pre

of those days, when the world was young, rude as the times they lived in, and rash at once from ignorance and from inexperience, amused themselves with the toys and the trumpets, the gewgaws and the glitter of war. But we who live in the maturity of things, who to the knowledge of the sent, add a retrospection of the past, we who alone can fairly be termed the antients, or be said to live in the olden time, we, I trust, are no longer to be deluded or befooled by this brilliant but baleful meteor, composed of visionary good, but of substantial evil. We live in the manhood and in the fullness of time, and the triumphs of truth and of reason, triumphs bright as bloodless, these are the proper business and the boast of those, who having put away childish things, are becoming men. There are some that with oracular gravity will inform us, that as wars have ever been, they must on that account continue to be; but they might as well assert that the imbecillity and ignorance that marked the conduct of our forefathers, those antient moderns, who lived in the infancy of the world, and in the childhood of time, must and doth exist at present, because it existed then. With one solitary exception, all warfare is built upon hypocrisy, acting upon ignorance; ignorance it was that lent success to Mahomet's miracles, and to Cromwell's cant. For lack of knowledge a people is destroyed, and knowledge alone it is, that is worthy of holding the freest minds in the firmest thraldom. Unlike those of the warrior, the triumphs of knowledge derive all their lustre, not from the evil they have produced, but from the good; her successes and her conquests are the common property of the world, and succeeding ages will be the watchful guardians of the rich legacies she bequeaths. But the trophies and the titles of the conqueror are on the quick march to oblivion, and amid that desolation where they were planted, will decay. For what are the triumphs of war,* planned by ambition, exe

#

Speaking of the conqueror, the inspired writer observes that "before him the land is as the Garden of Eden, behind him as the desolate wilder

cuted by violence, and consummated by devastation, the means are the sacrifice of the many, the end, the bloated aggrandizement of the few. Knowledge has put a stop to chivalry, as she one day will to war, and Cervantes has laughed out of the field those self-constituted legislators that carried the sword but not the scales of justice, and who were mounted and mailed. I am no advocate for a return of this state of things; but when that heroic and chivalric spirit was abroad, when men volunteered on dangers for the good of others, without emolument, and laid down the sword when that for which they resorted to it was overcome, then indeed a measure of respect and admiration awaited them, and a feeling, honourable to both parties, was entertained. But is it not both absurd and ridiculous to transfer this respect and esteem to those who make a trade of warfare, and who barter for blood? who are as indifferent as the sword they draw, to the purposes for which it is drawn, who put on the badge of a master, wear his livery, and receive his pay. Where all is mercenary, nothing can be magnanimous; and it is impossible to have the slightest respect for an animated mass of machinery, that moves alike at the voice of a drum, or a despot: a trumpet, or a tyrant: a fife, or a fool.

ness," and that poet who drank deepest of the sacred stream, has the following lines:

66 They err who count it glorious to subdue
By conquest far and wide, to overrun

Large countries, and in field great battles win,
Great cities by assault; what do these worthies
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring, or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors; who leave behind
Nothing but ruin, wheresoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods,
Till conqueror Death discovers them scarce men,
Rolling in brutish vices and deformed,

Violent or shameful death their due reward."

JOHN MILTON,

REMARKS

ON THE

TALENTS OF LORD BYRON,

AND THE

Tendencies of Don Juan.

Aut minus impurus, minus aut jucundus, adesto,
Et minus exundans felle, minusve sale ;
Et culpare tuam, piget et laudare, Camœnam,
Materiem, Dæmon struxit ;---Apollo, Modos.

TRANSLATION.

Or less impure, or less attractive sing,
And less of wit, or less of rancour bring;
It grieves to reprobate, it grieves to praise,
The Theme a Dæmon lent, a God the Lays.

COMITI DE M....

SUMMO INTER GALLOS DUCI,

ET

ERUDITISSIMO REIPUBLICÆ LITERARUM CIVI

C. C. C.-S. D.

lum inscribo.

TIBI, et Natu et Nobilitate, non minus quam Mavorte et Minerva, insigni, hoc opuscuMinime spero aliquid in his chartis inesse, quod vel delectare poterit, vel prodesse illius ingenio, qui omnia perlegit; quæ perlegit, reminiscitur; quæ reminiscitur, intellexit. Olim inter lituos et tubas congrediebamur; fervebant bella, nihilominus non frigebant Musæ ; nec inter Aquilas, Hierosolymitanum illud valedictum conclamabant—σε μεταβαίνωμεν ” Mavortia cessit Pallas, Apollineæ. Patriam, togatus exornes, quam armatus, defendisti; olim ense, nunc consiliis conspiciendus. Nostri non immemor, Vive, Valeque.

Londini, Nov. 15, An. Sal. 1819.