stands as much as is shewn it by others; the third neither understands of itself nor what is shewn it by others." I should have no hesitation. in placing that Man in the third Class of Brains, for whom the History of the last twenty years has not supplied a copious comment on the preceding Text. The widest maxims of Prudence are like Arms without Hearts, disjoined from those Feelings which flow forth from Principle as from a fountain and so little are even the genuine maxims of Expedience likely to be perceived or acted upon by those who have been ha-bituated to admit nothing higher than Expedience, that I dare hazard the assertion, that in the whole Chapter of Contents of European Ruin, every Article might be unanswerably deduced from the neglect of some maxim that had been repeatedly laid down, demonstrated, and enfor-ced with a host of illustrations, in some one or other of the Works of Machiavelli, Bacon, or Harrington. Indeed I can remember no one Event of importance which was not distinctly foretold, and this not by a lucky Prizedrawn among a thousand Blanks out of the Lottery Wheelof Conjecture, but legitimately deduced as certain Consequences from established Premises. It would be a melancholy, but a very profitable employinent, for some vigorous Mind, intimately acquainted with the recent His-. tory of Europe, to collect the weightiest Aphorisms of Machiavelli alone, and illustrating by appropriate Facts the breach or observation of each, to render less mysterious the -present triumph of lawless Violence. The apt Motto to such a Work would be, "The Children of Darkness are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light." I see, however, one favourable symptom in the minds of men at present. The notion of our measureless superiority in Good Sense to our Ancestors, is somewhat less fashionable, than at the commencement of the French Revolution we hear less of the jargon of this enlightened Age, After having fatigued itself as Performer or Spectator of the giddy Figure-dance of political changes, Europe has seen the shallow foundations of its self-complacent Faith give way; and we have now more reason to apprehend the stupor of Despondence, than the extravagances of idle Hope and unprincipled Self-confidence. So grievously deceived by the showy mock theories of confident mock Thinkers, there seems a tendency in the public mind to shun all Thought, and to expect help from any quarter rather than from Seriousness and Reflection: As if some invisible Power would think for us, when we gave up the pretence of thinking for ourselves. But in the first place, did those, who opposed the theories of Innovators, conduct their untheoretic Opposition with more Wisdom or to a happier result? And secondly, are Societies now constructed on Principles so few and so simple, that we could, even if we wished it, act as it were by Instinct, like our distant Forefathers in the infancy of States? Doubtless, to act is nobler than to think; but as the old man doth not become a Child by means of his second Childishness, as little can a Nation exempt itself from the necessity of thinking, which has once learnt to think. Miserable is the delusion of the present mad Realizer of mad Dreams, if he believe that he can transform the Nations of Europe into the unreasoning Hordes of a Babylonian or Tartar Empire, or even reduce the Age to the Simplicity, (so desirable for Tyrants) of those Times, when the Sword and the Plough were the sole Implements of human Skill. Those are Epochs in the History of a People which having been, can never more recur. Extirpate all Civilization and all its Arts by the Sword, trample down all ancient Institutions, Rights, Distinctions, and Privileges, drag us backward to our old Barbarism, as Beasts to the Den of Cacus deem you that thus you will re-create the unexamining and boisterous youth of the World, when the sole questions were" What is to be conquered? and who is the most famous Leader? Or shall I rather address myself to those, who think that as the Peace of Nations has been disturbed by the diffusion of Knowledge, falsely so called, and by the excitement of Hopes that could not be gratified; that this Peace may be re-established by excluding the People from all Knowledge, all Thought, and all prospect of Amelioration? O never, never! Reflection, and stirrings of Mind, with all their Restlessness and all their Imperfections and Errors, are come into the World. The Powers that awaken and foster the Spirit of Curiosity and Investigation, are to be found in every Village; Books are in every Cottage. The Infant's cries are hushed with pieture-Books; and the Child sheds his first bitter Tears over the Pages which will render it impossible for him, when a Man, to be treated or governed as a Child. The Cause of our disquietude must be the means of our Trapquillity; only by the Fire, which has burnt us, can we be enlightened to avoid a repetition of the Calamity, In an Age in which artificial knowledge is received almost at the Birth, Intellect and Thought alone can be our. Upholder and Judge. Let the importauce of this Truth procure pardon for its repetition. Only by means of Seriousness and Meditation and the free infliction of Censure in the spirit of Love, can the true Philanthropist