it by the strong barriers and veteran legions which garrisoned the towns on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. The event proved the wisdom of that foresight which dictated the measure; for the moment the destructive policy of Constantine removed these barriers, the barbarians rushed in at the opening, and entirely destroyed the tottering fabric. Perhaps in future ages, by analogy of reasoning, some savage tribes, now roaming over the vast deserts of Asia or America, may enrich themselves with the fertile possessions of their more polished neighbours, and, like second Goths, raise the rude structure of ignorance and barbarism on the ruins of philosophy, science, and civilisation. When the wounds of national dissension are healed, and that liberty, for which it has struggled against the authority of the parent country, is established on the firm basis of acknowledged constitutional rights, the *phenomenon of an independent transatlantic state may give the fatal blow to European politics, and America perhaps arise the destined seat of a future empire. When we compare Tacitus's Treatise on the Manners of the Germans, with Lafitau's Account of the American Tribes, we cannot but be struck with the similarity of the subject; and we may remark, that at the period when Tacitus wrote, when the Roman empire was in its meridian glory, Germany, Gaul, 66 To show that speculation is, in some instances at least, well grounded, I shall lay before my readers a passage from Hume, which proves, that so long ago as the year 1606, the speculatists of that age foretold, what a recent event has justified. Speculative reasoners, during that age, raised many objections to planting remote colonies; and foretold, that after draining their mother country of its inhabitants, they would soon shake off her yoke, and erect an independent government in America," Vol. vi. p. 127. By referring to the original text, the reader will find, that the historian was no friend to this doctrine; but the event has justified the prediction. and Britain, now the seats of science and literature, were nearly in the same state of unpolished nature, which is the present characteristic of the American tribes whom Lafitau describes. Europe has now nearly arrived at the highest pitch of refinement and civilisation. It has been observed, that the human mind will never remain inactive, but will always have either a progressive or retrograde motion-will either gain the heights of excellence or sink into the abyss of depravity; and there is a degree in both, beyond which it can neither rise nor fall, but, like the flood, when it has gained the highest shore, will naturally retreat, and when at the lowest ebb, will gradually recover its former height. The truth of this observation has been already too severely exemplified to be doubted; may not a similar corruption of manners produce a similar decline in the arts and military prowess? and is it an extravagant conjecture, that, in process of time, the same fate may overwhelm us, which destroyed the empires before us? But it is time to restrain the lawless efforts of imagination, and to recal the attention of the mind from a speculation, in whose windings and labyrinths our directing clue may be lost; where the powers of delusion may fascinate the mental eye, and involve us in inextricable darkness and error. If the reader will indulge me a few moments longer in the self-created phantoms of my brain, I shall give way to the melancholy-pleasing ideas of my fancy; and, pursuing my speculation, suppose what may be the probable state of Great Britain at that period when we shall no longer exist as an independent nation; when the chains of slavery shall have galled our limbs, and liberty be only that "magni nominis umbra," that" shadow of a mighty name," which Wrinkled beldams Teach to their grand-children, as somewhat rare GRAY'S Agrippina. Perhaps the inquisitive genius of curiosity may then visit this island, from the same motives which now attract the traveller to the venerable ruins of Athens or Rome; the antiquary may collect a series of British, with as much avidity as he now arranges his Roman or Grecian, coins; a true George the Third may engage the attention of virtù as much as a genuine Augustus or Trajan; the older edition of Shakspeare, Milton, or Pope, may authorise a different reading as much as an older manuscript of Homer, Cicero, or Virgil; the monumental records of Westminster Abbey may be considered as the authentic testimonies of illustrious actions, as much as the inscriptions collected by Montfaucon, or the Arundelian Marbles at Oxford. The ruins of an university may attract the admiration of the traveller; the plans and designs of the different buildings may be preserved with that reverence which we now pay to the ruins of Palmyra or Balbec. May not the same spirit which inspired Cicero when he beheld the porticos of Athens seize some future philosopher? the one has paid, the other will pay, the homage of admiration due to departed genius. As the one beheld with reverential awe those seats which had been dignified by the presence of a Socrates, a Plato, and an Aristotle ; the other may behold, with pious gratitude, those where the immortal Milton planned his Paradise Lost, a Newton pierced through the clouds of philo sophical error, and the comprehensive mind of a Bacon burst the fetters of scholastic pedantry, and boldly asserted the incontrovertible laws of nature, truth, and learning. To contract myself to a narrower sphere, may not reflection heave a sigh when she beholds the vestiges of this nursery of genius, where so many patriots, philosophers, and poets, each in their respective lines the boast of their native soil, first caught that generous enthusiasm for solid glory, which proved the source of such renown to themselves and their country; by which they reflected a mutual light on each other, and which enabled the one to immortalise by his pen those exploits which the more active abilities of the other had enabled him to perform. A. I beg leave to lay before my readers the following poem, produced by reflections of a similar kind. THE SLAVERY OF GREECE. Unrivall❜d Greece! thou ever honour'd name, eye Trace thy past worth, and view thee with a sigh. The child of poverty inur'd to toil. Here, lov'd by Pallas and the sacred nine, To toss the terror of the whizzing spear, The conqu'ring standard's glitt'ring glories rear, How skill'd the Greeks; confess what Persians slain Nor war's vast art alone adorn'd thy fame, With pictur'd pomp to grace, and sculptur'd state, |