Page images
PDF
EPUB

and I am convinced every well meaning person in his Majesty's kingdoms must feel the force of his reasoning.— Will any caviller presume to contend, that our looms are not as fertile of poetic imagery, as those of our neighbours? Have we not handkerchiefs of printed cotton, crowded with all the beauties of rural scenery? and " azure flowers that blow," in the carpets of the Wilton manufactory? Nay, even supposing an unquestionable inferiority on the side of the English looms, would not every Englishman still shew a laudable partiality to his country? and by such a preference, what he lost in Poetry, would he not amply make up in Patriotism?

In short, so convinced am I by Mr. Homespun's arguments, that I cannot help taking the earliest opportunity to recommend to such of my correspondents, as may have been induced by the forwardness of the season, to begin Odes on Spring for the use of the Microcosm, that they would be careful to stick to the productions of the English loom, if they think it necessary to draw Metaphors from Weaving at all; that is, if they do really think, that Nature can be embellished by the technical terms of Art; and that the works of the Creator, can receive additional beauty by being assimilated to those of the Manufacturer: which, in my humble opinion, I will confess, does not appear to be the case.

I know no better advice that I can give to my Correspondents on this head, unless indeed it were not to write "Odes on Spring" at all.

B.

I shall take this opportunity of obviating an objection which has been made to my deviation from my original plan, of devoting this work particularly to Eton College. Those who have considered my occasional sallies into the wider field of history or speculation as a violation of this promise, must entertain no very high idea of our little world, if they suppose, that a weekly siege of some one of its follies, would furnish employment for a long campaign; or, that the example of an equal, is not of as much efficacy to lead the younger part of it to a more serious exercise of thought, than generally distinguishes their years, as his admonitions are to deter them from error,

It has been observed likewise, that in some few instances I have ventured to attack received opinions; in answer to this, if it has ever been the case, so pointedly at least as to give umbrage to the more experienced part of my readers, 1 shall plead the example of the Roman orators, whose first coup d'essai was universally the impeachment of some powerful offender; which attack, though not always at tended with success, was looked upon as the most certain road to future popularity. Nor indeed have I any other method

Quá me quoque possim

Tollere humo.

To raise myself from earth.

VIRGIL

A trite precept of morality, would be but ill received by

those, who, from the unprecedented novelty of my undertaking, expect rather to be pleased with the enthusiastic though perhaps mistaken ideas of a juvenile knight errant ; than instructed with the gleanings of all the moral and philosophic pens, whose authority has from time to time established these common place data.

F

No. 23. MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1787.

If there be any land, as fame reports,

Where common laws restrain the prince and subjects;
A happy land, where circulating power

Flows thro' each member of the embodied state;
Sure not unconscious of the mighty blessing,

Her grateful sons shine bright with every virtue;
Untainted with the lust of innovation,

Sure all unite to hold her league of rule,
Unbroken as the sacred chain of nature,

That links the jarring elements in peace.

FR

JOHNSON'S IRENE.

ROM a subject that has been so often handled as the various modes and forms of government, little novelty can be expected; and the ablest pen could effect no more, than to place in new lights, or cloath in different words, those arguments which have been urged for ages by the advocates of different parties. As I am not qualified by my years or experience to decide amidst such contending

factions, or to give any additional weight to either side by a declaration of my opinion, my only endeavour in this essay shall be to collect and place in one point of view, the most important points of the controversy; to rest my assertions not on the frail foundations of speculation, but experience; and by exhibiting the several expedients of human wisdom for the regulation of society, make my fellow-citizens sensible of the blessings of that constitution, under which we live; and to the protection of whose privileges they will most probably hereafter be summoned.

To trace the progress of legal government, from the simple subordination of the patriarchal power, to the com plex system of modern politics; to make the gradual encrease and extension of acknowledged authority from the head of a single family to the sovereignty of a mighty empire, may prove an ample reward to the toil of useful curiosity; but it is a task beyond the limits of my paper, or the extent of my abilities. I shall therefore pass over the subject, and content myself with this remark; that it is absolutely necessary to the existence of civil society, that for the public good, the individual should resign a part of his natural independence, and bind himself by some common tie or obligation, to the observance of a known and fixed law. As this is the corner stone of all civil institutions, and one of those self evident propositions which do not admit of a doubt, I shall not further insist upon it; but proceed in my examination of those different branches, which shot forth from the parent stock of patriarchal government. At this simple period, the ideas of men were confined within a narrow circle, and to the objects more immediately before them; their present subsistence was almost their only care, and the possessions of a fertile pas

turage, or a spring to water their flocks, employed the petty politicks of this guiltless age. It is not from these men we are to expcet the refinements of government; for the nice balance between opposste interests, the discrimination between the right of the sovereign, the nobility, and the people, or that equal composition of different parts, which form the perfect whole, and like the symmetry of a well-turned arch, mutually prop and support each other. As the patriarchal government was only calculated for the regulation of a small number, when mankind encreased, ́ they found the necessity of an alteration: but as their ideas were too confined to suggest any new mode; as tyranny was not dreaded where it had never been felt; and the violation of rights, which had never yet existed, could not be guarded against; they contented themselves with that form, to which custom had reconciled them: his authority being extended on a large scale, the head of a family became the sovereign of the state; and despotism fixed her throne in Asia and the eastern world. In those parts we are to search for any knowledge of this kind, as the western quarter was then immersed in the ignorance of primitive barbarity. Even Egypt, the source from whence all arts and sciences are derived, the most refined and polished of kingdoms, was subject to a regal government; whose antiquity, by a series of fabulous dynasties, was carried to a ridiculous height. The republican form was first adopted in Greece; and the aristocracy or democracy, the different modifications of the same original, prevailed according to the disposition of the people by whom they

* In the Scriptures we find an instance of a solemn covenant between Abraham and Abimelech, concerning a well of water.

« PreviousContinue »