428 
grievance shall ever atise in the €¢om- 
monwealth; that, let no midn in this 
world expect, But when complaints 
are freely heard, deeply considered, 
and speedily reformed, then is the ut- 
most bound of civil liberty attained 
that wise men look for.” This and 
other just observations occur in the 
course of his “ Areopagitica.” The 
motives which gave rise.to the follow- 
ing necessarily imply a rational ten- 
derness for the preservation of judi- 
cious and useful works. Milton had 
remarked what Horace, alluded to, 
in his Vicum vendentem, thus et odores ! 
“He who kills aman kills a reasonable 
creature,—God’s image: but he who 
destroys a good book, kills reason. it- 
self,—kills the image of God, as it 
were in the eye. Many a man lives a 
burthen to the carth; but a good book 
is the precious life-blood of a master- 
spirit, embalmed and treasured up, for 
purposes to a life beyond a life.” 
THE RECORDER SYLVESTER. 
This successful lawyer had the 
hardest and blackest physiognomy of 
any man of his time. ‘ His indignation 
must have been terrible to the culprits 
before him, and even his sardonic 
smiles afforded no satisfaction. He 
abounded in anecdote, and used often 
to relate, with much good humour, the 
huinble steps by which he rose from 
half-guinea fees to be the head of the 
principal criminal court in England. 
VICISSITUDE OF FORTUNE, 
A characteristic trait of this some- 
times occurs in the case of ruffians of 
a more gigantic size. Duke John of 
Austria, grandson of Rudolph, from 
being near the seat of sovereign 
power, the sceptre of state, after kill- 
ing King Albert, was reduced to the 
necessity of asking for alms in the 
- Original Poetry. 
[Dec.1, 
New Market at Viennai—Regular 
history furnishes instances of Fortune’s 
shiftmg government, to which good 
and evil are made equally subser- 
vient. The Counts of Hapsburg, an- 
cestors of the house of Austria, were 
originally stewards of the Abbé of 
Seckingen, and butlers to the Bishop 
of Basil. . ; 
HISTORY. 
This may be considered as similar 
in kind to philosophy, though different, 
insomuch that it teaches by exam- 
ples, and inculcates wisdom witheut 
the dangers and sufferings of personal 
experience. It: certainly presents no 
common materials to such as havea 
portion of intellectual penetration. It 
is exactly suited to, and calculated 
for, the statesman. Biography is prin- 
cipally founded on particulars which 
one single object affords, and is more 
likely to be edifying and entertaining 
where the ambition of greatness is not 
the ruling passion. This is for the 
private individual. Thus the Odyssey, 
in general, delights more than the 
Hiad, with all its numerous troop of 
variegated characters. ! 
But Walpole asserted, and. truly, 
that all history is a fable; and itis so 
when historians affect to dive into the 
causes of events of which they seldom 
can. know any thing. An historian is 
like one ignorant of mechanics, who. 
can tell the fact of the hour by look- 
ing atthe dial of a watch, but knows 
nothing of the concealed springs of 
movement. Historians generally write 
as though kings, courts, and ministers, 
were governed by rational causes, and 
were superior, instead of being genec- 
rally inferior in intellect, and in the 
government of their passions, to other 
men. 
ORIGINAL POETRY. 
GRECIAN LIBERTY: 
AN ODE. 
By WILLIAM DUCKETT, of Paris. 
Inscribed to ALEXANDER, Emperor of 
Russia. 
PE, Freedom’s Muse, thy sacred store, 
With bold and vent’rous wing I soar, 
‘Above each common height! 
The of Greece once felt. thy fire, 
And wak’d to rapture ev’ry lyre, 
A son of Freedom calls, raise and support 
his flight. 
Away the Jow, the venal lays, 
That tyrants prais’d, or tyrants praise, 
‘Tis virtue prompts the theme! 
The highest wisdom fires the song, 
To him the purest strains belong, 
Who, seated on a throne, restores the 
Grecian name. 
Great heir of empire! Nature's care! 
Proceed; let man thy influence share, 
Wherever man be found! 
Like Nature self who feeds the whole, 
Let Alexander’s boundless soul — 
Take ev'ry region in, thro’ vast ¢creation’s 
round. i 
Think not thy northern sons alone, 
The care and children of thy throne a 
e 
