It bears, not on the calamity abstractedly confidered, but on a moral quality, which it difcerns in the unhappy perfon who is the object of it. It derives in crease from the view of innocence, and sometimes still more from that of repentance. Man alone, of all animals, is fufceptible of it; and this, not by a fecret retrofpect to himself, as fome enemies of the human race have pretended: for, were that the cafe, on ftating a comparison between a child and an old man, both of them unfortunate, we ought to be more affected by the misery of the old man, confidering that we are removing from the wretchednefs of childhood, and drawing nearer to thofe of old age: the contrary, however, takes place, in virtue of the moral fentiment which I have alleged. When an old man is virtuous, the moral fentiment of his distress is excited in us with redoubled force; this is an evident proof, that pity in man is by no means an animal affection. The fight of a Belifarius is, accordingly, a most affecting object. If you heighten it by the introduction of a child, holding out his little hand to receive the alms bestowed on that illuftrious blind beggar, the impreffion of pity is ftill more powerful. But let me put a fentimental cafe: Suppofe you had fallen in with Belifarius foliciting charity, on the one hand, and on the other, an orphan child, blind and wretched, and that you had but one crown, without the poffibility of dividing it, to which of the two would you have given it? If on reflection you find, that the eminent fervices rendered by Belifarius to his ungrateful country, have inclined the balance of fentiment too decidedly in his favour, fuppofe the child overwhelmed with the woes of Belifarius, and at the fame time poffeffing fome of his virtues, fuch as having his eyes put out by his parents, and, nevertheless, continuing to beg alms for their relief*; The rector of a country village, in the vicinity of Paris, not far from Dravet, underwent, in his infancy, a piece of inhuma there would, in my opinion, be no room for hesitation, provided a man felt only: for if you reafon, the cafe is entirely altered; the talents, the victories, the renown of the Grecian general, would prefently abforb the calamities of an obfcure child. Reafon willrecall you to the political intereft, to the I human. The fentiment of innocence is a ray of the divinity. It invests the unfortunate person with a celeftial radiance, which falls on the human heart, and recoils, kindling it into generofity, that other flame of divine original. It alone renders us fenfible to the distress of virtue, by reprefenting it to us incapable of doing harm; for otherwife, we might be induced to confider it as fufficient to itself. In this cafe it would excite rather admiration than pity. Of the Love of Country. It This fentiment is, ftill farther, the fource of love of country; because it brings to our recollection the gentle and pure affections of our earlier years. increases with extenfion, and expands with the progrefs of time, as a fentiment of a celestial and immortal nature. They have, in Swifferland, an ancient mufical air, and extremely fimple, calied the rans des vaches. This air produces an effect fo powerful, that it was found neceffary to prohibit the playing of it, in Holland and in France, before thei Swifs foldiers, because it fet them all a-deferting, one after another. I ima gine that the rans des vaches must imitate the lowing and bleating of the cattle, the repercuffion of the echos, and other local affociations, which made the blood boil in the veins of those poor foldiers, by recalling to their memory the valleys, the lakes, the mountains of their country †, and at the fame time, nity not lefs barbarous, from the hands of his parents. He fuffered caftration from his own father, who was by profeffion a furgeon: he, nevertheless, fupported that unnatural and fon are still in life. parent in his old age. I believe both father I have been told that Poutaveri, the Indian of Taiti, who was fome years ago brought to Paris, on feeing, in the royal garden The fen the companions of their early life, their edly, thus power fully attaches thofe firft loves, the recollection of their in- poor people to the place of their birth. dulgent grandfathers, and the like. It was this which infpired the Greeks The love of country feems to ftrength- and Romans with fo much courage in en in proportion as it is innocent and the defence of their country. unhappy. For this reafon favages are timent of innocence ftrengthens the love