SHORT RIDES IN AN AUTHOR'S OMNIBUS. From the New Monthly Magazine. MAN A MICROCOSM. "Ir is worthy of remark," says Vico (in the "Scienza Nuova"). "that in all languages, the greater part of the expressions relative to inanimate things are either derived by metaphor from different parts of the human body, or from human sentiments and passions. Hence the word head for summit or commencement-mouth for any opening the teeth of a plough, of a rake, of a saw, of a comb-a tongue of land-the gorge of a mountain--a handful for a small number-the arm of a river--the heart for the centre--the veins of a mine--the bowels of the earth-the flesh of a fruit--the whistling of the wind--the murmur of the waves--the groaning of any object beneath a great weight." The Romans used the phrases "sitire agros, laborare fructus, luxuriari segetes:" and the Italians say, "andar in amore le piante, andar in pazzia le viti--lagrimare gli orni ;" while they apply to inanimate objects the words, "fronte, spalle, occhi, barbe, collo, gamba, piede, pianta." We have already said that ignorant man takes himself for the rule of the universe; in the above examples, he makes an entire world of himself. Man, in fact, transforms himself into all objects both by intelligence, and by the want of intelligence; and perhaps the second axiom is more true than the first, since in the exercise of his understanding he stretches his mind to reach and embrace objects; whereas, in the privation of intelligence, he makes all these objects out of himself. Hence the received notion that man is a microcosm or little world, and that the body natural may be compared to the body politic. Nor have we been content with fashioning an outward world from our inward one; but as God made man in his own image, so have certain fanatical men presumed to create a Deity after their own form and fashion, which is generally the worst they could have selected. Every one is more or less a little world to himself; and in this fusion, or confusion of the outward and visible with the inward and spiritual, most people are apt to identify themselves with external objects, especially if they bear reference to their own immediate habits, callings, or productions; a natural tendency which receives illustration from the beggar, recorded by Matthews, who hobbled about the streets, exclaiming, "Please to buy a penn'orth of matches of a poor old man all made of dry wood." FLEAS. When the late Lord Erskine, then going the circuit, was asked by his landlord how he had slept, he replied, "Union is strength, a fact of which some of your inmates seem to be unaware; for had the fleas been unanimous last night, they might have pushed me out of bed." "Fleas!" exclaimed Boniface, affecting great astonishment, "I was not aware that I had a single one in the house." "I don't believe you have," retorted his lordship, "they are all married, and have uncommonly large families." STATE PYRAMIDS. "It may be taken as a governing principle in all civil relations, that the strong and the rich will continue to grow stronger and richer, and the feeble and the poor more weak and impoverished, until the first become unfit to rule, or the last unable any longer to endure. This is the secret of the downfall of all states that have crumbled beneath their own abuses, and hence the necessity of widening the foundations of society, according to the increased weight that they are required to support. A pyramid, surmounted with a statue, whether crowned or not, should be the emblem of a commonwealth." Despotic states resemble a pyramid reversed, which the weakest assault may topple down: and few things are more weak, notwithstanding its apparent strength, than absolute power. It has no supporters, no defence-for the tyrant is ever without friends-and he who has no law for others, cannot expect any for himself. Hence the tyrannicide among the ancients was always honored as a patriot. The modern civilized world is perhaps less governed by constitutions and ministers than by public opinion, which a free press, where it exists, soon elevates into a species of omnipotence. If, therefore, there be any truth in the dictum that the vox populi is the vox Dei, the enlightened European states, so far as they are self-governed, are religiously governed, and approximate to the condition of the Jewish theocracy before the time of Saul. HOPE. Hope is like a poplar beside a river-undermined by that which feeds it-or like a butterfly, crushed by being caught-or like a fox-chase, of which the pleasure is in the pursuit-or like revenge, which is generally converted into disappointinent or remorse as soon as it is accomplished-or like a will-o'-the-wisp, in running after which, through pools and puddles, you are not likely to catch any thing—but a cold. A PUZZLING QUESTION. Rousseau asks his humane, moral, and enlightA chatterbox ran about the town of Bath, ened reader, what he would do if he could enwarning his friends against ever sleeping at the rich himself, without moving from Paris, by Golden Lion, where he had been most griev-signing the death-warrant of an innocent old Mandarin of China? A conscientious Frenchously bitten by fleas. man might urge that we have no right to do wrong in order that good may come of it; but he would at the same time moot the question, whether it be wrong to put an old Mandarin out of his misery, taking it for granted, that he must "You remind me," said one of the parties thus addressed, "of the punishment