ners-inflexible in his principles-and generous in his affections, he had all that could charm in society, or attach in private: and while his friends enjoyed the free and unstudied conversation of an easy and intelligent associate, they had at all times the proud and inward assurance that he was a being upon whose perfect honour and generosity they might rely with the most implicit confidence, in life and in death,—and of whom it was equally impossible, that, under any circumstances, he should ever perform a mean, a selfish, or a questionable action, as that his body should cease to gravitate, or his soul to live!

If we do not greatly deceive ourselves, there is nothing here of exaggeration or private feeling-and nothing with which an indifferent and honest chronicler would not concur. Nor is it altogether idle to have dwelt so long on the personal character of this distinguished individual; for we are ourselves persuaded, that this personal character has almost done as much for the cause of science and philosophy among us, as the great talents and attainments with which it was combined and has contributed, in a very eminent degree, to give to the better society of this our city that tone of intelligence and liberality by which it is honourably distinguished. It is not a little advantageous to philosophy that it is in fashion-and it is still more advantageous, perhaps, to the society which is led to confer on it this apparently trivial distinction. It is a great thing for the country at large-for its happiness, its prosperity, and its renown-that the upper and influencing part of its population should be made familiar, even in its untasked and social hours, with sound and liberal information, and be taught to respect those who have distinguished themselves by intellectual attainments. Nor is it, after all, a slight or despicable reward for a man of genius to be received with honour in the highest and most elegant society around him, and to receive in his living person that homage and applause which is too often reserved for his memory. Now, those desirable ends can never be effectually ac

complished, unless the manners of our leading philosophers are agreeable, and their personal habits and dispositions engaging and amiable. From the time of Hume and Robertson, we have been fortunate in Edinburgh in possessing a succession of distinguished men, who have kept up this salutary connexion between the learned and the fashionable world; but there never, perhaps, was any one who contributed so powerfully to confirm and extend it, and that in times when it was peculiarly difficult, as the lamented individual of whom we are now speaking; and they who have had the most opportunity to observe how superior the society of Edinburgh is to that of most other places of the same size, and how much of that superiority is owing to the two aristocracies of rank and of letters-of both of which it happens to be the chief provincial seat-will be the best able to judge of the importance of the service he has thus rendered to its inhabitants, and through them, and by their example, to all the rest of the country. Mr. Jeffrey,

AN AMERICAN LITTLE GREAT MAN.

To rise in this country * a man must first descend. The aspiring politician may be compared to that indefatigable insect called the Tumbler, (pronounced, by a distinguished personage, to be the only industrious animal in Virginia), which buries itself in filth, and works ignobly in the dirt until it forms a little ball, which it rolls laboriously along, (like Diogenes's tub) sometimes head, sometimes tail, foremost, pilfering from every rut and mud-hole, and increasing its ball of greatness by the contributions of the kennel.-Just so the candidate for greatness; he plunges into that mass of obscenity the mob, labours in dirt and oblivion, and makes unto himself the rudiments of a popular name

* America.

from the admiration and praises of rogues, ignoramuses, and blackguards. His name once started, onward he goes, struggling, and puffing, and pushing it before him, collecting new tributes from the dregs and offals of the land as he proceeds, until, having gathered together a mighty mass of popularity, he mounts it in triumph, is hoisted into office, and becomes a great man, and a ruler in the land,-all this will be clearly illustrated by a sketch of a worthy of the kind, who sprang up under iny eye, and was hatched from pollution by the broad rays of popularity, which, like the sun, can "breed maggots in a dead dog."

Timothy Dabble was a young man of very promising talents, for he wrote a fair hand, and had thrice won the silver medal at a country academy ;he was also an órator, for he talked with emphatic volubility, and could argue a full hour, without taking either side, or advancing a single opinion :-he had still farther requisites for eloquence,-for he made very handsome gestures, had dimples in his cheeks when he smiled, and enunciated most harmoniously through his nose. In short, Nature had certainly marked him out for a great man; for though he was not tall, yet he added, at least, half an inch to his stature by elevating his head, and assumed an amazing expression of dignity by turning up his nose and curling his nostrils, in a style of conscious superiority. Convinced by these unequivocal appearances, Dabble's friends in full caucus*, one and all, declared that he was, undoubtedly, born to be a great man, and it would be his own fault if he were not one. Dabble was tickled with an opinion which coincided so happily with his own,-for vanity, in a confidential whisper, had given him the like intimation, -and he reverenced the judgment of his friends, because they thought so highly of him ;-accordingly he set out with a determination to become a great man, and to start in the scrub-race for honour and renown. How to attain the desired prizes was, however, the

Assembly or committee.

question. He knew by a kind of instinctive feeling, which seems peculiar to groveling minds, that honour, and its better part,-profit, would never seek him out; that they would never knock at his door and crave admittance, but must be courted, and toiled after, and earned. He therefore strutted forth into the highways, the market-places, and the assemblies of the people, -ranted like a true cockerel orator about virtue, and patriotism, and liberty, and equality, and himself. Full many a political windmill did he battle with; and full many a time did he talk himself out of breath, and his hearers out of their patience. But Dabble found, to his vast astonishment, that there was not a notorious political pimp at a ward-meeting but could out-talk him; and, what was still more mortifying, there was not a notorious political pimp but was more noticed and caressed than himself. The reason was simple enough, while he harangued about principles, the others ranted about men; where he reprobated a political error, they blasted a political character;-they were, consequently, the most useful: for the great object of our political disputes is, not who shall have the honour of emancipating the community from the leading-strings of delusion, but who shall have the profit of holding the strings, and leading the community by the nose.

Dabble was likewise very loud in his professions of integrity, incorruptibility, and disinterestedness,-words which, from being filtered and refined through newspapers and election hand-bills, have lost their original signification, and in the political dictionary are synonymous with empty pockets, itching palms, and interested ambition. He, in addition to all this, declared that he would support none but honest men ;-but, unluckily, as but few of these offered themselves to be supported, Dabble's services were seldom required. He pledged himself never to engage in party schemes or party politics, but to stand up solely for the broad interests of his country;-so he stood alone, and, what is the same thing, he stood still; for, in this country, he who does not side with either party is like a body in a

vacuum between two planets, and must for ever remain motionless.

Dabble was immeasurably surprised that a man so honest, so disinterested, and so sagacious withal,-and one too, who had the good of his country so much at heart, should thus remain unnoticed and unapplauded. A little worldly advice, whispered in his ear by a shrewd old politician, at once explained the whole mystery. "He who would become great," said he, "must serve an apprenticeship to greatness, and rise by regular gradation: like the master of a vessel, who commences by being scrub and cabin-boy, he must fag in the train of great men, echo all their sentiments, become their toad-eater and parasite,- laugh at all their jokes, and, above all, endeavour to make them laugh; if you only now and then make a great man laugh, your fortune is made. Look but about you, youngster, and you will not see a single little great man of the day but has his miserable herd of retainers, who yelp at his heels, come at his whistle, worry whoever he points his finger at, and think themselves fully rewarded by sometimes snapping up a crum that falls from the great man's table. Talk of patriotism, and virtue, and incorruptibility!-tut, man!--they are the very qualities that scare munificence, and keep patronage at a distance. You might as well attempt to entice crows with red rags and gunpowder. Lay all these scare-crow virtues aside, and let this be your maxim, that a candidate for political eminence is like a dried herring, he never becomes luminous until he is corrupt."

Dabble caught with hungry avidity these congenial doctrines, and turned into his pre-destined channel of action with the force and rapidity of a stream which has, for a while, been restrained from its natural course. He became what nature had fitted him to be ;-his tone softened down from arrogant self-sufficiency to the whine of fawning solicitation. He mingled in the caucuses of the sovereign people, adapted his dress to a similitude of dirty raggedness, argued most logically with those who were of his own opinion, and slandered, with all