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sider what is practicable, and give such rules as may be of use in the regulation of conduct. Man's sensations and desires form a very considerable part of his constitution. By these he is influenced in all he does, and upon the nature of these his happiness in a great degree depends. We certainly ought to commend the most virtuous sort of life, not merely because it is most conducive to good character, but because, if steadily and uniformly pursued from youth upwards, it far exceeds any other in those particulars which are the objects of universal desire, in the attainment of pleasure and the exemption from pain. This indeed is evidently the case where a man's desires are well regulated. But by what means this just regulation of desire is effected, whether by the power of some inherent and connate faculties, or by the light of experience, may require some consideration. [Chancellor's Medals, 1838.]

82. It is not very easy to conceive a more evidently prospective contrivance, than that which, in all viviparous animals, is found in the milk of the female parent. At the moment the young animal enters the world, there is its maintenance ready for it. The particulars to be remarked in this economy, are neither few nor slight. We have, first, the nutritious quality of the fluid, unlike, in this respect, every other excretion of the body; and in which nature hitherto remains unimitated, neither cookery nor chymistry having been able to make milk out of grass: we have, secondly, the organ for its reception and retention: we have, thirdly, the excretory duct, annexed to that organ: and we have, lastly, the determination of the milk to the breast, at the particular juncture when it is about to be wanted. We have all

these properties in the subject before us: and they are all indications of design. The last circumstance is the strongest of any. If I had been to guess beforehand, I should have conjectured, that at the time when there was an extraordinary demand for nourishment in one part of the system there would be the least likelihood of a redundancy to supply another part. The advanced pregnancy of the female has no intelligible tendency to fill the breasts with milk. The lacteal system is a constant wonder: and it adds to other causes of our admiration, that the number of the teats to paps in each species is found to bear a proportion to the number of the young. In the sow, the bitch, the rabbit, the cat, the rat, which have numerous litters, the paps are numerous, and are disposed along the whole length of the belly; in the cow and mare, they are few. The most simple account of this, is to refer it to a designing Creator.

[Classical Tripos, 1838.]

83. TITUS Antoninus Pius has been justly denominated a second Numa. The same love of religion, justice and peace was the distinguishing characteristic of both princes. But the situation of the latter opened a much larger field for the exercise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neighbouring villages from plundering each others' harvests. Antoninus diffused order and tranquillity over the greater part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind. In private life, he was an amiable, as well as a good man. He enjoyed with moderation the conveniences of his fortune; and the benevolence

of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful serenity of temper.

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years, he embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent. His Meditations, composed in the tumult of a camp, are still extant; and he even condescended to give lessons of philosophy, in a more public manner than was perhaps consistent with the modesty of a sage, or the dignity of an emperor. But his life was the noblest commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was severe to himself, indulgent to the imperfections of others, and just and beneficent to all mankind. War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature; but when the necessity of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed his person to eight winter campaigns on the frozen banks of the Danube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the weakness of his constitution.

[University Scholarships, 1838.]

84. WHAT can be more extraordinary, than that a person of a private family, and of slender fortune, possessing no eminent qualities of body, which have sometimes, or of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the ability to execute so unheard of a project, as the subverting one of the most ancient and best estab

lished Monarchies upon earth? That he should have the power, or the audacity, to bring his Prince and his Master to an ignominious death; and to banish that numerous and strongly allied family? To do all this, under the name of a Parliament, and in seeming obedience to its authority:-to trample upon the members of that Parliament in their turn, and to expel them, as soon as he grew weary of them. To raise up a strange and novel monster out of their ashes; to stifle that monster in its very infancy, and to set himself up, above all things that ever were called Sovereign in England. To overcome all his enemies by his arms and all his friends by his cunning; to serve all parties patiently for a while, and command them victoriously at last: to over-run each corner of the three nations, and subdue with equal facility, both the riches of the South and the poverty of the North: to be feared and courted by Foreign states; and to become the adopted brother of Monarchs: to call together Parliaments, with a word of his pen, and to scatter them again with the breath of his mouth: to bring under his authority a warlike and discontented nation by means of a mutinous Soldiery; and then to command those troops by means of seditious and factious officers to have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal, as his own paternal inheritance, and to be as noble and liberal in expending the wealth of his country: lastly-(for who can enumerate all the particulars of his glory?) to die with peace at home, and triumph abroad: To be buried among kings, with even more than regal solemnity; and to leave a name behind him, not to be extinguished but with the world itself; which, as it was too little for his praises, so also it might have been for his conquests; if the line of his mortal

existence could have reached to the extent of his mighty designs. [Trinity College Fellowships, 1838.]

85. I LATELY wrote to tell you that I had reported to his Majesty the King that you had received, as you stated in your letter, the volume which his Majesty had sent you. In a very few months I trust you will be in possession of a second volume extending as far as the execution of Mary. For so the King desired me to tell you, and Sir Robert Cotton, the author of this history, assured me that that portion was now almost completed. When you have received all the information, which can be looked for from England, it will be then your duty so to handle the subject as not to sacrifice truth and yet prove that you have felt some regard for this great King. More than once has he solemnly assured me that he would not allow any thing to be sent you from hence, if he had not a clear conviction of its entire truth. Still I do not forget the remarks you lately made in a friendly letter, and I feel sure that you will have more trouble than enough to satisfy a son's natural affection. But a man of your discretion will have little difficulty in finding as they say, k τῶν ἀπόρων πόρον. [St John's College, 1838.]

86. WE may take notice, that even few of those men, whose actions have been illustrious for greatness, void of goodness; who have climbed to heights of power and state by the ruins and slaughters of mankind; that, I say, few of such persons have departed off the stage in peace or honour: that Alexander was snapt in the flower of his age and glory; that Cæsar was no sooner arrived to the top of his fortune, than to the bottom of his life; neither having time allowed them to enjoy, scarce to

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