lous trait in the most vicious characters; circum præcordia ludit was singularly applicable to Dr. Arbuthnot's writings; that such a man, to whom almost every character was a source of amusement, that to such a man death should be welcome, because life was insipid, is a melancholy proof, that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; that those best qualified to make others merry, are often least so themselves; that external mirth and hilarity are often the effect of painful efforts to shake off for a time eroding vexation, and shut the eyes for a few moments from the cares of life. Yet, in point of fact, I am of opinion that the Earl of Bath was by no means correct. In a letter written by the physician in October, 1734, a few months before his death, he describes himself as scarcely able to sleep, breathe, eat, or move; and earnestly intreats the Almighty, in his good time, to remove him out of the world; not (as he afterwards adds) that he has any particular disgust against mankind. Few readers will think it necessary to inquire why a person in such a situation should pray for death; I impute the observation of the noble lord to his courting the Dean, whom he dreaded; it was humouring that misanthropy which appeared very early in Swift, was exasperated by disappointed ambition, and embittered the last twenty years of life. If the good, the excellent Arbuthnot, born and bred in the lap of science; visited and caressed by wit, beauty, learning and accomplishment; if one so favoured sighed for death because he was tired of bad company, God help the man who is obliged to draw all his amusement and all his information from gross ignorance, frivolous folly, and conceited absurdity. It is the observation of a modern writer, that the evils of this life and the terrors of futurity would prove an insupportable burthen, if the Almighty, in pity to man, had not infused into his nature a tendency to trifling pleasures and insignificant pursuits, il le crea frivole et vain; this salutary spirit of nonsense enables him now and then to dance and sing under his misfortunes.

I had nearly omitted saying that Arbuthnot, when a young man, attempted to settle at Dorchester, a county town in the west of England, remarkable for its healthy situation, salubrious air, and interesting environs, circumstances desirable to a traveller or an inhabitant, but not productive to a physician. On quitting Dorsetshire, a friend met him galloping to London. "Where are you going, Arbuthnot?" was a natural question. "To leave your confounded place, for I can neither live nor die there," replied the medical man.

But

ARCAGATHUS, a surgeon of Rome, in the sixth century from the foundation of that city; a man of diligence and sagacity, who appears to have studied with zeal, and to have practised with success. despising public opinion, and inattentive to feeling as well as decorum, he dissected animals alive, tried on them a variety of cruel experiments, and was so inordinately attached to the use of the knife, and actual cautery, that he became a marked man, and rendered himself odious to the people, who, imitating the crime for which they punished him, stoned the anatomist to death. Modern times have not been without

examples of demonstrators and their attendants suffering from popular resentment, and the multitude thus sacrificing a useful and meritorious individual, may be considered as one of the many victories of prejudice, passion and caprice, over justice, truth and common sense; in the blindness of their fury, they forget that the odium incurred is in search of a species of knowledge from which they, and their descendants, will probably reap the most important benefits. We are not sufficiently acquainted with Arcagathus, or the remote period in which he lived, to know all the circumstances of this unpropitious transaction, but there are strong reasons for concluding that the influence of the pontiff and the college of augurs was paramount; that they regarded with suspicion and indignation a bold adventurer, who rashly presumed to interfere with matters which formed, exclusively, an important branch of their sacerdotal and prophetic office, the inspecting the vitals of animals, and deducing from the appearance of them, under the direction of the civil magistrate, good or bad omens, for or against undertaking any public enterprise. Arcagathus, like other men of genius, scientific research, and fertile project, was probably deficient in low cunning and worldly prudence; looking down with contempt on the follies and absurdities of the common people, and scorning, in one jot or one tittle, to accommodate himself, he took no pains to conceal his sentiments, but regarded all actions as alike indifferent, provided the end was good. His enemies, taking advantage of this failing, which has proved the destruction of so many, turned the vengeance of the mob against their great benefactor; a species of democratic suicide not unfrequent. Those who devote their time and talents to the service of the public, should endeavour to communicate the mint-mark of general approbation and expediency to the sterling bullion of real merit and good design.

