especially, in whose heart deep remorse seems, judge of this difference for himself; not merely

to have been awakened, should fail finally of that only consolation which could have poured balm into their aching bosoms, and administered relief to their lacerated consciences! Had Charles, instead of closing his days with ignorant and bigoted monks, been surrounded by enlightened Christians, they would have prevented his attempting to heal his wounded spirit by fruitless and unexpiating self-inflictions, Instead of laying this flattering unction to his soul,' he might have been led to sound and rational repentance. His weary and heavyladen spirit might have been conducted thither, where alone true rest is to be found. He might have been directed to the only sure source of pardon for sin, and have closed his guilty and perturbed life with a hope full of immortality. Peace might have been restored to his mind, not by lessening his sense of his own offences, but on the only true ground, by exalting the mercies of God, as displayed in the Christian dispensation.

It must be confessed, however, that there seems to be something sublime in the motive of his abdication, as far as related to himself. Yet, might he not far better have made his peace with heaven, by remaining on a throne, where he would have retained the power of making some compensation to the world, for the wrongs which he had done it; and of holding out his protection to the reformed faith, of which he had been so unrelenting an enemy, and to which his dying sentiments are suspected to have been favourable?

From a view of such striking examples, one important lesson is held out to princes, in the bloom of life, who have yet their path to choose in the world that lies before them. It is this. Though it is good to repent of ambition and in. justice, it is still better never to have been guilty of either.

If we were to estimate the true greatness of a prince, not so much by the virtues attached to his own personal character, as by the effects which the energy of that character, produced on the most enormous empire in the world, there is, perhaps, no monarch, ancient or modern, who could produce a fairer claim to the title of great, than Peter the first, emperor of Russia. It was said of Augustus, that he had found Rome built of brick, and had left it of marble. It may be said, with more truth of Peter, that he found Muscovy a land of savages, and left it a land of men; of beings at least rapidly advancing, in consequence of his exertions, to that character.

as a matter of curiosity, but with a resolution to bring home whatever advantages he might find abroad. With the same instinctive greatness, his natural dread of the sea, which was extreme, was made at once to give way, when voyages of improvement were to be made abroad, or a marine established at home.

Having resolved to procure for his country this necessary instrument of strength and defence, a navy; fired by true genius and genuine patriotism, he quitted for a time his throne and country, not like Sesostris, Alexander, or Cæsar, to despoil other nations, but to acquire the best means of improving his own. Not like Nero, to fiddle to the Athenians; not like Dioclesian to raise coleworts in Dalmatia; nor like Charles V. to bury himself in a monastic cell in Spain, torturing his body for the sins of his soul; not like Christina, to discuss at Rome, and intrigue at Versailles; but having formed the grand design of giving laws, civilization, and commerce to his vast unwieldy territory; and being aware that the brutal ignorance of his barbarous subjects wanted to be both stimulated and instructed; he quitted his throne for a time only that he might return more worthy to fill it. He travelled not to feast his eyes with pictures, or his ears with music, nor to dissolve his mind in pleasures, but to study laws, politics, and arts. Not only to scrutinize men and manners with the eye of a politician, which would have sufficed for a monarch of a polished state; but, remembering that he reigned over a people rude, even in the arts of ordinary life, he magnanimously stooped, not only to study, but to prac tice them himself. He not only examined docks and arsenals with the eye of an engineer, but laboured in them with the hand of a mechanic. He was a carpenter in Holland, a shipwright in Britain, a pilot in both. His pleasures had a relish of his labours. The king of England, apprised of his taste, entertained him, not with a masquerade, but 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 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 his proud and ignorant nobility a living lesson, that desert was the only true road to military distinctions.

