come also more regular, and consequently more limited, and to the lofty effusions, the irregularity of genius, succeed the temperate calmness, the methodical arrangement of more refined composition, Numerous reflections crowd on the mind when surveying this wonderful revolution in the ideas and pursuits of mankind. I have always thought it a part of history most replete with interest and instruction; it teaches man the real strength of his faculties, the efforts and improvement of which they are capable; and above all, the necessity of exertion. The record of sanguinary contests, of "empires lost and won” may dazzle the imagination, and amuse the fancy; but the gradual advancement of society from rudeness and confusion, to refinement and order; the tardy but certain progress of the arts and sciences to perfection, are objects far more worthy the attention, more important to the interests of humanity. When we look on the present con dition of the European states, who seem to have surpassed every possible degree of elegance and knowledge; when we observe the nicety to which the rules of taste are reduced, and the exact discrimination with which the least infringement of them is detected, and exposed to the severity of criticism, can we think it credible that their citi

zens are the lineal posterity of those unsettled tribes, whose very name conveys the idea of savage, unlettered barbarians, whose actions demonstrate that the term is not wrongly applied? Who then will refuse the proper tribute of praise to that art, and to the professors of it, which has been most instrumental in introducing and perfecting this momentous improvement? Poetry is the first of the finer arts, into which uncivilized nations deviate, and the veneration which they universally attached to the character of their bards and minstrels, proves the influence which it possessed over their hearts. The Orpheus, the Amphion of antiquity, were the first civilizers of their native country; the first who united their countrymen in the bonds of society, who softened the uncouth asperity of their manners by the power of their strains, added to the attraction of the art which they had invented.

N.

THE

MINIATURE.

NUMB. IV.

MONDAY, May 14, 1804.

Sic omnia fatis

In pejus ruere, ac retro sablapsa referri.

Virg. Geor. 1. v. 200,

Thus all below, whether by nature's curse,
Or Fate's decree, degenerate into worse.

DRYDEN.

HAVING already examined the slow progress of nations to civilization, and the various obstacles or impediments which the weakness of human nature, or attendant circumstances might oppose to their rising from darkness into light; I am now led on to consider, (and it is a melancholy consideration) how rapidly those very nations which have been thus slowly cultivated into perfection, sink from the heighth of grandeur,

and seem to have shone with meridian splendor, only to be overwhelmed by deeper obscurity; as those brilliant meteors which blaze with momentary lustre, then suddenly vanishing away, seem to have added new darkness to the horizon, and thicken the contrasted horrors of the night.

Many nations indeed have lost their freedom, and every pretension to fame, from the very means they have sought the more certainly to preserve them. There seems to be a certain pitch of elevation, beyond which humanity cannot attempt to arrive with impunity. This observation equally applies to nations as to individuals, and if we look over the face of history, we shall find this position to be accurately true, and that when once any empire or dominion sought to overstep that height of power which nature or the common good of the universe have sanctioned, immediate ruin and perdition have succeeded. In every period of antiquity, some particular nation has had the evident superiority over the rest of the world, but this summit of power has alternately been transferred from one to the other, so that in the end, political justice has been faithfully administered to all.

The Deity appears, from the very first foundation of societies, to have weighed out a certain

portion of strength, with which alone it were prudent that human weakness might be entrust÷ ed, and never to have exceeded the first allowance; for there seems ever to have been the same degree of power upon earth, never much encreas+ ed or much diminished; but now assigned to one nation, now to another, as this political justice would demand. The distribution of power in antiquity had this difference from the manner of its present distribution; formerly one dominion at a time engrossed the whole allowance; at present it is more equally divided among many.

Each quarter of the globe known to the ancients has possessed, or actually possesses the supreme power. Asia gave birth to the first monarchy, and has sent her Saracens to conquer the greatest part of Africa and Europe. Africa lays claim to kingdoms almost equal in antiquity, entirely equal in power to those of Asia, and in her bosom the young sciences and arts were first nurtured. Europe has in her turn received, and still maintains, the superiority over these her predecessors in fame; and it is more than possible that the newly found America will, in the progress of futurity, behold herself regarded as successor in strength to her discoverers.