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HO is the Wanderer, and what are his pretensions, that he presumes to come forward, and present his observations to the public eye? Have patience, gentle reader, and I will tell thee all. Does the Wanderer come in such a questionable shape, that he must be spoken to? Speak unto him, then, and he will answer for himself.

O'er the past too fondly wandering, and recalling the scenes of other days, and of other times, when my bosom's lord sate lightly on his throne, and, all the day, an unaccustomed spirit lifted me with cheerful thoughts above the earth, I often deeply muse, and, striking upon the strings of her harp darkly, my heart, full of its own sensations, says unto me, tell that which thou thyself hast seen and known, unto the sons and the daughters of Columbia's favoured land. I obey the dictates of my heart, and I will tell the thoughts resulting from the experience of one, who has seen life in many a varied form; who has floated on the wings of ecstacy, arrayed in colours more vividly resplendent, more dazzling to the gaze of mortal sight than those which youthful poets dream :-of one, who has been a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs; -of one, who

"Can oft, in thought, his steps ideal haste
To rocks and groves, the wilderness or waste;
To plains, where Tadmor's regal ruins lie

In desolation's sullen majesty ;

Or where Carthusian spires the pilgrim draw
And bow the soul with unresisted awe;

Where Bruno, from the mountain's pine-clad brow,

Survey'd the world's inglorious toil below;

Then, as down ragged cliffs the torrent roar'd,

Prostrate, great Nature's present God ador'd,
And bade, in solitude's extremest bourn,

Religion hallow the severe sojourn.

"To whom the Painter gives his pencil's might;

No gloom too dreadful, and no blaze too bright,

What time to mortal ken he dares unveil
The inexpressive Form in semblance frail,
To the strain'd view presents the yawning tomb,
Substantial horrors, and eternal doom.

"To whom the powers of harmony resort,
And, as aloft, with high, unbending port,
He scans the ethereal wilderness around,
Pour on his ear the thrilling stream of sound;
Strains, that from full-strung chords at distance swell
Notes, breathing soft from music's inmost cell;
While, to their numerous pause, or accent deep,
His choral passions dread accordance keep.

"Thence musing, slow, he bends his weary eyes
On life, and all its sad realities;

Marks how the prospect darkens in the rear,

Shade blends with shade, and fear succeeds to fear,
'Mid forms, that rise, and flutter through the gloom,
'Till death unbar the cold, sepulchral room.

"Such is the Wanderer; such his claim, and mine,
Imagination's charter'd libertine.

He scorns in apathy to float, or dream,

On listless Satisfaction's torpid stream;

But dares, alone, in vent'rous bark to ride

Down turbulent Delight's tempestuous tide.

With thoughts encount'ring thoughts in conflict strong,
The deep Pierian thunder of the song

Rolls o'er his raptur'd sense: the realms on high
For him disclose their varied majesty ;

He feels the call; then, bold, beyond controul,

Stamps on the glowing page the visions of his soul."

Perhaps, I may be permitted to remark, that, when the mind has been humbled, and laid low in the dust by the weight of affliction, and has been bowed down unto the earth by the hand of sorrow, then is the soul softened, and the feelings of the heart assume a tenderness and a mellowness of sensibility, which is denied to the more robust sensations, that swell the pulses of him, who never shed a tear,-of him, who, proudly riding o'er the azure realm of life, rows his gilded bark in gallant trim, youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm.

If it be so; then may I expect, that the effusions of my heart will be less unworthy of the attention of the beauteous, seraph,

sister-band, the daughters of Columbia's rising state, because it is less distantly removed from that sweet, endearing, irresistible tenderness, that ardent, unutterable glow of affection, which throws the halo of angelic glory over the charms of the softer and the better sex, and which constitutes the fulness of the perfection of the sacred dignity of the female character.

With such feelings, and with such views, the Wanderer cannot, for a moment, hesitate to declare, that the sole aim of all his efforts will be to shew, that infidelity and vice, under every aspect of life, lead to misery, and that religion and virtue ensure to their votaries peace and happiness. Let us then not sigh, but let us rejoice, when we say

1

"Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep, where Fame's proud temple shines afar ;
Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime

Has felt the influence of malignant star,

And waged with Fortune an eternal war;
Check'd by the scoff of Pride, by envy's frown,
And poverty's unconquerable bar,

In life's low vale remote has pined alone,

Then dropt into the grave unpitied and unknown.

