Page images
PDF
EPUB

meftic difficulties, no domeftic weakness, reached him; but, aloof from the fordid occurrences of life, and unfullied by its intercourfe, he came occafionally into our fyftem, to council and to decide." Such a character, we muft fay, without an intent to depreciate this mighty ftatefman, may attract the eye of public admiration, but, like Weft's fublime reprefentation of "Death on the Pale Horfe," it is only to be viewed at a distance; it will never claim the humbler admiration of love.Too well indeed, do we know, that men have imbibed a falfe principle of greatnefs, which leads them to conceal those weaknesses which conftitute the excellence of humanity. Thus Richlieu, when he could retire from obfervation, amused himself by jumping about his room; while in public, he concealed the man in the extended celebrity of the minifter. Richlieu might have poffeffed many other valuable foibles, now irrecoverably loft, which he repreffed as incompatible with his dignity yet, were not thefe blemishes amiable? Which was the moft endearing character: Cato, who practifed a ftoic apathy in all the gentle relations of life; or Cicero, whofe affections to his family gave a nerve to his public voice? Would Terentia have refigned Cicero, as Marcia refigned Cato? For my part, when I fee the enraged Coriolanus forego the deftruction of his country for the affection which he bore to his mother and his wife; the fupine Brutus roufed to patriotifm and immortality by the bleeding injuries of Lucretia; and a Cæfar melted into tears on feeing the head of his enemy-Pompey; I cannot, fuch is my weakness, but confider thefe as more exalted inftances, than if the first had fhewn a philofophical indifference to the ties of kindred and of nature; the next treated the rape of Lucretia as a common inftance of debauchery; and the third expreffed a malignant triumph at the fight of the mangled Roman.

Having enumerated fome inftances, both of a public

and

over

and a private nature, evincing the excellency of those difpofitions which adorn our milder hours, and the nature of a perfection which, if perfectly attainable, would difgrace and brutalize man; having fhewn that the evils which we lament originate from an Itrained wifdom,”. -a want of that admixture of Folly and Wisdom which diftinguishes, enobles, and endears the highest order of merit; it should feem that we have compaffed our aim. But, as we have talked particularly to the philosophical, we would fay a little to the religious stoic.

Except in the times of a Calvin, when the powerful corruptions of Rome-papal, oppofing the advancement of all reform, gave birth to that invective and virulence fo fatally confpicuous in fome of the early champions of the Reformation, except in thefe times, and times of like distress, one might hope that the spirit of intolerance had ceased to rave; and that the cold-hearted enmity of its difciples no longer exifted. Would to God, that the clofe of the eighteenth century confirmed this aufpicious hope! There are characters who, while they reprobate the fpeculative fcepticism of the day, and profefs the philanthropy of Jefus, extend that philanthropy only to themselves, and are fceptics, implacable fceptics, to the voice of Nature and benevolence. Indeed, to Philofophy alone, much as it is now perverted, we may not attribute our misfortunes; "the true foul of Chriftianity has ceafed to animate the majority of its profeffors: happily for afflicted man, the corruptions of christianity are not Christianity; nor the perverfions of fcience the spirit of Philosophy.

C.

THE

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX

DEN FOUNDATIONS

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

E

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.

NCOMPASSED as we are by fcenes of tumult and distress, it is fome confolation to reflect, that the hour of convulfion and danger has ever preceded the establishment of concord. In the moral as in the phyfical, and in the political as in the natural world, there is a regular distribution of profperity and decay. No quality is immutable; but every thing tranfient and periodical. The root of empire, however skilfully planted, cannot flourish in immortal vigour.. In its progrefs towards maturity, other fcions than those of patriotifm will be grafted on its strength; while luxury, that infeparate from a series of national exultation, ripens thefe infiduous fhoots. Amid fuch times, when tyranny gives birth to refiftance-and wealth to difcontent, there are never wanting those who, under the pretence of benevolence, would enrich themselves with the general fpoil: but how feldom is the man to be found who feeks the diftinction only to become the father of his country? Such a character is indeed scarce : yet, fuch a character is George Washington.

The birth-places of illuftrious men are often the subjects of contention: and England, who once ftigmatized him as a rebel, has fince contended for the honour of Washington's nativity. Within a few months it has been publicly afferted, that Carlifle was the first scene of his existence; an affertion totally unfounded. Eng. land, it is true, was the foil of his ancestors; but his family, as early even as the year 1657, were fettled in America: and he, in the third defcent after their migration, was born on the 11th of February, (old style) 1732, at the parish of Washington, in Weftmoreland county, in Virginia. His father's family was numerous; and himself the first product of a fecond marriage. His education was principally conducted by a private tutor; at fifteen years old he was entered a VOL. I. midshipman

Ee

« PreviousContinue »