seemed to have forsaken him, and his brain ing this, and seeing the field going against appeared to have turned giddy in looking him, should he not in person have headed the from the height to which he had become last onset of his brave and devoted guards, elevated. He used his power as some men and when he found that he could not conwho are suddenly enriched use their money, quer, at least to die a soldier's death? It is which they squander away until not a far- said that his brother Jerome urged him to thing remains, and they have reduced them- pursue such a course; but no-he abandonselves to their original condition. On the ed the post of honour to Ney, and became a contrary, in the whole of the Duke of Wel- fugitive from the field.

lington's career, his judgment and firmness Certainly Napoleon's conduct on this ocare as manifest as his genius, and the proof casion is at variance with all our concepis the unvarying success which attended all tions of the hero. That an ordinary indihis measures, however unpromising at the vidual should prize existence on its own acoutset. He not only conceived the greatest count is natural; but such is not the opinion designs, but he was equally happy in the dis- we form of the man who has conquered in a cretion and firmness with which he carried hundred battles, and who has played the those designs into execution--and this was game of life with kingdoms for his stake. evinced not merely by the gaining of a few From such a one we look for something victories, which might have been the result heroic-something great in the closing scene of fortuitous circumstances, but by the judg- of his existence--something, in short, in acment and energy displayed in every succes-cordance with his past fame and character. sive campain, until at last he consummated Had Napoleon bravely fallen at Waterloo, his glory by the greatest of his triumphs-how differently would he have been estimaagainst Napoleon in person. From the ted; but as it is, a feeling of contempt unacommencement of his fame up to the present voidably mingles with our sentiments of admoment, the Duke of Wellington's character miration. Neither was his conduct on his rehas been consistent with itself-on every oc- turn to Paris, after his flight from Waterloo, casion, whether civil or military, his deci such as to command either our sympathy or sion and firmness have been alike displayed: respect. In that moment, which would have while Napoleon, if far from being the great- called forth the firm energies of a truly great est, was perhaps the most extraordinary mind, he displayed both weakness and irreman that ever lived-for the conduct of no solution; and he that had been wont, when other individual has ever presented so many in the zenith of his power, to play the swaginconsistencies. His actions were ever at gerer, sunk, in the hour of adversity, bevariance with each other—at one time evinc-neath those who had been used to tremble at ing the utmost energy and promptitude, his frown, and became almost a passive inwhen at another they manifested equal weak-strument in the hands of his own creatures. ness and indecision. In some of his earlier But if Waterloo might be termed the grave engagements he exhibited the most reckless of Napoleon's fame-it was, on the other daring while at Waterloo, if he did not hand, the theatre where the Duke of Welplay the coward, he most assuredly rendered lington's glory shone forth with its greatest his courage on that occasion liable to be splendour. He was equally well aware as questioned. his antagonist of all that depended on that

Never was a battle fought on which more battle--and he resolved that he and his brave depended-and certainly never did hero fly companions should either conquer, or leave from the field so ingloriously. Had Na- their bodies on the ground they held. poleon succeeded at Waterloo, it would have In that resolution there was none of the prostrated all the energies of the other Con- fiery and momentary excitement in which tinental Powers-and it would have made Napoleon indulged; but it manifested that him once again the idol of France, and have firm and enduring courage that so eminently enabled him to command such resources as characterizes the Duke of Wellington, and might have carried him once more in tri- in which we have already remarked that we umph to the gates of Vienna. On the other consider the French Emperor to have been hand, he must have known that the French greatly deficient; and yet the Duke of Welnation, in general, longed for repose, and lington had no personal interests at stake at that nothing but the most splendid victory Waterloo-everything valuable in life did could secure to him his kingdom and his not hang in the ballance to arouse his enerIn fact, every thing on earth that gies-he fought for the crowns and kingought to have made life valuable in his eyes doms of others, but not for his own-nay, he was at stake on that eventful day; and know-Imight, under the circumstances, have re

crown.