threatened by Horace to the man who should attack him, "Flc-bil, et insignis totâ cantabitur urbe." TO-DAYA HINT FOR A SERMON. be in a wretched state of health from the inor- and immortalize him by publishing it in the New dinate use of opium, supplied to him by the un- | Monthly Magazine. feeling and unprincipled English. And the pious Gaul would further argue, that, though it would be scandalous to procure the death of a fellow-creature to enrich himself, he was bound, calculators as to what four farthings would by Marvellous are the statements put forth by as a father, to consult the interests of his chil- this time have accomplished, had they been dren; whereupon a tear of parental love would start into his eye, and he would sign the death-placed out at compound interest at the birth of Christ. Were such a penny-turning penny in warrant with a sentimental ejaculation. existence, and able to tell its own tale, it would Had the same question been propounded to a plain English John Bull, during the late war with the Celestial Empire, he would probably exclaim, What! have I not always been taught to make money-honestly if I could--but at all events to make money-and are not the Chinese our enemies, whom we are bound to destroy by every means in our power?" "True" might be rejoined; "but this poor old Mandarin is a non-combatant; he has never done you any harm, and it would hardly be in conformity with the laws of religion and humanity to put him to death for nothing." "But," retorts John Bull, "it would be in perfect conformity with the laws of war. Besides, I don't put him to death for nothing. I should scorn such a mean and cruel act-I do it to enrich myself. Had I been but a physician, I might have done the same towards scores of my fellow-countrymen, only the warrant would have been written in Latin--so give me the pen." Let us suppose one of that daily-increasing class, the Doctor Cantwells, to be placed in the same predicament. Make his chronicle as rich with prize, With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. A rolling stone, we are told, gathers no moss, and in the case of Sysiphus, we know the assertion to be true; but this ever-turning penny, if Cocker be trustworthy, would, at this our present Anno Domini, almost suffice to purchase our habitable globe, even were it composed "of one entire and perfect chrysolite"-a fact of which I have no more doubt, than had Pitt of the efficacy of his sinking fund to annihilate the national debt in a few years! But although we have no metallic evidence of the miracles that may be accomplished by the accumulation of money, we have present and tangible proof of the wonders that may be wrought by the aggregation of Time; for that most marvellous of all prodigies TO-DAY-is the astounding result of the one single day of the Creation, with its compound interest for six thousand years. This most imperial TO-DAY, therefore, is seated on the throne built up by two million one "Though we are at war with the Chinese," hundred-and-ninety thousand days, and makes would he meekly remark, "no consideration its footstool of twenty-four times as many hours! should induce me to sign this poor man's death Acting as the faithful subjects and indefatigable warrant, especially for my own interest, for we subjects of TO-DAY, the countless myriads of the are commanded to forgive our enemies. But past generations have exterminated monsters, we are nowhere commanded to forgive the ene-diminished the races of wild beasts and savages, mies of the Lord; and as this miserable sinner is a heathen, and it may be for the interest of the true religion that he should be swept from the face of the earth, I deem it my bounden duty, however painful to my feelings, to give my hum-living successors. ble subscription to this heavenly order." Which having done, and invested the bloodmoney in land or government securities, he would make donations to half a dozen charitable or religious societies, would call (in his own carriage) upon some polemical Boanerges, and if, as they drove towards Exeter Hall, they chanced to pass some good and kind-hearted, and really religious man who was no pharisee, our Doctor Cantwell would turn to his companion, and exclaim with a look and a sneer of sanctimony "I thank God that I am not as yonder publican." Let us imagine the same startling question submitted to the decision of a poor devil of an author. "How--what!" he would exclaim--" get suddenly rich by my own writing, and none of the money to go to the publisher? Done-done! Where's the pen and ink, where's the paper? As to the Mandarin, he need not shake his gory locks at me. The day of his death shall be the happiest of his life, for I'll write his Epicedium, have advanced civilization, improved the fertility of the earth, conquered the elements, and ministered in ten thousand different ways to the physical security, comfort, and happiness of their And yet all that God has done for man, and man for himself in a material sense, during these six thousand years, fades into insignificance compared with the inappreciable moral legacies which the past has bequeathed to the present. All the wisdom, experience, investigation, discoveries, inventions, improvements, of sixty centuries, each adding by compound interest to the treasures it had inherited, are the free, absolute, inalienable property of TO-DAY-not entailed to any individual heir-not restricted to any favored class, but scattering their precious benefits