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lutely blameless. The generous pride of virtue was too strong in my mind. It made me forget I was creating a dangerous precedent in declining to plead to a legal accufation, brought against me by a magiftrate invested with the majesty of the whole Roman people. It made me unjustly accuse my country of ingratitude, when fhe had fhewn herself grateful, even beyond the true bounds of policy and juftice, by not inflicting upon me any penalty for fo irregular a proceeding. But, at the fame time, what a proof did I give of moderation, and re fpect for her liberty, when my utmoft refentment could impel me to nothing more violent than a voluntary retreat, and quiet banishment of myfelf from the city of Rome! Scipio Africanus offended, and living a private man, in a country-house at Liternum, was an example of more ufe to fecure the equality of the Roman commonwealth, than all the power of its tribunes,

< Cafar. I had rather have been thrown down the Tarpeian rock, than have retired, as you did, to the ob(curity of a village, after acting the first part on the greatest theatre of the world.

Scipio. An ufurper exalted on the highest throne of the univerfe is not fo glorious as I was in that obfcure Retirement. I hear indeed, that you, Cæfar, have been deified by the flattery of fome of your fucceffors. But the impartial judgment, of hif tory has confecrated my name, and ranks me in the first clafs of heroes and patriots: whereas the highest praise her records, even under the dominion ufurped by your family, have given to you, is, that your courage and talents were equal to the object your ambition afpired to, the empire of the world; and that you exercifed a fovereignty unjustly acquired with a magnanimous clemency. But it would have been better for your country, and better for mankind, if you had never exifted.'

This feems to be a very just estimate of Cæfar's character; but, in our judgment, the inftance of S.ipio's refufing to anfwer before the judicatory of his country, might have been prefel ftronger against him by his antagonist: for, furely, he who refufes to plead before the lawful tribunal of his country, is as great a rebel against the constitution, as he who attempts to fubvert it by force of arms.

The next dialogue, which paffes between Plato and Diogenes, conveys fome fhrewd obfervations on the nature and effect of flattery; with which Diogenes having charged Plato, the latter replies in the following juft and fpirited manner :

• Do you pretend, Diogenes, that, because you were never in a court, you never flattered? How did you gain the affection of the people of Athens, but by foothing their ruling paffion, the defire of hearing their fuperiors abufed? Your cynic railing, was to them the most acceptable flattery. This you well un

derstood,

derstood, and made your court to the vulgar, always envious and malignant, by trying to lower all dignity and confound all order; you made your court, I fay, as fervilely, and with as much offence to virtue, as the basest flatterer ever did to the moft corrupted prince. But true philofophy will difdain to ac either of these parts. Neither in the affemblies of the people, nor in the cabinets of kings, will she obtain favour by fomenting any bad difpofitions. If her endeavours to do good prove unfuccefsful, fhe will retire with honour, as an honeft physician departs from the houfe of a patient, whofe diftemper he finds incurable, or who refufes to take the remedies he prescribes. But if the fucceeds; if, like the mufic of Orpheus, her fweet perfuafions can mitigate the ferocity of the multitude, and tame their minds to a due obedience of laws and reverence of magiftrates; or if she can form a Timoleon, or a Numa Pompilius, to the government of a state, how meritorious is the work! One king, nay one minifter, or counsellor of state, imbued with her precepts, is of more value than all the fpeculative, retired philofophers, or cynical revilers of princes and magistrates, that ever lived upon earth.'

These fentiments convey the keeneft reproof of the conduct of those mock-patriots who fervilely cringe to the rabble, while they affect to treat with infulting arrogance, thofe whom the conftitution teaches them to respect.

In the progress of the dialogue, Diogenes fneers at Plato concerning his vifionary republic; to which Plato answers,

I am confcious, Diogenes, that my republic was imaginary, and could never be established. But they fhew as little knowlege of what is practicable in politics, as I did in that book, who fuppofe that the liberty of any civil fociety can be maintained by the deftruction of order and decency, or promoted by the petulance of unbridled defamation.

