streets during ages of factious democracy so often running red with the best blood of the republic. I stood before those gigantic structures born of the wealth of Europe and of the Florentine genius and will, and I asked myself how is it that three centuries of regular government" have ended in a dwindled population, political nullity and social corruption. The churches were filled on holidays-yet was there not much of what we call religion. Hospitals of all kinds seemed to forbid the poorest man to suffer unaidedlabor in request, yet provisions cheap, and yet much misery, much sullen dying alone in dark corners, much distrust of man, much disbelief in God himself. "By their fruits ye shall know them," thought I. Without venturing to say that the republic was good, I will be bold to affirm that it was better than any thing that Florence has since seen, for though it may be horrid to kill people, it is still worse to prevent them being born. When the Spaniards landed on the Mexican shores, they found a flourishing empire. Millions of men were living there in a sort of civilized state. The population was dense, and 30,000 victims were sacrificed annually to the only God those people knew, expediency. The Spaniards, filled with holy horror at the sight of so much blood and guilt and gold, slaughtered these demi-savages by hundreds of thousands —took their gold, destroyed their bloody altars, and converted them to the doctrines of love and mercy. These doctrines, the whip and the gibbet, have left the actual cumberers of the ground in Mexico as the sole vestige of a noble and warlike race, as skilled in tillage as they were cunning in manufacture, and bearing in their social state all the embryo of a high civilization. Whatever we may think of the barbarity of the Mexicans, if we will scrutinize modern nations, we shall find that there is not one of them who has not altars, whether Plutus or Christ, on which the victims are-not, it is true, suddenly sacrificed-but on which their hearts are slowly crushed. We do not pretend to get rid of blood and pain as the impost paid for government; we only mask the motive for enacting it, and hide the engines by which it is wrung from suffering men. The amount of eloquence as well as logic which have been employed in blackening the memory of the men who, sick of quackery, called surgery to the aid of France, is overwhelming. How much partial reasoning, how much one-sided truth, how much honest nonsense, how much fear under the masks of piety and faith. When Louis the XV. sat at table between a w- and a bishop, these people see only a proof that courts are not patriarchal and pure. When the noble family of Fontanges bring up their daughter, malice prepense, with the ambition of her becoming one day the mistress of Louis XIV., it is but one instance of degrading vice. The groaning millions, the light crushed beneath the foot of soldiers, or shut up by lettresde-cachet, all this woe and wrong is organized and regular, and makes no stain on the page. The progress of nations in liberty is like rail-road travelling: here and there you will see a train off the track, and a great am unt of suffering and of sacrifice, but calculation has shown, that in the aggregate' man suffers less than in the old system. Nobody used to count the heads broker. on the highway, and the groans by the road side. A coach capsized was a laughing matter to many, even the passengers. We play for higher stakes in free countries. EVERETT'S ESSAYS.* Mr. Everett is one of that-class of men, the growth of thirty continuous years of comparative peace, now enjoyed by Christendom, who, to eminent natural endowments and high literary cultivation, add the qualities and the distinction of a practical statesman. For, if the great nations of Europe and America have, some of them, been more or less engaged, during the present generation, in conflict with the barbarian or semi-civilized races around them, and if others have seen their own soil stained by civil blood-shed,yet they have been withheld from mutual hostilities, until the empire of the Voice and the Pen has almost superseded that of the Sword; and Mind has found a nobler and more congenial field of ambition in the arts and accomplishments of Peace, rather than of War. Thus it is, that, to names like those of Lord John Russell and Macaulay in England, or Guizot and Thiers in France, we may, on our part, point to those of Bancroft, of Irving, and of the two Everetts, as alike conspicuous in literature and in public life. Known already by his grave and elaborate works on Europe and America, Mr. Everett will acquire additional reputation by this collection of Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. Familiar with the languages and the literature of modern as of ancient Europe, thoroughly imbued with the principles of a pure and correct taste, possessed of a discriminative and exact judgment, and with a style at once vigorous, clear, expressive, and faultlessly elegant, Mr. Everett has, in this volume, laid before us a series of most instructive and agreeable literary disquisitions, on Sévigné, Le Sage, St. Pierre, Corneille, Racine, Voltaire, Canova, Schiller, Mackintosh, and Cicero, among other subjects; and, in a small collection of fugitive