, the number of cattle they now have, and the loffes they have fuftained by the operations of war; and alleviating, by every means in his power, the diftreffes they have undergone, fhall at night, difdaining the offenfive pomp of a triumphal eatry, return to his palace by an unfreqirented and unfufpected paffage. The nobleft pride can thus exift in monarchies, when the fovereign and his adminiftration are what they aught to be." Chap. 16. that the nature of the following work, and the plan on which it is conducted, fhould be briefly cxplained. The technical term Anas fignifies, collectively, the various memorabilia compiled and published by the friends of illuftrious fcholars on the continent, as tributes to their memories. The English reader (for whom efpecially this felection and tranilation were defigned) will fully comprehend the meaning of the above term, and the nature of the prefent compilation, when he recalls to his mind the Richardfoniana and Johntoniana; and is told that the Table Talk of Selden is entitled, by men of letters abroad, Seldeniana.' "With respect to the plan on which the following felection has been conducted, the editor withes to ftate, that choofing from the vari ous Anas thofe paifages which appeared to him to pollels the moft general tendency to amufe or inftruct; adding notes, where the articles could be utefully expanded or illuftrated; compreting fome paffages, without weakening their fenfe; and adding literary and biographical ketches of the authors whofe names are affixed feverally to each Ana, are the only attemp's in this work by which he has prefumed to exceed the laborious and cautious province of a tranflator and compiler." VOL. I. contains, A Sketch of the life and writ ings of Poggio, of Perron, Valois, Naudé, Guy Patin, Sorbiere, Renaud de Legrais, Longuerue, Furetiere, Charpentier, Duchat, Santieul, Colomies, and Scaliger the younger; with 345 articles of cullectanea, refpectively arranged. VOL. II. Biographical sketches of Menage, Chevieau, Luther, St. Evremond, Iluet, and Boileau; with 240 collectanea.- An index to each volunie. EXTRACTS. Emperor Sigifmond. "A GENTLEMAN in the prefence of the emperor, fpoke very difrefpectfully of the characters and offices of magiftrates; at the fame time expatiated very amply on the merit of military men, to the difadvantage of the former. "Blockhead," replied Sigifmond," hold your peace. all governors behaved as they should do, the world' would have no occafion for men of the fword." VOL. I. Poggiana, p. 7. If A curious Marriage Contract. "M. de Varilias repeated me an extract from a curious marriage contract, drawn up between two parties of rank in the province of Armagnac, in 1295. The articles were as follow: That the parties fhould live together, as man and wife, during the term of feven years; and then, if they agreed, they had the liberty of extending the duration: if, on the contrary, at the expiration of feven years, they wished to be parted, they were to divide, the children equally, boys and girls; if the number was not equal, they fhould then draw lots for the majority. M. de Varillas, in fearching MSS in the king's library, found this extraordinary marriage fettlement." Valefiana, p. 46. Santeul. "Santeul ufed to tell the following ftory very frequently. I was one day feated in a confeflion chair; a lady came and kneeled down by me, and gave me the hiftory of her whole life: finding that I did not make any anfwer at the conclufion of her recital, fhe demanded abfolution. "Do you take me for a priest, madam?" faid I. "If you are not," replied the lady, "why did you liften to me? I will go and inform against you to the prior."-" And I, madam, will go and inform your hutband." Santoliana, p. 214. Anecdote of an Ufurer. "M. Lthe famous ufurer, during his illness, frequently fell into fainting-fits, which exhibited the appearance of immediate diffolution. His friends, by great attention, and by calling in very able phyficians, for fome time protracted his life, and procured to the patient fymptoms of returning health. One of these his confeffor thought a good opportunity of reminding the fick man of his ap proaching fate. To effect this pious intention, he prefented before the eyes of the expiring ufurer a filver crucifix. M. L furveyed the cross with minute attention, and fuddenly exclaimed, "Sir, I can lend you but a very fmall fum on fuch a pledge." VOL. II. Menagiana, p. 24. The Practical Philofopher. Steady he meets th' approaching foe, vent The humble bleffings of content: "Such is the conftitution of the human intellect, that great diligence and unwearied toil can produce to the ftudent only imperfect knowledge; and that portion which he obtains has little of certainty, but much of doubt and obfcurity. To call this fcience is prefumption; inafmuch as the partition between human knowledge and ignorance is very thin. If we admit this obvious truth, we must also allow that the difference between the learned and ignorant man is not very difcernible. I compare thefe two characters to two perfons who are both looking towards a level plain; the one in a standing, and the other in a litting poiture. The latter fees only a Ittle way round him; the other fees fomewhat at a greater diftince: bat the fuperior extent of his view, com-, pated |