having the magnanimity to profit by his own observation. Happy for society that such instruments are raised up! Happy were it for themselves, if a still higher principle directed their exertions; and if, in so essentially serving mankind, they afforded a reasonable ground of hope, that they had saved themselves! bours. The king of England, apprised of his A remark, indeed, which Peter had the hontaste, entertained him, not with a masquer-jesty and good sense to make, but without ade, but with a naval combat. Previous to this, he had entered upon his military career in Russia, where he set out by taking the lowest situation in his own regiment, and would accept of no rank, but as he obtained it by deserving it. Accordingly, he filled successively every station in the army from the drummer to the general; intending hereby to give bis proud and ignorant nobility a living lesson, that desert was the only true road to military distinctions. This monarch, who like Alexander, perpetuated his name by a superb city which he built who refined barbarism into policy, We must not determine on the greatness of who so far tamed the rugged genius of an ala sovereign's character entirely by the degree most polar clime, as not only to plant arts of civilization, morals, and knowledge, which and manufactures, but colleges, academies, his people may be found to have reached after libraries, and observatories, in that frozen his death: but, in order to do full justice to soil, which had hitherto scarcely given any bis character, we must exactly appreciate signs of intellectual life! who improved, not the state in which he found, as well as that only the condition of the people, but the in which he left them. For though they state of the church, and considerably raised may be still far behind the subjects of neigh- its religion, which was before scarcely bouring states, yet that measure of progress Christianity;--this founder, this patriot, this which they will have made, under such a reformer, was himself intemperate and viomonarch as Peter, will reflect greater hon- lent, sensual and cruel, a slave to passions our on the king, than will be due to the and appetites as gross as could have been insovereign of a much more improved people, dulged by the rudest of his Muscovites bewho finds them already settled in habits of fore be had civilized them! decency and order, and in an advanced state of arts, manners and knowledge. If the true grandeur of a prince consists not in adding to his territory by conquest; The genius of Peter was not a visionary not in enriching it by plunder; not in adorngenius, indulging romantic ideas of chimeri-ing it by treasures wrung from the hard hand cal perfection, but it was a great practical of industry; but in converting a neglected understanding, realizing by its energy what- waste into a cultivated country; in peopling ever his genius had conceived. Patient un- and rendering fruitful a land desolated by der difficulties, cheerful even under the loss long calamities; in preserving peace in his of battles, from the conviction that the rough small state, when all the great states of Euimplements, with which he must hereafter rope were ravaged by war; in restoring work his way to victory, could only learn to plenty to a famished people, and raising a conquer by being first defeated, he consider- depressed nobility to affluence; in paying ed every action in which he was worsted, the debts of a ruined gentry, and giving poras a school for his barbarians. It was this tions to their daughters; in promoting virperseverance under failures, which paved tue, literature, and science; in making it the the way for the decisive victory at Pultowa. whole object of his reign to render his subthe consummation of his military characterjects richer, happier, and better than he His conduct to the Swedish officers, his prisoners, was such as would have done honour to a general of the most polished state. He manifested another indisputable proof of greatness in his constant preference of utility to splendor, and in his indifference to show and decoration. The qualities which this prince threw away, as beneath the attention of a great mind, were precisely such as a tinsel hero would pick up, on which to build the reputation of greatness. The shreds and parings of Peter would make a Louis. found them; in declaring that he would not reign a moment longer than he thought he could be doing good to his people, then was Leopold, sovereign of the small dukedom of Lorrain, more justly entitled to the appellation of the great, than the Alexanders, the Caesars, and the Louises, who filled the page of history with praises, and the world with tears.* If Gustavus Adolphus puts in his undisputed claim to the title of the great, it is not merely on the ground of his glorious victories at the battles of Leipsic and Lutzen, but With this truly vigorous and original mind, because that amidst the din of arms, and the with an almost unparalleled activity and zeal, tumult of those battles, he was never divertconstantly devoted to all the true ends which ed from snatching some portion of every day a patriot king will ever keep in view-it is for prayer, and reading the Scriptures. It is yet but too obvious, why the emperor Peter because, with all his high spirit, he was so far failed of completely deserving the title of the from thinking that it derogated from the great. This monarch presents a fresh exdignity of a gentleman, or the honour of an emplification of the doctrine which we have officer, to refuse a challenge, that he punishso frequently brought forward, the use which ed with death whoever presumed to decide a Providence makes of erring men to accom-quarrel with the sword; to prevent the neplish great purposes. He affords a melan- cessity of which, he made a law that all discholy instance how far a prince 'may refor a people, without reforming himself. *See Siecle de Louis XIV. for a fuller account of Leopold. putes should be settled by a court of hon- and humble almost all the states of Europe, our.