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government like this, the political condition of the people must ever depend upon their moral and intellectual. Circumstances peculiarly fortunate have hitherto cherished and supported among us, such principles of rational liberty as have conducted this nation to unexampled prosperity. But those circumstances are now ceasing to have much influence, and in our very prosperity is to be found the principle of our decay. In the progress of civilization itself, there are some causes operating to weaken the love of liberty and to render men indifferent to political changes. How much greater force, then, must those causes acquire, when civilization is accompanied by a wealth, increasing so rapidly as to outstrip every other active principle that can influence the And what have we to counteract them? How are we to human mind? oppose the vice and corruption that sudden riches bring along with them? How are we to stimulate men to exertion, on whom the love What equivalents shall we of ease and property has laid fast hold? offer them, if an opposition to tyranny should ever become necessary, for hazarding their possessions, their luxuries, their numerous indulgencies, and multiplied enjoyments, in the pursuit of what they would probably denominate a "haggard phantom!" We may call upon the honoured names of patriotism and of freedom as much as we please. They are deaf and cannot hear. We may attempt to rouse them by appealing to the example of their illustrious forefathers-but their forefathers were a poor and hardy race; had, unlike themselves, little to lose and much to gain-and their example will of course be disregarded. We have in truth from this class little to hope, and as the elass itself is becoming every day more numerous and powerful, a greater necessity exists for working on the materials that remain. In the great body of the people, if they are properly instructed, we shall I confidently hope, find a countervailing power: but until then, so far from affording a ground for consolation, they furnish reason for despair. Usurpation can have no better instruments, than the wealthy who are indisposed to any change, and the ignorant who are unconscious and of course indifferent to all. Hence arises the duty, paramount almost to every other, of stirring and exciting the public mind, through the means of the press, of disseminating correct principles and just opinions-and thereby of finally raising up so many enlightened friends to liberty, that the pressure of any interested class in the community can never thereafter disturb it. From such a duty, no citizen of this country should lightly depart.' Vol. ii. p. 85,6,7.

The philosophy of these essays is every where amiable and exhilarating; of that heart-bred and mellowed character, which is so congenial with our better nature, and conducive to our true happiness. It may be exemplified by the following quotations, in the first of which the Old Bachelor refers to an assemblage of college students at his castle.

'At the signal of Alfred, his young friends bounded in; and, in an instant, the castle, so long silent and desolate, was all gratulation, life. and bustle.

'As to me it seemed as if my youth were renewed. I listened to the little adventures of these young wags on the road, with all the tiptoe spirit and glee with which they were related; enjoyed with the quickest zest, all their wit and repartee; quaffed my glass of wine, after

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supper, with more heart-felt hilarity than I had done for forty years before; told my story in turn, and in short laughed as loudly and made as much noise as the wildest dog among them. But our cheerfulness was all that of nature and of the heart. My young visiters were all gentlemen. Their gayety and even volatility became them. It was the combined result of high health, conscious virtue, mutual attachment and confidence, that unexperienced, credulous, captivating innocence, that keeps suspicion at a distance; and that high-bounding hope and throbbing expectation, with which genius looks forward to the great world on which it is just about to enter. Vol. ii. p. 53,4.

'I never see a heavy fall of snow, like that which I have been, now, observing, through my window, for several hours, without feeling an instinctive flow and gayety of spirits. This is, probably, the effect of an early association of ideas, which the mind still makes without my perceiving it. For in my young days a snow was the constant signal for an hundred different delightful amusements: amusements, which are now nearly out of use, perhaps, from the much greater infrequency of the inviting cause.

'It was during the fall itself of a cold and driving snow, while the whole creation without was shivering and shrinking from the blast and drift, and filling the air with their many-toned expression of their sufferings, that the highest interest was excited in all who were capable of feeling and reflecting. It was then while the flocks and herds were driven to their folds and stalls, and the wind was heard to whistle on the outside of those walls which it could not pierce, that we became sensible of the superior intelligence of man, and learned to appreciate a thousand conveniences and comforts which that intelligence had spread around him.

Then, too, it was with the family drawn together, at night in a friendly circle, around the blazing and cheerful hearth, with a brown mug of that simple, rural beverage, the juice of the apple, placed before them-that I first learned to estimate the social character of man, and tasted the pure charms of virtuous and instructive conversation. Such was the time for innocence to come forth, without blush or tremour, and show her thoughts; for strong, uncultured sense to exhibit his muscles; and for rural learning to open its legendary lore. Vol. i. p. 200,1.