We must not determine on the greatness of a sovereign's character entirely by the degree of civilization, morals, and knowledge, which his people may be found to have reached after his This monarch early gave many of those sure death: but, in order to do full justice to his chaindications, of a great capacity, which consist in racter, we must exactly appreciate the state in catching from the most trivial circumstances which he found, as well as that in which he left hints for the most important enterprises. The them. For though they may be still far behind casual sight of a Dutch vessel from a summer the subjects of neighbouring states, yet that house on one of his lakes, suggested at once measure of progress which they will have made, to his creative mind the first idea of the navy under such a monarch as Peter, will reflect of Russia. The accidental discourse of fo- greater honour on the king, than will be due to reigner, of no great note, in which he intimated the sovereign of a much more improved people, that there were countries in a state of know- who finds them already settled in habits of deledge, light, and comfort, totally dissimilar to cency and order, and in an advanced state of the barbarism and misery of Russia, kindled arts, manners and knowledge. in the czar an instantaneous wish to see and

The genius of Peter was not a visionary ge

nius, indulging romantic ideas of chimerical, preserving peace in his small state, when all the perfection, but it was a great practical under- great states of Europe were ravaged by war; in standing, realizing by its energy whatever his restoring plenty to a famished people, and raising genius had conceived. Patient under difficul- a depressed nobility to affluence; in paying the ties, cheerful even under the loss of battles, from debts of a ruined gentry, and giving portions to the conviction that the rough implements, with their daughters; in promoting virtue, literature, which he must hereafter work his way to vic- and science; in making it the whole object of tory, could only learn to conquer by being first his reign to render his subjects richer, happier, defeated, he considered every action in which and better than he found them; in declaring he was worsted, as a school for his barbarians. that he would not reign a moment longer than It was this perseverance under failures, which he thought he could be doing good to his people, paved the way for the decisive victory at Pulto-then was Leopold, sovereign of the small wa, the consummation of his military character. dukedom of Lorrain, more justly entitled to the His conduct to the Swedish officers, his prison. appellation of the great, than the Alexanders, ers, was such as would have done honour to a the Cæsars, and the Louises, who filled the page general of the most polished state. of history with praises, and the world with tears.* If Gustavus Adolphus put in his undisputed

He manifested another indisputable proof of greatness in his constant preference of utility to splendor, and in his indifference to show and de-claim to the title of the great, it is not merely on coration. The qualities which this prince threw the ground of his glorious victories at the battle away, as beneath the attention of a great mind, of Leipsic and Lutzen, but because that amidst were precisely such as a tinsel hero would pick the din of arms, and the tumult of those battles, up, on which to build the reputation of greatness. he was never diverted from snatching some porThe shreds and parings of Peter would make a tion of every day for prayer, and reading the Louis. Scriptures. It is because, with all his high spirits, he was so far from thinking that it derogated from the dignity of a gentleman, or the honour of an officer, to refuse a challenge, that he punished with death whoever presumed to decide a quarrel with the sword; to prevent the necessity of which, he made a law that all disputes should be settled by a court of honour.t He deserved the appellation of great, when 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.

With this truly vigorous and original mind, with an almost unparalleled activity and zeal, constantly devoted to all the true ends which a patriot king will ever keep in view-it is yet but too obvious, why the emperor Peter failed of completely deserving the title of the great. This monarch presents a fresh exemplification of the doctrine which we have so frequently brought forward, the use which Providence makes of erring men to accomplish great purposes. He affords a melancholy instance how far a prince may reform a people, without reforming himself. A remark, indeed, which Peter had the honesty and good sense to make, but without 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! This monarch, who like Alexander, perpetuated his name by a superb city which he built who refined barbarism into policy, who so far tamed the rugged genius of an almost polar clime, as not only to plant arts and manufac. tures, but colleges, academies, libraries, and observatories, in that frozen soil, which had hitherto scarcely given any signs of intellectual life who improved, not only the condition of the people, but the state of the church, and considerably raised its religion, which was before scarcely Christianity;-this founder, this patriot, this reformer, was himself intemperate and violent, sensual and cruel, a slave to passions and appetites as gross as could have been indulged by the rudest of his Muscovites before he had civilized them!

:

If the true grandeur of a prince consists not in adding to his territory by conquests; not in enriching it by plunder; not in adorning it by treasures wrung from the hard hand of industry; but in converting a neglected waste into a cultivated country; in peopling and rendering fruitful a land desolated by long calamities: in

When such was the union of piety and heroism in the gallant monarch himself, it was the less wonderful to find the same rare combination in the associates of his triumphs. Hence the pious meditations of the celebrated leader of the Scotch brigade in the service of Gustavus! Compositions of which would be scarcely a dis. credit to a father of the church, and which exalts his character as highly in a religious and moral view, as it was raised, by his bravery and skill in war, in the annals of military glory.

