Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

His character of Antony is this: Antony was of his own nature, neither wicked, nor cruel; though he committed • fome exceffes through hurry of paffion. He was frank and generous, and had a particular candour, which rendered him incapable of miftrufting thofe whom he confidered as • his friends. Perhaps he would have been more virtuous, if his country had been more fo: but real virtue was banished from Rome, at the time when he appeared on the stage. He was a very debauched man in a very debauched age. He gave a free fcope to his ambition, because the circumftances in which he was fituated, were fufficient to flatter his moft fanguine expectations. He formed vaft designs, in confequence of his moving in a very high sphere. His birth, his opulence, and high preferments, prevented him from falling into obfcurity, for which he feemed naturally defigned. The fimplicity, I may even fay, the meannefs of his difpofition, would have fuited a much humbler ftation. Pomp and outward forms were fuch a constraint to his nature, that he would lay them afide whenever he had an opportunity; being always eager to mix with those pro< fligates who place their whole happiness in midnight revelry, and in frequenting public ftews. He had the abilities of a great General, with the inclinations of a common foldier: he appeared with dignity at the head of an army, and made an excellent figure at a tavern or a guard room. He demeaned himself moft fcandaloufly in feveral great cities, especially in Alexandria. Cleopatra made always one at his parties of pleafure; and though fhe had more fenfe, ⚫ and a more delicate tafte than he, yet fhe knew how to ac'commodate herfelf to his temper. Thus fhe fubdued a man by whom the expected to fubdue the world. Antony knew C not how to guard againft female artifices: he had been enfnared before by Fulvia, and he was afterwards duped by Cleopatra. It was his fate to command one half of the Roman empire, to obey two wives, and to be foiled by a 6 young man, not near fo good a foldier as himself, but far his fuperior in art and policy.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

.

He draws Cicero's character in the following manner:It must be allowed in praife of Cicero, that he was a lover of glory and of his country; a principle in itself honourable, though it made him commit fome little failings. His ambition had no other object than glory; he feared no difficulty conducive to this point: this is what induced him to take fuch pains in improving himfelf in every ornamental branch of life, fo as to make it dubious whether his natural, or his

acquired

6

[ocr errors]

acquired accomplishments were moft confiderable; and glory 6 being the object of all his wishes, the leaft diminution of it gave him the greateft uneafinefs. He had not fufficient fortitude to bear with difgrace, therefore he quite loft himself during the whole time of his exile. He who had made fo great a figure in his Confulate, was grown timorous and irrefolute towards the extinction of the Republic. He feemed to have • loft one half of his existence, when he saw the liberties of his country fubverted. Yet he pretended to be a Philofopher, and was even more ambitious of this appellation than of that of an Orator, perhaps because he was fenfible of his not being entitled to the former, whereas the latter could not be difputed with him. He was not made to spread ter⚫ror and defolation in the field; but he often faced death in the midft of Rome for the defence of his country; and at length he nobly laid down his life in the glorious caufe. 'He was not a foldier, yet he had courage; I do not mean • that rough kind of courage by which we are hurried to carnage and flaughter, but that fteady refolution which properly forms the characteristic of a great man. The chief failing he can be charged with, is a little vanity, a failing however that borders in fome measure on the love of glory. Yet Cicero may ftill be ranked among the greatest men that appeared towards the decline of the Republic. Pompey had only the outward fhew of virtue; Cæfar frequently neglected even to preferve the appearances of it; Cato carried his to excefs; but Cicero was poffeffed of real virtue, together with vaft abilities, and every fhining accomplish'ment.'

We fhall make no reflections on these characters, but leave them with our Readers: fuch of them as have ftudied the Roman Hiftory with attention, will judge for themelves, whether the pictures refemble the originals or not.

[ocr errors]

ACCOUNT of FOREIGN BOOKS.

Inftitutions Politiques. Par Monfieur le Baron de Bielfield. 4to. 2 vols. A la Haye. Chez Pierre Goffe. Or,

Political Inftitutes. By Baron de Bielfeld, Preceptor to Prince Auguftus Ferdinand, Brother to the King of Pruffia. Sold by Becket in London.

H

IS Pruffian Majefty's having made choice of Baron de
Bielfeld as Preceptor to the Prince his brother, and par-

ticularly

ticularly to be his Inftructor in the fcience of Politics, is a circumstance that will doubtlefs influence many of our Readers in favour of the capacity and talents of this noble Writer. Their curiofity, perhaps, will be no less excited, also, concerning a performance which, we are informed, hath derived no little luftre and advantage from the dictates of fo illuftrious an Author as the King of Pruffia himself.

The plan of this work, indeed, cannot fail of ftriking the Reader, at firft view, with the idea of a mafterly hand and direction; no less than a compleat fyftem of human polity, comprehending every branch of civil and military Government, being here offered to the public.

[ocr errors]

My defign in this work,' fays the Baron, would be, if poffible, to reduce Politics into a compleat fyftem; to collect those scattered materials which are to be found in the writings of others; to join to thefe that information and experience which I have myself gathered from hiftory, or men of bufinefs; and, of the whole, to form a perfect theory of political fcience. An attempt, to which,' he modeftly continues, I am fenfible my abilities are unequal: the only merit to which I afpire, being that of the first who has undertaken to treat this subject in a fcientific manner.' magnis voluiffe fat eft.