Anatomists, comparative anatomists, surgeons, and a long train of triers of experiments on animals, with air-pumps, electrifying and other machines, are too apt to forget that animated nature was given by our all-wise and merciful Creator for moderate use and rational enjoyment; that nothing but some palpable and important advantage can authorise us to inflict agonies on a worm, or protract the existence of the meanest reptile in a state of torture; in this particular, the late John Hunter, with all his professional excellence, was abominably guilty.

ARISTIDES, a disinterested Athenian patriot, banished by the caprice or the malignancy of his countrymen, whom he had served with clean hands and an uncorrupted heart; this praise has been refused to his rival Themistocles, with all his predominating powers. That great commander being blocked up by Xerxes, in the straits of Salamis, Aristides, instead of abandoning a political antagonist who had often attacked him with coarse invective, gallantly forced his way through the Persian fleet, and reaching the shore, thus addressed Themistocles: "At a moment like the present, let us forget those contentions in which we have been too long engaged; let our struggle be of a more honourable kind; let us try who is best able to extricate the Greeks from their

present difficulties; I saw you encompassed by the enemy, and immediately resolved, at all risks, to come to your assistance; I have attacked and broke through the Persian line, and sunk several of their ships, and have not a doubt but that, with your assistance, they may be entirely defeated, and the honour of our country preserved." The resentments of Themistocles were instantly subdued by such conduct, and he made the following reply: "Generous and excellent Aristides, I acknowledge myself your inferior; the emulation you so nobly point out, it shall be the glory of iny life to practise." It is scarcely necessary to add, that, by their united efforts, the fleet of Xerxes was soon destroyed.

I

My readers will probably ask by what means so intrepid a commander, and so good a citizen, incurred the displeasure of his countrymen? almost blush for poor human nature, when I relate the circumstance: one of these worthy characters, probably of the description of those heroes whom we must shake by the hand and make low bows to during a contested election; one of them being asked why he voted for the banishment of so good a man, candidly replied: “I know no harm of him whatever, but I could not bear to hear every body calling him, on all occasions, ARISTIDES THE JUST."

This short but impressive anecdote is submitted to the cool consideration of certain sanguine friends of the editor, who are perpetually declaiming in favour of a form of government purely democratic; a form which, admirably calculated for rousing exertion and controlling mismanagement, gratifies, I fear too readily, the blackest passions of the human heart, and, by the rapid action and vast weight of the machine which conducts it, will, in all countries which adopt it, produce calamities more numerous and fatal than the evils it proposes to remedy. It is neither my business nor inclination to set bounds to the glorious possibilities of a republic uncontaminated by wealth and luxury, conducted and inhabited by men of clear heads and pure hearts; independent of the scarcity of such materials, I apprehend that the commonwealths of Greece and Rome, even in their more early periods, afford strong presumptive evidence against the peace and happiness of unmixed popular forms.

ARISTOCRACY, a splendid argument in favour of, confidentially produced by a late eminent writer, and considered as unanswerable by some of his friends. I think it my duty first to observe, that persons of this description I by no means wish to deprive of the just and natural privileges attached to the aristocracy of intellect and personal worth; it is petty exemption and irritating injurious prerogative only that I wish to oppose; can any good reason be given why every man should not alike be obliged to pay for the conveyance of his letters, a business attended with enormous toil and expense on the part of government? Why should not the same pains and the same penalties be attached to similar offenders in every instance? In the political, as well as the moral world, crime should be considered as the leveller of all distinctions, the extinguisher of every honour.

To

The favourite passage, so often quoted, is as follows: "I see neither policy nor utility in laying down a principle, that the opinion of a majority of men, counted by the head is to be considered as the law of the land; this surely is acting in defiance of political theory and every day's experience. To enable men to act with weight and consistency, and to answer the purposes of society, the weak, the ignorant, and the unprovided, must be conducted by the wise, the expert, and the opulent. Numbers, it must be confessed, are always of consideration, but they are not the whole consideration. Aristocracy is not a separate, or a separable interest in the state; it is formed by legitimate presumptions, which, taken as generalities, may be admitted as actual proofs. be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low or sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect ourselves; to be habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to stand on elevated ground, and to be enabled to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified combinations of men and things; to have leisure to read, reflect, and converse; to associate with the wise and learned; to be habituated in fleets and armies to obey and to command; to be taught to despise danger in the pursuit of honour and duty; to be considered as an instructor of our fellow-citizens in their highest concerns; to act as a reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of law and justice; to be a professor of liberal science, or a practiser of ingenious art, are circumstances which form a natural aristocracy; and to give no more importance in the social order to such descriptions of men than to so many units, I consider as a palpable usurpation."

