needed, destroying, slaying, plundering-was the natural germ of that vast empire clothed in imperial purple, cased in steel, which never recognised a broader national right than could be written on the edge of a sharpened sword. Romulus and Remus, sucking the she-wolf, grew into that people, which, wolf-like, revelled in the blood of all men, and, with worse than wolf-like ferocity, gave its captives as a prey to the beasts, or set fettered life against life," to make a Roman holiday." The acorn grows into the oak. Nature could not so violate her own laws as to make mercy, gentleness, and peace, spring from such a source as old Rome. To forms of government we must not endeavour to trace the characteristics of Rome. Her only settled principle was force. Now rejoicing in the most ample liberty-now the prey of licentious patricians -now the spoil of a military dictator-now the serf of a despotic tyrant, Rome was still the same-still the representative of physical courage and brute force. Neither must we seek to discover in her arts or her philosophy the secret of her being. Beside the productions of Greece they would not win a glance. She did not bear a harvest of philosophic fancies or abstract theories. Her public buildings, her forum, her amphitheatre, her pillars and triumphal arches, would not bear comparison with the temples and monuments of old Greece. They were vast, gorgeous, grand, and dignified. They wanted grace; but they had that which was impressed upon the people from whom and among whom they sprung-the idea of strength and power. The public monuments of a nation tell its character. Those of artistic Greece speak of beauty; of warlike Rome, of force; those of commercial and comfort-loving England of convenience. Rome was more practical than Greece-we are more practical than either. Rome had no poet to compare with Homer. Poets, and great ones too she had-no great nation was ever without them; but like her arts, her poetry grew out of her rather as an excrescence than as a natural and harmonious part of the great body. We must not divert our attention by looking to the national religion of Rome. She was not original. Her faith was not part of herself. It had not the elements of stability. It was too gross, too directly based upon mere superstition, too utterly without a firm foundation of principle, to outlive, as a faith, (whatever might be the case as a form) the lowest mental ignorance. It was not a faith, but a priestcraft. No, Rome cannot be said to represent art or science, faith, poetry, civilization, elegance, or refinement. Material luxury she had-the spoils of conquered nations made her rich-but luxury, although produced by her power, produced her ruin. The measure of her gain was the measure of her loss. Her reward was the cause of her punishment. "Our pleasant vices are made the lash wherewith to scourge us "-the indulgences she won enervated her grasp, till her softened hand could no longer hold the chain of steel wherewith she bound the world, the links loosened, and the empire dissolved. But throughout the history of old Rome, amid all her injustice, fierceness, and oppressions, there runs a redeeming strain of rugged, stern, unyielding honour, a contempt of craft, an untiring energy, a noble self-reliance, which even now often distinguish those who are strong of hand; and the devotion of her old citizens to their country, while it lasted, bound them together as strongly as ever the twelve tribes were united by the band of faith. The power by which Rome rose, was the power by which she fell. Her civilization availed her nothing. It was not her weapon; she had thrown it aside, or rather never picked it up, and the barbarous hordes which wasted her power, were as good as she. They had more courage, greater strength; they appealed to her own standard-might. They weighed her in her own scales, she was found wanting, and she fell. "Whoso slays with the sword, by the sword shall he be slain." It is a prophecy, not a command; it is universal, not particular. It applies as well to nations as to men. In that sense only let us accept it. It is more than a prophecy-it is the declaration of the working of a natural law. Israel was the heart, Greece the head, and Rome the hand-of the world. Faith, art, and strength would never have perished unitedly. They were separate. The heart did not guide the head, nor the head control the hand. Faith was at war with reason, and reason with might; and the heart withered, the head lost its intellect, and the hand its power. They are three of the elements of progress. Their law is union. TO THE EDITOR. As the surviving informers of 1840 are now all promoted or pitchforked into the purple, it is not improbable but that the next batch may be selected from a different class. The following letter is from one of the most industrious, hardworking, painstaking artificers, who has already immortalized himself by his assiduous determination to nominate and elect the Grand Master, who surely cannot much longer pass by such surpassing merit. As your last number did not circulate the important document, I presume it had not reached you, and therefore forward the same. The delicacy evinced in the request to support his fourteen nominees is as matchless as is the humility in not limiting the "confidence" hinted at, for how powerfully majestic would it have read thus-" the unlimited confidence I have in him"-the we spoils the jest. Yours (not with scorn and contempt), SYMPATHY AND LOVE! British Annuity Company, 36, New Broad Street, City, DEAR SIR AND BROTHER,-I beg to remind you that the Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge will take place on Wednesday, the 7th instant, at seven o'clock, precisely. Notice of motion has been given to move, on that occasion, an expression of confidence in our M. W. G. M. I do not hesitate to believe, that you will most cordially unite in opinion with myself, that such confidence is eminently due to our M. W. G. M. in consequence of the gross and undeserved attacks made upon his Lordship, claims the most unqualified disapprobation and censure. I therefore hope that you will make it a point to attend on that occasion, and by supporting the motion be one of those anxious to convince his Lordship of the unlimited confidence we have in him. I beg to enclose a list of names of fourteen brethren nominated to be elected on Wednesday next on the Board of General Purposes for the year ensuing, and shall feel much obliged if you will give them your support. I am, Dear Sir and Brother, Yours sincerely and fraternally, P. M. 21, 36, & P. Z. 13, 169, & 536. COLLECTANEA. THE PUBLIC PRESS.