This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening-nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory;

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye;
I feel my heart new open'd. Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on prince's favours !
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than war or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,4

Never to hope again.

SHAKESPEARE-"King Henry VIII."

1. CROMWELL. This speech, on the vanity of human greatness, is addressed by Cardinal Wolsey, the celebrated Minister of Henry VIII., to his secretary and friend, Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex. The occasion of the speech was the Cardinal's disgrace and banishment from court, after he had for many years held in it the highest place, next to the King himself.

2. PRYTHEE, I pray thee; I entreat thee.

3. INVENTORY, a list or catalogue.

4. LUCIFER, Satan, often called in poetry Lucifer, or the Morn ing Star,

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT CON-
TRASTED WITH DESPOTISM.

THAT form of government appears to me the most reasonable, which is most conformable to the regularity that we find in human nature, provided it be consistent with public peace and tranquillity. This is what may properly be called liberty, which exempts one man from subjection to another, so far as the order and economy of government will permit.

Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they all share one common nature; if it only spreads among particular branches, there had better be none at all, since such a liberty only aggravates the misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by setting before them a disagreeable subject of comparison.

This liberty is best preserved when the legislative power is lodged in several persons, especially if those persons are of different ranks and interests; for when they are of the same rank, and consequently have an interest to manage peculiar to that rank, it differs but little from a despotic government in a single person. But the greatest security a people can have for their liberty, is when the legislative power is in the hands of persons so happily distinguished, that by providing for the particular interests of their several ranks, they are providing for the whole body of the people, or in other words, where there is no part of the people that has not a common interest with at least one part of the legislators.

If there be but one body of legislators, it is no better than a tyranny; if there be only two, there will want a casting voice, and one of them must at last be swallowed

up by the disputes and contentions which will necessarily arise between them. Four would have the same inconvenience, and a greater number would cause too much confusion.

History offers an unanswerable argument against despotic power. When the prince is a man of wisdom and virtue, it is indeed happy for his people that he is absolute; but since in the common race of mankind, for one that is wise and good, you find ten of a contrary character, it is very dangerous for a nation to stand its chance, and to have its public happiness or misery, dependent on the virtues and vices of a single person. Look into the history of any series of absolute princes, how many tyrants must you read of, before you come to an emperor who is supportable. But this is not all; an honest private man often grows cruel and abandoned, when converted into an absolute prince. Give a man the power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguish his fear, and consequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality. This we find confirmed by facts. How many hopeful heirs-apparent 1 to grand empires, when in the possession of them, have become such monsters of lust and cruelty, as are a reproach to human nature.

It is odd to consider the connection between despotic governments and barbarity, and how the making of one person more than man makes the rest less.

Riches and plenty are the natural fruits of liberty, and where these abound, learning and all the liberal arts will immediately lift up their heads and flourish. As a man must have no slavish fears and apprehensions hanging upon his mind, who would indulge the flights of fancy or speculation, and push his researches into all the abstruse 2 corners of truth, so it is necessary for him to

have about him a competency of all the conveniences of life.

:

The first thing every one looks after is to provide himself with necessaries. This point will engross our thoughts till it be satisfied. If this is taken care of to our minds, we look out for pleasures and amusements; and among a great number of idle people there will be many, whose pleasures will lie in reading and contemplation. These are the two great sources of knowledge, and as men grow wise they naturally love to communicate their discoveries, and others seeing the happiness of such learned life, and improving by their conversation, emulate, imitate, and surpass one another, till a nation is filled with races of wise and understanding persons. Ease and plenty are therefore the great cherishers of knowledge and as most of the despotic governments of the world have neither of them, they are naturally overrun with ignorance and barbarity. In Europe, indeed, although several of its princes are absolute, there are men famous for knowledge and learning; but the reason is, because the subjects are many of them rich and wealthy, the prince not thinking fit to exert himself in his full tyranny, like the princes of the eastern nations, lest his subjects should be invited to new-mould their constitution, having so many prospects of liberty within their view. But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour art and letters, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind, as you may observe from Augustus's 3 reign, how the Romans lost themselves by degrees, until they fell to an equality with the most barbarous nations, that surrounded them. Look upon Greece under its free states, and you would think that its inhabitants lived in different climates, and under different heavens, from those of the present; so different

are the characters, which are formed under Turkish slavery and Grecian liberty.

This natural tendency of despotic power to ignorance and barbarity, is, I think, an unanswerable argument against this form of government, as it shows how repugnant it is to the good of mankind, and the perfection of human nature, which ought to be the great ends of civil institutions. ADDISON.

1. HEIRS-APPARENT, the apparent or acknowledged successors. 2. ABSTRUSE, hidden, difficult to be understood; lit. thrust from. (Lat. abs, from trudo to thrust.)

3. AUGUSTUS, the first and most famous of the Roman Emperors, born 63 B.c. died 14 A.D. During his reign Rome touched her highest point of glory. This prince favoured learned men, and encouraged talent of all kinds.

THE VISION OF WISDOM.

METHOUGHT I was just awoke out of a sleep, that I could never remember the beginning of; the place where I found myself to be, was a wide and spacious plain, full of people, that wandered up and down through several beaten paths, where some few were straight and in direct lines, but most of them winding and turning like a labyrinth ;1 and yet it appeared to me afterwards, that these last all met in one issue, so that many travellers that seemed to steer quite contrary courses, did at length meet and face one another, to the no little amazement of many of them.

In the midst of the plain there was a great fountain. They called it the spring of Self-love, out of it issued two rivulets to the eastward and westward; the name of the first was Heavenly-wisdom, its water was wonderfully