treated without any diminution to his fame; sion that he has, in many respects, been and does he not, therefore, merit the greater over-rated, and that he was deficient in that renown for the conduct and heroism he dis-native greatness of mind which would have played? Most undoubtedly: and, in fact, while enabled him to fill with firmness, consistenNapoleon has been estimated too highly, cy, and dignity the lofty station which he at complete justice never as yet has been ren- one time occupied.

dered to the character of the Duke of Wel- On the other hand, if courage the most lington. There is no question but that Na- enduring and undaunted-if years of warfare, poleon as well as Cæsar, owes a great deal conducted with unvaried success, which of his celebrity to his having borne imperial could only have been achieved by great sway. It has been a thing of such rare oc- genius, accompanied with consummate decurrence for a soldier of fortune to reach the cision and judgment-if these entitle a man summit of human power, that when such an to the first place as a Commander-that event does happen we are completely dazzled place must be assigned to the Duke of Welby the success of the fortunate individual; lington. and in estimating his character we are too apt to consider as the result of genius and

From The Examiner.

Landor, Esq. in 2 Vols.

design what in reality was in a much greater Pericles and Aspasia. By Walter Savage degree the effect of circumstances. No man. no matter how great or exalted his genius, can overturn the institutions of his country, MR. LANDOR has written nothing finer than unless, from some source of corruption, this work, and we know of no higher praise they are of themselves fast crumbling to de- to offer it. In strength and sweetness of style, cay-and those who become raised to power and in perfect originality of though, we could amidst political convulsions are more indebt- look to match it only in his own former writ ed to the times in which they live than to ings, and we find it unsurpassed, if equalled, their own individual exertions. They may even there. Mr. Landor is the greatest man take advantage of, but they never can create, we have among us with his understanding; on the tide that leads on to fortune. France the side of his scholarship and genius he is must have sunk under a military despotism truly and essentially Greek; and, we will not though Napoleon had never existed. It is scruple to add, that in respect of his will also not on having been Emperor of the French he would pass for an excellent Athenian. that his fame properly depends; but it is on these characteristics have their development those victories which placed him, an obscure in the masterly book before us. Its object is a individual, in that station from whence it very lofty one-no less than to present to us was but a step to the throne; but still-if the scene in which Pericles and Aspasia exprevious circumstances had not rendered erted so marked an influence, vividly and imthat throne vacant, and humbled those who mediately in action. That was a scene, which, ought to have held it in the dust-Napoleon though compassed in a single life, included might have become a Marshal and Peer of the greater portion of the poets, the philosoFrance he might have become the most phers, the historians, and men of action, exalted subject in that kingdom, as the whose efforts have exalted the human race. Duke of Wellington has in this-but he We will interpose before Mr. Landor a word never would have swayed a sceptre. or two of the old impressions of our reading.

All

On the other hand, if we suppose that the respecting his hero and heroine, which we Duke of Wellington had held a command in have never been able to divest ourselves of. the French Army at the close of the last Pericles, who became a more than king in century, when military genius was sure to Athens, by his oratory and popular qualities, force its possessor into notice, what reason and is certainly to be looked upon as the most is there for doubting that he might have Greek of Greeks in his encouragement of the reached just as great an elevation as did the fine arts and public monuments, was emphatiCorsican, with this wide distinction-that cally one of those men of whom people are his firmness and judgment would, in all hu- inclined to think well or ill, according as they man probability, have enabled him to retain think nations ought to be governed. That his power, or, at least, would have saved he was a great man, none will deny; still less him from so sad a reverse as befell his mili- that he obtained great and unusual power tary rival. among a jealous people, whether he did it On the whole, we cannot avoid thinking chiefly by pure genius or a masterly watchthat all who impartially consider Napoleon's fulness and prudence: but opinions must, life and character must come to the conclu- we think, always be divided, as D whether

