142 LITERARY TASTE, 



And yet would you believe that the man who 

 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 the 

 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 state are only attained by eagles or reptiles." 

 The history of democracies continually exhibits 

 the rise of pernicious demagogues warring against 

 wisdom and virtue, philosophy and patriotism — 

 but why do I confine 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 mortify the truly great by its flagrant injustice, 

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

 pression of insignificance. Posterity, however, 

 v nse justh e with unerring hand, and with 



impartial distribution, and the great men who are 