of the present Time, curb-in himself and his Contemporaries; only by these can he aid in preventing the Evils which threaten us, not from the terrors of an Enemy so much as from our fears of our own Thoughts, and our aversion to all the toils of Reflection? For all must now be taught in sport-Science, Morality, yea, Religion itself. And yet few now sport from the actual impulse of a believing Fancy and in a happy Delusion. Of the most influencive Class, at least, of our literary Guides, (the anonymous Authors of our periodical Publications) the most part assume this Character from Cowardice or Malice, till having begun with studied ignorance and a premiditated levity, they at length realize the Lie, and end indeed in a pitiable destitution of all intellectual power. To many I shall appear to speak insolently, because the PUBLIC (for that is the phrase which has succeeded to "THE TOWN," of the Wits of the reign of Charles the second) -the Public is at present accustomed to find itself appealed to as the infallible Judge, and each Reader complimented with excellencies, which if he really possessed, to what purpose is tie a Reader, unless, perhaps, to remind himself of his own superiority! I confess that I think widely different. I have not a deeper Conviction on earth, than that the Principles both of Taste, Morals, and Religion, which are taught in the commonest Books of recent Composition, are false, injurious, and debasing. If these sentiments should be just, the consequences must be so important, that every well-educated Man, who professes them in sincerity, deserves a patient hearing. He may fairly appeal even to those whose persuasions are most opposed to his own, in the words of the Philosopher of Nola: "Ad ist hæc quieso vos, qualiacunque primo videantur aspectu, adfendite, ut qui vobis forsan insanire videar, saltem quibus insaniam rationibus cognoscatis." What I feel deeply, freely will I utter. Truth is not Detraction: and assuredly we do not hate him, to whom we tell the Truth. But with whomsoever we play the Deceiver and Flatterer, him at the bottom we despise. We are, indeed, under a necessity to conceive a vileness in him, in order to diminish the sense of the wrong we have committed, by the worthlessness of the object. Through no excess of confidence in the strength of my talents, but with the deepest assurance of the justice of my cause, I bid defiance to all the Flatterers of the Folly and foolish Self-opinion of the half-instructed Mary; t to all who fill the air with festal explosions and false fires sent up against the lightenings of Heaven, in order that the People may neither distinguish the warning Flash nor hear the threatening Thunder! Do we not stand alone in the World? Another year!-another deadly blow! Note to page 80. WORDSWORTH. Anima sapiens (says Giordano Bruno, and let the sublime Piety of the Passage excuse some intermixture of Error, or rather let the words, as they well may, be interpreted in a safe sense) Anima sapiens non timet mortem, immo interdum illam ultro appetit, illi ultro occurrit. Manet quippe substantiam omnem pro Duratione Eternitas, pro Loco Immensitas, pro Actu Omniformitas. Non levem igitur ac futilem, atqui gravissimam perfectoque Homine dignissimam Contemplationis Partem persequimur ubi divinitatis, naturæque splendorem, fusionem, et communicationem, non in Cibo, Potu, et ignobiliore quadam materia cum attonitorum seculo perquirimus; sed in augusta Omnipotentis Regia, in immenso atheris spacio, in infinita naturæ geminæ omnia fientis et omnia facientis potentia, unde tot astrorum, mundorum inquam et numinum, uni altissimo concinentium atque saltantium absque numero atque fine juxta propositos ubique fines atque ordines, contemplamur. Sic ex visibilium æterno, immenso et innumerabili effectu, sempiterna immensa illa Majestas atque bonitas intellecta conspicitur, proque sua dignitate innumerabilium Deorum (mundorum dico) adsistentia, concinentia, et gloriæ, ipsius enarratione, mino ad oculos expressa concione glorificatur. Cui Immenso mensum non quadrabit Domicilium atque Templumad cujus Majestatis plenitudinem agnoscendam atque percolendam, numerabilium ministorum nullus esset ordo. Eia igitur ad omniformis Dei omniformem Imaginem conjectemus oculos, vivum et magnum illius ad-miremar simulacrum !-Hinc miraculum magnum a Trismegisto appellabatur Homo, qui in Deum transeat quasi ipse sit Deus, qui conatur omnia fieri sicut Deus est omnia; ad objectum sine fine, ubique tamen finiendo, contendit, sicut infinitus est Deus, immensus, ubique totus. Translation. A wise Spirit does not fear death, nay, sometimes, (as in cases of volutary martyrdom) seeks and goes forth to meet it, of its' own accord. For there awaits all actual Beings, for Duration an Eternity, for Place Iminensity, for Action Omuiformity. We pursue, therefore, a species of Contemplation not light or futile, but the weightiest and most worthy of an accomplished Man, while we examine and seek for the splendor, the interfusion, and communication of the Divinity and of Nature, not in Meats or Drink, or any yet ignobler matter, with the Race of the Thunder-stricken; (i. e. minds stunned and stupified by superstitious fears. BRUNO here alludes, doubtless, to the gross absurdities of