he did the very best he could for the nation all ages have some real grounds for what they or for himself. Aristocrats have a grudge admired, and that the world has still to gather against him for flattering the people; and Re-lesson from all times, if it would render those publicans dislike his retaining the power too that are to come superior to any. visibly in his own hands. Philosophers love But whatever the doubts that hang around his admiration of literature, but condemn his the real characters of these extraordinary propensity to a spirit of personal ambition persons, and we have thought it right on the and national aggrandizement; and moralists threshold of Mr. Landor's work to venture are at a loss how to reconcile the gravity of thus to intimate them, there can be no queshis character as a ruler, with the divorce of tion of their noble fitness for the imaginative his wife in order to marry the "courtezan" treatment. And in so deep a spirit of philoAspasia. It is of course very difficult, im-sophy, and with such a mastery of profound possible rather, to come to any certain con-learning, has Mr. Landor applied this. that clusion respecting any disputed character in in his presence we will gladly surrender our history; but the most likely thing is, taking doubts, and accept for the exactest truth all the nature of the times, the country, and the that he has here written of Pericles and of man, into consideration,—that he was the Aspasia.

mixed character which most men are found The work is in the shape of letters (interto be; that he really loved the immediate well-spersed with occasional speeches and fragbeing and the elegancies, if he did not specu- ments of exquisitely classical verse), and its late very deeply on the final happiness, of his effect is to present, in a series of scenes, the countrymen; that he had the fine nature of all great events in the lives of the hero and very great understandings; and partook of heroine-standing forth from the midst of the weaknesses of passionate and (if we may the intellectual glories of their age. It opens, so speak) rhetorical temperaments; and that so to speak, in the Athenian theatre, during he probably reconciled himself to whatever a representation of Prometheus.' Through doubts might have arisen in his conscience as the crowd of youths, philosophers, magisto the nature and results of his unusual au- trates, and generals, who sit there, Aspasia thority, by thinking that he did the best that has made her way alone, in the dress of an could be done for his country "under the Athenian boy;-and with such painful force circumstances," and by leaving the rest to are her sympathies wrought upon alternately the gods. by the actors in the scene, by the champion

As to the "courtezan" Aspasia, the term of the human race, by his antagonist Jove, is a modern one not strictly applicable, and his creator Eschylus, that she sinks at and is a prejudgment of the question. The last from her seat, fainting and exhausted. women of Greece were very badly and in- As many eyes had been directed towards her, sipidly brought up, secluded almost like meanwhile, as to the competitor of the gods, Turkish woman, and thought as little of; so and the purpose for which she seems to have that if any one of them, even by a far nobler suddenly left her native Miletus for Athens impulse than the love of pleasure or notoriety, is soon afterwards accomplished. She is conwas led to burst the trammels of her educa- ducted to the presence of Pericles. These tion, and procure one for herself, she was things are told, and the course of the love thrown almost inevitably into a state of life, which ensues is exquisitely traced, in letters which, though not a legitimate one then, any to her friend and countrywoman Cleone, with more than now, might have included so much whom she is connected by many ties of affecmore reasonableness, and enabled her to tion and genius, who is scarcely less beautiful show qualities so respectable as well as de- and intellectual than herself, and whose fate lightful, that she would be comparatively a is also more darkly linked with hers, by an privileged person among the most virtuous. unhappy love she bears to a Milesian youth, And such Aspasia is understood to have been. Xeniades, who is mad with the love of Socrates himself treated her with respect, and Aspasia. He has followed her to Athens, is said to have attributed to her some of his and as he sees her surrender herself to Peribest lessons in philosophy. The lively Greeks cles, is struck with a fatal disease. She visits, saw in this only a subject for banter; but the and consoles him, but he dies. Pericles sage may have been justly in earnest; and soothes her grief—

when we know how much remains to be "Tears, O Aspasia, do not dwell long upon the settled for some of the greatest moral ques-cheeks of youth. Rain drops easily from the bad, tions, even in these "enlightened times of the rests on the bosom of the maturer flower, and breaks world," it is a pretty safe course for impartial down that one only which hath lived its day." thinkers, to conclude, that the wisest men in and poor Cleone casts broken thoughts and

subdued affliction before her friend. Nothing is thought too trfling to pass between Aspasia can exceed the depth of delicacy and truth and Cleone:with which all this is expressed.