[ocr errors]

In

We do not think, however, that our Author's merit lies merely in the excellence of his defign; much greater abilities being requifite to the profecution of fo extenfive a plan than may readily appear to a fuperficial Reader. Indeed it were no wonder if a Writer of the greatest talents and capacity fhould fail of accomplishing the end of so vaft and comprehenfive a project. Not that we mean hereby to cenfure this performance, as materially defective in this particular. The Writer has very probably compaffed what he more immediately intended; tho', like every other, he may have left room for the hand of future Masters to improve on his plan.

And yet we do not pretend, with fome, to rank Baron de Bielfeld, as a Writer, among the most celebrated in Europe. In point of fpirit and elegance, it must be allowed, he is in general much wanting. He is deficient alfo in that species of excellence, which feems, in the prefent age, to characterife works of genius and merit; affecting none of that love of paradox or fingularity of fentiment, for which many late Writers have been fo extravagantly admired,

Our

.: Our Author's manner of thinking is, indeed, rather solid and fenfible, than fingular and ftriking and tho' he may fometimes prove dry and tedious, by dwelling minutely on objects apparently trivial, the nature of his defign affords a fufficient excufe, which not unfrequently obliges him to defcend to fubjects incapable of literary embellifhment. He is not infenfible of this, for which he thus judicioufly apologizes in his chapter concerning the Police.

[ocr errors]

1

Nous ferons obligés de defcendre fouvent dans des details qui paroitront ou ignobles, ou puerils. Cependant on ne fçauroit faire autrement. Ces minuties font de l' effence de la Matière que nous traitons, et ennoblies par le grande utilité qú elles portent à l'etat. Notre fiftème refteroit incomplét, fi, par une délicateffe deplacée, nous voulions retrancher de cet ouvrage tous les objets qui ne paroiffent pas affez relevéz, mais qui font neceffaires.'

The method this Writer pursues, after having intimated the general object of his defign, is regular and judicious; his work being with propriety divided into three principal parts: the first treating of every thing that regards domeftic polity, and the regulations neceffary to the peace, profperity, and internal fecurity of a State.-The fecond treats, in like manner, entirely of foreign affairs, the comparative strength and greatnefs of different nations, their alliances, and of every material circumftance relating to their administration both in peace and war. Thefe two parts are comprehended in the volumes before us; the Author intending, in another volume not yet published, to give the third and laft part, containing a concife and uninterrupted view of the prefent ftate of Eu

rope.

It is not unlikely, however, as we are probably on the eve of a peace, that the publication of this volume may be delayed till the accomplishment of fo defirable an event. In the mean time, how agreeable foever fuch a profpect might be, in the illuftration of the principles laid down in the volumes here prefented to the public, fuch delay can be of little moment to the political Theorift, who will find our Author's fyftem compleated in the prefent publication; of which we fhall therefore endeavour to give our Readers as competent an idea as the limits to which we are neceffarily confined will permit.

To begin with volume the firft.-Our Author divides this part of his work into fixteen chapters; of which the first is introductory to the fubject. In this he obferves, that while

the

the first principles of every other profeffion or science are carefully inveftigated and reduced to a fyftem, those of Polity are neglected; the Art of Government, the most important of all others to fociety, being almoft the only one that is not erected into a science, and taught in a fyftematical manner. To the knowlege of every other art, experience and study, continues he, are confeffedly neceffary; and a methodical application efteemed the only means of acquiring it; while in Politics every one prefumes himself a Mafter, tho' no one entertains the idea of becoming a Scholar. Hence it is, that there are even more Quacks in Polity than in Phyfic; particularly in Republics, and other free States. Thus, in London, for inftance, every Shopkeeper or Artizan, capable of reading the News-papers of the day, takes upon him boldly to cenfure, or dictate measures to, the Government; and even the pooreft Workman at his own trade, pretends to understand compleatly that of the Adminiftration. No fci. ence or art, however, can be attained without application to the means of acquiring it; nor can the ftudy of any be better promoted than by having its vague and unfettled rules reduced to a regular theory.

There are, indeed, a fet of petit-Maitres in Literature, who treat every thing as pedantic that bears the form of a fyftem. Systems, however, are compofed only to facilitate the labour, and affift the application of the Student; by enabling him to range in the fame order in his mind the various objects that present themselves, and to ftore them up with the greater ease in his memory; by which means he will acquire the knowlege of any science with much greater facility than those who read without order, and study without method. This is a rational pedantry, which leads to folid learning; while vague reading, and fuperficial ftudy, confer only the mere tinfel and empty fhew of literature. It is the part of a great Genius to trace fpeedily the out-lines, and comprehend the fuperficies of science; but how often do the ready Wits ftop here? and how frequently are their mighty pretenfions found to be only empty boaft, by men profoundly verfed in real knowlege?

In the fecond chapter, the Author treats of the knowlege neceffary to be acquired before the Student enters on that of Politics.

In the third, he treats of Polity in general, the origin and end of Societies, and the principal objects of the fcience, of which he has undertaken to form of a fyftem.

Thefe

1

1

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »