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When is the bloody standard of civil discord unfurled? when does father fight against son, and the child rise up against his parent? when are the laws trampled on, humanity violated, and justice set at nought? Is it in the period of refinement, of cultivation, of literature, of science; or in the time of mental darkness, of ignorance, of barbarism, of Vandalic gloom? Of good, and just, and mild, and equitable government learning is the firm, and unalterable, and unbending supporter; but of despotic sway and tyrannic domination the sworn and eternal foe, the terror, the scourge, the destroyer. Arbitrary rule and general diffusion of learning cannot exist together in the same kingdom. They are the ignorant, only, who cower under the wings of despotism. And do we wonder, that politicians have proscribed, and denounced, and execrated learning, by endeavouring to fix on it the brand of turbulence, of sedition, of anarchy, of tumult, of disobedience; when they well know that all unjust and wicked power exists but under the shelter of ignorance, and must melt away into nothing at the approach of the

sun of knowledge? For, whoever has looked round on human society, and observed the diversified errors and vices by which it is debased and corrupted, will be able to trace them to one general source, the ignorance of the people. Look at the slave of Turkish, of German, or of Spanish despotism, you will observe him to be, at the same time, the slave of ignorance. It is amongst an untaught and ignorant people that despotism strides with more gigantic steps, and lifts herself up with greater arrogance of front; it is then she appears more powerful and mighty, contrasted with the universal littleness and degradation around her. There is nothing in arbitrary domination alone that captivates the affections, or unites with the inclinations of man. It is not the splendour of the purple that fascinates; it is not the weight of the sceptre that controls. To the high-spirited resistance of a people endued with knowledge and intelligence, these would be weakly and ineffectually opposed. Soon would the rod fall from the enervated grasp of the tyrant, and the uplifted sabre drop from the withered arm of his affrighted

satellite. But it is ignorance which subdues and debilitates the powers of the mind, and gradually tames them into a drowsy and silent acquiescence to every species of oppressive and of cruel authority.

ESSAY XVI.

ON GRINNING.

As a supplement to my essays on risibility, I shall add a few observations on grinning, as contradistinguished to laughter, which is the offspring of innocence and mirth; but grinning is the child of mischief and malignity. "A propensity to grinning denoteth a perverted intellect, and a corrupted heart;" as, I trust, the instances of grinning, which I am about to adduce, will fully demonstrate. When a chair is slily drawn from under a person, and he falls to the ground, with much detriment to his body, the grinners are well pleased, and evince their pleasure by the most vile distortions of countenance.

When a wretch finds his school-fellow asleep with his mouth open, and puts in a tallow candle, which, by the morning, is sucked in and swallowed, wick and all, nearly to the suffocation, and absolutely to the most distressing sickness of the poor boy; this is called a good joke, it is termed fine fun; whereas it is cruelty, and barbarity, and productive of a grin. The sneers and insults passed on boys newly come to school, or lads newly initiated into a university, by their school and college companions, are to be put down to the score of grinning. When little miss exultingly shows her play-mate, who has no such bauble, a new doll, or sash, or ribbon, or any other trumpery; when my lady descants on the elegance of her furniture to her neighbours, whose circumstances are not very affluent; when a courtier kindly relates the annual value of his sinecure place to a man who expected that place, but was disappointed; they all, severally, show, that they are become proficients in the art of grinning, which is always employed in creating distress, and then sneering at that distress; or, it

will be contented, for want of better employment, to rejoice in those misfortunes, which itself has not produced, but has only casually heard of. Tell one of these animals, that his neighbour's house has been burned. down, his horse stolen, his wife dead, his daughter seduced, his fortune annihilated, and he will "grin horrible a ghastly smile." Many a very good woman, who does not imagine that she is a grinner, takes great pleasure in insinuating the infirmities of her acquaintance; that such a one drinks, another is no better than she should be, a third should be a little more cautious as to what places she frequents; and so on, through the whole catalogue of slander, till she has grinned herself into a belief, that all her neighbours are worthless, and she, only, a good creature. Your connoisseurs are, in general, dreadful grinners: with them the Venus and Adonis of Titian is a daubing; the three Maries of Hannibal Caracci, a smear; and the Last Day, by Rubens, a jumble: they shrug up the shoulder, and hint, that the Apollo Belvidere is vulgar; the Hercules Farnese, bandy-legged; and the Antinous

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