88 CROMWELL. 



as it is of either of the liberal professions. 



It would be a difficult matter to de- 

 cide whether to place it in the category 

 of our virtues or our vices, for it is an 

 allurement both to the good and the bad, 

 of every age and nation. It is a deity 

 that is worshipped alike by the warrior 

 and the priest the statesman and the poet 

 the lawyer and the doctor, in the higher 

 sphere the mechanic and the merchant 

 the industrious and the idle the honest 

 man and the thief, in the lower. 



All sacrifice at its shrine, all are eager 

 alike to mount its ladder, and all are sub- 

 ject by a false step to fall " e'en from its 

 topmost round." In vain, then, has our 

 great bard said, 



" Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ! " 



It was ambition that made that 

 quondam butcher's boy, into whose mouth 

 the poet put these words, a priest and a 