* He deserved the appellation of great, if this appeared in the eyes of that panewhen he wished to carry commerce to the West Indies, that he might carry thither also by those means, the pure doctrines of the reformation. He deserved it, when he invited by an edict all the persecuted protestants from every part of Europe, to an asylum in Sweden, offering them not only an immunity from taxes, but full permission to return home when the troubles of their respective countries should be healed. gyrist a proof of greatness; in the eye of reason and humanity, such a course of conduct will rather appear insolence, injustice, and oppression. Yet, as such irreligious authors commonly connect the idea of glory with that of success, they themselves ought not to vindicate it even on their own principle of expediency; since this passion for false glory, carried to the last excess, became, at length, the means of stirring up the other EuWhen such was the union of piety and ropean powers; the result of whose confedheroism in the gallant monarch himself, iteracy terminated in the disgrace of Louis. was the less wonderful to find the same rare If ever this vain-glorious prince appeared combination in the associates of his triumphs. truly great, it was in his dying speech to his Hence the pious meditations of the celebra- infant successor, when, taking him in his ted leader of the Scotch brigadef in the ser- arms, he magnanimously intreated him not vice of Gustavus! Compositions of which to follow his example, in his love of wars and would be scarcely a discredit to a father of his taste for expense; exhorting him to folthe church, and which exalts his character low moderate counsels, to fear God, reduce as highly in a religious and moral view, as it the taxes, spare his subjects, and to do whatwas raised, by his bravery and skill in war, ever he himself had not done to relieve them. in the annals of military glory. finement for some irregularities; as when, afterwards, being sovereign, he not only pardoned, but commended and promoted him. In like manner, our illustrious Henry V. If Alexander deserved the title in question, in the midst of his French conquests, conit was when he declared in a letter to his im- quests founded on injustice (unpopular as is mortal master, that he thought it a truer glo- the assertion to an English ear) never so trury to excel in knowledge than in power. Itly deserved to be called the great as in that was in that equally moral and poetical rep- beautiful instance of his reverence for the rehension of those flatterers who had ascrib-laws, when he submitted, as prince of Wales, ed divine honours to him, when, on the bleed- to the magistrate who put him under coning of his wounds, he said, Look! this is my blood! This is not that divine liquor of which Homer speaks, which ran from the hand of Venus when Diomedes pierced it! His gen- If ever Henry IV. of France, peculiarly erous treatment of the family of the conquer- deserved the appellation of great, it was after ed Darius was, perhaps, eclipsed by the the victory at Coutras, for that noble magnaequally magnanimous, and more disinterested nimity in the very moment of conquest, moderation of our own heroic Edward the which compelled a pious divine, then present, black prince to the captive king of France. to exclaim- Happy and highly favoured of This gallant prince seems to have merited, heaven is that prince, who sees at his feet his without obtaining the appellation of the enemies humbled by the hand of God; his great. table surrounded by his prisoners, his room But, if splendid parade, and costly magni-hung with the ensigns of the vanquished withficence be really considered as unequivocal out the slightest emotion of vanity or insoproofs of exalted greatness, then must the Trajans, the Gustavuses, the Alfreds, the Peters, the Williams, and the Elizabeths, submit their claims to this appellation to those of Louis XIV. Louis himself must, without contest, yield the palm of greatness to pope Alexander the sixth, and Cæsar Bor gia; and they, in their turn, must hide their diminished heads, in reverence to the living exhibitor of the late surpassing pomp and unparalleled pageantry in a neighbouring nation, displayed in the most gorgeous and costly farce that was ever acted before the astonished and indignant world! If, to use the very words of the historian and panegyrist of Louis, to despoil, disturb, *The king of France, at this same military period, severely prohibited duelling, the practice of which he was so far from considering as an indication of courage, that he took a solemn oath to bestow rewards on such military men as had the courage to refuse a challenge. It was an indication, that this prince understood wherein true magna. nimity consisted. See also sir Francis Bacon's charge, when attorney general, against duels. + Monro. lence! who can maintain in the midst of such glorious successes, the same moderation with which he has borne the severest adversity!-He deserved it, when as he was besieging Paris, which was perishing with famine, he commanded the besiegers to admit supplies to the besieged.