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him in inveighing against the school divines as the teachers of a system equally unedifying and obscure. He joined him in endeavouring to turn the attention of men to the study of the Holy Scriptures, as the only standard of religious truth.

Various circumstances, however, prevented Erasmus from holding the same course with Luther. The natural timidity of his temper, his want of that strength of mind which alone can prompt a man to assume the character of a reformer, his excessive deference for persons in high station, his dread of losing the pensions and other emoluments which their liberality had conferred upon him, his extreme love of peace, and hopes of reforming abuses gradually and by gentle methods, all concurred in determining him, not only to repress and to moderate the zeal with which he had once been animated against the errors of the church, but to assume the character of a mediator between Luther and his opponents.

But though Erasmus soon began to censure Luther as too daring and impetuous, and was at last prevailed upon to write against him, he must nevertheless be considered as his forerunner and auxiliary in this war upon the church. He first scattered the seeds which Luther cherished and brought to maturity. His raillery and oblique censures prepared the way for Luther's invectives and more direct attacks. In this light Erasmus appeared to the zealous defenders of the Romish Church in his own times. In this light he must be considered by every person conversant in the history of that period.ROBERTSON'S 'History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth.'

1. The invention of the art of printing | is generally attributed to John Guttenberg, 1440; but another discovery was necessary before the art of using moveable types could produce its full effect, and that was the making of paper from linen rags. This is said to have taken place in 1417.

2. Erasmus was an eminent scholar of

the fifteenth century, born at Rotterdam, October 28, 1467. He possessed taste and wit, and his writings exhibit a graceful style; but his cautious prudence rendered him less zealous than many of his friends could have wished, in the cause of the Reformation. His works Occupy ten folio volumes. He died July 12, 1536.

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ALL the periods in which human society and human intellect have ever been known to make great and memorable advances have followed close upon periods of general agitation and disorder.

Men's minds, it would appear, must be deeply and roughly stirred before they become prolific of great conceptions or vigorous resolves; and a vast and alarming fermentation must pervade and agitate the whole mass of society, to inform it with that kindly warmth by which alone the seeds of genius and improvement can be expanded. The fact, at all events, is abundantly certain, and may be accounted for, we conceive, without mystery and without metaphor.

A popular revolution in government or religion, or anything else that gives rise to general and long-continued contention, naturally produces a prevailing disdain of authority and boldness of thinking in the leaders of the fray, together with a kindling of the imagination and development of intellect in a great multitude of persons, who, in ordinary times, would have vegetated stupidly on the places where fortune had fixed them. Power and distinotion, and all the higher prizes in the lottery of life, are brought within the reach of a far larger proportion of the community; and that vivifying spirit of ambition, which is the true source of all improvement, instead of burning at a few detached points on the summit of society, now pervades every portion of its frame.

Much extravagance and in all probability much guilt and much misery result, in the first instance, from this sudden extrication of talent and enterprise, in places where they can have no legitimate issue or points of application. But the contending elements at last find their sphere and their balance. The disorder ceases, but the activity remains. The multitudes that had been raised into intellectual existence by dangerous passions and crazy illusions, do not all relapse into their original torpor when their passions are allayed and their illusions dispelled. There is a great permanent addition to the power and the enterprise of the community; and the talent and the activity which at first convulsed the state by their unmeasured and misdirected exertions, ultimately bless and adorn it, under a more enlightened and less intemperate guidance.

If we may estimate the amount of this ultimate good by that of the disorder which preceded it, we cannot be too sanguine in our calculations of the happiness that awaits the rising generation. The fermentation, it will readily be admitted, has been long and violent enough to extract all the virtue of all the ingredients that have been submitted to its action; and enough of scum has boiled over, and enough of pestilent vapour been exhaled, to afford a reasonable assurance that the residuum will be both pure and ample.-' Edinburgh Review.'

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RUSSIA, before the period of the great Czar, was "a huge neglected empire," peopled by hordes of enslaved barbarians, deformed by the most ferocious excesses and brutal manners; to whom literature, science, and the arts of civilization were utterly unknown; and among whom even the higher ranks were totally devoid of the intellectual materials of social intercourse. Peter bestowed the first impress of civilization on the Russian character. He, in the words of our poet,

"His stubborn country tamed, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons;
And while the fierce barbarian he subdued,
To more exalted soul he raised the man."

This great potentate was the youngest son of the Czar Alexis Michaelovitz, and was born at Moscow on the 11th of June 1672. His eldest brother, Theodore, died five years after he succeeded his father; and Ivan, the second, being imbecile, Peter ascended the throne in the eighteenth year of his age. His education had been greatly neglected; and his eldest stepsister, the Princess Sophia, to aid her designs on the sovereign power, placed around him the most corrupt companions, who led him into every species of vice.