pieces subjoined to the Essays, has shown that he is a successful worshipper of the poetic Muse. We have alluded to the fact, common in the time of the Greek and Roman Republics, and still more in those of modern Italy, that, in our day, men of literary accomplishments and fame take their due share in affairs of government. We quote, from the essay on Madame de Sévigné, a passage, in which Mr. Everett exhibits in a forcible light the durability of reputation, which a high order of literary merit confers on its possessor. "We cannot but notice in conclusion,if we may venture to tack a trite moral to remains upon the mind after a glance at a tedious tale-the strong impression that the period of Louis XIV., of the prodigious superiority of literary talent over every other exercise of intellect, as a means of conferring permanent distinction on its possessors and all with whom they are connected. The age of Louis XIV. is universally considered as one of the brightest periods in the history of civilization. What gave it this splendid pre-eminence ? Louis XIV. himself, although, as Madame de Sévigné justly remarks, he possessed great qualities and eclipsed the glory of most of his predecessors, now comes in for a very moderate share of the attention His generals, Conde, Turenne, Luxemburg, we bestow on the time in which he lived. and the rest,-unquestionably men of distinguished talent, were yet in no way superior to the thunderbolts of war that have wasted mankind from age to age and are now forgotten. His ministers, Foquet, Colbert, Louvois, have left no marked traces in history. The celebrated beauties that charmed all eyes at the Court festivals have long since mouldered into dust. Yet we still cling with the deepest interest to the memory of the age of Louis XIV., because it was the age of Pascal and Corneille, of Racine, Moliere, and La Fontaine, of Bossuet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, La Bruyére, La Rochefoucault and Madame de Sévigné. The time will probably come, in the progress of civiliza tion, when the military and civic glories because more correctly estimated, than of this period will be still more lightly, they are now-when the King, who could make war upon Holland, because he was offended by the device of a burgomaster's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. To which are added a few Poems. By Alexander H. Everett. Boston, 1845; James Munroe & Co.; pp. 563. seal, and the general who burnt the Palatinate in cold blood, will be looked upon, with all their refinement and merit of a certain kind, as belonging essentially to the same class of semi-barbarians with the Tamerlanes and Attilas, the Rolands and the Red Jackets-when the Fouquets and Colberts will be considered as possessing a moral value very little higher than that of the squirrels and snakes, which they not inappropriately assumed as their emblems. But the maxims of La Rochefoucault will never lose their point nor the poetry of Racine its charm. The graceful eloquence of Fenelon will flow for ever through the pages of Telemachus, and the latest posterity will listen with as much, or even greater pleasure than their contemporaries to the discourses of Bossuet and Massillon. The masterly productions of these great men, and their illustrious contemporaries, will perpetuate to the last syllable of recorded time' the celebrity which they originally conferred upon the period when they lived, and crown with a light of perennial and unfading glory the age of Louis XIV. In the essay entitled, Who Wrote Gil Blas?' Mr. Everett discusses one of the most curious questions in literary history; and one, which, as the controversy proceeds, becomes a question of national rivalry between France and Spain, namely, whether Le Sage was the author of Gil Blas, or the translator only of the manuscript work of some unknown Spanish author, which by whatever means had come into possession of Le Sage. What renders the inquiry one of peculiar interest, is the consideration, that the discussion turns almost wholly on points of internal evidence. Gil Blas is a work so emphatically Spanish,-it enters so completely into the personal history, the manners, the habits of thought, and the distinctive nationality, of the Spaniards,-it is in such perfect keeping, as to suggest the impossibility of its having been written in the first instance by any but a Spaniard; or, if by a foreigner, one rendered thoroughly Spanish by long residence and intellectual naturalization, as it were, in Spain. On the other hand, as Le Sage does not appear ever to have visited Spain even, if he did write Gil Blas himself, this, its perfect keeping, which constitutes its great excellence, furnishes the strongest possible proof of the extraordinary merits of Le Sage. Whilst analyzing the arguments on both sides of the question, adduced by others, Mr. Everett is able to throw much light from his own personal knowledge and observation in Spain; and we agree with him, that the internal evidence, derived from the general exactness of the minute details, in Gil Blas, and still more from the nature of some of its errors in such minute matters of fact, is all but conclusive in favor ter of the Bachelor of Salamanca, afof its Spanish origin. And the characterwards