--He deserved it at the battle of Irvi, not when he gallantly ordered his soldiers to follow his white plume, which would be the signal of victory, nor afterwards when that victory was complete ; but it was, when just before the engagement, he made a solemn renunciation of his own might and his own wisdom, and submitted the event to God in this incomparable prayer. O Lord God of Hosts, who hast in thy hand all events; if thou knowest that my reign will promote thy glory, and the safety of thy people; if thou knowest that I have no other ambition, but to advance the honour of thy name, and the good of the state, fayour, O great God, the justice of my arms. But if thy good Providence has decreed otherwise; if thou seest that I should prove one. of those kings whom thou givest in thine anger; take from me, O merciful God, my life and my crown. Make me this day a sacri- CHAP. XXVIII. Books. habits, it would be well on these occasions, to tie the mind down to the one selected topic, and not to allow it to wander from the point under consideration. This practice, steadily observed, would strengthen the fac ulties of thinking, and reasoning, and consequently highly improve the powers of con versation. Of books, a considerable number, besides those in the foregoing passage, has already been suggested But, though we have venCONVERSATION,' says the sagacious Ve- tured to recommend many works which rulam, * makes a ready man.' It is indeed, seemed peculiarly applicable to the present one of the practical ends of study. It draws purpose, we do not presume to point out any the powers of the understanding into exer- thing like a systematic course of reading. cise, and brings into circulation the treas- This will be arranged by far abler judges, ures which the memory has been amassing. especially in that most important instance, Conversation will be always an instrument the choice of books of divinity. In a lanparticularly important in the cultivation of guage so abounding as the English in the those talents which may one day be brought treasures of theological composition, the into public exercise. And as it would not be easy to start profitable topics of discourse between the pupil and those around her, without inviting some little previous introduction, it might not be useless to suggest a simple preparation for the occasional discus sion of topics, somewhat above the ordinary cast of familiar intercourse. difficulty will consist, not in finding much that is excellent, but in selecting that which unites the most excellencies. It Of elementary books which teach the first rudiments of Christianity, there is no doubt but the best use has been already made. In aid of these, the deepest and most impressive knowledge will be communicated to the To burthen the memory with a load of dry mind, by familiar colloquial explanation of matter would, on the one hand, be dull; and every portion of Scripture, daily, as it is with a mass of poetry, which she can have read. Such an habitual, and, at the same little occasion to use, would, on the other, be time, clear and simple exposition, would superfluous. But, as the understanding tend to do away the most material of those opens, and years advance, might she not difficulties, and obscurities, with which the occasionally commit to memory, from the sacred writings are charged, and which are best authors in every department, one select pleaded as a reason for not putting them, in passage, one weighty sentence, one striking their genuine form, into the hands of youth. precept, v nich in the hours devoted to soci- There is no book whatever, which affords ety and relaxation, might form a kind of the-more matter for interesting and animated sis for interesting conversation? For in- conversation, and for variety, there is no stance, a short specimen of eloquence from book which is at all comparable to it. South, or of reasoning from Barrow; a de- were to be wished, that the sacred volume tached reflection on the analogy of religion were not too generally made to give way to to the constitution of nature from Butler; a bistories and expositions of the Bible. These political character from Clarendon; a max-last are excellent subordinate aids; but it is im of prudence from the proverbs; a pre- to be feared that they are sometimes almost cept of government from Bacon; a moral exclusively adopted, to the neglect of the document from the Rambler; a passage of Bible itself. Thus the mere facts and inciancient history from Plutarch; a sketch of dents being retained, separated from the national manners from Goldsmith's Travel- doctrines, sentiments, and precepts which, ler, or of individual character from the Van- like a golden thread, run through every part ity of Human Wishes; an aphorism on the of the history, and are every where interwocontempt of riches form Seneca, or a para- ven with its texture; and the narrative begraph on the wealth of nations from Adam ing also stripped of its venerable phraseoloSmith; a rule of conduct from sir Matthew gy and touching style, the Bible is robbed of Hale, or a sentiment of benevolence from its principal charm; and the devotional and Mr. Addison; a devout contemplation from bishop Hall, or a principle of taste from Quintilian; an opinion on the law of nations from Vattel, or on the law of England from Blackstone. historical ideas being thus separated, the impression both on the memory and the feelings becomes much weakened -Our remarks on the Scripture itself we shall reserve for a future chapter. Might not any one of the topics, thus sugIt has been a rule observed throughout gested by the recitation of a single passage. this work, to forbear naming living authors, be made the ground of a short rational con except incidentally in one or two instances. versation, without the formality of debate, This rule, which was adopted from delicacy, or the solemnity of an academical disputa- is at present become inconvenient, as it pretion? Persons naturally get a custom of vents our giving highly merited commendareading with more sedulous attention, when tion to various religious works, of almost they expect to be called upon to produce every description; to critical as well as the substance of what they have read; and practical elucidations of Scripture ;-to in order to prevent desultory and unsettled treatises on the internal principles, and on VOL. II. 12 the duties of religion; on the efficacy, as teresting. Of Walton's it is difficult to