'I thank Heaven for no earthly blessing more than for this; that I was born with an equal and contented mind. It is incalculable from how much disappointment and vexation and misery, this single trait of character has saved me. Neither plodding avarice, nor wounded pride, nor scheming ambition ever planted one thorn in my pillow, or troubled for an instant, that sweet and careless repose, that nightly sheds its poppies around my head. I thank Heaven too, that my native equanimity has been so happily exempted from disturbance by extraneous circumstances; that I have never experienced either that pang of poverty which is, on all hands, admitted to be so dangerous to virtue, nor the equally dangerous impulse of redundant wealth. If I have been obscure, I have nevertheless been happy; at least, as much so as an Old Bachelor can be. Satisfied with the private station in which I was born, I have endeavoured, to the utmost of my ability, to discharge the duties of it, and have never envied either Woolsey his dangerous honours, or Dives his damning gold. I take no credit to

myself for these advantages; the orderly current of my blood and the happy mediocrity of my fortune are, alike, the free unmerited boon of Heaven.' Vol. i. p. 143,4.

At times he wings a loftier flight, and may be said to stretch his pinions and support himself majestically. The passage which we are about to transcribe, is a specimen of magnificent amplification, calculated, as are very many parts of the writings, and we might add, most of the forensic speeches of the author,-to recall Cicero's description of a truly eloquent man-' qui mirabilius et magnificentius augere posset atque ornare quæ vellet, &c.

'It was a pleasant evening in the month of May; and my sweet child, my Rosalie, and I had sauntered up to the castle's top to enjoy the breeze that played around it, and to admire the unclouded firmament that glowed and sparkled, with unusual lustre, from pole to pole. The atmosphere was in its purest and finest state for vision; the milky way was distinctly developed throughout its whole extent; every planet and every star above the horizon, however near and brilliant, or distant and faint, lent its lambent light, or twinkling ray, to give variety and beauty to the hemisphere; while the round, bright moon (so distinctly defined were the lines of her figure, and so clearly visible even the rotundity of her form,) seemed to hang off from the azure vault, suspended in midway air; or stooping forward from the firmament her fair and radiant face, as if to court and return our gaze.

'We amused ourselves for sometime in observing, through a telescope, the planet Jupiter, sailing in silent majesty, with his squadron of satellites, along the vast ocean of space between us and the fixed stars; and admired the felicity of that design by which those distant bodies had been parcelled out and arranged into constellations; so as to have served not only for beacons for the ancient navigator, but as it were for landmarks to astronomers at this day, enabling them, although in different countries, to indicate to each other, with ease, the place and motion of those planets, comets, and magnificent meteors which inhabit, revolve and play in the intermediate space.

'We recalled and dwelt with delight on the rise and progress of the science of astronomy; on that series of astonishing discoveries, through successive ages, which display, in so strong a light, the force and reach of the human mind; and on those bold conjectures and sublime reveries which seem to tower even to the confines of divinity, and denote the high destiny to which mortals tend. That thought, for instance, which is said to have been first started by Fythagoras, and which modern as.. tronomers approve; that the stars which we call fixed, although they appear to us to be nothing more than large spangles of various sizes, glittering on the same concave surface, are, nevertheless, bodies as large as our sun, shining, like him, with original and not reflected light, placed at incalculable distances asunder, and each star the solar centre of a system of planets, which revolve around it, as the planets belonging to our system do around our sun; that this is not only the case with all the stars in the firmament which our eyes discern, or telescopes have brought within the sphere of our vision, but according to the modern improvements of this thought, that there are probably other stars whose light has not yet reached us, although light moves with a velocity, a million times greater than that of a cannon ball;-that those luminous

"concilium in concilio." We have observed only one horse, which is kept by the chief captain for state, the people riding on bullocks. At the request of the king I mounted this rare animal, first with a Moorish saddle, but it was inconvenient; and the king having heard Englishmen could ride with a cloth only, begged me to display my horsemanship, which I did for his

amusement.

'The manners and deportment of the king are dignified in the extreme, and his sentiments would do credit to the most civilized monarch; he is highly delighted with the medicines, and has begged for a great quantity, trying to learn by heart the doses and uses of each. The surgical instruments also attracted his close attention, and when Mr. Tedlie showed him a piece of bone which he had taken from an Indian blackman's head, who survived the operation, his wonder could only be equalled by his admiration. When I displayed my telescope and cameraobscura, the king exclaimed, "white man next to God: black man know nothing."

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The king, it seems, keeps his harem at a little distance from the capital, and once took the gentlemen of the mission on a visit to it. The ladies live in the midst of a park, in small houses adjoining one another, and are allowed to walk about within the enclosure, but not to pass the gates, which are guarded by slaves. The number of these ladies, kept like pheasants in a preserve, was said to amount to three hundred and thirty-three.