If Alexander deserved the title in question it was when he declared in a letter to his immortal master, that he thought it a truer glory to excel in knowledge than in power. It was in that equally moral and poetical reprehension of those flatterers who had ascribed divine honours to him, when, on the bleeding of his wounds, he said, Look! this is my blood! This is not that

* See Siecle de Louis XIV. for a fuller account of Leopold.

†The king of France, at this same military period,

severely prohibited duelling, the practice of which he 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 magnanimity consisted. See also sir Francis Bacon's charge, when attorney general against due's.

was so far from considering as an indication of courage,

Mouro.

divine liquor of which Homer speaks, which ran midst of such glorious successes, the same mofrom the hand of Venus when Diomedes pierced deration with which he has borne the severest it! His generous treatment of the family of adversity -He deserved it, when as he was the conquered Darius was, perhaps, eclipsed by besieging Paris, which was perishing with fathe equally magnanimous, and more disinterest-mine, he commanded the besiegers to admit ed moderation of our own heroic Edward, the supplies to the besieged.-He deserved it at the black prince, to the captive king of France. The battle of Irvi, not when he gallantly ordered his gallant prince seems to have merited, without soldiers to follow his white plume, which would obtaining the appellation of the great. 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.

But, if splendid parade, and costly magnifi. cence be really considered as unequivocal proofs 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 O Lord God of Hosts, who hast in thy hand himself must, without contest, yield the palm of all events; if thou knowest that my reign will greatness to pope Alexander the sixth, and promote thy glory, and the safety of thy people; Caesar Borgia; and they, in their turn, must if thou knowest that I have no other ambition, hide their diminished heads, in reverence to the but to advance the honour of thy name, and the living exhibitor of the late surpassing pomp and good of the state, favour O great God, the justice unparalleled pageantry in a neighbouring na-of my arms. But if thy good Providence has tion, displayed in the most gorgeous and costly decreed otherwise; if thou seest that I should farce that was ever acted before the astonished prove one of those kings whom thou givest in and indignant world! thine anger; take from me, O merciful God, my life and my crown. Make me this day a sacrafice to thy will; let my death end the calamities of my country, and let my blood be the last that shall be spilt in this quarrel.'—

If, to use the very words of the historian and panegyrist of Louis, to despoil, disturb, and humble almost all the states of Europe,'-if this appeared in the eyes of that panegyrist 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 prin. ciple of expediency; since this passion for false glory, carried to the last excesss, became, at length, the means of stirring up the other European powers; the result of whose confederacy terminated in the disgrace of Louis.

If ever this vain-glorious prince appeared truly great, it was in his dying speech to his infant successor, when, taking him in his arms, he magnanimously intreated him not to follow his example, in his love of wars and his taste for expense; exhorting him to follow moderate counsels, to fear God, reduce the taxes, spare his subjects, and to do whatever he himself had not done to relieve them.

In like manner, our illustrious Henry V. in the midst of his French conquests, conquests founded on injustice (unpopular as is the assertion to an English ear) never so truly deserved to be called the great as in that beautiful in. stance of his reverence for the laws, when he submitted, as prince of Wales, to the magistrate who put him under confinement for some irregularities; as when, afterwards, being sovereign, he not only pardoned, but commended and promoted him.

O si sic omnia!

CHAP. XXVIII.

Books.

'CONVERSATION, says the sagacious Verulam, makes a ready man.' It is, indeed, one of the practical ends of study. It draws the powers of the understanding into exercise, and brings into circulation the treasures which the memory has been amassing. Conversation will be always an instrument particularly important in the cultivation of those talents which may one day be brought 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 prepa ration for the occasional discussion of topics, somewhat above the ordinary cast of familiar intercourse.

