duces a love of leisure and privateness; that it brings into states a relaxation of discipline, whilst every man is more ready to argue than to obey and to execute." If the advocates for political trick, and shuffling, and chicanery, mean that learning unfits men for the highest military honours and excellency, the command of armies, let them blush for the impudence of the assertion, when they are told of the names of Alexander, of Cæsar, of Xenophon, of Epaminondas, Frederick of Prussia, and of Bonaparte; all men of letters, and transcendently versed in the pursuits of human knowledge. But if they mean, that learning disables men from becoming military machines, mere automata, mere puppets, which are to be put in motion whenever the master of the puppet-show, Punch, i. e. the politician, shall deem it proper to touch the wire, I allow the declaration to be true; nor am I yet to learn, that if knowledge had been more generally diffused, we should not have heard in a British house of commons, a secretary at war talk coolly and deliberately of sixty-seven thousand soldiers hav

ing been used up. When such language as this is vomited forth by our senators, can we be at a loss to account for the reasons of the systematic neglect, not to say persecu tion of literature, and of learned men, for some years past? It is well known, that when a soldier happens to be literary, he is always the best qualified to comprehend instructions, to plan enterprises, and to execute with promptitude the most arduous achievements. In a sudden emergency, in the day of danger, in the hour of battle, which is the most likely to extricate himself and his comrades; the man whose intellect has been chastened, invigorated, enlarged, and rendered accurate and clear by cultivation; or the piece of furniture which is acted upon by springs, and put in motion by clock-work? This then cannot be the reason why politicians object to learning; is it not that they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil? is it not that they feel, and know, and fear, that the eagle eye of knowledge will penetrate into the dark recesses of their mysterious iniquity, lay open to the broad glare of day their

hidden enormities, and, by the blaze of its meridian beams, " far round illumine Hell?" If learning incapacitate men from guiding the helm of state, how came it to pass that, under the government of Lorenzo de Medici, when all the political movements were made by learned hands, not only Florence, but all Italy grew, and flourished, and prospered more than at any former or succeeding period? Which is the most fitting, think you, to wield the governmental sceptre, and to sway the councils of a nation, on the broad basis of the public good? he who has laid the foundations of knowledge deep, original, and strong, whose mind has been enlightened, exalted, and purified by the writings of the ancient and modern heroes of literature; or he who has been trammelled, and systematized, and circumscribed in the petty routine of office, the perpetual perpetration of deceit, and the undeviating round of dissimulation, and hypocrisy, and cruelty, and bigotry, and superstition, and blood-sheding? he who has prosecuted his studies by the light of the torch of truth, by the pure, and holy, and incorruptible flame of free

dom, whose step is firm and manly, whose countenance is erect and dignified, whose mind is strengthened and expanded, whose heart is open and undisguised; or the wretch who has fawned, and flattered, and wheedled, and cringed, and crept, and lied himself into office," who bends his tongue, like his bow, for lies, but is not valiant for the truth upon the earth, and proceeds from evil to evil," in whose eye is deceit, under whose smile lurketh destruction, and in whose fair speech is death? Longinus, and Pliny, and Bacon, and Thuanus, and More, and Raleigh, and Clarendon, and ten thousand others whom I could name, were not, I ween, rendered altogether incapable of political employment, on account of their extensive erudition, profound science, and amazing intellect. But learning diverts men from business and labour, and induces a love of ease and privacy. Not when the paramount call of duty speaks aloud. When their country wants, and really wishes their assistance, who so ready to fly to its aid, as men of enlarged capacity, and abundant acquirements? While others endure business

as a task, or have recourse to it in order to advance their fortunes, to increase their consequence, to administer to their lust of power, of pride, of luxury, of envy, of revenge, of malice, of domination; learned men alone execute it for its own sake, and steadily pursue the undeviating path of duty, unwarped, unblenched, unbiassed, inflexible, upright, honourable. Whatever enlarges the capacity of man, renders him more adequate to the ready, and rapid, and accurate dispatch of business: and nothing enlarges the capacity of man so much as learning. But learning undermines the reverence for laws and government. "Ye fools, when will ye be wise? ye simple ones, when will ye get understanding?" Can any thing be more absurd than to object, that a blind custom of obedience is a surer obligation than duty taught and understood? Will a blind man find his way better by a guide, than he who sees will by a light? Learning renders men gentle, generous, amiable, pliant, decorous, observant of orders and of propriety; ignorance makes them brutal, morose, churlish, disobedient, untractable.