THE DUTIES OF MEN. BY SILVIO PELLICO; MY TEN YEARS' IMPRISONMENT; FRANCESCA DA LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMAN; RICHTER AND CO., SOHO SQUARE; MILLIKEN AND SON, DUBLIN; ADAM BLACK, EDINBURGH. MDCCCXXXIV. LIFE OF SILVIO PELLICO. It is from a deep conviction of the importance of the great moral held up to our view in the life and writings of Silvio Pellico, (I mean, the practical truth of the christian religion,) that I am induced, at this moment, to bring the subject more fully and circumstantially before the English public. For not only do I conceive this moral to be of equal importance to individuals and to mankind, but that it applies with peculiar force to existing times and circumstances, when the rapid growth of population, and of popular energy and power, promise, at no distant period, to merge former institutions in a more christian and comprehensive system, and render them better adapted to national wants and interests. It is from this consideration that I undertook to present "THE DUTIES OF MEN" to my fellow-countrymen, and to illustrate them, in all their strength and nobleness, from the life of their generous, high-minded, and truly patriotic author. It is now almost universally admitted by all parties, in civilised communities, that, without education, without a more liberal diffusion of knowledge, and cultivation of the social duties and affections in the great mass of the people, the most serious evils may be apprehended. In the impending changes, which the state of the human mind—half unshackled by the press from its old political bondage, and which political knowledge renders inevitable,-there cannot be otherwise any durable peace, any security to life and property, any safeguard or barrier powerful enough to resist the torrent of popular revolutions-a torrent of opinion far wider and more resistless in its course than that of brute, barbaric force, which plunged the world into the long-enduring darkness of the middle ages. But a new era, in connexion with national and social education, and, consequently, with political institutions, is at length drawing nigh: the grand experiment is being made, whether alterations and improvements in the character of man and of society can be effected without undergoing the The severe ordeal of sanguinary revolution. No instances, at least, are yet thought to be on record-not even in the foundation of the United States and in the recent change of the French dynasty; but were wisdom and moderation more frequently shown by other parties no less than by the people, these desirable results of popular movements would be, perhaps, not of rare occurrence. moderation and judgment they must display would be gratifying to humanity; calculated to raise the people in their own eyes; and prove to them that they can achieve, and are entitled to, good government,-and that it is to be obtained without the employment of other than moral and constitutional means. It is, however, a question, whether the mere diffusion of knowledge-the comparative intelligence, or love of scientific pursuits, among a people-will prepare and enable them to go through a pacific course of political amelioration, any more than the possession of lofty genius or singular skill in an individual will confer upon him the brighter moral qualities of the heart. It will be found, indeed, that there often exists a singular disparity between the intellectual and the political condition of a nation; innumerable instances, in which |