34 THE BEE, OR . Dec. 22, 



Little did I dream that I fliould have lived to fee, fuch dif- 

 afters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a na- 

 tion of men of honour, and of cavaliers. I thought ten 

 thoufand fvrords muft have leaped from their fcabbards, to 

 avenge even a look that threatened her with infult. But 

 the age of chivalry is gone : Tliat of fophifters, economills, 

 and calculators, has fucceeded ; and the glory of Europe 

 is extinguifhed for ever. Never, never more (hall we be- 

 hold that generous loyalty to rank and fex, that proud fub- 

 miflion, that dignified obedience, that fubordination of the 

 heart, which kept alive, even in fervitude itfelf, the fpirit of 

 an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap 

 defence of nations, the nurfe of manly fentiment and heroic 

 enterprife', is gone I It is gone ! that fenfibility of principle, 

 that chaility of honour, which felt a ftain like a wound, which 

 irifpircd courage whilll it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled 

 whatever it touched, and under which vice itfelf loft half 

 its evil, by lofmg all its grofihefs. 



This mixed fyftcm of opinion and fentiment, had its ori- 

 gin in the ancient chivalry : and the principle, though va- 

 ried in if^ appearance by the varying ftate of human affairs, 

 fublifted and induenced through a long fucceffion of gene- 

 rations, even to the time we live in. If it fliould ever be 

 totally extinguilhed, the lofs, I fear, will be great. It is 

 this which has given its character to modern Europe. It is 

 this which has diftinguilhed it under all its forms of govern- 

 ment, and didinguilhed it to its advantage, from the ftates 

 of Afia, and polTibly from thofe ftates which flouriftied in 

 the moft brilliant periods of the antique world. It was 

 this, which, without confounding ranks, had produced a no- 

 ble equality, and handed it down through all the gradations 

 of focial life. It was this opinion which mitigated kings 

 into companions, and raifed private men to be fellows with 

 kings. Without force or oppofition, it fubdued the fierce- 

 refs of pride and power •, it obliged fovereigns to fubmit to 

 the foft collar of focial efteem, compelled ftern authority to 

 fubmit to elegance, and gave a domination vanquiflier of 

 laws to be fubdued by manners. 



But now all is to be changed ; all the pleafing illufions 

 ■which made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which 

 harmonized the different fhades of life, and which, by a 

 bland affiraulation, incorpgrated into politics, the fenti- 



