Death.-Defamation.

NOW death draws near, a ftrange perplexity
Creeps coldly on me, like a fear to die.
Courage uncertain dangers may abate;
But who can bear th' approach of certain fate?
The wifeft and the beft fome fear may fhow,
And wish to ftay, tho' they refolve to go.
As fome faint pilgrim ftanding on the thore,
First views the torrent he would venture o'er,
And then his inn upon the farther ground,
Loth to wade thro', and lother to go round ;
Then dipping in his staff, does trial make
How deep it is, and fighing pulls it back;
Sometimes refolv'd to fetch his leap, and then
Runs to the bank, but there ftops short again :
So I at once

Both heavenly faith and human fear obey,
And feel before me in an unknown way.-Dryden.
THIS vaft, this folid earth, that blazing fun,
Those skies thro' which it rolls, muft all have end:
What then is man, the fmalleft part of nothing?
Day buries day, month month, and year the year;
Our life is but a chain of many deaths:

Can then death's felf be fear'd? our life much rather:

Life is the defart, life the folitude;

Death joins us to the majority;

'Tis to be born to Platos and Timoleons,

'Tis to be great for ever!

'Tis pleafure, 'tis ambition then to die.-Young.

DEFAMATION.

DOES humanity clothe and educate the unknown orphan ? -Poverty, thou haft no genealogies :-See! is he not the father of the child? Thus do we rob heroes of the best part of their glory-their virtue. Take away the motive of the act, you take away all that is worth having in it ;-wrest it to ungenerous ends, you load the virtuous man who did it with infamy-undo it all-I befeech you-give him back his honor,-reftore the jewel you have taken from him-replace him in the eye of the world

It is too late.-Sterne.

GOOD name in man or woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their fouls.

Who fteals my purse, steals trash. "Tis fomething, nothing,

"Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been flave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.-Shakespeare.

DEPENDENCE.

THERE is no state more contrary to the dignity of wisdom, than perpetual and unlimited dependence, in which the under ftanding lies ufelefs, and every motion is received from external impulfe. Reafon is the great diftinction of human nature, the faculty by which we approach to fome degree of affociation with celeftial intelligences. But as the excellence of every power appears only in its operations, not to have reafon, and to have it useless and unemployed, are nearly the fame.Rambler.

DOGMATISM.

MAINTAIN a conftant watch at all times against a dogmatical fpirit: fix not your affent to any propofition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have fome firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and fure evidence; till you have turned the propofition on all fides, and fearched the matter through and through, fo that you cannot be mistaken. And even where you think you have full ground of affurance, be not too early, nor too frequent, in expreffing this affurance in too peremptory and pofitive a manner, remembering that human nature is always liable to mistake in this corrupt and feeble state.—Watts.

DIFFIDENCE.

DIFFIDENCE may check refolution, and obftruct performance, but compenfates its embarraffments by more important advantages. It conciliates the proud, and foftens the fevere; averts envy from excellence, and cenfure from miscarriage.-Rambler.

DESPOTISM.

I AM not of your opinion, with regard to defpotism and defpots. It appears to me horrible and abfurd to the last degree, that a whole people fhould blindly fubject themselves to the caprice of one man, even if he were an angel. For my own part, I would not live under him a fingle day. This angel may become in a moment a monfter thirsting after blood.

89

Defpotifm.

Defpotifm is to me the most abominable and difguftful of all bad governments; man is perpetually crushed, debafed, and· degraded by it. Look into hiftory, ancient and modern, and fee if ever there was one upon earth that was not an infult on mankind, and the difgrace of human nature.-Montefquieu.

THE moft formidable enemy of the public welfare is not riot or fedition, but defpotifm: it changes the character of a nation, and always for the worfe: it produces nothing but vices. Whatever might be the power of an Indian fultan, he could never form magnanimous fubjects; he would never find among his flaves the virtues of free-men. Chemistry can extract no more gold from a mixed body than is included in it; and the most arbitrary power can draw nothing from a flave but the baseness he contains.

What is arbitrary power? The feed of calamities, that, fown in the bofom of a state, fpring up to bear the fruit of mifery and devaftation.-Helvetius.