Transubstantiation), but in the August palace of the . Omnipotent, in the illimitable etherial space, in the inanite power, that creates all things, and is the abiding Being of all things. (I have thought my self allowed thus to render the less cautious expressions of the original, because the ery same Latin words are to be found in the writings of Joannes Scotus Erigena, who was doubtless a sincere Christian; and equivalent phrases occur in the mystic theology of one at least, if not more, of the early Greek Fathers. It is most uncharitable to accuse a Writer of pantheism for a few overcharged Sentences: especially as the Writer may have thought himself authorized by certain texts of St. John and St. Paul.) There we may contemplate the Host of Stars, of Worlds and their guardian Deities (i. e. presiding Angels) numbers without number, each in its' appointed sphere, singing together, and dancing in adoration of the One Most High. Thus from the perpetual, immense, and innumerable goings on of the visible World, that sempiternal and absolutely infinite Majesty is intellectually beheld, and is glorified according to his Glory, by the attendance, and choral symphonies, of innumerable gods, who utter forth the glory of their ineffable Creator in the expressive Language of Vision! To HIM illimitable, a limited Temple will not correspond-to the acknowledgment and due worship of the Plenitude of his Majesty there would be no proportion in any numerable Army of Ministrant Spirits. Let us then cast our Eyes upon the omniform Image of the Attributes of the all-creating Supreme, nor admit any represen tation of his Excellency but the living Universe, which he has created!Thence was Man entitled by Trismegistus," the great Miracle," inasmuch as he has been made capable of entering into Union with God, as if he were himself a divine nature; tries to become all things, even as in God all things are; and in limitless progression of limited States of Being, urges onward to the ultimate Aim, even as God is simultaneously infinite, and every where All! I purpose hereafter, to give an account of the Life of Giordano Bruno, the Friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and who was burnt under pretence of Atheism, at Rome, in the year 1600; and of his Works, which are perhaps the scarcest Books ever printed. They are singularly interesting as portraits of a vigorous mind struggling after truth, amid many prejudices, which from the state of the Roman Church, in which he was born, have a claim to much Indulgence. One of them (entitled Ember Week) is curious for it's lively accounts of the rude state of London, at that time, both as to the Streets and the manners of the Citizens. The most industrious Historians of Speculative Philosophy, have not been able to procure more than a few of his Works. Accidentally I have been more fortunate in this respect, than those who have written hitherto on the unhappy Philosopher of Nola: as out of eleven works, the titles of which are preserved to us, I have had an opportunity of perusing six. I was told, when in Germany, that there is a complete collection of them in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. If so, it is unique. As I wish to commence the important Subject of-The Principles of political Justice with a separate Number of THE FRIEND, and shall at the same time comply with the wishes communicated to me by one of my female Readers, who writes as the representative of many others: I shall conclude this Number with the following Fragment, or the third and fourth parts of a Tale consisting of six. The two last parts may be given heareafter, if the present should appear to have afforded pleasure, and to have answered the purpose of a relief and amusement to my Readers. The story, as it is contained in the first and second parts, is as follows: Edward a young farmer, meets at the house of Ellen, her bosom-friend, Mary, and commences an acquaintance, which ends in a mutual attachment. With her consent, and by the advice of their common friend, Ellen, he announces his hopes and intentions to Mary's Mother, a widow-woman bordering on her fortieth year, and from constant Health, the possession at a competent property, and from having had no other children but Mary and another Daughter (the Father died in their infancy) retaining, for the greater part, her personal attractions and comeliness of appearance; but a woman of low education and violent temper. The answer which she at once returned to Edward's application, was remarkable-"Well, Edward! you are a handsome young fellow: and you shall have my Daughter. From this time all their Wooing passed under the Mother's Eves: and in fine, she became herself enamoured of her future Son in law, and practised every art, both of endearment and of calumny, to transfer his affections from her daughter to herself. (The outlines of the Tale are positive Facts, and of no very distant date, though the author has purposely altered the names and the scene of action, as well as invented the characters of the parties and the detail of the Incidents.) Edward, however, though perplexed by her strange detractions from her daughter's good qualities, yet in the innocence of his own heart still mistaking her encreasing fondness for |