fonder of their country than polished of it; because it brings back all the afnations are; and thofe who inhabit re- fections of early life, pure, facred, and gions rough and wild, fuch as moun- incorruptible. Virgil was well actaineers, than thofe who live in fertile quainted with the effect of this fenticountries and fine climates. Never ment, when he puts into the mouth of could the court of Ruffia prevail upon Nifus, who was diffuading Euryalus a fingle Samoïède to leave the fhores from undertaking a nocturnal expedition, of the Frozen Ocean, and fettle at Pe- fraught with danger, thofe affecting terfburg. Some Greenlanders were words: brought, in the course of the last centu- Te fupereffe velim: tua vitâ dignior ætas. ry, to the court of Copenhagen, where If thou furvive me, I shall die content: they were entertained with a profufion Thy tender age deferves the longer life. of kindness, but foon fretted themselves to death. Several of them were drown ed, in attempting to return to their country in an open boat. They beheld all the magnificence of the court of Denmark with extreme indifference; but there was one, in particular, whom they obferved to weep every time he faw a woman with a child in her arms; hence they conjectured, that this unfortunate man was a father. The gentlenefs of domestic education, undoubt garden, the paper mulberry tree, the bark of which is, in that ifland, manufactured into cloth, the tear started to his eye, and clafp. ing it in his arms, he exclaimed; ah! tree of my country! could wifh it were put to the trial, whether, on prefenting to a foreign bird, say a paroquet, a fruit of its country, which it had not feen for a confiderable time, it would exprefs fome extraordinary emotion. Though phyfical fenfations attach us ftrongly to country, moral fentiments alone can give them a vehement intenfity. Time, which blunts the former, gives only a keener edge to the latter. For this reafon it is, that veneration for a monument is always in proportion to its antiquity, or to its diftance; this explains that expreffion of Tacitus: Major è loginquo reverentia: diftance increases reverence. But among nations with whom infancy is rendered miferable, and is corrupted by irkfome, ferocious, and unnatural education, there is no more love of country than there is of innocence. This is one of the caufes which fends fo many Europeans a-rambling over the world, and which accounts for our having fo few modern monuments in Europe; because the next generation never fails to destroy the monuments of that which preceded it. This is the reason that our books, our fashions, our cuftoms, our ceremonies, and our languages, become obfolete fo foon, and are entirely different this age from what they were in the laft; whereas all these particulars continue the fame among the fedentary nations of Afia, for a long feries of ages together; because children brought up in Afia, in the habitation of their parents, and treated with much gentlenefs, remain attached to the establishments of their ancestors, out of gratitude to their memory, and to the places of their birth, from the recollection of their happiness and innocence. (To be continued.) OBSERVATIONS ON THE UTILITY OF DEFINING SYNONYMOUS TERMS; CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 39. IN order to obviate this feeming ob- difference of opinion, refpecting the jection, it must be remembered, that a fame act, in any two countries, may, very naturally, produce a difference in the interpretation of those words that are expreffive of this act in each. Un the claim, and was the foundation on which it was built. The fame notions refpecting vows Ταυρων ' -EL TOTE TOL χαριεντ' επι νηον ερέψας Η ει δη ποτε τοι κατα πιονα μηρί εκηα. nd αιγών, τοδε μοι κρηνον εέλδωρ Flagitare differs from poftulare, and agrees with pofcere. in fuppofing the juftness of the privilege affumed by the petitioner, of judging as to his own claim. Its power, however, is more the idea of being the judge of the valiextenfive than that of pofcere, because to dity of his right, it fuperadds that of effecting his purpose by fuch means as he reckons fit for doing fo. In those defined terms have, in this way, become prevailed among the Greeks, as well as a fruitful fource of controverfy in mat- the Romans. In the prayer of the ters both civil and religious; and even prieft who had been affronted by Agathe fcience of grammar has suffered by memnon, the Grecian bard makes him those inaccuracies of expreffion, which ftate his claim, to be heard in the most it profeffes to remedy in all other fub- exprefs terms. jects. The religious fentiments of the Romans were by no means refined. Vows were prefented as bribes to their deities, into whofe ear they whispered petitions, which they were ashamed to acknowledge in the face of the world. “Turpiffima vota diis infufurrant ; fi quis admoverit aurem, conticefcent, et quod fcire hominem nolunt deo narrant." The prayer of fuch worshippers, then, was a matter of traffic, not an act of devotion. That difinterested beRevolence, in reliance upon which more pious fupplicants prefent their requests, was none of the attributes of the Ro-means, at the fame time, there may be man deity. The humiliation of the devotee was, in his own eyes, an article of merit; and he left the altar, on which he had laid his offering, feeling the obligation imposed on that being to whom it was presented. Many paffages in the Latin claffics confirm the truth of the obfervations now made. a confiderable variety. The petitioner In the oration of Cicero for Plancius, he calls upon Lærerenfis to specify his charge, and to mention any one tribe that his friend bad corrupted in his competition for the ædileship. "Etiam at non tu prece pofcis emaci, Quæ nifi feductis nequeas committere divis. "Antiquam limen Capitolii tangant, alius donum promittit, fi propinquum divitem extulerit, alius, fi thefaurum effoderit. Ipfe fenatus, recti bonique præceptor, mille pando auri Capitolio promittit. Omnibus diis hominibufque que etiam infto atque urgeo, infector, formofior videtur maffa auri, quam pofco atque adeo flagito crimen." There. quicquid Apelles Phidiafve, Græculi is evidently a climax in the five verbs delirantes, fecerunt.". "Prifco inftituto rebus divinis opera datur. Cum aliquid commendandum eft, prece; cum folvendum, gratulatione; cum ex pofcendum, voto.' The vow then among the Romans was a bribe, the acceptance of which was deemed obligatory upon the party who took it. As means lead ing to an end, it neceffarily preceded VOL. LVIII. that compofe this fentence, and the gradation is very happily fupported. By means of pofcere, the orator makes a requifition in behalf of his client, of the juftice of which he had a right to judge and by the public manner in which this requifition was made, he virtually threatens him with the penalties of law, if it was not complied with; which laft Q COR tare. --nec potentem amicum Largiora flagito, Vol. 58conception is involved in the verb flagi- the danger of not complying with his requeft. Thofe which announce the Aufonius Popma defines this verb fentiments of the foldiers by means of very properly," Vehementer et plerum- pofcere, are expreffive of no unbecomque cum ftrepitu et convicio pofcere." ing menace towards their commander, The gentleft power of flagiture, which but make the fulfilment of their right is that in which the petitioner propofes to be led on to battle by him, the conto effect his purpofe only by teazing, dition of their obedience. Many, again, appears in fuch examples as the two fol- whofe request is made by postulare, fuglowing: "Implorare et flagitare auxi- geft a reasonable claim, in which there lium confulis." is not even the fhadow of contumacy. They are willing to obey the orders of their commander with all prudent difpatch, and even in his abfence, and they require a reinforcement, not as a right, but as a means of doing justice to their own courage, and to the caufe which they had efpoufed. The delicacy exhibited by the hiftorian in this defcription, will please the more the longer it is contemplated. He not only delights his reader by an elegant and mafterly difcrimination of the various sentiments then prevalent in the mind of Otho and his followers, but furnishes him alfo with fome curious grammatical facts, which few other writers had ingenuity to perceive. Satis contentus unicis Sabinis. There are other inftances again, in which flagitare implies, that the petitioner threatens the perfon requested, and excites fear, in order to effect his purpose. Ejicite ex animo curam atque alienum æs, There is a paffage in Tacitus, in which the three laft of the five verbs confidered are fo placed, that the mean ing of each is very elegantly and decifively brought forth. The hiftorian is defcribing the fentiments both of Otho and of the army at Bedriacum, which he had left juft before the engagement that was to decide the conqueft between him and Vitellius. "Ibi de prælio dubitatum; Othone per literas flagitante ut maturarent; militibus ut imperator