THEN all the elders of Ifrael gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,

And faid unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy fons walk not in thy ways: now make unto us a king to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing difpleafed Samuel, when they faid, Give us a king to judge us; and Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

And the Lord faid unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all they fay unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I fhould not reign over them.

Now therefore hearken to their voice: howbeit, yet folemnly proteft unto them, and fhow them the manner of the king that fhall reign over them.

And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.

And he faid, this fhall be the manner of the king that fhall reign over you. He will take your fons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horiemen; and fome fhall run before his chariot.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the beft of them, and give them to his fervants.

And he will take your daughters to be confectioners, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

And he will take the tenth of your feed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his fervants.

And he will take your men fervants and your maid fervants, and your goodliest young men, and your affes, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his fervants.

And ye fhall cry out in that day, because of your king; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

Samuel, b. i. chap. viii.
-LORD fupreme o'er all this formal race,
The cedar claims pre-eminence of place.
Like fome great eaflern king, it stands alone,
Nor lets th' ignoble croud approach its throne;
Spreads out its haughty boughs, that scorn to bend,
And bids its fhade o'er fpacious fields extend;
While in the compafs of its wide domain,
Heaven fheds its foft prolific fhow'rs in vain:
Secure and fhelter'd every fubject lies;
But robb'd of moifture, fickens, droops, and dies.
O image apt of man's defpotic power,
Which guards and fhelters, only to devour;
Lifts high in air the fplendors of its head,
And bids its radiance o'er the nations spread;
While round its feet in filent anguish lie
Hunger, defpair, and meagre mifery!--R. P. Knight.

THE lives and labours of millions are devoted to the fervice of a defpotic prince, whofe laws are blindly obeyed, and whofe wifhes are inflantly gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the fplendid picture; and whatever may be the cool dictates of reafon, there are few among us, who would obftinately refufe a trial of the comforts and cares of royalty. It may therefore be of fome ufe to borrow the experience of Abdal Rahman, whofe magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the clofet of the deceafed caliph. "I have now "reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by "my fubjects, dreaded by my enemies, and refpected by my "allies. Riches and honors, power and pleafure, have waited 66 on my call, nor does any earthly bleffing appear to have "been wanting to my felicity. In this fituation I have "diligently number'd the days of pure and genuine happinefs, which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen."Gibbon.

66

Defpotifm.

prone

SUCH dupes are men to custom, and fo
To rev'rence what is ancient, and can plead
A courfe of long obfervance for its use,
That even fervitude, the worst of ills,
Because deliver'd down from fire to son,
Is kept and guarded as a facred thing.
But is it fit, or can it bear the shock
Of rational difcuffion, that a man
Compounded and made up, like other men
Of elements tumultuous, in whom lust
And folly in as ample measure meet,
As in the bofoms of the flaves he rules,
Should be a defpot abfolute, and boast
Himself the only freeman of his land?
Should, when he pleases, and on whom he will,
Wage war, with any, or with no pretence
Of provocation giv'n, or wrong fustain❜d,
And force the beggarly laft doit, by means
That his own humour dictates, from the clutch
Of poverty, that thus he may procure
His thoufands, weary of penurious life,
A fplendid opportunity to die?

Say ye, who (with lefs prudence than of old,
Jotham afcrib'd to his affembled trees
In politic convention) put your trust
I' th' fhadow of a bramble, and reclin'd
In fancy'd peace beneath his dang'rous branch,
Rejoice in him, and celebrate his fway,
Where find ye paffive fortitude? Whence fprings
Your felf denying zeal, that holds it good
To ftroke the prickly grievance and to hang
His thorns with ftreamers of continual praife?-Cowper.
DESPOTISM delights in war. It is its element.
the bull knows, by inflinct, that his ftrength is in his horns,
and the cagle trufts in his talons; fo the defpot feels his
puiffance moft, when furrounded by his foldiery arrayed for
battle. With the fword in his hand, and his artillery around
him, he rejoices in his might, and glories in his greatness.
Blood muft mark his path; and his triumph is incomplete,
till death and deftruction ftalk over the land, the harbingers
of his triumphant cavalcade.-Spirit of Defpotifm.

As

WHAT are the chief confiderations with defpots, previoufl to going to war, and at its conclufion? Evidently the expcuc