The mind of Peter, however, rose superior to his vices, and led him to conceive the idea of civilizing his savage subjects, and reforming the system of government. His natural character was energetic, and his physical powers were equal to carry into effect what his mind had projected. His first object was to new model the army, into which he entered as a private soldier, and served through every intermediate step till he obtained a commission. The personal acquaintance which he thus obtained with the errors of the system led to its reformation and the greatest improvement of military tactics. His attention was next directed to form a navy, and so eagerly was he bent upon this project, that he personally performed the duties of a practical seaman on board Dutch and English vessels at Archangel. He wrought as a ship carpenter in the dockyard of Saardam in Holland, under the name of Peter Timmerman; and while there he also learned the art of sailmaking, and every description of smith's work. He visited every manufactory, inquired into all the details of each; he even attended the hospitals, learning to

draw teeth, to bleed, and perform several of the minor operations

of surgery.

Peter, after remaining two summers in Holland, crossed over to England, chiefly to acquire the theory of shipbuilding, for which purpose he visited the dockyards of Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham, and daily superintended and assisted in forwarding the building of a vessel for himself at Rotherhithe.

The public-house to which he and his companions usually retired after their daily labour still exists on Tower Hill, and bears the sign of the Czar of Russia. He did not, however, preserve the same incognito in this country which he maintained in Holland. The Marquis of Carmarthen was appointed by King William to attend upon him; and with the Marquis he went to Portsmouth to witness a naval review. After quitting England he visited Vienna, and was preparing to pass into Italy, when the rumour of a rebellion at Moscow, excited by the priests and the Princess Sophia, obliged him to return to Russia.

Peter, in the most summary manner, quelled this insurrection, and punished the insurgents with a severity for which he has been strongly and justly censured. Having restored tranquillity, he turned his attention to the education of his subjects, established schools, encouraged manufactures and commerce, and altered the calendar, agreeably to the custom of the other countries of Europe. In 1703 he laid the foundation of St. Petersburgh.

During these exertions to elevate the character of his savage subjects, Peter was not inattentive to the defence of his dominions. After a defeat of his army by Charles XII.,

"The frantic Alexander of the North,"

he kept the Swedes at bay for upwards of six years, and then completely defeated and annihilated their army at Pultowa, on the 13th of June 1709. Charles escaped with difficulty to Bender. With a rashness not easily accounted for, Peter entered Turkey, with which he was at war: but he could not be said to have awed "stern Othman's shrinking sons," for having advanced before his army was concentrated, but for the happy expedient of the Czarina Catherine in bribing the Grand Vizier with all the plate and jewels she could collect in the camp, the Russian army would have been totally routed. It is unnecessary here to follow Peter through all his wars; he added the whole of Finland and the provinces of Esthonia and Livonia to his dominions and having assumed the title of "Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Russias, and father of his country," he again turned his attention to the arts of peace.

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Peter's personal appearance was commanding; he was tall, stout, and well formed; his features were regular, rather severe, but indicative of great energy of character. He was forced into a marriage at seventeen, and had one son by the Czarina; but his wife, having encouraged the factious party, was divorced, and confined in a convent, after she had been married nine years. His second wife, Catherine, was an obscure girl, whom he saw among the prisoners at Marienburg, and who, after being the mistress of Mensitzoff, became that of the Czar; and having gained his affections she was privately married to him, and afterwards, in 1711, acknowledged as Czarina and his lawful wife. She survived the Czar, who died in 1725, only two years.

The character of Peter the Great, notwithstanding his gigantic endeavours to advance the prosperity of his empire, was stained with many vices. He frequently swayed his people with a rod of iron, and displayed a deficiency of knowledge of the world, and sound practical understanding, in his eagerness to forward civilization. To borrow the words of Mr. Barrow, "In the ardour of alteration and improvement he indiscriminately adopted a thousand foreign customs and institutions, without regarding time, place, propriety, or circumstance; instead of forming his people upon originality, he moulded them into imitators, and injudiciously deprived them of their ancient character, without ascertaining the practicability of giving them a better."-A. T. THOMSON.

1. The title of the Emperor of Russia, supposed to be a corruption from Cæsar.

PETER THE GREAT.

WHAT cannot active government perform,

New-moulding man? Wide-stretching from these shores,

A people savage from remotest time,

A huge neglected empire-one vast mind,

By Heaven inspired, from Gothic darkness called,

Immortal Peter! first of monarchs!

He

His stubborn country tamed, her rocks, her fens,

Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons;
And while the fierce barbarian he subdued,
To more exalted soul he raised the man.
Ye shades of ancient heroes! ye who toiled
Through long successive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state! behold at once

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