say, well as the evidences, of Christianity ;- whether they are more amusing or informworks not less admirable in point of compo-ing. sition, than estimable for their substantial worth; and which will inevitably be adopted, as the royal education advances. Voyages and travels will also form a very necessary class of books; but some of the more recent works of this kind are so interWe would only presume to offer one re- larded with infidelity, and under the mask of mark on the study of divines, whether an- ridiculing popery, aim such mischievous cient or modern. A luminous style, and a side-strokes at Christianity itself; and many, perspicuous expression, will cast a lustre on especially of the modern French travels, are the brightest truths, and render grave and exceptionable, not only for their impiety, but serious subjects more engaging and impres-also on so many other accounts, that they sive. To the young, these attractions are will require to be selected with the nicest particularly necessary. Yet, in the dis discrimination. Our own language, howev. courses to be perused, one principle of se- er, can boast many valuable works of this lection should be observed. The graces of kind, which are clear of these offences. Voylanguage should never be considered as an ages of discovery, though perhaps less interequivalent for a sound principle. Disserta- esting to ordinary readers, will be peculiarly tions or sermons should not be preferred for suited to the royal pupil; especially those having more smoothness than energy, for which have been undertaken, greatly to his being more alluring than awakening, nor be-honour, by command of his present majesty, cause they are calculated to make the reader and which contain the discoveries actually satisfied rather than safe. The distinguish- made in the hitherto unexplored parts of the ing characters of Christianity, both in doc-southern hemisphere. trine and practice, should always be considered as the most indispensable requisite.For the absence of the great fundamental Among works of imagination, there are truths of our religion, no ingenuity of some peculiarly suited to the royal pupil. thought, no elegance of style, no popularity of the author can atone. A splendid diction is a pleasing ornament, but it should never be used as an instrument for lowering the standard of religious truth. Happily we are not wanting in divines, living and dead, who unite all the required excellencies. Telemachus. She should never, it is presumed, peruse any authors below those who have always been considered as standards in their respective departments. With the talents which she is said to possess, she will soon be competent to understand great part of a work, which, though it ranks in the very first class of this Of moral writers we shall speak hereafter. species of composition, has, it is to be feared, Next to history, biography must be consider-fallen into unjust disregard from its having ed as useful. Those who have properly se-been injudiciously employed by teachers as lected, and judiciously written the lives of the first book in acquiring the French laneminent persons, have performed the office guage. The fine sentiments which it conof instruction, without assuming the dignity tains have been overlooked, while only the of instructors. Well-chosen and well-writ-facility of the style has been considered.ten lives would form a valuable substitute | Telemachus is a noble political romance, defor no small portion of those works of imag-lightful to every reader, but specifically ination, which steal away the hearts and adapted to what indeed was its original obtime of our youth. Novels, were there no ject, the formation of a character of a prince. other objection to them, however ingenious-It is free from the moral defects of the clas ly they may be written, as they exhibit only sic poets, whose very deities are commonly fictitious characters, acting in fictitious exhibited with a grossness dangerous to the scenes, on fictitious occasions, and being sometimes the work of writers, who rather guess what the world is than describe it from their own knowledge, can never give so just or vivid a picture of life and manners, as is to be found in the memoirs of men who were actual performers on the great stage of the world We may apply to many of these fabricators of adventures what lord Bacon says, when he regrets that philosophers, ignorant of real business, chose to write about legislation, instead of statesmen, whose pro per office it was. They make,' says he. imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths.' Of this engaging species of literature, biography, it is to be regretted, that we do not possess more lives of distinguished men, written with a view to moral instruction, in the manner of those of bishop Burnet, and Isaac Walton. The lives of the bishop are seriously instructive, as well as highly in modesty of youth. Fenelon, while with a true taste, he never puts any thing into their mouths incompatible with the Grecian fable, never fails to give the imperfect pagan moral a tincture of Christian purity. The finest precepts are illustrated by the most instructive examples; and every royal duty is, as it were, personified. His morality is every where founded on the eternal principles of truth and justice. He refers all goodness to God, as its origin and end. He exhibits a uniform lesson of the duty of sacrificing private interest to public good, and of forgetting ourselves in the love of our country. He reconciles the soundest policy with the most undeviating integrity, and puts to shame those, otherwise admirable writers of our own time, who have laboured to establish the dangerous doctrine of expediency at the expense of immutable justice and everlasting truth. From Telemachus she will learn, that the true glory of a king is to make his people good and happy; that