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tyranny was to lead them beyond these limits, and to foster their growing carelessness and inattention to their dearest interests. This step was soon taken. Theatres were opened in all quarters of the city, loaded with every embellishment that the imagination could suggest, or that unbounded wealth could procure. We need not enter into a detail of these amusements; it sufficeth our purpose to point out how readily the people fell into the snare, and how speedily and entire was the ruin that followed. As had been rightly conjectured, the people soon gathered in crowds to these exhibitions, they passed almost their whole lives within the walls of the circus, utterly regardless of all that was transacted in the world without.

Those who had made this deadly preparation, who had tempted a nation to its ruin, now hastened to improve the opportunities they had acquired. Not in secresy and fear, but openly, and with full confidence, they proceeded to fasten their chains upon a slumbering people. And history informs us how complete was their success, Rome, Rome imperial, bows her to the shock," - the work of her slavery was finished, — the entrance of the Goth into her gates was a mere change of masters, for she long before had fallen and was conquered.

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The case we have just cited is a remarkable one,- few events in history can compare with it, yet, for all that, it is not to be rejected as an unfair and too highly colored illustration of the truth of our positions. There is nothing in it unnatural, there is nothing improbable, and should the like circumstances at any time occur, I had almost said a child might predict the ruin that would ensue.

When it can be shown how business and pleasure, attention and remissness, can go hand in hand together; in short, when we shall see a nation utterly devoted to amusements, and, at the same time, awake to all its interests, then we may be ready to give our example and positions to the wind.

Example of a Colloquy.*

Difference of Manners in Ancient Rome and Modern Civilized States.

To a careful and attentive observer of human nature, the history of mankind presents an interesting and instructive but mournful picture. It teaches him that man is everywhere the same; but however the picture may be varied by circumstances, however different the light in which it is viewed, the leading features remain ever the same. In no portion of ancient history are we more struck with this important fact than in that of Rome. In considering the manners of that people, great care should be taken that we do not permit the classical associations of our boyhood to give us a too favorable opinion of their character; and again, that we do not run into the opposite, but less probable error, of depreciating their real worth. Cold, indeed, must be the heart, and dull the understanding, that can contemplate unmoved the history of the Eternal City, which, after all, has done its part towards communicating to the world civilization and philosophy. It requires no extraordinary stretch of the imagination to marshal before us, in patriotic array, those venerable magistrates, who, tranquilly seated in their curule chairs, defied the fury of Brennus and

*One part only of this Colloquy is presented.

his barbarian hordes; or to hear Cicero declaiming with honest indigna. tion against the vices and insolence of Anthony and Verres. Yet, our admiration must gradually subside, when we reflect, that the glory with which they were surrounded, was purchased by the misery and degradation of millions. Did we see the Romans in their true colors, we should perceive that they were in reality a selfish, perfidious, cruel, and supersti tious race of barbarians, endued with the scanty and doubtful virtues of savage life, but deformed by more than its ordinary excesses, and whose original purity of manners and good faith among themselves did not endure a moment longer than it enabled them to subdue the rest of mankind. Of the many mistakes which our classical fondness for the Romans have led us into respecting them, there is not a greater or more unfounded one than the high opinion we are apt to entertain of their domestic habits. The Queen of Cities, throned upon her seven hills, in marble majesty, the mistress of a world conquered by the valor of her sons, is a picture of our imagination, which we are unwilling to spoil by filling up all its parts with too curious accuracy. Certain it is that information enough is to be obtained from Roman authors to prepare us for a scene of much more moderate splendor in the capital of Italy. From thein we may learn that all the points upon which the imagination reposes with so much complacency and delight, are perfectly consistent with misery, disorder, and filth. We may learn, that though their Venus never attracted public notice in a hooped petticoat, and though their Apollo never dashed in a blue swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons, yet, that the costume of the day, whatever it might be, was pretty generally bestowed upon their deities. We may learn, that the Romans, with all their wealth and power, and ingenious luxury, enjoyed but little real cleanliness and comfort. More of that most desirable and excellent article, comfort, may be had by any one among us, than could have been enjoyed by a Roman noble, who rode in carriages without springs, or on saddles without stirrups, or dined without knives and forks, or lived in rooms without chimneys. And, having duly weighed these and similar points of minute history, we may bring ourselves to adopt more sober views of the magnificence of ancient Rome, and of an ancient Roman. In spite of their admiration for Grecian manners, the Romans were ill-calculated for every elegant pursuit. After abandoning the rigid virtues by which Cincinnatus reached the summit of glory, they gave way to a corruption of manners, and an insatiable rapacity, which would have remained a solitary example of human depravity, had not revolutionary France exhibited scenes still more horrid and revolting. The tyranny of the Romans, and of the French under Bonaparte, is stamped with the same horrid features, the same unbounded and unprincipled lust of dominion rendered both the disturbers of human repose. By the pride and avidity of the descendants of Romulus, Greece was stripped of her pictures and statues; by the rapacity and avidity of the Directorial Government, and that Jacobin General, Italy was robbed of these identical statues, and of paintings more exquisitely beautiful even than those of Zeuxis or Apelles. If to plunder the vanquished of every thing that can contribute to the comfort, instruction, or the ornament of society be an object of merited censure, both nations are equally eulpable, both equally tyrants and robbers. The ravager, the exterminator, Verres, was not worse than many others of the Roman Proconsuls. Who can read the Verrine orations and not curse from his heart this cruel and rapacious people? The money of the unhappy Si

