consented to move forward on the actual expedi- this respect, because while he was engaged in tion against the Great King. difficulties, he saw a great light proceeding from Jupiter."

That the sleep of Xenophon on that fearful night should be short and troubled, we can well believe. That the young wanderer, (for we are satisfied he was then a youth, though this is disputed by the learned; and what will not the learned dispute?) that the young wanderer, on such a night, should dream or think of his paternal house, and that his dream or reverie should be tinged with the dark hue of all around him, is perfectly consistent with the philosophy of the human mind; and his firm and courageous spirit, the buoyancy of youth and hope, might well dictate the happy interpretation to his troubled dream. Then follows a council of officers and men-the choice of generals, in which Xenophon was chosen on the part of the Athenians

His narrative of the march is brief, but full of interest; but our limits will not permit us to touch upon any of its incidents. At length the army of Artaxerxes appeared, covering, with its locust swarms, an immense plain between the Euphrates and Tigris, about one hundred miles above the city of Babylon. The battle was joined, and the account which Xenophon gives of it calls to our recollection forcibly the remarks of M. Cousin, of the myriads of men who meet and contend in battle in Asia, and of whom and of whose deeds the history of their country retains no trace. There, indeed, the individuality of man is swallowed up and lost in the mighty ocean of being, and they therefore have no history. At the first onset Cyrus fell; but the Greeks drove the enemy opposed to them from the field: they encamped on the battle-ground, the march, and the means taken by the Perand made fires to dress their food of the darts sians to force the Greeks into the Carduchian and arrows of the Persians and the wooden mountains. shields of the Egyptians; and for two days they believed Cyrus to be alive and conqueror.

The conduct of the Persians subsequent to the battle, satisfies us that their first object was to get the Greeks in their power, by any artifice, and make such fearful example of them as would prevent the future march of their armies into Persia; but if this were impracticable, to lead them where they could find their way, through many difficulties, out of the kingdom, and to harass, but not cut off, their retreat. For this purpose they first negotiated: they furnished the Greeks provisions, and led them down the Tigris many days' march out of their route, partly that they might see the numerous army which was marching from Susa and Ecbatana, to the aid of the Great King, and partly that, on failing to ensnare them, they might dismiss them by the shortest way out of the kingdom into the mountains of the Carduchians, where they would probably perish by the rigor of the climate and by the swords of that warlike people.

The night after the commander, Clearchus, and the other principal officers of the Greeks were taken by treachery and put to death, and when the Greeks lay disheartened in their camp, without officers and without order, not knowing what to do, expecting an attack and unprepared for defence, Xenophon says he "was of the number, had his share in the general sorrow, and was unable to rest."

"However, getting a little sleep, he dreamed: he thought it thundered and a flash of lightning fell upon his paternal house, which, upon that, was all in a blaze. Immediately he woke in a fright, and looked upon his dream as happy in

The snow, two fathoms deep, which they encountered in this inhospitable region, has caused much discussion and some doubt, but we do not perceive that it is at all wonderful. It was in the midst of winter-they had approached the latitude of 43°-those mountains are the most elevated part of western Asia, for they give rise to the Euphrates and Tigris, and the rivers which flow northward into the Caspian and the Euxine seas, and the climate, which throughout nearly all Europe is insular, rendered mild by the western breezes from the Atlantic, is here far removed from their influence, and corresponds with the same parallel of latitude and the same elevation in the interior of the American continent.

The army suffered much; but they felt their capacity to overcome every difficulty, and face every danger that awaited them; and they met them cheerfully, One encounter of wit between Xenophon and Cheirosophus, the Lacedemonian general, is worthy of notice.

While they were marching through the country of the Chalybians, they saw the natives in great force posted on a hill to dispute their passage. Cheirosophus proposed to attack themXenophon objected, and advised that they should "steal a march" on them under cover of the night, and take possession of a hill which commanded that on which the enemy was posted.

"But why," said he, " do I mention stealing? since I am informed that among you Lacedemonians, those of the first rank practise it from their childhood, and that instead of being a dishonor, it is your duty to steal those things which the law has not forbidden; and, to the end that you may learn to steal with the greatest dexterity

and secrecy imaginable, your laws have provided milder climes. Hence the unmixed and primithat those who are taken in theft shall be whip- tive Britons are still found, after so many ages, ped. This is the time for you to show how far (conquered but not expelled) in the mountains your education has improved you, and to take of Wales. A kindred people of the Celtic race, care that in stealing this march we are not disco- in spite of Gothic and Moorish conquests, still vered, lest we suffer severely." occupy the mountains of Biscay in Spain, and the Pyrennean portion of Catalonia is held by a still more ancient people, who are believed to have occupied it before the Phenician navigators pushed their discoveries to the shores of the Peninsula. So it is universally, whenever a mountain region of great extent is once possessed by a people far enough advanced in civilization to provide for their own sustenance and to know the arts of war, they and their posterity hold it

Cheirosophus answered, "I am also informed that you Athenians are very expert in stealing the public money, notwithstanding the danger you are exposed to, and that your best men are the most expert at it; that is, if you choose your best men for your magistrates-so this is a proper time for you to show the effects of your education."

In passing through the country of the Taocheans, a wild mountain race, who inhabited fast-forever. nesses, into which they had conveyed all their provisions, the Greeks suffered much with hunger.

"At last the army arrived at a strong place, which had neither city nor houses upon it, but where great numbers of men and women, with their cattle, were assembled: this place Cheirosophus ordered to be attacked the moment he came before it."

But we must hasten to a conclusion. We cannot even refer to the various other productions of our author; but we earnestly recommend him to our young readers, as one whose works are full of interest, and as the master of a style which for neatness, perspicuity and beauty, has never been excelled.

INFLUENCE OF MORALS.

By a Native of Petersburg, Va.

There is, perhaps, no branch of literature, which is

At length the fastness was stormed. "And here followed a dreadful spectacle indeed; for the women first threw their children down the precipices and then themselves; the men did the same. And here Æneas the Stym-less likely to attract public attention than moral essays; phalian, a captain, seeing one of the barbarians, who was richly dressed, running with a design to throw himself off, caught hold of him, and the other drawing him after, they both fell down the precipice together, and were dashed to pieces." It does not appear, that Xenophon kept a regular journal of his marches and the incidents which occurred on either the Expedition or Retreat. It is probable the account was written many years after from memory, and that hence some geographical errors crept in, which have so much puzzled his commentators. But his general accuracy is confirmed by modern travellers; and ancients, as well as moderns, from the age of Marcus Crassus and Mark Anthony down to the present time, concur in fixing the same character to the wild and primitive, and it would seem unchanging, inhabitants of the mountain regions through which he passed.

Perpetual occupancy appears to belong to a mountain race. Their barren hills, which are fruitful in no product

"But man and steel, the soldier and the sword," seldom invite the inroads of the conqueror, while the passionate love of the mountaineer for his wild fastnesses and still wilder freedom, forbids him to wander in search of fairer lands and

and yet there is no subject which, in this age of superficial reading, is more beautifully instructive. To throw around the sublime truths of morality the attractions of a graceful style, and to commend the cup of bitter ingredients to the diseased palate, by touching its brim with earthly sweets, is a task, which the writer of these essays has rashly assumed and imperfectly executed. Leading errors which have long been assumed as unquestionable dogmas, have been rudely assailed; interwoven with the fibres of our heart, however repultime-honored prejudices, which have been intricately sive to our cooler judgments, have been combatted; and notwithstanding the novelty of the positions, which have been hardily assumed, and as confidently maintained on this unpopular theme, we have been well pleased to observe the tolerance of the public in the calm perusal of strictures upon received opinions hitherto unquestioned, and deemed to be indisputable. But that the patience of our readers may not be abused by frequent disquisitions upon a subject so apparently unattractive in itself, we propose turning aside for a season from the paths of severe disquisition, to tread the flowery and enchanting regions of the marvellous.* We propose in the present number to discuss the influence of Romance on Morals, and to estimate the merits of works of fiction by the dictates of a liberal but sound judgment, and not by the austere rules of

It is proper to state, that in the discussion of this interesting question, we have borrowed largely from a manuscript placed in our hands by an intelligent friend, whose genius beautifully illustrates whatever it touches.

morality. To judge thus harshly, would be to strip | countenance, expel Homer, Walter Scott, and the them of all their beauty; for, these sportive creations of whole regiment of romancers. But while thus discharg the fancy, like the wings of the butterfly, when pressed ing a solemn duty, he would pour out perfumes upon too closely by the hand of the admiring naturalist, lose their heads, and entwine their brows with garlands of that flower of beauty, which seems to have been woven flowers. He might be supposed thus to address them: of air and light. We are slow to imitate the eagerness "Here o'er our minds stern reason holds her sway. of the child of fortune, in the Eastern tale, who, not Here the law commands and regulates our action. content with the brilliant prospect around him, rashly We are happy, because we are just; we are just, beapplied the mystical unguent to both eyes, whereby the cause our imaginations are quiet, and the violent pasfountain of light was sealed forever. There have been, sions tamed or driven from our hearts. You cannot, and are stern moralists, who utterly repudiate all works sublime enchanters, add one item to our felicity, but of fiction, and we can readily appreciate the purity of you may render fastidious our placid mediocrity. Detheir design; there are others, no less virtuous, to part then, amid the acclamations and applauses of those whom they are a perennial fount of delights. And it | who banish you. Depart from among us, and search is somewhat strange, that the skeptic Bayle, who for a world in which this sacred power of custom and rashly questioned the sublime truths of revelation, fear-laws does not exist. There, perhaps, you may be use ful of the demoralizing tendency of these works, forbade their perusal, while the pious Francis of Sales, declared that they were his greatest delight. But in the present state of society, we very much doubt, whether any salutary effect would flow from the sweeping denunciation of the philosopher; and we are strongly inclined to suspect that the fervent spirit of the Saint infused much of its ardor into his admiration.

ful-there, perhaps, you may be necessary; here, your allurements would be vain or injurious. Away-there is such witchery in your presence, that were it suffered any longer, it would render your departure useless or impossible." Such are the sentiments which Plato entertained, when he banished the poets from his happy republic. Let the sentence be pronounced when the dreams of the philosopher shall have been realized. Truth is the supreme good, the first aliment of the But where is that favored people, that virtuous assemsoul. To search after truth is the only employment bly of men, that renders it possible to put in execution correspondent with the high destinies of man. But, this brilliant chimera? If it were in any of those bright like the Egyptian Isis, truth is a mystic divinity covered stars of which we have spoken, to what other place with a veil, which we will endeavor to raise, but which than our earth could the romancers and poets come, no one can entirely remove. Is then the love of the when expelled from those blissful seats? Is it not bere, marvellous-is fiction-is a wandering from the formal that as soon as truth presents itself we shut our eyes, paths of severe truth, of the essence of man? Who shall that are unable to bear its vivid light? When Moses solve the mystery of man, or explain his propensity for strode down from the mount of God, clothed with the the marvellous? Why is he now the kneaded clod, and power and radiance of celestial truth, did not the Israelpresently filled with celestial fire, too proud to crawl ites bow down, and pray that they might no more be upon the earth, and too feeble to soar to the skies? oppressed with its overpowering manifestation? And Before his fall, the understanding, the imagination, when the blaze of truth was thrown upon the path of and all the faculties of his mind, were harmoniously the persecuting Saul, in his journey to Damascus, was blended, and all was light; but since his disobedience, he not overthrown and subdued in the pride of his those faculties are disturbed and confounded. Where- rebellious heart? Frail descendants of the erring man, fore then should not the imagination be indulged within to allure us in the thorny paths of truth they must be the limits of innocent amusement, where there is no strewed with flowers. The cup of virtue is dashed intention to deceive in fact? To seek for truth is the from our indignant lips, unless the edges be rubbed travail of life. But who would ask of mortal man, with earthly sweets. Let us not be presumptuous, whose life begins in tears and ends in sighs, to suspend since to believe ourselves better than we are, we become the action of that enchanting faculty which imagines still worse than we really are. Let us be careful—for, and creates? The future life, which most interests us, in our present condition, if it could be proved that is veiled in mystery, and it is only by the aid of the romances are of themselves bad, it would still be a imagination that we can frame a salutary conjecture of question worthy of investigation, whether they are not the world beyond the grave. In forming a correct a necessary evil. It becomes necessary oftentimes to opinion of the influence of the marvellous upon mortals, prescribe the use of one poison to counteract the force of we must take man as we find him in his social condi- another. We should be careful, however, to mix them tion. It may be, that in some of those stars that shine in such a manner that the noxious qualities may destroy with divine magnificence in the firmament, there is a each other. How often, even in morals, does one paspeople so enlightened, so happy, so virtuous, as to sion gain that triumph over another, which no force of require no exertion of the imagination; who, unlike reasoning could obtain? Whilst, for example, anger ourselves, do not wander in the dusky twilight, but impels us to take signal vengeance of our vile enemies, bask in the meridian splendor of truth. And if this pride exclaims that the offence could not ascend from state of things prevailed on our globe; if that pure and such baseness to our dignified breasts. So that we enlightened reason, which the poet of philosophers think we pardon, when, in fact, we despise; and the imagined, in his lofty dreams, were the possession of the voice of ungovernable pride we style philosophy. children of Eve, there would no longer be any neces- It is also worthy of inquiry, whether romances be sity for such entertainment, and they should be strictly not a useful vent to the unbridled curiosity of man, prohibited. Some sublime moralist, venerable for his who is always hunting after new things, caring little age and virtues, might arise among us, and with a stern about a selection, and generally embracing more eagerly

those which will drag him to ruin? Nor should it be | complains that the love of the marvellous rendered unforgotten, that it is no easy matter to find a better re- certain the history of these nations. medy for the evils of idleness, in which every virtue That incessant wheel, which turns time and manners, dies, and every vice acquires renovated vigor. It might has placed at the bottom those who once stood at the also be well, before deciding so dogmatically, as some top of civilization; still the flight of ages has not been persons do, that all romances ought to be proscribed for able to cancel the primitive character which the powertheir intrinsic malice, to reflect profoundly on this severe ful hand of nature has impressed upon them. That air sentence, because something may perhaps be found in and that sun are still the same. Lying fame will no the condition of our souls, that may make us hesitate longer say that even Homer robbed from the altars of before we pronounce a judgment so rigid. It really ap- Memphis the poems of his virgin fancy, and sung them pears to us, that if there were nothing else, a sufficient for his own at the tables of the Grecian chiefs. But in reason to hold us in suspense might be found in the uni- that very place, where those temples reared their lofty versality of romances at all times, and among all nations. | heads, flows a crystal fountain, called the fountain of It is an axiom, as certain as if it were in Euclid, that an the lovers, which furnishes a sweet argument of conopinion, generally believed to be true in every age and tinual romancing to those inhabitants, who, in this by every people, must be true. And it is unquestion-alone, have not degenerated from the prowess of their ably true that all nations have agreed in considering forefathers. And the Koran itself, which is the base of romances as one of their dearest delights. In speaking all their belief, is it not for the greater part a romance, of romances, we do not confine ourselves to the vulgar which, in the midst of the soundest precepts of moraliacceptation of the term, because at present that term is ty, recounts the strangest follies that ever entered the restricted to too narrow a signification, which originally dreams of a feverish brain? Every thing in these comprehended every narration of a fact, that had not countries launches beyond the limits of verisimilitude, actually happened. because the warm imagination of this people is always in search of the marvellous.

And in fact if we wish to consider romance in all its bearings upon moral and civil life, we must still enlarge The Persians themselves, who were always so obserthis idea, and extend it to all the creations of fancy, vant of truth, and are on that account highly praised which present us with a world different from the real by ancient writers, are no longer the same when there world, or which show us the real world itself through a is a question of inventing a narrative. They let their prism that totally transforms it into joyous colors. We geniuses loose to the wildest deliriums, and you seem have neither strength nor courage to throw ourselves to be listening to the brilliant fictions of the Arabians. into the immense fields of erudition, and to mount up These last, however, excel, in this respect, all the people through the different ages to the first origin of romances. of the east; nor could it be otherwise with a nation, But wherever we cast our eyes, we find them in favor which is said to possess alone more poets than all other with the mass of the people; and in this respect there nations put together. The poet and the romancer are is no distinction between the mysterious wisdom of the brothers, and we shall consider them in the same light. Egyptians and the credulous ignorance of our own sava- In all nations, a state of repose seems to have been ges. At the base of the pyramids, and on the borders necessary to the indulgence of this propensity for the of lake Mœris, a crowd sitting with legs across still marvellous. In India, the climate is so romantic and listens to the tales of the Arab camel-driver, with the poetical, and has so powerful an influence over the peosame anxiety that the other group on the banks of ple, that modern institutions wither away on that contilake Superior, and in the midst of their bears and bea-nent and never take root. How is it possible that in a vers, drinks with delighted ears the stories of the cunning juggler who entertains them. And if the delightful gardens of Ionia frequently beheld their myrtles carved with fabulous remembrances, so do the rugged rocks of Scandinavia present at every step the deformed runic characters, which recount similar fictions. Every country appears to have equally inspired its inhabitants with this genius, and it is only when we wish to come nearer to the present conceived idea of romances, that our eyes are involuntarily turned to the east.

life so indolent and careless as that of the Indians, men could refrain from following the impulse of that faculty which imagines and creates? In the ease and idleness of the bodily members, when the necessities of positive existence are abundantly provided, the spirit redoubles its action, and boldly launches into the ideal world. But when a nation is coming out of a state of primitive barbarisin, and is approaching a state of ordinary civilization, it feels what it wants in order to equal other great and illustrious nations. Hence it rouses itself, as From the east we have received, with the sun, every from a sleep, and in the real objects which surrounds it, ray of light; and beholding how those once happy seeks for strength and splendor. Then its activity and regions are now buried in barbarism, one might be tempt-repose are divided between battles and the formation of ed to think it a punishment similar to that of Prometheus for having communicated the divine spark to the nations of the earth.

laws; the name of country and glory are blended together, and the ambition to satisfy its pride, searches for power and riches, things altogether real, and which canThe Egyptians and the Arabians, the Assyrians and not be contented with vain and empty illusions. In a the Persians, are the first whose romantic narratives are word, when a nation is composing, with actions, its hisrecorded by tradition. Nor did this people apply them-tory, there is little room for romance, which only acquires selves to the sole task of confounding and enveloping favor when victory or defeat has introduced the peace real events in imaginary histories: but morality, poli- of triumph or the peace of slavery. No praise can certics, and religion, were all wrapped up in allegories and fictions, so that one of the sacred prophets formerly gave the Arabians the name of fabulous, and Strabo

tainly be derived to romances, from the consideration that in times of power and glory, they are little esteemed by the nations of the earth. But we do not wish to VOL. IV.-53

praise romances for any intrinsic merit; on the contrary, some ideas, and then join together this new species of we have always said, that it would be beneficial to ban-machinery, and let it go on by little and little until it ish them, provided we could secure the perfect govern- arrive to the wisdom of the beaver and the monkey, in ment of civilized manners and customs. The princi- order that it may finally comprehend the universe, and ples with which we started are still untouched. But, if judge HIM who makes JUSTICE. nations in the midst of their career of glory and renown, Who can restrain the pride of an immortal soul little affect romances, we should remember that the time when it abuses its sublime gifts. But this immense at which a people attains its highest pitch of grandeur, pride, in the eyes of a true sage, is mere folly, and those is not always that at which it is most virtuous and hap-systems, like the towers of sand raised by children on py. On the contrary, a philosopher styled those nations the sea shore, the higher they are the nearer to ruin, happy, whose history is always disgusting and tedious. Crimes were sometimes protected by fortune, but the delicate mind never measures virtue by strength and power. We may be deceived, but it appears to us, that if the love of the marvellous be extinguished in a people, simultaneously and irrevocably will also be quenched the enthusiasm for noble actions. And should we be so unfortunate as to fall in with a society bent on the sober realities of life, and entirely occupied with loss and gain, every hour would appear an age, until we could fly from this disgusting company.

