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Prosperity may give gentleness to the heart. Out of adversity only does the soul come nobler and greater.

"Il n'y a pour l'homme que trois evenements; naitre, vivre, et mourir. Il ne se sent pas naitre, il souffre a mourir, et il oublie de vivre."

ON THE RISE AND DECLINE OF NATIONS.

Of the questions that arise in the consideration of human society, one of the most interesting is that which regards the rise and decline of nations. What are the

causes of their greatness and of their decay? This question has not a historical interest merely, but it touches every nation, as it involves their own future fortunes.

Every nation that has yet made itself great or famous on the globe has exhibited one story. It has risen up from rude beginnings,-it has discovered great vigour and force of mind,—has raised itself by that power to pre-eminence, but has been unable to sustain the spirit by which it rose, and sooner or slower it has sunk from its renown. Some have found their glory in conquest and dominion, some in proud civilization, some in powerful commerce, gathering wealth from the shores of the world,-s -some in the noblest arts to which the human spirit has given birth; but, whatever their distinction has been, or by whatever course they have reached it, they have never stood at the height they had gained, but, as if some fatal period of time rolled over them, they have seemed, when they had completed their term, to sink under the inevitable vicissitude of human affairs. Is this then, indeed, the destiny of all nations? Is the vigour

which nature supplies given but for a season? Do they wax old in their strength, and fulfil an inherent necessity in their decay and dissolution? If this is the unavoidable condition of our being, if the law of mortality hangs over the pride of nations as over individual heads, we must look with a melancholy regard on the splendour which is destined to wane,-on the greatness which bears the decree of its fate written on its forehead; but we shall feel, that to attempt by any wisdom or virtue of ours to resist the inevitable course, is to oppose human power to irresistible fate. One would wish to try every means of escaping this disconsolate conviction.

In the history of those nations which have risen up, and flourished, and decayed, we are able to trace something of the causes both of their grandeur and decline. We are able to observe in what manner the changes of their spirit have discovered themselves in their fortunes, and to recognise some of the influences to which their spirit has owed its vigour, and those yet more distinctly which, when the age of its declension drew on, have touched it with decay. From the consideration of these, we may attempt to form a conjecture whether the same term threatens all greatness, or there may be any means within the breast of nations themselves for averting that final revolution.

The history of the advance of nations describes a period of contention,-of contention with men without the state or within, or of contention with the difficulties of nature which society must subdue. In those times, it seems scarcely to depend on the choice of man whether he shall put forth the powers of his spirit a heavy necessity lies upon him which he

must obey. If one small state is surrounded with others, rude like itself, and prone to violence, we do not ask what is the cause that makes the people warriors. They must fight, or submit to bitter servitude, and therefore numerous such tribes spread over a country are all warlike. If one of these gains mastery over the other, we can easily understand how the joy of triumph will inflame its courage, and incite it to unmeasured enterprise. Such states within themselves, if they are free, are turbulent; their laws yet unframed,—their government undefined,—in the infancy of society, they have yet to learn from their own disorders the necessity of law, and, from the struggle of different powers within their bosom, to reach a political constitution. Here, then, all minds are held awake, for there is no established security; and this is the period in which every one feels most intimately his connexion with the whole society, when he feels that he himself is insecure, because there is no public order, and that the settlement of the public tranquillity will bring repose to himself. In that period, then, there are two great objects which are present to all minds, and which closely connect their thoughts with the public interest: one is the defence against outward foes-the other the acquisition of social order within. These are objects which maintain in all minds a certain degree of agitation and anger, a temper to which high exertion is always grateful; and therefore, whatever faults and weaknesses we may find in men at such a time, we do not find them deserting their duty from inclination to timid and indolent repose. They are fearless in the ordinary habit of their

spirits, and ready to go at once into daring action on the call of every emergency.

Something, too, in the earlier periods of progress, must be considered as contributed to the common vigour of spirit, by the very hardihood of life which the simple state of yet unimproved society lays upon every one. They are still somewhat near to the state of savage man, wrestling in his unassisted strength with inclement and unbounteous Nature. The ordinary labours of human subsistence lie on higher orders of the community, as the dictator of Rome followed his own plough; and those luxuries of art which lap the body in enervating ease are yet unimagined.

There seem sufficient causes, then, in the early state of all society, for maintaining an aroused and bold spirit in a body full of manly strength.

But, in a people thus prepared, whatever causes arise to incite them to greater exertion, find powers already fitted for enterprise. If they begin a career of conquest, their soul is inflamed with their successes-all their powers break forth. Minds of greater capacity and higher daring become gigantic in achievement, and meaner spirits are kindled to a greatness for which they did not seem to be made; and the gradual rise of power by conquest is one of the chief careers of greatness which nations have run, But others have aggrandized themselves by means milder in their nature, and more beneficial to mankind. We know not what concurrence of circumstances first incited certain states to engage in commerce; but some, in the different ages of the world, have embarked with a great and enterprising spirit in this career, and have

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