The capital of Ashantee is supposed to contain about forty thousand inhabitants. It lies in a vale, and is surrounded with one unbroken mass of the deepest verdure. The houses are low and small, of a square or oblong form, and composed of canes wattled together, and smoothly plastered over with a mixture of clay and sand called swish, which is also used to form their floors. The roofs are thatched with long grass. A piece of cloth passed round the loins and extending to the knee, is the general dress of the natives. The richer class have a larger and finer piece, which they sometimes throw over the shoulders. They wear a great number of gold ornaments, rings, braclets, necklaces, pendants, &c. and gold fetiches of every form.

While the gentlemen of the mission remained at Cummazee, a near relation of the king shot himself; among other ceremonies observed at his funeral, a slave was put to death by torture; and it was understood that human sacrifices were always a part of the funeral rites of all persons of consequence in the state. It is also said that suicide is very common among them.

Mr. Bowdich has been indefatigable in his endeavours to procure information respecting Ashantee, and the countries beyond it. From one of the travelling Moors, he obtained, he says, a route-book, at the expense of his own wardrobe and the doctor's medicines; but the fellow told him he had sold him his eye.' The route from Cummazee to Tombuctoo, it appears, is much travelled; in the way thither, the next adjoining territory is that of Dwabin, with the king of which, Mr. Bowdich also concluded a treaty. Bordering on this is a large lake of brackish water, several miles in extent, and surrounded by numerous and populous towns; and beyond the lake is the country of Buntookoo, with the king of which, the king of Ashantee was unfortunately at war. He obtained also the exact situation of the gold pits in Ashantee, and the neighbouring kingdoms, from which it appears that the name of the Gold Coast' has not been inaptly given to this part of Africa.

Mr. Bowdich learned from some of the Moorish merchants, who had for merly been at Haoussa, that, during their residence there, a white man was seen going down the Niger, near that capital, in a large canoe, in which all the rest were blacks. This circumstance being reported to the king, he immediately dispatched some of his people to advise him to return, and to inform him that, if he ventured to proceed much farther, he would be destroyed by the cataracts of the river; the white man, however, persisted in his voyage, mistaking apparently the good intentions of those sent by the king to warn him of his danger. A large party was then dispatched, with orders to seize and bring him to Haoussa, which they effected after some opposition; here he was detained by the king for the space of two years, at the end of which he took a fever and died.

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therefore, who exposes our false pretensions, forces upon us an useful, although not a pleasing conviction, and in showing us that we are nothing compared to the standard of revolutionary excellence, he puts us on aspiring to an equality with that illustrious model.' In pursuance of these views, our author seems to think that he cannot recur too often, nor too vehemently, to the topic of the degeneracy of the present race of Americans, and the glory of the last. His light and shadow are in the widest extreme: we have but an alternation of tints the most dazzling or sombre, which the liveliest fancy, transported with admiration or disdain, could be conceived to yield. The style of the Old Bachelor here is truly that, or much more than that, of which we read in Cicero vehementius quoddam dicendi genus, quo rei dignitatem et amplitudinem, vel indignitatem et atrocitatem, pondere verborum et enumeratione circumstantiarum demonstramus.' We account for the exaggeration of his tone,-which certainly far exceeds the most emphatic which the subject could be, with any degree of speciousness, alleged to deserve, or the cause to require,-by his generous eagerness to attain his patriotic ends, and that inveterate habit of hyperbolical representation, at which we have already glanced. Almost any writer, indeed, who, among various objects of his regard, is full of anxiety for particular ones, will, insensibly, go to immoderate lengths, and press them with his utmost power of stating and colouring. If his heart and his imagination are warm, he will be apt, whatever may be his ordinary sagacity and judgment, to go much beyond the exigencies of the case. Allowances of this kind are obviously due to the Old Bachelor, and his intentions could scarcely at any time have been mistaken; but we are still surprised that he was not, in the season of party violence, formally denounced and denationalized by the newspapers, for his invidious contrasts. We have known of many a hot pursuit, where the liberties taken with the self-complacency of this generation, were far less exorbitant and provoking in themselves. The following extracts will furnish an idea of his boldness, while they cannot fail to be read with interest on others accounts.

Together with public spirit, peace has extinguished the capacity for public service. The genius of this country, civil and military, is gone. Say that you have a war to-morrow, where have you a general to command your forces?-Pause and put this question to yourselves?— Washington is no more-and the satellites that played around that Where is there a genius great luminary, have set with him for ever. fit to preside over your armies; to guide the car and aim the bolt of war? I speak not of honest dolts, of "carpet-knights," nor men of dubious integrity-but of a great and glorious chieftain, fitted to concentrate the affections, the respect and confidence of this country, to look over the wide theatre of war and arrange and control all its vast results! Have you such an one?

'Perhaps it may be said, that the talents of this country have not since the revolution been invited to war:-that genius of that sort, if it really exist, has had no opportunity of showing itself:-In answer, tell me

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