his authority is never haps, it was only from the British press, that so secure as when it is founded on the love such a publication could have issued. The of his subjects; and that the same principles attempt to excite mental appetite, by furwhich promote private virtue, advance pub-nishing, from day to day, intellectual aliment lic happiness He teaches carefully to dis-of such peculiar freshness, must have been tinguish between good and bad governments; fatally obstructed by any jealousy of superdelivers precepts for the philosophical, the intendance, or formality of licensing. The warlike, the pacific, and the legislative king; abuse of the press is to be deplored as a caand shows the comparative value of agricul- lamity, and punished as a crime. But let ture, of commerce, of education, and of arts; neither prince nor people forget the proviof private justice, and of civil polity. His dential blessings which have been derived descriptions, comparisons, and narratives, to both from its constitutional liberty. As instead of being merely amusing, are always this was one of the invaluable effects of the made to answer some beneficial purpose. revolution in 1688, so perhaps no other means And, as there is no part of public duty, so more contributed to carry the blessings of there is scarcely any circumstance of private that period to their consummate establishconduct, which has been overlooked. The ment, in the accession of the house of Brunsdangers of self-confidence; the contempt of wick. virtuous counsels; the perils of favouritism; The two writers who have most eminently the unworthiness of ignoble pursuits; the distinguished themselves in this path of litermischiefs of disproportionate connexions; ature, are Addison and Johnson. At a pethe duty of inviolable fidelity to engagements, riod when religion was held in more than of moderation under the most prosperous, usual contempt, from its having been recentand of firmness under the most adverse circumstances; of patience and forbearance, of kindness and gratitude; all these are not so much animadverted on, as exemplified in the most impressive instances. Children love fiction. It is often a mis leading taste. Of this taste Fenelon has availed himself, to convey, under the elegant shelter of the Greek mythology, sentiments and opinions which might not otherwise so readily have made their way to the heart. The strict maxims of government, and high standard of public virtue, exhibited in Telemachus, excited in the jealous mind of the reigning king of France, a dread that if those Dotions should become popular, that work would hereafter be considered as a satire on his own conduct and government, on his fondness for grandeur, for pleasure, for glory, and for war: so that it has been supposed probable, that Fenelon's theological works. for which he was disgraced, were only made the pretext for punishing him for his political writings. The Cyropædia of Xenophon it may be thought out of date to recommend; but genius and virtue are never antiquated. This work may be read with advantage, not as an entirely authentic history, which is a more than doubtful point, but as a valuable moral work, exhibiting a lively image of royal virtue, and showing, in almost all respects, what a sovereign ought to be.-The princes of Xenophon and of Fenelon are models The Prince' of Machiavel is a being ela borately trained in every art of political and moral corruption. The lives of the pupils are the best comments on the works of the respective authors. Fenelon produced Telemaque' and the duke of Burgundy.-Machiavel, 'Il Principe' and Cæsar Borgia! ly abused to the worst purposes; and when the higher walks of life still exhibited that dissoluteness which the profligate reign of the second Charles had made so deplorably fashionable, Addison seems to have been raised by Providence for the double purpose of improving the public taste, and correcting the public morals. As the powers of the imagination had, in the preceding period, been peculiarly abused to the purposes of vice, it was Addison's great object to show that wit and impurity had no necessary connexion. He not only evinced this by his reasonings, but he so exemplified it in his own compositions, as to become in a short time more generally useful, by becoming more popular than any English writer who had yet appeared. This well-earned celebrity he endeavoured to turn to the best of all purposes; and his success was such as to prove, that genius is never so advantageously employed as in the service of virtue, nor influence so well directed as in rendering piety fashionable. At this distance, when almost all authors have written the better, because Addison wrote first, and when the public taste which he refined has become competent, through that refinement, to criticise its benefactor, it is not easy fully to appreciate the value of Addison. To do this, we must attend to the progress of English literature, and make a comparison between him and his predecessors. But noble as the views of Addison were, and happily as he has, in general, accomplished what he intended; the praise which justly belongs to him must be qualified by the avowal, that it does not extend to every passage which he has written. From the pernicious influence of those very manners which it was his object to correct, some degree of taint has occasionally affected his own pages, which will make it necessary to guard the royal pupil from a wholly promis Of periodical essay writers, particularly Ad-cuous perusal. It is. however, but justice CHAP. XXIX. dison and Johnson. to add, that the few instances referred to, To hardly any species of composition has however exceptionable, are of such a kind the British public been more signally indebt-as to expose him to the charge rather of ined than to the periodical Essay; and, per-advertence, or momentary levity, than of |