rules, to treat with that minuteness or delicacy, which nevertheless their essential character requires. We have seen that the individual is by no means absorbed by the state; it does not pretend to act, feel, think for us; but this would undoubtedly be the case if we attach a moral meaning to our actions, only according to the positive laws of the state. If I am absolutely allowed to do all that the laws of my country allow, and I thus make the state my conscience, a necessary corollary is, that I am also absolutely bound to do all that they demand. How then with nefarious laws? Walter Scott tells us that an earl Patrick on the Zetland Islands made laws against any body's helping vessels likely to be wrecked on the breakers, from no other reason than that iniquitous desire which we find to a very late period in most inhabitants of remote and dangerous coasts (1). The Austrian government permitted to a recent date the reprint of any German work although unauthorized by the author or owner. Thus piratical cheap editions were imported from the imperial dominions into the other parts of Germany to the injury and sometimes the ruin of the lawful owners of the respective works. Was it right to make use of this law of Austria? Charles Gustavus of Sweden, when in a highly critical state in Poland, in the year 1656, ordered that every Polish nobleman of his party, who should kill one on the Polish side, should have half of his fortune; every peasant who should do the same, should be emancipated and have the use of the slain nobleman's estate for six years. Was an individual, even though he sided conscientiously with the monarch, accordingly at liberty to commit murder?

There is no father who would assert that he feels at

liberty to do in his family all that the laws allow or cannot reach; and why is the moral obligation in the family greater than that toward fellow citizens? Most assuredly God will not judge men by the civil code, or the common law of England or the code of France, but by that code, from which all originally flow and which is "the law written in their hearts," their conscience. If this first of all codes is disregarded, its emanations, the positive laws, must in every society soon lose their efficacy. If we are allowed to do all the positive law permits, one or the other thing must necessarily follow: either the laws continue to touch comparatively few relations and things, in which case, lawlessness must be the consequence; or the positive laws embrace all relations, interfere with every thing, and abject servility must be the consequence.

In countries in which the law is habitually and traditionally considered as the supreme ruler, without which we have seen no civil liberty can exist, the citizens are not unfrequently exposed by their very reverence for the law, to extend this positive rule, which nevertheless according to the very essence of the state applies to outward actions only, too far, and to forget that there remain many actions even of political importance which cannot be judged of by laws. Thus it is found sometimes that the mere verdict of not guilty influences persons who judge of the individual in question, as if a verdict in court were meant to be an absolute or moral one. We all know that there is a difference between an honorable acquittal and one produced only by rules of law which are nevertheless necessary and protective, and which may leave an indelible stamp of guilt upon the acquitted person. Burr was acquitted, but few believed

him innocent. That justice in its true sense on the other hand forbids to judge by mere suspicion and appearance, is evident. Pretending to regulate all our actions by the law only, shows a supposition of perfection in the laws which they never can acquire, partly because they are the work of man, partly because they are gradually, and not in all parts evenly developed, and a resolution to exclude from our actions all those noble principles which cannot be demanded, and from which nevertheless the purest actions proceed.

(1) The Pirate.-Until within recent times "a blessed stranding" was prayed for in some churches on the island of Rugen in the Baltic. The people compared it to the innocent prayer for "daily bread" of a physician, and interpreted their own prayer as a request that, if there was any wreck according to the will of God, much of it might be saved and come into their hands. Nothing I believe proves more strikingly how society alone humanizes man, than the fact, that in all countries inhabitants of the sea-coast, remote from society, and near rocks and breakers, are found exceedingly dangerous people, by decoying vessels or destroying the crew, &c., and the remarks which Thucydides makes respecting them applies to many countries in our own times. The discovery of the so-called "land-pirates" on the New Jersey shore, a few years ago, and their crime of enticing vessels by false lights, is in the remembrance of every one.

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ance.

CHAPTER II.

Perseverance.-Justus et tenax.-Necessity and great Effects of Persever-To persevere, our Purpose ought to be good, the Means adapted to the Purpose and the Purpose to the Means; the Means concentrated.-Repeated Action may supply Power; undaunted Perseverance may finally decide by a Trifle.-Fortitude.-Alarmists.-Excitement and Injustice.— Rabies civica.-Calmness of Soul.-Political Fretfulness.-Great Souls are calm.-Peevishness. Political Grumblers (Frondeurs).—Chief Points respecting Firmness.-Consistency.-Inconsistency.-Obstinacy.

XII. THE graceful and ennobling spirit of the Greeks allowed even the serious historian to dedicate each part of his work to one of the muses. If I could have graced the divisions of this book with the names of great and good men, in whose contemplation the mind gathers strength and reassurance, I should have inscribed this division, in which I purpose to treat of Perseverance, with the name of Columbus. Ponder his life, weigh his motives, examine his strength of mind and tenacity of purpose, unsubdued by sneer, haughtiness or clamor, disappointment or difficulty, unshaken by storm, rebellion, treachery or ingratitude; strong from his first obscure setting out in his great career, in the hours of peril, in command or chains, in wealth and in poverty, to the last moment of his illustrious life: and you will have a better commentary, and a real and more inspiring example, than any abstract words can give, of those impressive lines in which the ancient poet has embodied the two substantial virtues of every citizen,

and of every man who means to do what is right and not to leave this life without bequeathing some good performed, upon his fellow men:

Justum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solida, neque Auster

Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ,
Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus:
Sic fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ. (1)

Words which have been hallowed since the brave Cornelius de Witt breathed them on the rack, and expressed his firmness against an impassioned prince and infuriated populace, who would not be appeased but by the pure blood of the patriotic hearts of him and his great brother John de Witt. (2)

(1) Horace, Carm. Lib. iii, 3.

(2) This stern page of history contains one of those periods in the annals of mankind, which deserve a manly and serious consideration of every true lover of his kind. Nowhere, perhaps, is the fearful power of ill-founded and senseless rumor, and the exasperation of the multitude even against the wisest and unsullied patriots, nor the fortitude of the just patriot exemplified in a bolder instance, than in this case. History has done ample justice to the characters and great statesmanship of the brothers John and Cornelius de Witt, and the verdict of not guilty has long been pronounced by posterity, despite of the nefarious attempts of some writers. The best sources respecting the murder of these patriots, are to be found in van Campen, History of the Netherlands. Hamb. 1833, (in Heeren and Ukert, in German) vol. ii, p. 247.