pugnæ adeffet pofcentibus; plerique copias trans Padum agentes acciri poftulabant." By forming this anti-climax, Tacitus gives information to the grammarian which is worthy of his attention. The terms of the Emperor's meffage, in which flagitare is ufed, are expreffive of his authority, and intimate Docere, erudire, inflituere, imbuere, agree in denoting a change produced upon the mind by communication from others, but differ in refpect, either to the ftate of that mind to which the communication is made, or to the means employed in making it. Docere, which, according to Varro, comes from do, fignifies to give information to those who need it, without reference to their previous knowledge, and is a correlative term in refpect to difcere. Thus, Seneca fays, "Homines dum dofcent, dif cunt."—" Itaque non facile eft invenire qui, quod fciat ipfe, alteri non tradat. Ita non folum ad difcendum propenfi fumus, verum etiam ad docendum." That docere is applicable to all who receive inftruction, whether ignorant, or in a certain degree previously inftructed, appears from the following paffages: Quid nunc te Afine literas doceam? non opus eft verbis fed fuftibus." 66 Hoc Hoc quoque té manet, ut pueros elementa docentem Occupet extremis in vicis balba fenectus. conari ?" Docere is almost the only one of the verbs mentioned, that is employed to denote information given as to an event, as well as the acquifition of a new conception. "Cum interea ne literas quidem ullas accepi, quæ me docerent quid ageres." as quod fitum eft in generis humani focie tate, tum ad modeftiam magnitudinemque animi erudivit.” In this laft example, the progreis of man, as the pupil of philofophy, is beautifully painted by erudire in its pureft fenfe. There is no inconfiftency in docere and erudire appearing in one fentence, and being applied to the different degrees of proficiency made by thofe acquiring knowledge. "Neque folum vivi atque præfentes ftudiofos difcendi erudiunt atque docent, fed hoc idem etiam poft mortem monumentis literarum affequuntur." Salluft fays of Sylla, that he was literas Græcis atque Latinis juxta atque doctiffime eruditus." Upon the principles laid down, this compounded expreffion will bear to be analysed. The participle, it should feem, denotes, that he had been regularly inftructed in Greek and Roman literature, and the adverb, that the ftock of his knowledge was fuch, that few, if any, were able to add to it. Erudire, frome and rudis, differs from docere, in referring always to the the rude state of the perfon inftructed, and to the gradual progrefs by which he becomes learned. No fuch expref- an event, which docere does often. fion "fus erudio oratorem," can ex"Obviæ mihi velim fint literæ tuæ, quæ ift, because, when docere is thus ufed, me erudiant de omni re publica, ne hofpes it vilifies the ability of the teacher, and plane veniam." This uncommon ufe of heightens the information of the fcho- erudire feems to juftify the definition lar. When the Romans u'ed the phrafe given of it. Cicero modeftly confeffes fus Minervam, the conftruction was to that ignorance of the affairs of the state, be completed by docere, not by erudire. in confequence of his abfence, which They only admitted in idea the poffibi- is perfectly confiftent with the pure ufe lity of adding one or a few facts to of erudire, and which, when duly rethe flock of knowledge, poffeffed by the prefented, his correfpondent was able goddess of learning. One inftance occurs in Cicero, in which erudire fignifies to inform as to The inftances that follow fhew clear ly, that erudire conftantly implies the abfence of information upon the part of the perfon to be instructed. -qui mollibus annis In patrias artes erudiendus erat. "Inde puerum liberum loco cœptum haberi, erudirique artibus quibus inge nia ad magnæ fortunæ cultum excitantur."" Philofophia omnium mater artium nihil aliud eft quam donum inventum deorum. Hæc nos primum ad illorum cultum, deinde ad jus hominum to remove. Inftituere differs from the preceding verbs in denoting the first step of a progrefs in teaching, and the communica tion of the elements of whatever is the ground of inftruction. The fimple verb ftatuere, in a figurative fenfe, denotes the determination to act, while the compound denotes the commencement of the action that had been refolved upon. It is only, however, as applied to teaching, that this verb can be held fynonymous with the rest of the fet. "Socrates jam fenex inftitui lyra non erubefcebat.” The verb here evidently refers to the |