"Here is another in the same hand, a very clear and

Pericles and Aspasia vie with each other elegant one. Men may be negligent in their handin their knowledge of the genius that sur-writing, for men may be in a hurry about the business rounds them, and in their appreciation of the of life; but I never knew either a sensible woman or glories that have past. This it is which an estimable one whose writing was disorderly. "Well, the verses are prettier than my reflection, draws them so firmly and so fast towards and equally true. each other. Beautiful is the rapture with which she describes (to her friend) the great orator and general repeating to her the literature of her own Ionia, dwelling upon their historians, leaning with his whole soul upon Herodotus!

I will not love!

These sounds have often

Burst from a troubled breast;

Rarely from one no sighs could soften,
Rarely from one at rest."

What a wealth of original and fine remark is contained in these volumes! How happy "And now he brought me into the presence of Homer. We claim him,' said be; but he is yours. the following illustration-in that age more Observe with what partiality he always dwells on Asia! widely applicable than now, though, even How infinitely more civilized are Glaucus and Sarpedon now, the world is little given to tolerate all than any of the Grecians he was called upon to cele- the discoveries which burst open before the brate! Priam, Paris, Hector, what polished men! strenuous inquirer:

Civilization has never made a step in advance,and never

will, on those countries; she had gone so far in the days "In the intellectual,' said he, as in the physical, of Homer. He keeps Helen pretty rigorously out of men grasp you firmly and tenaciously by the hand, sight, but he opens his heart to the virtues of An- creeping close at your side, step for step, while you dromache. What a barbarian is the son of a goddess! lead them into darkness; but when you conduct them Minerva must seize him by the hair to avert the mur- into sudden light, they start and quit you.” der of his leader; but at the eloquence of the Phrygian king the storm of the intractable homicide bursts-How pregnant with instruction to governments is this:

in tears.

"The wiser men in Athens tell us that the vulgar In this way the greatest writers pass in review before us, more subtilely praised and have their prejudices. Where indeed is the person who never has repeated this observation? Yet believe examined than they have ever been since! The me, Cleone, it is utterly untrue. The vulgar have not criticisms of the work are invaluable. The their prejudices: they have the prejudices of those who philosophers pass next, and Aspasia, who has ought to remove them if they had any."

just risen from a survey of an enormous load-Worthy of attention is the profound spirit of treatises which Pericles had sent her, sug- of Cleone's advice to Aspasia, after hearing gests, as the first step to the reconcilement there is such a concourse of philosophers, of their differences, that "as many as are all anxious to show Alcibiades the way to now at Athens should meet together, and virtue, that I am afraid they will completely agree upon a nomenclature of term." block it up before him":

"He smiled at me. Ah, my Aspasia!' said he, "Alcibiades ought not to have captious or inquisi'Philosophy does not bring her sons together; she tive men about him. I know not what the sophists portions them off early, gives them a scanty stock of are good for; I only know they are the very worst inworm-eaten furniture, a chair or two on which it is structors. Logic, however unperverted, is not for boys; dangerous to sit down, and at least as many arms as utensils; then leaves them: they seldom meet after-argumentation is among the most dangerous of early practices, and sends away both fancy and modesty. wards."" The young mind should be nourished with simple and Meanwhile, independent of the vivid scene grateful food, and not too copious. It should be little exwhich is presented to us in Athens, the friends ercised until its nerves and muscles show themselves, exchange with each other most delightful re- and even then rather for air than anything else. Study is the bane of boyhood, the aliment of youth, the insearches into the minor poetry of Ionia and dulgence of manhood, and the restorative of age." Attica, and revive many perfect literary gems that, but for these letters, had been lost-And what freshness Pericles gives to that wholly. So is their admiration and zeal amply worn-out discussion of advantage between sculpture and painting:

vindicated

"The difference is that of a lake confined by moun"If we are capable of showing what is good in another, and neglect to do it, we omit a duty; we omit tains, and a river running on through all the varities to give rational pleasure, and to conciliate right good-of scenery, perpetual and unimpeded. Sculpture will; nay more, we are abettors, if not aiders, in the and Painting are moments of life; Poetry is life itself, vilest fraud, the fraud of purloining from respect. We and every thing around it and above it."

