In spite of rock and tempest's 100 roar, Are all with thee are all with thee! LONGFELLOW. LX.-AFFECTATION. 1. WHY, Affectation, why this mock grimace? 2. Why that soft languish? Why that drawling tone ? Those flutterings, faintings, and unre'al fears. 3. Can they deceive us? Can such mummeries move, Touch us with pity, or inspire with love? Those eyes may wander over every part, CUMBERLAND. ΕΙ ΕΙ ALEXANDER' rose early. The first moments of the day were consecrated to private devotion. But, as he deemed the service of mankind the most acceptable worship of the gods, the greater part of his morning hours was employed in council, where he discussed public affairs, and determined private causes, with a patience and discretion above his years. The dryness of business was relieved by the charms of literature; and a portion of time was always set apart for his favorite studies of poetry, history, and philosophy. ΕΙ EI EI The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato E1 and Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his understanding, and gave him the noblest ideas of man and of government. The ex HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. ΕΙ 145 ercises of the body succeeded to those of the mind; and Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpassed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the use of his bath, and a slight dinner, he resumed, with new vigor, the business of the day; and till the hour of supper the principal meal of the Romans he was attended by his secretaries, with whom he read and answered the multitude of letters, memorials, and petitions, that must have been addressed to the master of the greatest part of the world. His table was served with the most frugal simplicity; and whenever he was at liberty to consult his own inclination, the company consisted of a few select friends - men of learning and virtue. His dress was plain and modest; his demeanor, courteous and affable. At the proper hours, his palace was open to all his subjects; but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, pronouncing the same salutary admonition—“Let none enter these holy walls, unless he is conscious of a pure and innocent mind." ΕΙ There are few great personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulation of friends, than Queen Elizabeth; EI and yet there scarcely is any whose reputation has been more certainly determined by the unanimous consent of posterity. The unusual length of her administration, and the strong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers somewhat of their pan-e-gyr'ics, have, at last, in spite of political factions, and, what is more, of religious animosities, produced a uniform judgment with regard to her conduct. EI Few sovereigns of England 29 succeeded to the throne in more difficult circumstances; and none ever conducted the government with such uniform success and felicity. Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true secret for managing religious factions, she preserved her people, by her superior prudence, from those confusions in which theological controversy had involved all the neighboring nations; and though her enemies were the most powerful princes of Europe, most active, the most enterprising, the least scrupulous, she was able, by her vigor, to make deep impressions on their states. Her own greatness, meanwhile, remained unimpaired. the The wise ministers and brave warriors 101 who flourished under her reign share the praise of her success; but, instead of lessen, ing the applause due to her, they make great addition to it. They owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; they were supported by her constancy; and, with all their abilities, they were never able to acquire any undue ascendant over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, she remained equally mistress; the force of the tender passions was great over her, but the force of her mind was still superior; and the combat which her victory visibly cost her serves only to display the firmness of her resolution, and the loftiness of her ambitious sentiments. The fame of this princess, though it has surmounted the prějudices both of faction and bigotry, yet lies still exposed to another prejudice, which is more durable, because more natural, and which, according to the different views in which we survey her, is capable either of exalting beyond measure, or diminishing the lustre of her character. This prejudice is founded on the consideration of her sex. 84 When we contem'plate her as a woman, we are apt to be struck with the highest admiration of her great qualities and extensive capacity; but we are also apt to require some more softness of disposition, some greater lenity of temper, some of those amiable weaknesses by which her sex is distinguished. But the true method of estimating her merit is, to lay aside all these considerations, and consider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and intrusted with the government of mankind. He has visited all Europe not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosities of modern art, nor to collect medals, or collate mănuscripts; 100 but to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge 28 and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original; it is as full of genius as of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a circumnavigation of charity. It is impossible to refuse to Milton the honor due to a life of the sincerest piety and the most dignified virtue. No man ever liyed under a more abiding sense of responsibility. No man ever ON THE ABUSE OF GENIUS. 