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cilians found its way to his coffers, and their grain, whilst they were starving, into his granaries. The axes of his lictors were blunted on their necks, and the favor of being put to death at a single blow was sold at a heavy price. Turn we from the cruelty, injustice, and rapacity of Verres? As we turn our eyes from the extortions of the Sicilian Prætor, they may perchance light upon the newspapers of the day, and they will there find scenes equally infamous and deplorable. The deeds of Verres stand not alone in the history of the world. What think we of those slaughtered at Vicksburg? 'It was in vain that the unhappy men cried out, We are American citizens; the bloodthirsty mob, deaf to all they could urge in their own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus were innocent American citizens publicly murdered, while the only words they uttered amidst their cruel sufferings were, "We are American citizens." O Liberty! O sound once delightful to every American ear! O sacred privilege of American citizenship! Once sacred, now trampled upon." Tell me not that the storms which now agitate the surface of our institutions are preferable to the calm unruffled sea of despotism in Russia and Austria; give me the despotism of a Nicolas and a Metternich, nay, even the tyranny of a Nero, or a Caligula, any thing but the despotism and tyranny of an infuriated mob.

The taste for gladiatorial murder, prevalent in Rome for centuries, and often indulged to the most extravagant excess, implies so wide a deviation from the common feelings and principles of humanity, that it is to be regarded as an important fact, in the moral history of man. Moralists will tell us that the truly brave are never cruel; but to this the Roman Ampitheatres say, No. There sat the conquerors of the world coolly to enjoy the torture and the death of men who had never offended them. Twice in one day came the matrons and senators of Rome to the butchery; and, when glutted with bloodshed, the Roman ladies sat down in the wet arena, streaming with the blood of their victims, to a luxurious supper. But enough of these humiliating details.

The moral to be derived from Roman history, if properly applied, is most excellent, and cannot be too often, nor too strongly inculcated. It is that the loss of civil liberty involves a destruction of every feeling which distinguishes man from the inferior part of the creation, leaving his faculties to vegetate in indolence or to become brutalized by sensuality; that public opinion, when suffered to waste its energies in wild applause of faction or tyranny, may become one of the most subservient instruments of oppression, and even bow its neck to the ground ere the foot of the tyrant be prepared to tread upon it.

LXXXIX.

ESSAY, TREATISE, TRACT, THESIS.

An Essay, literally means nothing more than a trial, or an attempt. It is sometimes used to designate in a specific man

ner an author's attempt to illustrate any point. It is commonly applied to small detached pieces, which contain only the general thoughts of a writer on any given subject, and afford room for amplification into details. Some authors modestly used the term for their connected and finished endeavours to elucidate a doctrine.*

A Treatise † is more systematic than an Essay. It treats on the subject in a methodical form, and conveys the idea of something labored, scientific, and instructive.

