friends; but, accustomed to think for himself, and having imposed a task on himself, he has scorned to compromise with fraud and falsehood. His labour will only be lost, if it fail to confer on many men more just and accurate modes of thinking on many important subjects, -if it do not uproot many mischievous prejudices, which retard the improvement of society, and if it do not in some degree arrest the triumph of some of those primitive systems by which mankind, in spite of their alleged civilization, continue to be deluded. Nevertheless he is not a cynic,-for it will be seen, that he is no niggard of praise wherever it is due; that he has extolled virtue in every form in which it can gladden the heart; and that he has exalted all that is true, wherever and in whatever it serves to honour the understanding. After the greater part of this volume had been printed, the Author discovered that ISOCRATES, in an epistle to Nicocles, King of Cyprus, had composed adages for kings; and, in another epistle, adages for subjects. He was so much struck with the coincidence of plan, that he prepared translations, and intended to annex them as an appendix, hoping at once to add to the value of the volume, and to shew the differences with which a Greek and an Englishman treated the same subjects at the distance of two thousand years. The circumstances, however, which are alluded to in the postscript, led him at once to close his work; but, if the spirit of his observations should gratify the public, he may be induced at some future period to print a second volume, containing other articles of his own in the same method of composition, with these articles of Isocrates, and some others highly curious, though neglected.. If the circumstances noticed in the POSTSCRIPT to this work had occurred before this volume had been written, and almost printed, it never would have had existence, for the Author as well as the people of England will probably have other cares than those of speculations in philosophy and morals; and the luxuries of life and literature must, for many years, yield in Britain to the wants of the hour, and the warfare of self-interest. In the anticipations of the Author, the Sun of England's glory has set upon this generation. Whether ministers of more public spirit, and of more refined sympathy with the wants of the nation, can raise it again, is a question which time only can solve. Every conclusion of experience is adverse to the supposition. Credit is suspicion asleep, and suspicion has been so aroused, that it can scarcely be lulled again in regard to the same parties and the same country. A nation, like an individual, or like a woman, cannot lose its character and afterwards re-enjoy it. We may exist like cattle on the soil, but never again in the same mutual confidence and credit; and, by consequence, in equal plenitude of wealth and power. Let the parliament, the king, and the people, adjust this question with that minister who, in the hour of public phrenzy and despair, taunted the people in their distresses by ascribing to them sanative effects, and quoting the commonplace adage, that "the evil would cure itself." It may be so, so, it may cure itself, but woe to the generation on which the cure is performed. It cannot be an age either of philosophy, literature, or speculation; but it will be in an iron age, in which the worst passions will triumph over virtue; and in which struggles for wisdom will be lost in personal contests for bread and existence. |