147 strove more faithfully to use time and talent "as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye." No man so richly endowed was ever less ready to trust in his own powers, or more prompt to own his dependence on "that eternal and propitial throne, where nothing is readier than grace and refuge to the distresses of mortal suppliants." His morality was of the loftiest order. He possessed a self-control which, in one susceptible of such vehement emotions, was marvellous. No one ever saw him indulging in those propensities which overcloud the mind and pollute the heart. No youthful excesses treasured up for him a suffering and remorseful old age. From his youth up he was temperate in all things, as became one who had consecrated himself to a lifestruggle against vice, and error, and darkness, in all their forms. He had started with the conviction "that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem; that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things; and from this he never swerved. His life was indeed a true poem; or it might be compared to an anthem on his own favorite organ― hightoned, solemn, and majestic. 5. WASHINGTON. Webster. ΕΙ The character of Washington E is among the most cherished contemplations of my life. It is a fixed star in the firmament of great names, shining without twinkling or obscuration, with clear, steady, beneficent light. It is associated and blended with all our reflections on those things which are near and dear to us. If we think of the independence of our country, we think of him whose efforts were so prominent in achieving it; if we think of the constitution which is over us, we think of him who did so much to establish it, and whose administration of its powers is acknowledged to be a model for his successors. If we think of glory in the field, of wisdom in the cabinet, E1 of the purest patriotism, of the highest integrity, public and private, of morals without a stain, of religious feelings without intolerance and without extravagance, the august78 figure of Washington presents itself as the personification of all these ideäs. ΕΙ LXII. ON THE ABUSE OF GENIUS. 1. I HAVE endeavored to show that the intrinsic value of genius is a secondary consideration, compared to the use to which it is applied; that genius ought to be estimated chiefly by the EI character of the subject upon which it is employed, or of the cause which it advocates; that it should be considered, in fact, as a mere instrument, a weapon, a sword, which may be used in a good cause, or in a bad one; may be wielded by a patriot, or a highwayman; may give protection to the dearest interests of society, or may threaten those interests with the irruption of pride, and profligacy, and folly of all the vices which compose the curse and degradation of our species. - 2. I am the more disposed to dwell a little upon this subject, because I am persuaded that it is not sufficiently attended to,132 - nay, that in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred it is not attended to at all; 140 that works of imagination are perused for the sake of the wit which they display; which wit not only reconciles us to, but endears to us, opinions, and feelings, and habits, at war with wisdom and morality -to say nothing of religion in short, that we admire the polish, the temper, and shape of the sword, and the dexterity with which it is wielded, though it is the property of a lu'natic, or of a bra'vo; though it is brandished in the face of wisdom and virtue; and, at every wheel, 103 threatens to inflict a wound 39 that will disfigure some feature, or lop some member; or, with masterly adroitness, aims a death-thrust at the heart! 3. I would deprive genius of the worship that is paid to it for its own sake. Instead of allowing it to dictate to the world, I would have the world dictate to it dictate to it so far as the vital interests of society are affected. I know it is the opinion of many that the moral of mere poëtry is of little avail; that we are charmed by its melody and wit, and uninjured by its levity and profaneness; and hence many a thing has been allowed in poetry, which would have been scouted, deprecated, rejected, had it appeared in prose; as if vice and folly were less pernicious for being introduced to us with an elegant and insinuating address; or as if the graceful folds and polished scales of a serpent were an antidote against the venom of its sting. 4. There is not a more prolific source of human error than that railing at the world which obtrudes itself so frequently upon our attention in the perusing of Lord Byron's poems that sickness of disgust which begins its indecent heavings whensoever the idea of the species forces itself upon him. The species is not perfect; but it retains too much of the image of its Maker, preserves too many evidences of the modelling of the Hand that fashioned it, is too near to the hovering providence of its disregarded but still cherishing Author, to excuse, far less to call for |