A Tract is only a species of small treatise, drawn up upon particular occasions, and published in a separate form.

A Thesis is a position or proposition which a person advances, and offers to maintain, or which is actually maintained by argument.

Essays are either moral, political, philosophical, or literary; they are the crude attempts of the youth to digest his own thoughts, or they are the more mature attempts of the man to communicate his thoughts to others. Of the former description are prize Essays in schools, and of the latter are the Essays innumerable which have been published on every subject since the days of Bacon.

Treatises are mostly written on ethical, political, or speculative subjects, such as Fenelon's, Milton's, or Locke's "Treatise on Education," De Lolme's "Treatise on the Constitution of England."

Tracts are ephemeral productions, mostly on political and religious subjects, which seldom survive the occasion which gave them birth. Of this description are the pamphlets which daily issue from the press for or against the measures of government, or the public measures of any particular party.

The Essay is the most popular mode of writing; it suits the writer who has not talent or inclination to pursue his inquiries farther, and it suits the generality of readers, who are amused with variety and superficiality. The Treatise is adapted for the student, who will not be contented with the superficial Essay, when more ample materials are within his reach.

The Tract is formed for the political or religious partisan, and receives its interest from the occurrence of the motive. The Dissertation interests the disputant. (See Dissertation, page 334.)

* See Locke's "Essay on the Understanding," and Beattie's "Essay on Truth."

↑ Treatise and Tract have both the same derivation, from the Latin traho, to draw, manage, or handle, and its participle, tractus.

Example 1st of an Essay.

LITERATURE.

The developement of mind, the exertions of talent, the labors of industry, are all subjects intimately interwoven with the moral character of a rational and accountable being. It is a curious and interesting investigation to trace the history of man, as he emerges from a state of nature, and passes through the successive gradations, from mere animal existence, to a state of refined civilization and moral culture. And it is equally delightful to the man of letters, to behold the effects of learning in its various stages, in amending the inward state of mankind, as the refinements of luxury add to their external convenience.

It is a common remark with the historian, that the discovery of the use of iron is the first step from savage to civilized life. The remark is just, but must be received in a limited sense; for there is an internal as well as external history; a history of mind as well as of matter; an intellectual civilization distinct from the history of nations, and independent of the combinations of beauty of figure and of color. What iron is to the animal nature of man, literature is to his intellectual condition. The former supplies him with the means of defence, enables him to overcome the debility of his organic powers, and endues him with factitious strength, as useful as that which nature has conferred. The latter preserves the acquisitions of the former, guides its operations, concentrates its usefulness, and enables him to avail himself of the achievements of genius struggling with the inertness of matter, or fettered by the restrictions of ignorance and barbarity. The history of literature is the history of the noblest powers of man. There is a sameness in savage life, which affords but little interest to speculation; and confines the investigations of the philosopher and man of observation within narrow limits. The scope of his abilities is narrow and contracted. The construction of rude implements, the provision of the necessaries of life, the strifes, collisions, and bitter feuds of hostile and ambitious chiefs, deficient in interest, because deficient in incidents; the simple tales of love or the sombre stories of licentiousness, these form the material of the history of nations, upon whom science has never beamed, nor literature shed its renovating rays. In the relation of these incidents, there is no history of mind, no account of the progress of intellect, further than what is observed in the ingenuity of mechanical contrivance, limited by the ignorance of the properties of things. But the invention of letters, preceded by the mysticism of hieroglyphic symbols, gave a new face to the world; enlarged the subjects of knowledge, and changed man from a mere animal to an intellectual being. The history of literature, from the invention of letters to the present day, involves all that is interesting in the history of man. To what purpose would the divine gifts of speech and reason have been conferred, unless the monuments of their achievements should have more stability than could exist as they float on the recollections of a single generation. The animal nature of man might, so far as posterity is concerned, be considered the nobler because the more permanent part of his being. The structures which his hands have reared, though still amenable to the laws of decay, would survive the shocks of ages, while no monument would exist of his immortal spirit; no recollec

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