To burthen the memory with a load of dry matter would, on the one hand, be dull; and with a mass of poetry, which she can have little occasion to use, would, on the other, be superfluous. But, as the understanding opens, and years advance, might she not occasionally commit to memory, from the best authors in every depart If ever Henry IV. of France, peculiarly de- ment, one select passage, one weighty sentence, served the appellation of great, it was after the one striking precept, which in the hours devoted victory at Coutras, for that noble magnanimity to society and relaxation, might form a kind of in the very moment of conquest, which compel thesis for interesting conversation? For inled a pious divine, then present, to exclaim-stance, a short specimen of eloquence from 'Happy and highly favoured of heaven is that prince, who sees at his feet his enemies humbled by the hand of God; his table surrounded by his prisoners, his room hung with the ensigns of the vanquished without the slightest emotion of vanity or insolence! who can maintain in the

South, or of reasoning from Barrow; a detached reflection on the analogy of religion to the constitution of nature from Butler; a political character from Clarendon; a maxim of prudence from the proverbs; a precept of government from Bacon; a moral document from the Ram

bler; a passage of ancient history from Plu- phraseology and touching style, the Bible is tarch; a sketch of national manners from Gold- robbed of its principal charm; and the devotional smith's Traveller, or of individual character and historical ideas being thus separated, the from the Vanity of Human Wishes; an apho-impression both on the memory and the feelings rism on the contempt of riches from Seneca, or becomes much weakened.-Our remarks on the a paragraph on the wealth of nations from Adam Scripture itself we shall reserve for a future Smith; a rule of conduct from sir Mathew Hale, chapter. or a sentiment of benevolence from 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.

Might not any one of the topics thus suggested by the recitation of a single passage, be made the ground of a short rational conversation, without the formality of a debate, or the solemnity of an academical disputation? Persons naturally get a custom of reading with more sedulous attention, when they expect to be called upon to produce the substance of what they have read; and in order to prevent desultory and unsettled 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 faculties of thinking, and reasoning, and consequently highly improve the powers of conversation.

Of books, a considerable number, besides those in the foregoing passage, has already been suggested. But though we have ventured to recommend many works which seemed peculiarly applicable to the present purpose, we do not presume to point out any thing like a systematic course of reading. This will be arranged by far abler judges, especially in that most important instance, the choice of books of divinity. In a language so abounding as the English in the treasures of theological composition, the difficulty will consist, not in finding much that is excellent, but in selecting that which unites the most excellences.

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It has been a rule observed throughout this work, to forbear naming living authors, except incidentally in one or two instances. This rule, which was adopted from delicacy, is at present become inconvenient, as it prevents our giving highly merited commendation to various religious works, of almost every description; to critical as well as practical elucidations of Scripture;-to treatises on the internal principles, and on the duties of religion; on the efficacy, as well as the evidences of Christianity;-works not less admirable in point of composition, than estimable for their substantial worth; and which will inevitably be adopted, as the royal educa. tion advances.

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 ex. cellences.

We would only presume to offer one remark on the study of divines, whether ancient or modern. A luminous style, and a perspicuous expression, will cast a lustre on the brightest truths, and render grave and serious subjects more engaging and impressive. To the young, these attractions are particularly necessary. Yet, in the discourses to be perused, one principle of selection should be observed. The graces of language should never be considered as an equiva lent for a sound principle. Dissertations or sermons, should not be preferred for having more smoothness than energy, for being more alluring than awakening, nor because they are calculated to make the reader satisfied rather than safe. The distinguishing characters of Christianity, both in doctrine and practice, should always be considered as the most indispensable requisite.For the absence of the great fundamental truths of our religion, no ingenuity of thought, no eleOf elementary books which teach the first ru-gance of style, no popularity of the author can diments 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 mind, by familiar colloquial explanation of every portion of Scripture, daily, as it is read. Such an habitual, and, at the same time, clear and simple exposi- Of moral writers we shall speak hereafter. tion, would tend to do away the most material Next to history, biography must be considered of those difficulties and obscurities, with which as useful. Those who have properly selected, the sacred writings are charged, and which are and judiciously written the lives of eminent perpleaded as a reason for not putting them, in their sons, have performed the office of instruction, genuine form, into the hands of youth. There without assuming the dignity of instructors. is no book whatever which affords more matter Well-chosen, and well-written lives would form for interesting and animated conversation, and a valuable substitute for no small portion of those for variety, there is no book which is at all com-works of imagination, which steal away the parable to it. It were to be wished that the sa-hearts and time of our youth. Novels, were cred volume were not too generally made to give there no other objection to them, however ingeway to histories and expositions of the Bible. niously they may be written, as they exhibit These last are excellent subordinate aids; but only fictitious characters, acting in fictitious it is to be feared that they are sometimes almost scenes, on fictitious occasions, and being someexclusively adopted, to the neglect of the Bible times the work of writers, who rather guess itself. Thus the mere facts and incidents being what the world is than describe it from their retained, separated from the doctrines, senti- own knowledge, can never give so just or vivid ments, and precepts which, like a golden thread, a picture of life and manners, as is to be found run through every part of the history, and are in the memoirs of men who were actual perevery where interwoven with its texture; and formers on the great stage of the world. We the narrative being also stripped of its venerable i may apply to many of these fabricators of ad

