them as to gild the successes and varnish the defeats of his friends; while the poet will swell their achievements to a magnitude utterly disproportionate to their real dimensions. Those who compare and examine the events thus celebrated, can easily reduce them to the standard of impartial truth; but with the majority of readers they pass for irrefragable chronicles. From these causes had arisen what we conceive was an exaggerated opinion of the superior skill and prowess of the British sailors, compared with our own unpretending tars, who as yet hardly know the extent of their own power. Every man of the least observation is aware of the tyranny which early, and long-cherished opinions exercise over the human mind, and of the intensity of thought, and labour of inquiry, necessary to free us from their dominion. Our reason once brought into subjection to the belief of what is either true or false, is prone to submit with quiet and indolent resignation, rather than undergo the trouble of further exertion. This is more especially the case with opinions implanted early in life, when reason, unfortified by experience or reflection, is assailable on all sides, and is overcome, not by the force of the attack, but by the weakness of the resistance. The mind of man has this analogy to his body, that if once completely subjected, it loses that elastic vigour and energy which are necessary to regain its freedom, and either quietly acquiesces in its vassalage, or resists with such weakness and indecision, as serve only to rivet its chains. The effect of long established opinions on the destinies of mankind, is sometimes altogether extraordinary. Once let a nation adopt an opinion that any other nation is its superior in valour, force, or military skill, and it will generally cherish that opinion when the foundation on which it was first erected has mouldered away. Nations often retain this superiority in the minds of men, long after the circumstances in which it originated have ceased to exist, and live upon their hereditary renown, as a man lives upon his credit when his capital is exhausted. To reason against established habits is a vain undertaking; and even demonstration, though it may produce conviction, often fails to produce acknowledgment; for there is a pride in human nature that revolts from a confession of error. The foregoing observations are intended to apply to those events which have taken place at the very outset of our naval career. We believe there was scarcely a man in this country, except our gallant officers themselves, who did not look towards the event of a contest on the ocean, with British sailors, with a comparative degree of despondency. Even the most elastic minds sunk under the overwhelming idea of British naval prowess; and those who were the most sanguine, just scarcely hoped that if a single vessel of the United States encountered an equal force of the enemy, whatever might be the event, there would be no loss of honour on either side. They did not consider that we were too enterprising, too amphibious, too much, in fact, of Englishmen in our habits, to be easily overpowered; and every man must remember; every man that has a spark of feeling for his country's honour, must indelibly remember, with what a mixture of surprise and delight he first heard of the capture of the Guerriere, achieved, as it was, with almost the celerity of magic. To have escaped on equal terms; to have made it a drawn battle, would almost have been considered a triumph: but to have taken one of England's finest frigates, and conquered one of her most boasted and boasting heroes, in equal fight, in thirty minutes, and with so little comparative loss, was an event that could scarcely be realized. From that moment the enchantment under which we had so long lain spellbound, was dissolved; the spectres that had haunted us from the cradle upwards, vanished like shadows at the dawn of day; and we firmly believe our country at that moment received into her bosom a spark, which, at some future period, will animate her to deeds that will realize this first promise of her youth. VOL. I. 2D ED. 30 This victory, though in itself an object of apparent insignificance, we look upon as one of those events which have a lasting influence upon the character and destinies of nations. It has disclosed to us an invaluable secret, and given a shock to that superstitious veneration for British naval supremacy under which the minds of the people of the United States have so long been oppressed. It constitutes a noble example for the imitation of our gallant officers, who, we are, however, convinced, do not require the excitement; and it has given a confidence which in the hour of battle is of incalculable influence. This confidence from being at first the consequence of victory, becomes afterwards a cause; and we believe has hitherto been one great moving principle of the uniform successes of the British navy. The influence of captain HULL's victory is apparent in the eyes of our officers and seamen; we see them exalted in their own estimation, and in that of their countrymen; proud of their profession, and zealous to emulate the glory of that gallant achievement. The subsequent instances of similar victories will add vigour to these effects and do much to form a national character, which will render our country respectable abroad, and honoured by her own citizens. They form a little precious hoard of national glory, round which our hearts will rally at all times, and many a gallant spirit that has hitherto kept aloof, ashamed that our country has done nothing since she became an independent nation, but grow rich, will now be drawn nearer to the bosom of his native land. No man, we firmly believe, can love his country, and be at the same time ashamed of her. To be reverenced as she ought, she must be illustrious, so that every native of her soil, wherever he goes, in whatever foreign land his lot may be cast, will be proud of his nativity; that he may be able to repel any insinuation to her disadvantage, by proofs of her gallantry, and may boast of her achievements, without the imputation of vanity. It is this kind of reputation that perhaps attaches men to their native country more than any other tie whatever; which forms one of the best ingredients in the character of a nation, because it is a barrier against injury or insult; and which is almost the only tie now wanting to secure a union of hearts among every class and denomination. The unanimity which distinguished the happy administration of Washington, was perhaps not more owing to the confidence of the people in his pure and spotless virtue, than to the splendour of his name in war. The people loved him for his virtues; but they gloried in him because he had made not only himself but his country illustrious while he lived, by the radiance of his single character as a consummate commander. Philosophers may reason, and moralists may rail in their closets against the emptiness of that reputation which is acquired by arms; but there is at the bottom of every man's heart a feeling which causes him to rejoice in the successes of his country. This feeling is grounded on the universal principle of self-love, inasmuch as every man appropriates to himself some little portion of the glory acquired by his countrymen. But more than thirty years had elapsed since the United States had gained any considerable accession of that reputation which is dear to the hearts of all, whether enlightened or vulgar, wise or illiterate. It is, we believe, the nature of most men, that if they have nothing to admire at home, they will turn their affections abroad; and accordingly, we find the good citizens of the United States fixing their admiration upon the glory of other nations, for want of some domestic attraction of this kind. They want something to rally round: some brilliant light to allure them from afar off, and like the sweet watch-light of the Pole, the star of mariners, to act as a common guide to the people who inhabit the East and the West, the North and the South. They want something to attract and concentrate their affections; to call them off from brooding over those virulent and petty local feelings which have of late occupied their attention. They want, in short, some great universal bond of union, distinct from any convention whatever, and that bond, we firmly believe, is only to be found in NATIONAL GLORY. P. POETRY. [It is not often, among the ephemeral productions of Magazines, that we meet with a poem so nobly conceived and highly wrought as the following. The description of the statue is bold and characteristic, and delivered in a truly classic style. The concluding picture of the love-sick maid, is one of the most delicate and affecting that we recollect in modern poetry.] PRIZE POEM. THE BELVIDERE APOLLO. [From the Literary Panorama, for November, 1812.] HEARD ye the arrow hurtle in the sky? Proud of his might, yet scornful of the slain, Youth blooms immortal in his beardless face, In deathless glory lives the breathing stone. Bright-kindling with a conqueror's stern delight, Mighty Ephesian!* with an eagle's flight * Agasias of Ephesus. |