"Diogenes. I never knew any government angry at defamation, when it fell on those who disliked or obftructed its meafures. But I well remember, that the thirty tyrants at Athens called oppofition to them the deftruction of order and decency."

Of the truth of these reflections, daily experience fatally con vinces us. How often do we fee men who have risen to power by the arts of defamation, turn the most rigid perfecutors of those who oppose their measures, while at the fame time they patronize the fouleft libels against their competitors: and yet the deluded multitude will ftill continue to be the dupes of contending parties, who thus betray the public, and weaken the conftitution, to compass their own private ends !

In the dialogue which follows, between Ariftides, Phocion, and Demofthenes, the different principles of the two latter are accurately fcrutinized; Phocion is cenfured for having temporized against Philip, and for having at length been averfe to

ferve

ferve the public: Demofthenes, on the other hand, is commended for having carried the war out of Attica againft Philip, but blamed for having been induced by the fpirit of party, to lay afide fo great a general as Phocion.

In the concluding dialogue, Marcus Aurelius Philofophus and Servius Tullius are the Interlocutors. The fubject of this colJoquy is curious, and particularly interefting to a British reader. Servius Tullius lays claim to merit, fuperior to that of Marcus Aurelius.

I need not tell you,' fays the former, that the plan of government inftituted by me was adopted by the Romans, when they had driven out Tarquin, the deftroyer of their liberty; and gave its form to that republic, compofed of a due mixture of the regal, aristocratical, and democratical powers, the ftrength and wisdom of which fubdued the world. Thus all the glory of that great people, who for many ages excelled the rest of mankind in the arts of war and of policy, belongs originally

to me.'.

To which Marcus Aurelius answers :

There is much truth in what you fay. But would not the Romans have done better, if, after the expulfion of Tarquin, they had vefted the regal power in a limited monarch, instead of placing it in two annual elective magiftrates, with the title of confuls? This was a great deviation from your plan of government, and I think, an unwife one. For a divided royalty is a folecifm, an abfurdity in politics. Nor was the regal power, committed to the adminiftration of confuls, continued in their hands long enough, to enable them to finish any difficult war, or other act of great moment. From hence arose a neceffity of prolonging their commands beyond the legal term; of fhortening the interval prefcribed by the laws between the elections to thofe offices; and of granting extraordinary commiffions and powers, by all which the republic was in the end destroyed.”

To this Servius replies, that the revolution which enfued on the death of Lavinia, was made with fo much anger, that no wonder the Romans abolished the name of king. But if anger, fays he, acted too violently in reforming abufes, philofophy might have wifely corrected that error. He then proceeds to obferve, that Marcus Aurelius might have formed a limited monarchy to which Marcus makes the following judicious reply:

I fhould have been happy indeed, if it had been in my power to do fuch good to my country. But the gods themselves cannot force their bleffing on men, who by their vices are become incapable to receive them. Liberty, like power, is only good for those who poffefs it, when it is under the conftant direction of virtue. No laws can have force enough to hinder it from degenerating into faction and anarchy, where the morals

of

of a nation are depraved; and continual habits of vice will eradicate the very love of it out of the hearts of a people. A Marcus Brutus, in my time, could not have drawn to his ftandard a fingle legion of Romans. But further, it is certain that the Spirit of Liberty is abfolutely incompatible with the spirit of con queft. To keep great conquered nations in fubjection and obedience, great ftanding armies are neceffary. The generals of thofe armies will not long remain fubjects; and whoever ac quires dominion by the fword, muft rule by the fword. If he does not deftroy liberty, liberty will deftroy him.'

