pressed those who surrounded him with the deepest awe and reverence. 4. The illusion' which he produced on his worshipers, can be compared only to those illusions to which lovers are proverbially subject during the season of courtship. It was an illusion which affected even the senses. The contemporaries of Louis thought him tall. Voltaire, who might have seen him, and who had lived with some of the most distinguished members of his court, speaks repeatedly of his majestic stature. Yet it is as certain as any fact can be, that he was rather below than above the middle size. 5. He had, it seems, a way of holding himself, a way of walking, a way of swelling his chest and rearing his head, which deceived the eyes of the multitude. Eighty years after his death, the royal cemetery was violated by the revolutionists; his coffin was opened; his body was dragged out; and it appeared that the prince whose majestic figure had been so long and loudly extolled, was in truth a little man. 6. His person and government have had the same fate. He had the art of making both appear grand and august, in spite of the clearest evidence that both were below the ordinary standard. Death and time have exposed both the deceptions. The body of the great king has been measured more justly than it was measured by the courtiers, who were afraid to look above his shoe-tie. His public character has been scrutinized by men free from the hopes and fears of Boileau' and Molière. In the grave, the most majestic of princes is only five feet eight. In history, the hero and the politician dwindle into a vain and feeble tyrant, the slave of priests and women, little in war, little in government, little in every thing but the art of simulating greatness. 'Il lu' sion, false show by which one may be disappointed; deceptive appearance. Con têm' po ra ries, persons living at the same time.VOLTAIRE, the assumed name of François Marie Arouet, a distinguished French poet, novelist, historian, and philosopher, born at a village near Paris, in 1694, and died at Paris in 1778.- BOILEAU, a distinguished French poet and satirist, born in 1636, and died in 1711.- MOLIÈRE, the assumed name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin, a poet, actor, and dramatist, celebrated as the best comic writer of France, born in Paris, in 1620, and died in 1673. 7. He left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a beaten and humble army, provinces turned into deserts by misgovernment and persecution, factions dividing the army, a schism' raging in the court, an immense debt, an innumerable household, inestimable jewels and furniture. All the sap and nutriment of the State seemed to have been drawn, to feed one bloated and unwholesome excrescence.? 8. The nation was withered. The court was morbidly flourishing. Yet, it does not appear that the associations which attached the people to the monarchy had lost strength during his reign. He had neglected or sacrificed their dearest interests, but he had struck their imaginations. The very things which ought to have made him unpopular, the prodigies of luxury and magnificence with which his person was surrounded, while, beyond the inclosure of his parks, nothing was to be seen but starvation and despair, seemed to increase the respectful attachment which his people felt for him. T. B. MACAULAY. THOMAS BABBINGTON MACAULAY, the most attractive, and one of the most learned and eloquent of the essayists and critics of the age. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, England, where he took his degree in 1822, after having achieved the highest honors of the university. After leaving the university, he studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He has been distinguished in politics, as an orator in parliament, and as an able officer of the Supreme Council in Calcutta, India. He returned to England in 1838, and a few years later was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. He is very meritorious as a poet; but his poetical merit dwindles into insignificance in comparison with the unrivaled brilliancy of his prose. His" Essays from the Edinburgh Review" have been published in three volumes. They have attained a greater popularity than any other contributions to the periodical works of the day. His last publication, the "History of England," is written in a style of great clearness, force, and eloquence, and is as popular among all classes as any history of the present century. 36. QUEEN ELIZABETH. THERE are few great personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny' of enemies, and the adulation" 'Schism (siz'm), a division in a party or church.-2 Ex cres' cence, that which grows unnaturally, and without use, out of something else.— Cål' um ny, slander; the utterance of a false and malicious report against the reputation of another. Ad u là' tion, servile flattery. of friends, than Queen Elizabeth;' 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 panegyr'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. 2. Few sovereigns of England' succeeded to the throne in more difficult circumstances; and none ever conducted the gov、 ernment 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 supe rior 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, the 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. 3. The wise ministers and brave warriors who flourished under her reign share the praise of her success; but, instead of lessening 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 abil ities, 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. 4. The fame of this princess, though it has surmounted the prejudices 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 1 Queen Elizabeth reigned in England from 1558 to 1603.—' Panegyrio (pan e jir' ik), formal praise.-- England (Îng' gland) her, is capable either of exalting beyond measure, or diminishing the luster of her character. This prejudice is founded on the consideration of her sex. 5. 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. DAVID HUME. DAVID HUME, or HOME, as the name was originally spelt, one of the most celebrated historians and philosophers of Great Britain, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, April 26th, 1711. At the early age of fifteen he was sent to the University of Edinburgh, where he passed a course of study with unusual success. So fully was he possessed, even at that early age, with an intense love of literature, and tha ambition of literary distinction which was the ruling passion of his life, that they overmastered every thing in the shape of pleasure or interest, that could be brought into competition with them. His first work, "Treatise of Human Nature," was completed by his twenty-fifth year, and published in London, in 1737. This, as the production of so young a mind, must certainly be regarded as a prodigy of metaphysical acuteness. The last volumes of his "History of England," or rather the first, as it was published in the retrograde course, appeared in 1761. His fame as a philosopher rests rather on what he was capable of, than of what he achieved; and, as a historian, he is much more indebted for his success to his manner, or style, than to his matter. Though his "History of England" is everywhere disfigured with gross defects, inaccuracies, and prejudices, still the narrative is so lucid, the grouping so admirable, the reflections so unforced and natural-combining so much of flexible grace and natural dignitythat it will ever stand high in the estimation of every cultivated taste. The private character of Mr. Hume exhibited many virtues. He was very amiable, and well merited the admiration of his friends. Though a confirmed skeptic, the philosophic fortitude and tranquillity of his death, which occurred in August, 1776, is well attested. This, however, is truly a rare phenomenon. 1. 37. THE KING AND THE NIGHTINGALES. KING ING Edward dwelt at Havering-atte-Bower- 1 Havering-atte-Bower, in Essex, was the favorite retirement of King Edward the Confessor, who so delighted in its solitary woods, that he shut himself up in them for weeks at a time. .Old legends say that he met with but one annoyance in that pleasant scclusion- the continual Sick of the troublous majesty of kings— 2. He scorn'd himself for eating food like men, Wore sackcloth on his loins, and smote his breast- And own'd to crimes too great to be forgiven, As if he glōried in inventing shame, Or thought to win the grace of Heaven by lies, 3. Long in these woods he dwelt--a wretched man, Laden with ceaseless prayer and boastful vows, For every evening with the waning light A choir of nightingales, the brakes among, warbling of the nightingales, pouring such floods of music upon his ear during his midnight meditations, as to disturb his devotions. He therefore prayed that never more within the bounds of that forest might nightingale's song be heard. His prayer, adds the legend, was granted. The following versification of the story shows a different result to his prayers a result which, if it contradict tradition, does not, it is pre sumed, contradict poetical justice. See Job, chap. iii.— Root. |