published, and which Le Sage professes he derived from an unpublished Spanish manuscript, betrays the source from which he drew the materials of Gil Blas. The reader of Paul and Virginia would little suspect that St. Pierre had passed the best of his years in a great variety of strange adventures and visionary projects; and that it was only later in life that he produced the Stu dies of Nature, and that beautiful little picture of tropical scenery, of love, and of devotion, which is now a classic in every language of Europe. And the story of the production of Paul and Virginia, is a striking example of the frequent erroneousness of first judgment in matters of literature. For it seems that, on reading his manuscript to a circle of friends, such as Buffon, Thomas, and others of the most distinguished and enlightened persons, he had the chagrin to hear and see it as signally damned as ever was a bad comedy on the stage; and it was not until afterwards, when he read it to Vernet, that he was encouraged, by the painter's truer appreciation of beauty and feeling, to believe, that he had produced a work that was destined to receive universal admiration. Mr. Everett's remarks on Sévigné, Bernardin de St. Pierre, Voltaire, Le Sage, and the French dramatists, are characterized, not only by great good sense and acuteness, but also by a vein of quiet humor and pleasant anecdote, which delightfully relieve the gravity of critical disquisition. Some of the witticisms which occur, from time to time, are exquisite. Thus, Ninon de l'Enclos described the young Marquis de Sévigné, as a lump of fricasseed snow. The Abbé de Polignac arrived at Paris on some occasion, when he was expected to bring certain papal bulls from Rome, but which proved to be merely preliminary articles, Ces ne sont pas des bulles qu'il apporte,' said Madame de Cornuel,mais des préambules.' And the following passage, on the false and foppish gallantry of the old French drama, is especially just and amusing: "The great fault with the heroes of Corneille, and in some degree, though not so much, with those of Racine and Voltaire, is that they always express their passion and make love to their mistresses in conventional phrases and metaphors which were always extravagant and have long been ridiculous. They talk of the beaux yeux, the divins appas of their beloved. They represent themselves as loaded with chains and pierced through with arrows. Julius Cesar tells Cleopatra, that it was the influence of her fine eyes that enabled him to gain the battle of Pharsalia and the empire of the world. Ves beaux yeux enfin m'ayant fait soupirer, Pour faire que votre âme avec gloire y réponde M'ont rendu le prémier et de Rome, et du monde. The honest Professor with all his admiration for Corneille is somewhat scandalized at this tirade. In good earnest, says he, did Cesar think and talk in this way? Is it not rather the style of Don Quixote addressing his dulcinea? At other times however he makes a lame apology for this jargon, by putting it to the account of the fashion of the times. Corneille, says he, gave his heroes that noble gallantry which was in vogue at the time of the Fronde. Love was then mingled with all the political intrigues, and produced important events. The princes and nobles of the court had each his mistress. The Duke de Beaufort was the lover of Madame de Montbazon; La Rochefoucault was at the feet of Madame de Longueville; Mademoiselle de Chey reuse ruled the Coadjutor (de Retz;) the Duke de Bellegarde, when he went to the army, begged the favour of the Queen to touch the hilt of his sword; M. de Châtillon wore on his arm in battle one of Mademoiselle de Guerchi's garters. Conversa tion was filled with the most extravagant language of gallantry. It was the spirit of the age. The women then gave the tone at the theatre and in the world; and the language that we now think flat and silly, charmed all the précieuses of the time. Sovereigns are never disgusted with the grossest flattery; and these ladies, who were fully persuaded, because they were constantly assured of it, that they exercised a sovereign, not to say divine power over their adorers, could see nothing ridiculous in all the jargon of sighs, languishments, flames, and torments, which we now laugh at, even at the opera. They thought it perfectly natural that their eyes should be stars, suns, and gods; that their complexion should put to shame the rose and lily, and that a single glance should decide the fate of their slaves, &c. much used in France, that a certain Polish Au reste, the phrase beaux yeux is so Countess, who had learned what little French she knew by rote, and was confined at home soon after her arrival at Paris by an attack of ophthalmia, replied with a perfect readiness to an inquiry after her health, J'ai mal à mes beaux yeux, supposing in the simplicity of her heart that fine eyes was the appropriate name of the feature in question. The narrator adds in the gallant French style, that as she was young and handsome, the mistake was of no great consequence. The couplet in which the Dake de La Rochefoucault, (so celebrated for his maxims and his misanthropy, which does not seem, like that of Hamlet, to have included the fair sex) commemorates his passion for the