ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

required a knee-buckle from a Highlander.The Freeland household were as bare of talents, as a Highland rump is of breeches. Whilst they had amused the people with mere so phistry, and feigned to advocate their cause, they had appeared as thorough-bred horses; but when put to their speed and strength, they were found to be without bottom, windgalled and broken, and only fit for the

cart.

The situation of Greenfield was undoubtedly disagreeable, most disagreeable. He had been induced by a zeal for the service of his lord and his country, to yoke himself with a set of men to whom he had always acted in conscientious opposition, and whom he well knew it would be almost impossible to keep within due bounds. They had formerly professed themselves the everlasting servants of the public; they were now the avowed servants of the lord. A man cannot serve two masters, we are told; and if they descrted the tenantry, they would betray their hypocrisy; and if they stuck to their ancient principles, they would endanger the prerogative of the lord. They endeavoured to

steer midway between Scylla and Charybdis, and they were engulphed.-Let us now see what were the real characters of, and the deeds effected by, these men of talents, aliàs men in buckram.

[blocks in formation]

AUTHOR SETS AT LARGE AND IMPARTIALLY THE
CHARACTER OF ALL THE TALENTS, ALIAS THE
MEN IN BUCKRAM.

AMONG the wise Freelanders, every one was a statesman;-Jack, Dick, Tom, the lord Harry, man or boy, so the sex was male: among the foolish Greeks, the case was quite the reverse.

"A man," says Xenophon, "must be very simple to believe that the mechanic arts are not to be acquired without the help of proper masters, and that the knowledge requisite in the government of states, which is the highest degree of human prudence, demands no previous labour and application." (The Freelanders, however, were simple enough to believe it!) "The great care which Socrates took in regard to

those who aspired to public employments, was to form their manners upon the solid principles of probity and justice; and especially to inspire them with a sincere love of their country; with the most ardent zeal for the public good, and a high idea of the power and beneficence of the gods; because, without these qualities, all other abilities serve only to render men more wicked and more capable of doing evil."

If Xenophon had written at the present day, and in Freeland, he could never have written any thing more to the purpose. Quære-Whether it might not have been deemed truth, and therefore a libel?

We are not only told that such was, in general, the practice of Socrates; but we have on record the following remarkable instance of the chastisement which that wise man inflicted upon one of the boy-statesmen of his day. The young people of Athens, dazzled with the glory of Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles, and full of a headstrong ambition, after having for some time received the lessons of the Sophists (the types of the Brushites), who promised to make them great politicians, conceived themselves

[blocks in formation]

capable of every thing, and aspired at the highest employments. One of them, named Glauco, had taken it so strongly into his head to enter upon the administration of public affairs, that none of his friends were able to divert him from a design so little consistent with his age and capacity. Socrates, meeting him one day, very civilly engaged him in a conversation upon the subject: "You are desirous, I have heard, of a share in the government of the republic?" said Socrates.

[ocr errors]

"True," replied Glauco.

"You cannot have a more honourable design," continued Socrates; "for, if you succeed, you will have it in your power to serve your friends effectually; to aggrandize your family, and to extend the confines of your country. You will make yourself known not only to Athens, but throughout all Greece; and, perhaps, your renown, like that of Themistocles, may spread abroad among the barbarous nations."

So smooth and insinuating a preface was extremely grateful to the youth, who seemed to pay great attention to it.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »