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which Jesus afterwards suffered, Abraham prophesied the manifestation on the cross of incarnate Godhead.

It is interesting to perceive, that the wise heathen, Seneca, entertains the same just ideas of implicit obedience which are so eminently characteristic of the Father of the faithful. The philosopher is found to speak as follows: "A law [or a mandate] should be brief, that it may be more easily retained by the unlearned, as if it were a voice sent from the gods: it should command, not argue, for nothing seems to me more frigid, or more foolish, than a law with a reason: tell me what you would have me do, I will not dispute about it, but obey, for in a law I require not reasons, but authority." So thought Seneca, and so did Abraham: if the mandate come indeed from heaven, Faith is not to wait for the tortoise step of Reason: her office, her nature, her name, imply not merely credence, but obedience.

SEMIRAMIS.

STUPENDOUS Babylon! before mine eyes
Thy mountain walls, and marble terraces,
Domes, temples, tow'rs, and golden palaces
In visioned recollection grandly rise

Huge and obscure, as icebergs in a cloud;
And mingling there a dense barbaric crowd
Throng thy triumphal car with eastern state
Moon of the world, Semiramis the Great!

Ambiguous shade of majesty supreme

Upon the night of ages limn'd sublime,

We think of thee but as a glorious dream,

And, waiving those dark hints of unproved crime, Fain would we hope thee great and good combin'd To hail thee patriot Queen, and mighty Mind.

The supercilious detraction which female character almost invariably meets with in the masculine page of history is several times alluded to in this volume. Greatness, especially when manifested in the weaker sex, has always been a target for the envenomed. darts of envy;

ness.

"Sævius ventis agitatur ingens
"Pinus, et celsæ graviore casu
"Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos

Fulgura montes."

but it is surely more philosophical, as well as more charitable to conclude that popular opinion would never long endure the blasting rule of monsters of depravity; at least, in the absence of-" most damning proof," we ought not to believe that unequalled greatness is closely allied with unparalleled wickedIf we are to credit the voice of common fame in both instances, there is much of similarity between Assyrian Semiramis and Catherine Alexiewna II. of Russia, both in their public and private characters: but, however opinions may be permitted to differ as to their respective moral delinquencies, no man would be hardy enough to affirm that they were not magnificent sovereigns, and the ruling spirits of

their several eras. Semiramis is supposed to have lived about 1965 before Christ, and to have reigned twenty-five years: she is accused of many crimes, but would appear to have lived in the affection of her subjects, and to have died with their worship. The gallant Raleigh does not scruple to say, (i.182,) “As for her vicious life I ascribe the report thereof to the envious and lying Grecians: for delicacy and ease do more often accompany licentiousness in men and women, than labour and hazard do: and if the one half be true which is reported of this lady, then there never lived any prince or princess more worthy of fame than Semiramis was." It is commonly accounted a mark of high civilization, especially when we consider the antiquity of eastern prejudices respecting women, to find female sovereigns in the list of Assyrian, Egyptian, and Abyssinian monarchs; and, if we had not even now extant the mouldering ruins of gigantic enterprise to witness it, this fact is alleged enough to render credible much that we hear of ancient excellence in the arts and sciences: it must however be taken merely as an evidence of high gallantry; for it is questioned by many wise men, adhuc sub judice lis, whether, as to female domination, the Salique law of good King Pharamond is or is not in effect one very wholesome for the interests of society, and strictly accordant with the revealed doctrine of headship. Mrs. Jameson's testimony upon this point is very decided that lady says in her preface to the Lives of Female Sovereigns, "On the whole, it seems in

un

disputable that the experiments hitherto made in the way of female government have been signally unfortunate; and that women called to empire have been, in most cases, conspicuously unhappy or criminal. So that, were we to judge by the past, it might be decided at once, that the power which belongs to us, as a sex, is not properly, or naturally, that of the sceptre or the sword." This candid admission from one so competent, and, upon principles of human nature, in such a case so willing a witness, must have considerable weight: and in reference to the subject, it cannot escape the observation of some, that the prophet Isaiah enumerates among the woes of Israel, chap. iii. 12, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." The condition of Spain and Portugal in our own day illustrates the cause and consequence. It will be profitable however to consider on the other hand, that the peculiar constitution which Tacitus lauds as the best, (Ann. iv. 33) is one almost independent of the advantages or disadvantages of sex; that Edmund Burke was philosophically justified in his seeming paradox concerning the crown; and that, even if the verdict of history has hitherto been unsatisfactory, (a position which many think they have a right to dispute,) still the future is ever a fair field of hope open to all, and moderns possess the incalculable advantage of being competent to profit by the errors of their ancestors.

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