These sentiments are more particularly worthy our attention/ at this critical conjuncture; we have now a deplorable inftance before us of the fatal effects of extending dominion too widely. We fee an act of the British legislature openly oppofed by Bri tifh fubjects: and the power of government (hitherto) too weak to enforce obedience to their authority. If there fhould be a neceffity of employing military force, they and their mother-: country would have caufe to mourn the occafion: and yet the mad multitude are dazzled with the fpirit of conqueft, not confidering that conquefts are purchafed by the immediate facrifices of their property, and at the hazard of their liberty.

The noble and ingenious Author concludes this dialogue with. an encomium on the British conftitution, which his Lordship has conftantly endeavoured to preserve by his abilities, integrity, and moderation.

R-d.

Practical Obfervations concerning the Cure of the Venereal Difeafe by Mercurials. To which is added, a Letter to Peter Collinfon, Efq; F.R. S. containing an Account of an Ear of Dog's Grafs, that was fwallowed by a Child, and afterwards difcharged on its Back. By Jonathan Wathen, Surgeon. 8vo. I s. 6 d.' Rivington.

MR

R. Wathen profeffes to point out that peculiar operation by which mercury removes the various appearances and degrees of the Venereal Difeafe. His principles, he fays, are founded on a strict attention to a great number of cafes which have occurred in practice; and thefe are to be confidered as fo many experiments which have afforded him an opportunity of drawing conclufions with almoft the fame degree of certainty as in mathematical deductions.-Our Author's experiments, however, are not related, his cafes are unpublifhed, and he has vouchfafed only to favour the world with his almoft mathematical conclufions.-The moft remarkable of thefe we fhall briefly enume

rate,

rate, and leave our Readers to judge how far they are new, how far they are juft, or how near they approach to mathematical truths.The following are fome of Mr. Wathen's conclufions;—that the lues venerea, whether recent or chronic, local or universal, was never yet radically cured without the use of mercury; that the preparations contained in the London and Edinburgh difpenfatories, poffefs every valuable quality yet known, or perhaps obtainable from this mineral;—that if two or three drachms of the unguent. cerul. fort. be used every night, the mercurial fymptoms will make their appearance from the third to the fifth day; and if continued in the fame dofe, a falivation will commence from the fixth to the ninth day; i. e. after having used three ounces of the ointment, or one ounce of the mercury itself ;-that twelve grains of the pil. mercul. P. E. taken night and morning, will affect the mouth in about eight days, and, perfifted in for eight days longer, a ptyalifm will be raised; i. e. by two drachms of the mercury thus divided ;—that the mercur. dulcis fublimatus, which is the beft of the chymical clafs, when given from five to ten grains every night, will raise a falivation on the fixth, feventh, or eighth day; after having adminiftered fomewhat more than one drachm of this medicine;that the mercur. corroffiv. fublim. which is the most acrimonious preparation, given to one quarter of a grain twice a day, and perfifted in for a long time, feldom affects the falivary glands, or operates in any fenfible manner;-that this, the mercur. faccratus, Belloft's Pill, Keyfer's Pill, and indeed all the preparations of mercury are effentially the fame ;-that nothing can be more. abfurd than a bigotted attachment to any one of them; and that we may occafionally use them all, by adapting them to the patient's cafe and fituation ;-that the mercur. carrof. fublim. is not to be depended on in thefe colder climates ;-that Keyfer's Pills are inadequate to the cure of a confirmed lues; and that the author of the Parallele des differentes methodes de traiter la maladie vénérienne, accounts for their reputation in France, from the interested patronage of the great; who have procured their general ufe in the army and navy, and given rewards to fuch patients, and fanction only to fuch furgeons, who have made use of Keyfer's Pills-that these pills are nothing more than mercury diffolved in vinegar:-and that Meff. Hawkins and Bromfield, after the most candid tryal, have rejected both these and the soJution. Thus much for the various preparations; now for our Author's conclufions relative to the modus operandi of this mi

neral.

Mr. Wathen afferts, that mercury does not act by way of extinction ;-that it has not the property of a specific antidote;-that when thrown into the blood in a fufficient quantity, it powerfully acts upon both the folids and fluids; diminishing

the

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