and already fall. All nations register a primitive time of felicity, and a terrestrial paradise; an age of gold that, alas! too soon has passed away. What are systems, in presence of this universal consent of nations, confronted with this solemn protest of mankind? Here' within our bosoms, we have a secure guide; and if man wish to follow it, in the silence of the passions, and sincerely interrogate himself, he will discover two forces at war within him, one of which binds him to this life, as if it embraced the end of his being; the other lifts him up to an ideal world, filled with distant reminiscences of a better state, and a new hope of more joyful and enlightened times. Man too is a fallen angel, and although the creature of a few days, has within his soul a secret revelation, unfolding to him the lot for which he was

throw himself beyond the limits of real life. Remove this infallible doctrine, and the mystery of man is inso luble. MAN, however a frozen and desperate science may endeavor to resolve him into an automaton, man will never be able to unhumanise himself. The seal

What has hitherto been said of nations, may be applied with equal truth to individuals. Philosophers and statists have frequently instituted comparisons between them, and have discovered wonderful resemblance, but perhaps in nothing is the analogy so striking as in re-originally destined. Hence the propensity of man to lation to romances. With individuals, as with nations, the periods most delighted with romances are youth and old age. Robust manhood finds other occupations, and is alternately agitated by ambition and avarice. By this assertion, we do not wish to insinuate, that in this melancholy journey from the tears of the cradle to the ob-has been stamped upon him by a hand whose characters scurity of the tomb, there is a time, which, for the generality of men, is void of illusion. This opinion would indeed be gross, because the activity of life may indeed weaken the impulse in search of the marvellous, but it can never suppress it, except in a few beings, who seem to have rejected the inheritance of Adam, and who, by the different affections of their hearts, seem to be strangers in the midst of the human family. Some haughty geniuses have vainly endeavored, by the sole aid of reason, to explain the sublime mystery of man, and to tell us whence comes this insatiable love of the marvellous, There is, however, a great book, of which our impotent pride sees nothing but the external, inviolable seal, but which religion willingly opens to those who humble their hearts and minds. In it every thing is explained; and whenever in literature, in morals, or in science, the ordinary rules are not sufficient; whenever you must have recourse to the intrinsic nature of man, without these pages, there is nothing but error and confusion. It may seem strange that we use such language in speaking of romances, that the book of truth should be borrowed to illustrate the ravages of fiction; but is it our fault that by abandoning this principle, the whole intellectual world becomes an enigma beyond the powers of solution? Are we to blame if the tendency of man to the marvellous cannot be explained but by following man, who is in himself so marvellous, to the very origin of his being? Philosophers may fabricate, at their pleasure, systems of the progressive perfectibility of mankind, and number the years after which it will be permitted to God to behold his work less imperfect. They may animate the statue of Condillae, and slowly, by the miserable road of the senses, provide it with

are eternal; they may be covered for a season, but can never be entirely cancelled. Where is the man who will deny that he hears the voice of the marvellous speak within him-that he feels the necessity of awa kening himself to a true and more animated existence? Who has not, in the course of his life, made a romance? All romances are not written. Hope-the last of the virtues that lingered with man-hope, human hope, was the first romancer. What are the first thoughts of man, when he beholds the future through a magic veil, transforming the whole appearance of things? He will love the singular, the new, the marvellous propensity of romances. In the ecstasy of youth, the golden limit of his life will promise to meet him serene and covered with celestial smiles. Who will then wrench from him the romance, in which he seems to read his own future history, in which his fancy finds the world for which he seeks? Philosophy cries, break that false and fatal enchantment; but let the philosopher take care. Perhaps this is the only moment in which that young man will be truly happy. The sleep of life is slept upon a bed of thorns. Why will you awake that blessed being who dreams of flowers and gardens, and under a shower of roses holds converse of joy with angels? Alas! experience, that mournful mistress, will come too soon to arouse him. Remove the illusion too hastily, and he runs to the opposite excess. He demands a reason for every thing, reduces feelings to axioms, and imitating the blasphemy of Brutus, asks if virtue be any thing but a name.

But when the tempest of the passions shall have subsided into a calm that announces the nearness of the port, when we linger on that verge which unites the past