ARISTOCRATIC EXCLAMATION, the sensible, of an eminent Roman, I believe one of the Scipios, or made for him by Livy: "Cur ego plebeios magistratus, cur Sicinium potentem video? Tarquinium qui non tulerim, Sicinium feram ?

This animated apostrophe is almost translated by the author of "Killing no Murder," a masterly pamphlet, published during the usurpation of Cromwell, which revived the spirits of the Royalists, and made the Protector tremble on his throne. "Shall we, who would not submit to the royal lion, be trodden under foot by the ass?" Yet such, to continue the figure, has been and ever will be the disposition of animals of this species, when placed out of their sphere; nil asperius humili cum surgit in altum. Set a beggar on horseback, &c. &c.

ARNOLD, JOHN, a native of Brandenburgh, in Saxony, who exercised the trade of a miller, on a rivulet communicating with the Oder, near Custrin; he was a subject of that illustrious warrior, statesman, philosopher, and poet, Frederic, King of Prussia, who I believe needs no other addition to his name, to distinguish him from his predecessors, or the succeeding king. The mill which Arnold occupied, was plentifully supplied with water at the time he purchased his lease, and for six years he had regularly paid his rent and supported his family in a comfortable manner. At this period (1776) Count Schmettau, the miller's landlord, having occasion to enlarge a fish-pond near his seat,

and wishing to turn a larger quantity of water into it, ordered a cut to be made from the stream a little above the mill, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances of his tenant, who foresaw and pointed out the injury he should receive, and entreated, if the canal must remain, that he might be permitted to resign his lease. This reasonable request being denied, the current of water was reduced so low that the mill could only be worked during those floods which follow heavy rains. Arnold applied to a court of law for redress, but lost his cause; and after great anxiety, in consequence of his debts increasing, whilst his ability to raise money every hour diminished, the unfortunate man's goods and stock at length were seized. By the advice of a friend, who had experienced the benevolent and equitable principles of their sovereign, the miller presented a short memorial on the subject to the king, whose scrutinising eye, equally adapted for minute precision and vast design, was immediately struck with the simplicity of the man's poor narrative; and although, during a large portion of his reign, he was forced into war by Austria, France, and Russia, his heart was on every occasion alive to the interests and happiness of his subjects.

Frederic immediately despatched a private agent to Custrin, who surveyed the mill, the stream, and the new canal; this person was particularly directed to inquire into Arnold's former situation, and the probable causes of his failure. By the cautious method in which he proceeded, the king seems to have guarded, as far as he was able, against those extremes into which the most amiable virtues sometimes hurry us; he was fully aware of the antipathy he had conceived, early in life, against lawyers, who, although they sometimes prove the scourges and firebrands of society, are frequently men of cultivated talents and liberal dispositions. Our royal legislator, one of the few hereditary monarchs whose personal merit deserved a throne, revised with his own eyes the whole of the law proceedings; but fearing, even after he had determined how to act, that prejudice and resentment might inflame his passions, warp his judgment, and lead him to injustice and oppression, the very crimes he meant to punish in others, he resolved not to trust entirely to his own feelings, but consulted several eminent veterans, who had passed in laborious study, or daily practice, through the different provincial, municipal, and civil departments of the state. Early in the month of December, 1779, he sent for the chancellor, judges of appeal, and counsellors, who had approved and signed the sentence; as they entered the royal closet, the king, pointing to a table covered with papers, announced the occasion of his message, by saying "These are your proceedings in the case of the miller Arnold, which I have taken some pains to peruse, and I never witnessed anything more cruel and inhuman; to deprive a man of water, the only means by which he could work his mill, and then pull him to pieces in consequence of that poverty your own injustice had brought upon him." His majesty, after the following animated question, paused, in order that the parties might have time to reply: "Is it to legalise acts like these that laws have been enacted, and the offices you fill created?"

The lawyers lamented that they had, in this cause, been so unfor