2

"And be it so.-Let those deplore their doom,
Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn;
But loftier souls, who look beyond the tomb,
Can smile at fate, and wonder how they mourn.
Shall spring to these sad scenes no more return?
Is yonder wave the sun's eternal bed?

Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn,
And spring shall soon her vital influence shed,
Again attune the grove, again adorn the mead.

3

"Shall I be left forgotten in the dust,
When fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?
Shall nature's voice to man alone unjust,
Bid him, though doom'd to perish, hope to live?
Is it for this, that Virtue oft must strive
With disappointment, penury, and pain?
No-Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive,

And man's majestic beauty bloom again,

Bright through the eternal year of Love's triumphant reign

I shall devote the remainder of this Essay, and, perhaps, one or two succeeding Essays, to the examination of that celebrated position of Rousseau, that the arts and sciences are incompatible with freedom.

What Rousseau's notion of freedom may be can be of very little consequence to inquire, if it is a state of existence from which the arts and sciences are to be banished; for without them what is to render life an object of desire? They constitute by far the greatest portion of human knowledge; and gaining knowledge is, in fact, the only means which we possess of exercising the mind; but upon the exertion of the intellectual faculties depends the power which man possesses; consequently, without the arts and sciences, he would endure the worst of all slavery, even the slavery of ignorance, which renders the human animal so weak and defenceless, that he falls a prey to the first tyrant, that vouchsafes to use him as a beast of burden, or a machine, a mere instrument to execute his will.

So far from being incompatible with freedom, the arts and sciences can not even have a beginning, but in states, whose governments allow of some degree of liberty to the people; because their very invention requires so much mental exertion as can only be employed by those, who enjoy leisure and security; two blessings, which are the chief offspring of freedom. For without leisure where is the opportunity for intellectual exercise, and, without security, where is the incitement to mental energy? It is in those kingdoms, where capricious and arbitrary domination is excluded by wise and equitable institutions, that the universal mind of the community begins to act, and a general tide of intellect to flow in numerous and in diversified channels throughout the whole extent of the empire.

Where no restraints cripple competition, and the human mind is permitted to exert her energies free and uncontrolled, the spirit of honourable emulation and of noble rivalry pervades all ranks of people, and genius is roused by collision. On every side the stimulus to improvement is applied, and the soul of man (which always tastes exalted bliss while it is conscious of working with activity and power) kindles all her fires, collects all her divergent rays, and directs them in one full blaze of light and glory, towards the search of truth and the acquisition of knowledge; till the beings, who had, hitherto, been but little elevated in understanding, or in virtue, above the brutes, that perish, feel the divinity that stirs within them, and become sensible of the destined end for which

they were created, as heirs of immortality, as possessing indestructible faculties, which are always progressively augmenting in power, in proportion as they are exerted, and, with the augmentation of their power, increasing the capabilities of virtue and of happi

ness.

But where the laws, upon which the lives, the property, and the independence of the whole community hang, are, merely, the capricious, and the fluctuating inclinations of an uneducated, and an ignorant despot, no arts, no sciences can flourish, or even rear their head. The want of all legal security, both of person, and of property, the incessant dread of that arbitrary power, which is continually exerted for the purposes of depredation and of destruction, and the intellectual torpescence, which is the unavoidable consequence of injustice and oppression, all prevent their cultivation, and even stifle them in their birth, forbidding them from struggling into existence; for the minds of the whole mass of the people are shackled, tamed and bondaged.

Political must, always, imply intellectual slavery; because no people, who were capable of thinking and of reasoning, would permit tyrants to domineer over them; since they would feel, that there is nothing in the splendour of the purple, which fascinates, nothing in the gleam of a usurper's sword, which can win the affections of men; since they would know and feel their own power; know, that to the steady and the spirited resistance of a high-minded and an enlightened people the robes of pageantry and the glittering of the sceptre would be but weakly and ineffectually opposed. Soon would the iron rod of oppression fall from the despot's feeble grasp, and the uplifted sabre drop from the withered arm of his afrighted satellites. Genius and ability can wave their pinions, and expand their wings, only in those countries, where no injustice weighs them to the earth, and no cruelty of restraint depresses the boldness of their upward flight.

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