fine eyes of Madame de Longueville, has been often cited; Pour mériter son cœur, pour plaire à ses beaux yeux, J'ai fait la guerre aux rois-je l'aurois faite aux dieux. Of this lighter style of composition, however, the happiest example in the book is the essay entitled, "The Art of being Happy," in which, while exposing, with keen but good-tempered raillery, the absurdities of a foolish book by M. Droz on this subject, Mr. Everett, in opposition to the arguments of the former in favor of idleness and contempt of public opinion, maintains that a vigilant pursuit of an honest occupation, and a decent regard for the judgment of those around us, are among the most effective means that we can employ, for the attainment of happi ness. The essays on "Sir James Mackintosh," and "Cicero on Government,” and the "Dialogue on Government," are full of instructive and interesting ideas on controverted points of ethical and political philosophy, to which we have but space for this general reference. The longest of the essays, entitled "Chinese Manners," founded on a Chinese novel written by Abel Remusat, was written, when Mr. Everett could little have anticipated that he would himself one day have the opportunity of visiting China with all the facilities of observation possessed by the representative of his own in a foreign country, and will be read with more curiosity because of the attention which late events have drawn to the character and condition of the Chinese Empire. We extract a single passage on the political system of China. As respects the political institutions of the empire, it appears from the above extract, and from the more ample information to the same effect contained in the works of the missionaries, that, although entirely different from any of those that are established in the Western world, they will perhaps bear a comparison with the best of them. The great problem in politics is to reconcile the liberty of the people with a tranquil, wise, and vigorous administration of their common concerns; and experience seems to show, that it can only be solved by providing for a large, regular, and frequent intervention of the body of the community in the conduct of the government. The existence of such an intervention forms the substance of what we consider the great modern improvements in political science, as exemplified in the representative constitutions of Europe, and especially of these United States. This intervention is effected in our system, by securing to a certain number of the citizens the right of designating the public functionaries. The same intervention appears to exist in China to an extent at least as great with us, and far greater than in any other Christian community; but to be managed on the different principle of securing to every citizen the right of exhibiting his qualifications for filling public offices before a competent tribunal, and the possession of any office for which he can prove himself to be qualified. It is evident that both these methods provide for bringing in activity the whole talent, knowledge, and virtue of the community, and prevent the stagnation and exhaustion that regularly take place, when the power is monopolized by one or more privileged families. To decide which of the two systems is, on the whole, preferable in its operation, and which is least liable to abuse, is of course beyond the scope of the present cursory notice. Each has, doubtless, its peculiar advantages and defects. While prejudices, to assign to our own form of we are naturally inclined, by our national government, the superiority over every humble labourers in the field of letters, other, we may perhaps be permitted, as upon a constitution, which makes literary to look with some degree of complacency distinction the only title to advancement, and thus realizes the latter part of the famous alternative proposed by Plato, as the sine qua non of a wise administration of government, that kings should become philosophers or philosophers be made kings. Had this system been proposed in any abstract treatise on civil polity, we incline to think, that it would have been generally viewed as the most beautiful theory that had ever been invented, but as a wholly impracticable and visionary form of government has ever been subA longer experience, than any other jected to, has satisfactorily proved that it works well. While we are among those expectations as to the prospects of our own who profess to entertain the most sanguine country, we should be glad to feel perfectly certain, that our institutions would stand the test of two thousand years' trial, as well as those of China have done already. one. the high gratification we have received In conclusion, we have to express from the reperusal of these essays, in collecting which from the periodical works in which they originally appeared, and thus rendering them more accessible to the general reader, the publishers have done a service to the literary community, as in the correspondent cases of Mr. Macaulay's and Mr. Prescott's "Miscellanies;" and we trust the same good office will be performed ere lang in behalf of similar writings of Mr. Edward Everett and other contributors to the periodical literature of the United States. VOL. XVIII-NO. XCII. |