tates. Of other armies, beside that of Cæsar, the battle-word has been "Venas the victorious :" and the navigators of the state-vessel have been too frequently fascinated by the spell of a syren tongue. The influence of woman, divested of the sybil garb of fabulous antiquity, was of itself sufficiently powerful to extend through the successive ages of the Roman Republic: and the sound which transferred the sceptre of Assyria to the dynasty of Darius, was elicited by the influence of female recollections.* Science has received from the bands of Beauty some of her sweetest wreaths. To enumerate them all would be trespassing on patience. We shall not,therefore, advert to the clue which has been furnished for the labyrinths of Algebra by a fair Italian ; or to the additional satellite given to the royal star of England (now mournfully eclipsed) by the exploring vigilance of Miss Eliza Herschell. To the liberal curiosity of his fair countess" we are indebted for Fontenelle's plurality of worlds. At her command he strewed with flowers the erratic wanderings of the comet and the planet's pathway. He has detached from science the thorns which had deterred a delicate hand from plucking its roses. To the ravished ears" of Taste he has called down from heaven "the music of the spheres." In honourable competition England can never yield to a rival state. A learned chemist of the present day has taught the world to offer its acknowledgments to Lady Davy for the first part of his Chemical Essays:-His labours were cheered by the smiles of his lady,§ and amply remunerated by the ecstacies of a honeymoon. If the question could not admit of malicious interpretation, we would ask, why his learned labours have been so long interrupted? Literature has toiled from infancy to erect imperishable trophies to the genius, the fate, and the influence of woThe majesty of the epic muse man. • Vide Justin. lib. 1, cap. x. + Signora Maria Agnesa. The Georgium Sidus. § Dedication. has rendered homage to her supremacy. Of the "three poets in three distant ages born," the last in order and first in merit has raised a monument to the influence of the "last best gift of God," which shall perish only with the calamities which she created, and "the world" into which she "brought death with all our woe." The discomfiture and disasters brought upon twenty kings and their hosts by the abduction of a priestess, and the jealous resentments of her lover, exercise the gigantic genius of Homer; while the city of their foes is utterly consumed, and its inhabitants "devoured by the sword," to avenge the infidelity of a woman, and the ag gravating defence of the wrong. The second in time, and last in merit, sings the charms by which the Queen of of Carthage arrested the wayward progress of his whining and contemptible hero, who seduces and slights her affections, and abandons her (by the will of the Gods) to shame, despair and death. After having thus gallantly broken the heart of one woman, he cruises on (quo fata vocant) to cut with his unmanly sword the solemn engagements of another; and rewards the hospitality of Latinus by bringing upon his aged queen the dreadful end of a heartbroken maniac. The palled and sceptred muse of tragedy (over whose own catastrophe* we know not whether we should lament or rejoice,) has poured forth her most divine inspirations to display the finest features of the female character, and to wring the heart with sympathy for the piteous afflictions and fate of her heroine. I cannot envy that man his head or heart, who could witness without agony the widowed griefs of Andromache or Almeria; the playful, tender passion, and the melancholy end of the fair Capulet; the suspected fidelity and retiring patience of the meek bride of the Moor; and the chastening rebuke of virtue embodied and exalted in the character of Evadne. The elegiac muse has "wept herself to marble" over the urn of many a frail The consequence of the retirement and mar riage of her last legitimate representative, Miss O'Neill.-I, decus! 1, nostrum! flowret, of whose blossom earth was Clio, land, after he had for four years given It is unnecessary to state that an author's writings image the character of his mind and the dispositions of his heart, and that his views of nature and of society are more contracted or expanded according to the station assigned to him by his Creator. The annals of literature give ample testimony to the authority of woman over the mind and heart, the circumstances and fortunes of almost every author. The ambition or vanity of Addison urged him in an evil hour to aspire to an ennobled bed. The arrogance of Lady Warwick drove him forth to seek for more courteous society in a tavern. He had recourse to wine for its momentary and fatal exhiliration, and ultimately endeavoured to forget his domestic cares in sottish insensibility. The petulance of Mrs. Blount compelled Pope to cancel on his deathbed a friendship of many years, and to fling back upon Mr. Allen, with his cold hand, a favour which had testified his generous sincerity. Warburton was elevated by Miss Allen's partiality to a bridal bed, an opulent fortune, and an episcopal throne. The Lords Bolingbroke and Oxford have been charged with ingratitude, for having sent Swift into honourable exile" in Ire- swift's Epitaph As when Heav'n's fire Milton, P. L. i. 612. + Cujus cor ulterius nequit lacerare sæva Bili.. into his grave in a state of drivelling idiocy. 