are entrusted with letters of great interest; what a Meanwhile the course of the romance (if baseness not to deliver them!" we may so call it, for its interest as a romance -No scrap that has an original air about it even enhances the value of its philosophy and

learning), is carried steadily on. Aspasia peat them to my children. Teach me whence laws strives to wean Cleone from the memory of were introduced, upon what foundation laid, by what Xeniades, but in vain. "Happy the man custody guarded, in what inner keep preserved. Let the books of the Treasury lie closed as religiously as who, when every thought else is dismissed, the Sybil's; leave weights and measures in the marketcomes last and alone into the warm and secret place, Commerce in the harbour, the Arts in the light foldings of a letter?" No answer is returned. they love: Philosophy in the shade: place History on Again she rallies her-" Ay, ay, Cleone! . .her rightful throne, and, at the sides of her, Eloquence Take him, take him: we must not all be and War." cruel.. to ourselves." With deep tenderness Cleone answers," Laodamia saw

...

Eschylus had hoisted sail for Syracuse before the letters begin, but we are permitted to

with gladness, not with passion, a God, con- glance back to Pericles hanging upon the ductor of her sole beloved. The shade of neck of the proud and soldierly tragedian, as Xeniades follows the steps of Xanthus." he was about to abandon his ungrateful counCleone not less earnestly watches in turn over try. Sophocles is with us. Aspasia desires the fortunes of her friend. "At last, Aspasia, chorus in King Edipus, which she does not him to explain for her the meaning of a you love indeed. The perfections of your beloved interest you less than the imperfec- quite comprehend. Here it is; what is the tions, which you no sooner take up for remeaning of these words about the Laws?" prehension, than you admire, embrace, and defend." Enthusiastic is Aspasia's answer:"At last I have heard him speak in public.

"He looked over them, first without opening his lips; then he read them in a low voice to himself; and then, placing the palm of his left hand against his forehead, "Well I certainly did think I understood it at the

"Apollo may shake the rocks of Delphi, and may time I wrote it.' turn the pious pale; my Pericles rises with serenity; "Cleone! if you could see him you would fall in love his voice hath at once left his lips and entered the heart with him. Fifteen olympiads have not quite run away of Athens. The violent and desperate tremble in every with all his youth. What a noble presence! what an hostile city; a thunderbolt seems to have split in the open countenance! what a brow! what a mouth! what centre, and to have scattered its sacred fire unto the a rich harmonious voice! what a heart, full of passion whole circumference of Greece. and of poetry!"

"The greatest of prodigies are the prodigies of a

mortal; they are, indeed, the only ones: with the gods nians desire change; they wish the despot Yet Sophocles passes! The fickle Athe

there are none.

"Alas! alas! the eloquence and the wisdom, the overthrown, who has so often made them courage and the constancy of my Pericles, must have weep and beat their breasts; and so, above their end; and the glorious shrine, wherein they stand him, after his reign of a quarter of a century, pre-eminent, must one day drop into the deformity of they raise Euripides. Sophocles is defeated "O Aspasia! of the tears thou art shedding, tears of in the theatre by the author of the Medea

death!

pride, tears of fondness, are there none (in those many) for thyself? Yes; whatever was attributed to thee of grace or beauty, so valuable for his sake whose partiality assigned them to thee, must go first, and all that he loses is a loss to thee! weep then on."

"He came to visit us on the day of his defeat; Euripides was with us at the time.

Euripides,' said he, we are here alone, excepting our friends Aspasia and Pericles. I must embrace you