for their fathers' monuments. One of the Persian kings, having resolved upon a war with their wandering tribes, penetrated a long way into their plains; and being, at length, weary of pursuit, sent a messenger to his fugitive enemies to enquire how much farther they intended to retreat; and when they meant to signalize their courage. To this message the Tartars replied, that they had no towns, villages, or houses to fight for but that as they intended to retreat to their father's monuments; if the king wished to know, how well they could fight, it was only to march after them; and he would soon have an opportunity of judging of their skill, as well as of their valour. This reminds us of a trait of character in another hemisphere. When the Europeans advised some American Indians to emigrate to another district; "What!" said they; "shall we say to the bones of our forefathers, Arise and follow us to a foreign land?"

Even the honour of Ostracism 2,-the wisest law that was ever enacted for the preservation of a republic,-could never reconcile its martyr to its severity: while the Petalism of Syracuse, a law similar to that of Ostracism at Athens, but productive of different results, was frequently found too oppressive for the mind to sustain. In Rome, banishment consisted of three kinds. First; a person, banished from Italy, might go whither he pleased. Second; perpetual ba nishment to a particular place, and deprivation of fortune. Third; temporary banishment to a particular place, without being deprived either of fortune or rights. Nothing was more dreaded than banishment; which was esteemed little better than a state of solitary wretchedness. In modern times, the punishment is seldom inflicted on eminent men, except in Russia. In England it is confined to criminals of the worst description.

"Ostracism was established at Argos, as well as at Athens; where it was exercised every fifth year. Valerius Maximus (lib. v. c. 3), and other writers, have condemned this law; but, I think, they judged superficially.

-Plutarch, Seneca, and Erasmus, have written on this compulsory law of quitting a native soil. Rutilius Rufus, the celebrated Roman consul, wrote a history of Rome, in Greek, in his exile; and during the operation of a similar punishment, Bolingbroke wrote his "Patriot King." Ovid betrayed the weakness of his nature during his exile; and though Cicero's punishment was honourable, yet he betrayed more imbecility, during that period, than in any other of his misfortunes. The best picture of a patriot in exile is presented in that of Marcellus, at Mitylene. He was the friend of Cicero and mankind; an ardent lover of his country; proud of the glory of integrity; and finding the ruin of his country involved in the usurpation of Cæsar, he retired to Mitylene; and, in the society of several men of learning, seemed so perfectly master of himself, that "when I quitted him," says Brutus,“ on my return to Italy, I seemed, as if I were myself going into exile, rather than that I left Marcellus in it." Even Phalaris, the tyrant, was a lover of his country. He was of Crete; and never failed to lament his exile; even when exercising a tyranny on the throne of Sicily. "Unskilled in the management of a multitude," said he, in an epistle to Autonas, "I was driven out of my own country, and assuredly the pleasures of a tyranny can never compensate for the pains of exile."

I remember to have heard Madame de Staël say, that no scene, she had ever beheld, affected her with so much admiration as a view from her father's house, at Copet; when she returned from the tumults and agitations of Paris. Nature seemed to make up to her for all she had suffered, by a beauty, which, after a long absence, associating with her earlier years, had all the charms of an old friendship, and all the freshness and vigour of youth and novelty.

The Greeks were ardently attached to their soil; from natural affection; education; the beauty of the country; the amenity of its climate; the praises of their poets; the cere

monies of their religion; and the preference, which they gave to their own laws, customs, and manners. The Athenians even believed, that they originated out of the earth, on which their city stood. This made them pre-eminently proud. "Our origin," said Socrates, "is so beautiful, that none of the Greeks can give such pure appellations to their country, as we can. We can truly style the earth, on which we tread, our nurse, our mother, our father." The Greek writers, who affected to esteem every beloved spot as standing in the middle of the worlda, frequently alluded to this hallowed sympathy. The Odyssey derives many of its charms from a display of it. Ulysses is miserable in the bower of Calypso; and he soothes the anguish of his heart by wandering,-desolate and in tears, along the sea-shore. Many passages in the tragic poets are equally affecting. In a tragedy of Æschylus, Cassandra pathetically mourns the future fate of her country:

-

Ah! my poor country, my poor bleeding country,
Fall'n, fall'n for ever!-and you, sacred altars,
That blaz'd before my father's tower'd palace,
Not all your victims could avert your doom.