-The amount of intellect which is now brought to bear upon the public press of England forms one of the striking features of our age and country. Whether as regards the lucubrations of the quarterly and monthly periodicals, or the more rapid productions of the weekly and daily journals, where is the Englishman who does not feel elated at the reflection, that all this array of talent, this exhibition of mind, is concentrated within his own native isle, and is, for the most part, constantly occupied in efforts to advance its literature, its science, its religion, and thus to promote its true glory and its enduring greatness? Such, indeed, is the reputation of the public press of Great Britain, and such the weight of its political influence, that it has, although imperceptibly, virtually introduced a new element into the constitution-a fourth estate. So that not only is it now necessary to the enactment of a new law that it should have the high sanction of Queen, Lords, and Commons, but also that the measure should previously have had the concurrence of the public press, as the organ of the public mind and will, enlightened, moulded, and directed mainly by its intelligence and power. Public opinion, informed by and expressed through the press, now really governs in England. If responsibility be co-extensive with influence, how great must be the responsibility attaching to the position of eminence to which the press is thus called-a position not only controlling the legislation of the country, but, by the ceaseless activities necessarily connected with its operations, and the wide range of subjects embraced by its labours, putting forth and exerting a plastic power over the minds of men, by which their habits of thought and principles of action are formed, their characters determined, and their conduct regulated! PATRIOTISM.-To speak fearlessly and honestly, to be severely truthful to one's own opinion, this, too, constitutes one of the marks of a patriot. As to being an orator, it is a gift; it sometimes happens that a fieldpreacher will talk as eloquently as a learned lord; and if a man speak honestly and from the sincerity of conviction, one manner of expressing himself is nearly as good as another. A politician who thinks much of his delivery stands in danger of becoming a vain man. As a fop takes too much trouble to dress himself, and becomes vulgar, so a man vain of his eloquence will at length dress it up in too fine language, and the words, like the tail of a peacock, may be very fine, but the subject of the speech as hollow as the silly cry of the vain bird. Sincerity is the language of the heart, and the language of the heart is truth; whilst truth and sincerity ever sway the bosom of a true patriot. If a man be not true to himself, how can he be true to the interest of the country he serves?-The Idler Reformed. MAXIMS OF BISHOP MIDDLETON.-Persevere against discouragements. -Keep your temper.-Employ leisure in study, and always have some work in hand.-Be punctual and methodical in business, and never procrastinate.- Never be in a hurry.-Preserve self-possession, and do not be talked out of conviction.-Rise early, and be an economist of time.— Maintain dignity, without the appearance of pride; manner is something with everybody, and everything with some.-Be guarded in discourse, attentive and slow to speak.-Never acquiesce in immoral and pernicious him; the patriarchs were moved with envy, aud for a slave. Is the picture too highly coloured? ad this desperate passion sways shrinks from no every artifice to serve its purpose. Falsehood, these are the weapons envy loves to wield; and ve are rarely healed without a scar; for while the to defraud us of our wealth, or the ambitious thrusts hat he may seize the prize we sought to grasp the kes at our happiness and peace of mind-or reputation It is possible to replace wealth-ambition's loss is but with our perished happiness we lose our power of our reputation sullied is, alas! a reputation lost. There mobility in pride to which we yield involuntary homage. even while it startles, fascinates and thralls; for in both wering offspring of a lofty heart; but envy is a mean, ing, which springs, like avarice, from a little mind. Twin or though the miser is not always envious, you will seldom tion in which envy forms a striking feature free from the LITY AND OBLIVION.-Who knows whether the best of own, or whether there be not more remarkable persons any that stand remembered in the known account of time? the favour of the everlasting register the first man had been as as the last, and Methusela's long life had been his only Oblivion is not to be hired. The greatest part must be o be as though they had not been-to be found in the register not in the record of man. Twenty-seven names make up the y before the flood; and the recorded names ever since contain living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth all all live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who when was the equinox? Every hour adds unto that current netic which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be ucina of life, and even Pagans could doubt whether thus to live to die,-since our longest suns set at right descensions, and make winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in ress and have our night in ashes-since the brother of death daily > us with dying mementos; and time, that grows old in itself, us hope no long duration-diuturnity is a dream, and folly of tation. Darkness and light divide the course of time, and oblivion es with memory a great part even of our living beings-we slightly member our felicities, and the smartest strokes of affliction leave but ort smart upon us. Sense endureth no extremities, and sorrows testroy us or themselves. To weep into stones are fables. Affliction induces callosities-misseries are slippery, or fall like snow upon us, which, notwithstanding, is no unhappy stupidity. To be ignorant of evils to come, and forgetful of evils past, is a merciful provision in nature, whereby we digest the mixture of our few and evil days; and our delivered senses not relapsing into cutting remembrances, our sorrows are not kept raw by the edge of repetitions. A great part of antiquity contented their hopes of subsistency with a transmigration of their souls-a good way to continue their memories, while, having the advantage of plural successions, they could not but act something remarkable in such variety of beings, and enjoying the fame of their VOL. VI. 00 |