panions of my youth; happy in being freed from that wearisome discernment which points out the failings of those I must converse with; and contented to wear, over these eyes of knowledge, such a veil as shall hinder my seeing deformity in objects, on my idea of whose beauty my happiness depends."

Immediately as the appointed time elapsed, they quitted Cairo, returned to the sage, and besought him to replace them in their original state. "Go, my sons (said he); I will indulge you in your request, on condition ye bear in mind this truth-that man can here look for little happiness beyond the absence of misery -farther felicity is reserved for the celestial mansions.-Depart to your dwellings and occupations, and be convinced, that while thou, Ali, hast the necessaries of life, and thou, Segued, the pleasures of wealth, ye are happier under the dispensation of Providence, than human or supernatural power can make you."

THE PHAROS, No. 12, Dec. 16, 1786.

VOL. III.

No. CX.

Et silicis venis abstrusum excuderet ignem.

VIRGIL.

And struck the imprison'd spark from veins of stone.

MANKIND in general, when they contemplate the records of those illustrious for patriotism, philosophy, poetry, or any other qualities which entitle them to immortality, are inclined to complain of the dearth of abilities and paucity of true genius observable in all ages. Genius, exclaims the discontented complainant, is given but with a sparing hand; instead of moving in a regular orbit as the planet, its course is lawless as the comet's; instead of diffusing the permanent rays of the sun, it glitters only with the dazzling glare of the lightning; it is quick and transitory, and, like the phoenix, appears not once in a century. Such is the usual outcry of those, who love to turn good into evil; to depreciate the dignity of man, and undervalue the works of their Creator. The arguments by which they support this hypothesis are plausible: they observe, that illustrious men have generally flourished, not in a continued se

ries, when the loss of one was supplied by a successor equally capable, but in a collective body. After their demise, nature, as exhausted by such an unusual effort, has sunk into a lethargy, and slept for ages. These sons of fame, like the brighter constellations of the heavens, obscure by their superior splendour the infinite hosts of stars which are scattered through the regions of endless space. To establish this position, they instance the noted reigns of Augustus, Charles, Anne, and Louis. The respectable names of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, Livy, and the other glories of this learned age, are produced: Milton, Dryden, Tillotson, and Clarendon, with Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke, Addison, Corneille, Racine, and Moliere, seem to corroborate this assertion; but let us examine with impartiality, and the deception will be detected. Can we suppose, that Nature has scattered her blessings with more profusion to one age than another; or that like an unfeeling step-mother, she has robbed one child of its portion to enrich the other? Rather, has not the universality of her influence been equally extended to all? Whence then, it is required, whence originates that inequality of genius and learning, which is so incontrovertibly conspicuous in the annals of

history? The answer is brief:-from the difference of cultivation: the most fertile fields will, if neglected, be over-run with weeds, and the bramble will choke the luxuriance of the floweret. How many neglected spots are concealed in the wilds of Africa? how many tracts, seemingly oppressed with the curse of sterility, have, by the assistance of art, teemed with the fruits of cultivation. The human mind is that luxuriant field; rich in the gifts of nature, but requiring the fostering care of education, to raise the im perfect seed to the maturity of the full-grown crop.

I will venture to affirm, that neither the dark ages of the latter Roman empire, nor the darker ones which succeeded (the period when human nature was at its lowest ebb, and had relapsed into the barbarism from which the superior wisdom of the first race of man had raised it), were deficient in genius, if opportunity had called forth its powers. Statius and Claudian undoubtedly possessed the fire so requisite to form the poet; and the excellent Boethius, martyred by the cruel policy of the imperial court, was born to grace a more splendid æra. To descend still deeper into this region of darkness, even so late as the closing years of the Greek empire, the princess Anna Comnena, to

the eminence of her illustrious birth, joined the milder glories of arts and literature. Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and the other schoolmen, shew an acuteness of reason, and comprehension of mind, employed indeed on subtle niceties and frivolous distinctions, but which, under the direction of a better taste, might have explored the profoundest depths of true philosophy. The Rosicrucians, with other chemical projectors, in the course of an extravagant search after an imaginary menstruum, stumbled on many useful discoveries in that curious science. Pope Silvester, with his illustrious follower, Friar Bacon, who were, for their extraordinary knowledge, deemed magicians by the ignorant multitude, and who were both, for the honour of our nation, Englishmen, directing their studies to the proper ends of philosophy, were the harbingers of that glorious light which has since blazed out. Charlemagne and Alfred are characters which might dignify the annals of any historian, as warriors and legislators; the first softened the rigours of the feudal system, sọ peculiarly adapted to bind mankind in indissoluble chains; the other blessed his native land with liberty, and laid the first foundations of that constitution, which has since proved the