In the Electra of Sophocles, that transcendent heroine, in mourning over the urn of her brother, laments, with all a Grecian bitterness of soul, that he should have died in a distant country.

By a stranger's hands

Those duties paid, thou com'st, a little dust
Clos'd in a little urn.

Oh, hadst thou died, ere by these hands preserv'd,

And snatch'd from slaughter, to a foreign land

I sent thee. Hadst thou died in that sad day,

Some little portion of thy father's tomb

Thou wouldst have shar'd; but thou hast perish'd now,

Far from thy house, and from thy country far,

A wand'ring exile!

Many scenes are endeared to our feelings, also, when we

are about to quit them, or after an absence of many years.

Some captives have wept at leaving the prisons, in which they have been confined; and Philoctetes, in a tragedy by Euripides, gives an affectionate farewell to the desolate island, in which he had lingered out ten years of solitude and wretchedness.

a

Ye jutting rocks, and you, ye dashing waves,
Ye fountains, waters, fields, and azure hills,
That have so often echoed with my sorrows,
And now endear'd by their remembrances,
Farewell!-I leave you to return no more.

The modern Greeks, too, speak of their country with joy and affectionate admiration. The very mention of Greece is said to soften, to animate them, and even to inspire them with eloquence. When the Greeks were expelled from Belgrade, in 1739 b, the women were forced from the tombs of their children, parents, and husbands, with great difficulty. They clung to them with the greatest affection and agony; but, being at length exhausted by their miseries, they could no longer contend against their enemies; and were dragged forcibly away.

No man loved his country better than Lucian. "Why do we study the sciences," says he, "but that we may be useful to the country, in which we live? We have neither property nor talent, that is not essentially hers. Let her complexion be ever so coarse, yet we dread to be banished: and desire to return to her, even after we are dead. Bury me, therefore, in my own country."

Virgil represents Helenus and Andromache indicating the same affection, by giving the name of Troy to a river in Epirus; and in the celebrated storm scene he makes his hero lament, even with tears, that he was not fated to die in the sight of his parents, and under the walls of his native town d. How natural!-how pathetic!-how beautiful!

Ceylon, a Cingalese will tell us, was part of the terrestrial

De Guys, vol. iii. p. 108.

cÆn. iii. p. 302.

b De Guys, vol. ii. p. 76.

d Æn. i. p. 98.

paradise; Hamadel, the mountain, on which Adam was created; and the lake, which lies near its summit, formed by the tears, which Eve wept at the death of Abel.

The inhabitants of Tinian, being removed to Guam, in order to recruit the exhausted population of that island, pined, and died of grief! The Portuguese Jews are said to have as ardent an affection for the kingdom of Portugal. For Lisbon they sigh, when called by business or necessity into other countries; and when settled far from their dear Portugal, they order a quantity of earth to be sent over, that, when they die, they may be buried in their native soil. The Dooraunes are, too, so ardently attached to theirs, that the bodies of their chiefs are always carried thither, when any of them die in Sind, Cashmeer, or any other empire. Nothing can exceed the reverence they bear to the spots, which contain the ashes of their fathers.

Henry the Fourth of France had always a peculiar regard for Pau, a small town in the province of Gascoigny, abounding in beautiful prospects: and it would be difficult to describe the pleasure he received, during the siege of Laon, from revisiting the forest of Folambray; where in his youth he had been accustomed to regale himself with milk, new cheese, and various kinds of fruit; and wandering about frequently without either shoes or bonnet 2.

The late Lord Fife entertained a similar regard for Scot

a Mem. Sully, vol. ii. p. 381. His chateau remains at this day as he left it: his furniture, family portraits, library, &c., being all preserved. The revolution, which scarcely respected any thing, respected them. "You will think it very natural," said Louis XVI., in a letter to the National Assembly," that I should have it at heart to keep the Castle of Pau, which produces no revenue: it is impossible for me not to concur in the wish of the inhabitants, that the place where Henry IV. was born, should always remain in the hands of his children."

The Duc de Biron retained so lively a regard for the chateau in which he was born, situated in one of the most agreeable provinces of France, that the last words of regret which escaped him, before he was led for execution, were expressive of his fear, that his park and woods would be confiscated, and given to a stranger.