66 ercised, his infirmities nursed, and his life prolonged by the lovely circle, of which it was his lot to be the centre. I know not whether it be lawful to regret that female attentions were successfully employed in giving protracted existence to another and a very different character. Gibbon gratefully acknowledges that life which quivered on his infant lips, was fixed and invigorated by the watchful tenderness of his aunt. That worthy woman could form no idea of the mischievous purposes to which that life was to be devoted, or of the foolish sneers and impotent rage with which its possessor would one day attack the most sacred and useful institutions of his country. The mind of Johnson, which had been cheered and relieved while he awkwardly fondled his Tetty"-the gambols of a whale was again overcast with "morbid melancholy" by the sad event of her death. A very blameless species of vanity urged another lady to dissipate his thoughts by her attentions and volubility, and her opulence enabled her to multiply his comforts, and minister to his large and luxurious appetite. During a long intimacy and correspondence, the parties appear to have made a singular interchange of character.-Johnson's constant effort is to banish thought, to indulge frolick, and laugh care and mel- The bench and the bar alone appear ancholy out of countenance. His let- elevated above this pervading influence. ters breathe nothing but airy levity and Woman is excluded from any share in flippant humour. Now he scatters the pleadings of the one, or the decihimself into volatility with the lady, sions of the other and of secret inand presently he descends to very amia- fluence the existence may fairly be deble playfulness with her children. Mrs. nied, as it has so long remained undeThrale struggles with a buoyant and tected. But let not this admitted fact superficial mind to penetrate into the be hastily construed into a denial of the deep recesses of thought, and to dis- sex's authority, The absence of the guise or deform ber natural gaiety un- statues of Brutus and Cassius from a der the sombre and contracted brow of funeral procession only served to fill her hypochondriac friend. But her the minds of the spetators with more vanity was at length sated, or was com- vivid recollections of those martyrs of pelled to give way to stronger or more liberty.-And the exclusion of the fair importunate passions. This melan sex from our courts of law, furnishes in choly and platonic lady appears still to reality the most unequivocal acknowhave retained her capacity and love of ledgement of their predominant genius, enjoyment. The advice of Johnson and the most lowly homage to its suand of decency was rejected, and both premacy. During one of the provin were rewarded with contempt and cial circuits of the last year, a cause abandonment. One of those foreign came on for trial, in which the female itinerants, who do us the honour to defendant* could prima facie claim no pocket our money, and laugh at our support from reason, from law, or from egregious folly, was adopted into the justice. But, through the heedless sufplace of the English" Rambler" under ferance of the bench and bar,that hopea more tender name, and the more en- less case could boast of a female advodearing relations of husband. To one cate. Counsel for the Crown stated female circle this world shall continue the case, the presiding judge expoundindebted, whilst the language of Eng- ed the law. The culprit had libelled land is understood, and its literature in the public journals a provincial studied and appreciated. "The Task," judge, by charging him with parand the sweetest productions of its au- tiality and corruption in the adminthor, we owe to the influence of the istration of justice. The defendant most amiable of their sex. Such boldly admitted the fact with which names claim immortality and honour she stood charged, and appealed by the worthiest titles. The mind of * Mrs. Mary Anne Tucker. She has been facetious. Cowper was sustained, his talents ex- ly called Mrs. Mary Anne Ticklewig. for her defence and justification to the truth of her statements. In vain did his lordship "shake his cerulean brows," and reprobate this novel mode of polluting the ermine of his learned brother. In vain did he protest that, admitting the facts which she affirmed, the law could not suffer individuals to assume justice into their own hand, while it of fered the remedy of action or impeachment in the courts above. His exposition of the law was rejected his precedents and cases in point vanished before her; his interruptions were unheard, unnoticed, or disregarded; his clamours were exhausted, and his patience subdued by reckless and persevering volubility. The bench sat confounded, and the bar stood aghast in the presence of this commanding apparition-and bench, bar, spectators-all "Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf Is it necessary to add, that the jury were compelled to return a triumphant verdict for the fair defendant? To recite the different instances of this paramount authority in the political world, would be only to copy the voluminous pages of history, with the superadded labour of tracing effects to their real causes, and counsels to their proper authors. The instances in ancient history are familiar to every memory; the recital would pall upon the ear with all the disgusting recollections of pedantic monotony. I shall refer to one beautiful illustration of my argument from Athenian story, which has escaped the pollution of the pedagogue's touch. The personal charms of Aspasia were rivalled only by the accomplishments of her mind, and the creative energies of her genius. Pericles, the eloquent, brave, and magnanimous Pericles, bowed to the sceptre of Beauty. He estimated at their just value the eminent talents of his mistress: his administration was guided by the wisdom of her councils. Order and prosperity were established in Athens, and the authority of the republic was felt and acknowledged by rival states. Pericles was too just and too generous to appropriate the merits and the glory of Aspasia. Her undisguised influence was objected to him by his enemies as a crime. They summoned him to answer the charge before the public tribunal. To the laboured and indignant accusation of his rivals he replied in the simplicity of ancient manners: he exposed the naked bosom of Aspasia, and laying his hand on it, he expostulated in behalf of beauty, and of the genius by