342 LITERARY TASTE. 



And yet would yon believe that the man wUq 

 pronounced that farrago of bombastic nonsense, 

 has been a governor, a vice-president, and God 

 knows what ; and that he is passed off as a para- 

 gon of wisdom, and an exemplar of greatness. 

 With intellect not more than sufficient to preside 

 over the shop-board of a tailor, or to conduct tlie 

 destinies of a village school, he has by the force 

 of fortuitous circumstances attained to ephemeral 

 consequence. D'Alembert has justly observed 

 that " the apices of the loftiest pyramids in church 

 and ^tate are only attained by eagles or reptiles.'^ 

 The history of democracies continually exhibits 

 tlie rise of pernicious demagogues warring against 

 wisdom and virtue, philosophy and patriotism — 

 but why do I con^ne this remark to any particu- 

 lar form of government ? The spirit of the obser- 

 vation will apply to human nature in all its forms 

 and varieties. Even in the Augustan age of 

 Great Britain, Elkanah Settle was set up as the 

 rival of Dryden — and Stephen Duck was put in 

 competition with Pope. This levelling princi- 

 ple gratifies two unworthy feelings; it endeavors 

 to mortif}^ the truly great by its flagrant injustice^ 

 and it strives to lower them down to our own de- 

 pression of insignificance. Posterity, however, 

 will dispense justice with unerring hand, and with 

 impartial distribution, and the great men who are 