by the diffusion of intelligence in all directions, upon the poor as well as the rich, the peasant as well as the prince. Truly, all those who by living TO-DAY have become the heirs of the past, have succeeded to a splendid patrimony! Let their gratitude be proportioned to their good fortune, especially when they reflect that they pay no legacy-duty nor income-tax on this magnificent bequest. And yet their destiny and position are much less majestical as children of the past, than as the parents of the future; for they have only six for what is it, in point of fact, but the glory of doing all the drudgery and dirty work for the rest of our species, of being cosmopolitan "hewers of wood and drawers of water," not to say catholic scavengers and nightmen? We boast of being the freest nation in the world, yet we voluntarily make ourselves the slaves of the most slavish that will give us orders-for our manufactures. We are a people of unemancipated white negroes. thousand years behind, but an eternity before them. And if riches have their duties as well as privileges, what an awful responsibility is entailed upon the generation inheriting all the moral wealth that has been accumulating since the creation! "The child's the father of the man," and the comparatively young world of TO-DAY, will transmit its character to the adult world of another day. Can there be a more cogent motive for improving the moral estate we have inherited, so that our legacy to posterity Does any ask what we have gained by thus may exceed that which was bequeathed to us rendering ourselves the slaves of the whole by antiquity, and that the incalculable numbers world? We have become masters of the whole who are to come after us, may not have reason world! We have literally stooped to conquer. to reproach their ancestors? Let no living man Commerce, an ever-propitious impersonation of finally pass away, without having endeavored both Neptune and Mars, has given us the comto deposit upon the altar of human advance- mand of the sea, which, in the present dependment, an offering suitable to his means and op-ence of nations upon each other, includes, to a portunities. As his efforts towards this great certain extent, the dominion of the land. and glorious consummation will best embalm have not "beat our swords into ploughshares, his memory among his fellow-mortals, so may and our spears into pruning-hooks," that so we he humbly hope that they will form his surest might become a judge over the nations; but on passport to a blissful immortality. the contrary, conquering by the instruments of peace, we have made lances of our shuttles, battering-rams of our steam-engines, and brandishing the manufacturer's hammer, we have first wielded it, like that of Thor, to knock down our enemies; and secondly, like that of the auctioneer, to knock down our goods to the best bidder. HOW TO FIND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. When Hobbes the philosopher was lying on his deathbed, and consulted as to what inscription was to be placed on his tombstone, he replied, with a smile, "The Philosopher's Stone." Holt, speaking of the wonderful increase and riches of commercial cities, says, "This is the true Philosopher's Stone, so much sought after in former ages, the discovery of which has been reserved to genius when studying to improve the mechanic arts. Hence a pound of raw materials is converted into stuffs of fifty times its original value. And the metals too are not indeed transmuted into gold-they are more for the labor of man has been ena bled to work the baser metal by the ingenuity of art, so as to become worth many times more than its weight in gold." IN MEDIO TUTISSIMUS IBIS. We mind, is the best adapted to the wear and tear The average standard, whether of body or of life. Tall men must often stoop, if they wish to avoid knocking their heads-short ones must stand on tiptoe if they desire to see as much as posed to injury by knocking against the angles their neighbors. Great intellects are ever exof some narrow prejudice,-little ones are liable to be squeezed or trampled upon by their largerminded fellow-mortals. "Even if you think like the wise," says Roger Ascham, "you should speak like the common people.” Distinguished talent excites envy-mediocrity throws nobody into the shade, and therefore appeals to the sympathies of every body. Horace, indeed, maintains Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non dii, non concessere columnæ. But critics have granted it, for I myself have been more than once lauded as if I had written like Wordsworth or Bulwer. And why? Because the praise of mediocrity is the surest way to annoy the higher order of merit. AURIFEROUS SAND.-At a late meeting of the Academy of Sciences, a communication from Prince Demidoff was made, on the rapid extension of the extraction of gold from the auriferous sands of the Russian Empire. The prince states that those of Siberia alone yielded in 1842 more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold, representing the value of fifteen mass of gold, weighing 35 kilogrammes, and worth million of francs. It will be remembered that a 120,000 francs, was found in Siberia last year. Court Journal. OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY. From the Christian Observer. gave his children, though he did not follow it up in his own conduct. The first letter I will quote is one to his cousin, Mrs. St. Johns, dated from Ely, October 13, 1638: sure I shall never earn the least mite. The IN your Review last month of Mr. Rob. DEAR COUSIN-I thankfully acknowledge erts's Collection of Letters, you observe your love in your kind remembrance of me upon that private confidential letters are often this opportunity. Alas! you do too highly prize among the best exponents of dark passages my lines and my company. I may be ashamed of history; as showing the characters of to own your expressions, considering how unmen, and the secret springs of action. 