ventures what lord Bacon says, when he regrets of forgetting ourselves in the love of our coun

that philosophers, ignorant of real business, chose to write about legislation, instead of statesmen, whose proper 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 interesting. Of Walton's it is difficult to say, whether they are more amusing or informing.

Voyages and travels will also form a very necessary class of books; but some of the more recent works of this kind are so interlarded with infidelity, and under the mask of ridiculing popery, aim such mischievous side-strokes at Christianity itself; and many, especially of the modern French travels, are exceptionable, not only for their impiety, but also on so many other accounts, that they will require to be selected with the nicest discrimination. Our own language, however, can boast many valuable works of this kind, which are clear of these offences. Voyages of discovery, though perhaps less in-suits; the mischiefs of disproportionate conteresting to ordinary readers will be peculiarly suited to the royal pupil; especially those which have been undertaken, greatly to his honour, by command of his present majesty, and which contain the discoveries actually made in the hitherto unexplored parts of the southern hemisphere.

try. 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 danger. ous 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 so secure as when it is founded on the love of his subjects; and that the same principles which promote private virtue, advance public happiness. He teaches carefully to distinguish between good and bad governments; delivers precepts for the philosophical, the warlike, the pacific, and the legislative king; and shows the comparative value of agriculture, of commerce, of education, and of arts; of private justice, and of civil polity. His descriptions, comparisons, and narratives, instead of being merely amusing, are always made to answer some beneficial purpose. And, as there is no part of public duty, so there is scarcely any circumstance of private conduct, which has been overlooked. The dangers of self-confidence; the contempt of virtuous counsels; the perils of favouritism; the unworthiness of ignoble pur

Telemachus.

nexions; the duty of inviolable fidelity to engagements, of moderation under the most prosperous, and 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 misleading 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 notions 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.

Among works of imagination, there are some peculiarly suited to the royal pupil. 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 species of composition, has, it is to be feared, fallen into unjust disregard from its having been injudiciously employed by teachers as the first book in acquiring the French language. The fine sentiments which it contains have been overlooked, while only the facility of the style has been considered.-Telemachus is a noble political romance, delightful to every reader, but specifically adapted to what indeed The Cyropædia of Xenophon it may be was its original object, the formation of a cha- thought out of date to recommend; but genius racter of a prince. It is free from the moral and virtue are never antiquated. This work defects of the classic poets, whose very deities may be read with advantage, not as an entirely are commonly exhibited with a grossness dan-authentic history, which is a more than doubt. gerous to the modesty of youth. Fenelon, while ful point, but as a valuable moral work, exhiwith a true taste, he never puts any thing info biting a lively image of royal virtue and show. their mouths incompatible with the Grecian fa-ing, in almost all respects, what a sovereign ble, never fails to give the imperfect pagan mo-onght to be.-The princes of Xenophon and of ral a tincture of Christian purity. The finest Fenelon are models. The 'Prince' of Machiprecepts 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

avel is a being elaborately 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!