which it was animated and exalted. To the exquisite perceptions of an Athenian tribunal this appeal was irresistible. Pericles was acquitted, and Aspasia reinstated in uncontrolled sovereignty. While they continued to rule the republic, the current of public affairs swelled with the full tide of prosperity. But with her seems to have expired the wisdom of her countrywith him its executive energy. Athens has had cause to lament that Pericles and Aspasia had ever been born or ever died. The destinies of France have constantly prevailed or exulted in the genius of woman. Mazarin was raised from obscurity by female partiality. Richelieu reserving his talents for public affairs, founded bis authority on the firmer basis of female influence. T'he hydra of revolution was conceived in the Salons of Paris; and the character of the sex was forgotten, when they assisted at the monstrous birth. The anarchy of revolution overwhelmed all authority but that of woman; during the administration of her husband, Madame Roland was the real minister of the Interior. Amid the important events of a later date, the politician's calculations are confounded and his conjectures baffled by this mysterious agent. The revolt of the troops at Lons-le-saulnier is acknowledged to have been the cause of Buonaparte's re-establishment on the throne of France. Louis might, with impunity, have violated the charter, and revoked the sale of the national domains, if Ney, at the head of his troops, had continued faithful to his allegiance. The pride of history is humbled while it seeks for a cause commensurate with this decisive event. As such it assumes the soldier's attachment to his chief, the prince of the Moskwa's gratitude to his benefactor, creation. In the hour of his visitation, " the patriot's indignation at the violated charters of his country. Let us listen to the language of the mareschal bimself," I can no longer endure," said he, "that my WIFE should return in TEARS every evening from the court, with conSTANT COMPLAINTS OF THE CONTEMPT WITH WHICH SHE IS TREATED. After the first restoration, the Bourbon princes and the old noblesse treated the ladies, especially the princesses, of Buonaparte's court with marked disrespect. Every occasion was grasped at to humble their pride by the haughtiness of disdain, and mortify their vanity with sneers of contempt. But these indignities were fearfully avenged.-The Bourbon sceptre, which, like the staff of Aaron, had blossomed anew, again withered under the frown of insulted, indignant woman. the Hebrew monarch was impelled to phrenzy, perfidy, and crime; while the other was exalted by divine enthusiasm into the hero, the Decius of his country. When languishing in the lap of his fair Philistine, the champion whom God raised up in England's emergency was shorn of his strength. But remote from the sphere of her blandishments, when" the Philistines were upon him," he arose in his might, and "smote them as the smiting of Midian:" he plucked down the pillar and prop of their hopes, and buried them with their presumption, himself and his frailties under the same awful and magnificent ruin. During that period of his life which preceded the battle of the Nile, Nelson was distinguished by manly uprightness of mind, by strict and honourable attention to the duties of his profession, and of society. He had been accustomed to give to vice its proper appellative,* and to rebuke it with all the indignation of honest integrity. The sophistry of passion had not yet taught him to violate with unblest ecstacy the sanctity of the nuptial bed, or to prefer to the pure and living flame of chaste love, the cold and lucid lustre which emanates from the couch of corruption. But after that brilliant opening of a series of victories, of which the final achievement and its luminous recordt were reserved for the martial and literary geDius of a Hutchinson, the relations of Nelson with Woman assumed a new form. Naples was the Capua, in which the character of his mind received a new stamp, his glory was tarnished, and the care-worn and mutilated veteran debased into a luxurious Sybarite. Unfortunately he was too rash or too unsuspecting to flee from the fascinating Of the late Lord Nelson, it was said in his day that he was "nothing upon land." Respect is due to high station and illustrious merit; but we trust that our pages will ever award the meed of severe and sober rebuke to every notorious violation of moral virtue and public decorum. This painful duty becomes indispensably necessary when such violation is sanctioned by the patronage of rank, and the abuse of the best gifts of Heaven. With the talents which he possessed, and the natural vigour of his mind, Lord Nelson must have risen to relative eminence in any department of life. With such claims to general capacity, no attempt has been yet made to reconcile the facts upon record that, though the latter years of his life, the meridian of his manhood, were spent upon shore, he was never distinguished, and never attempted to distinguish himself, by eloquence in the senate, by advising expeditions in council, by nautical experiments or improvements, or by boldly making incursions in quest of other praise into provinces bawds, and eunuchs."-Nelson's Letter to Sir J. not his own. The fate of Nelson was not dissimilar to that of Saul, and it was equally melancholy. The energies of the genii by which they were respectively visited, were quelled by the melody of a human voice but those genii ->d to two different classes of derness." Vincenti corona! "I am sick of this country of pimps, fiddlers, Jervis. + See Lord Hutchinson's despatch on the battle of Alexandria. We are not far advanced in military lit erature. In this instance literature appears to have disputed with victory, upon her own field, her superior claims to the genius of Hutchinson. His lordship lonely magnificence over the "dead level of the wil may be compared to the pillar, which lifts itself in |