1 profitable I am, and the mean improvement of am reminded, by this remark, to inquire what he hath done for my soul, in this I am conmy talent. Yet, to honor my God by declaring how far the letters of Oliver Cromwell to fident, and I will be so. Truly then, this I find, his family may be considered as illustrating that he giveth springs in a dry and barren wilhis real feelings and opinions. His public derness, where no water is. I live (you know letters have been generally regarded as so where) in Meseck, which they say signifies prodeeply tinctured with hypocrisy, in order longing; in Kedar, which signifies blackness; to promote his purposes of ambition, that yet the Lord forsaketh me not. Though He do it is impossible to say what portions of prolong, yet He will (I trust) bring me to his tabernacle, to his resting-place. My soul is with them, or whether any, express his genuine the congregation of the first born; my body rests sentiments in matters of religion. His in hope; and, if here I may honor my God, either character, view it how we may, is singu- by doing or suffering, I shall be most glad. larly paradoxical; but I cannot think he Truly no poor creature hath more cause to put was altogether acting a part. He had been forth himself in the cause of his God than I. I early conversant with Scriptural truth, and have had plentiful wages beforehand; and I am his conscience reproached him with not Lord accept me in his Son, and give me to walk living up to his convictions. The religious in the light; and give us to walk in the light, as phraseology which he adopted was the cus- He is in the light: He it is that enlighteneth our tomary language of the Puritans, among blackness, our darkness. I dare not say He hideth whom he was educated, being partly de- His face from me, He giveth me to see light in rived from the words of Holy Writ, but His light. One beam in a dark place hath exmixed up with quaint phrases, which ceeding much refreshment in it; blessed be His it a motley character. His customary use You know what manner of life mine hath been. name for shining upon so dark a heart as mine. of it tells not much either way in regard to Oh! I lived in and loved darkness, and hated his real character or opinions; for he might the light. I was a chief, the chief, of sinners. employ it from habit, or intentionally and This is true: I hated Godliness, yet God had conscientiously, or as a cloak of hypocrisy. mercy on me. O the riches of His mercy! praise Upon recently perusing the mass of docu. Him for me, pray for me, that He who hath bements in the forgotten-and never much gun a good work, would perfect it to the day of Christ. Salute all my good friends in that famknown-heavy quarto volume of his Meily whereof you are yet a member. I am much moirs, "illustrated by original letters and bound unto them for their love; I bless the Lord other family papers," by the late Oliver for them, and that my son, by their procurement, Cromwell, one of his descendants, it seemed is so well. Let him have your prayers, your to me difficult to believe that he could, from counsel: let me have them. first to last, in private as well as public, and is not a man of his word; he promised to write Salute your husband and sister from me: he during a long series of years, have been about Mr. Wrath, of Epping, but as yet I rehabitually dissembling. His inconsisten-ceived no letters: put him in mind to do what cies and crimes must, I think, be accounted with conveniency may be done for the poor coufor upon some other principle. It may not sin I did solicit him about. Once more farewell; be uninteresting to your readers to peruse the Lord be with you; so prayeth a few of his letters to his relatives, espe cially his children, some of them copied by his descendant from the originals in the possession of the family. These letters place him in a different light to that in which he is generally represented in the historic page; but instead of clearing up the anomalies of his life, they render them the more inexplicable; unless upon the hy pothesis that he knew and approved wha was right, and wished to impress it upon Your truly loving cousin, The following letter to his wife is from the original in the Harleian collection in he British Museum. It is dated Edinburgh, May 3, 1651: MY DEAREST-I could not satisfy myself to omit this post, although I have not much to write; yet indeed I love to write to my dear, who is very much in my heart. It joys me to hear thy soul prospereth; the Lord increase his favors to thee more and more. The great good thy soul can wish is, that the Lord lift upon thee the light of His countenance, which is better than life. The Lord bless all thy good counsel and example to those about thee, and hear all thy prayers, and accept thee always. I am glad to hear thy son and daughter are with thee. I hope thou wilt have some good opportunity of good advice to him. Present my duty to my mother; my love to all the family. Still pray O. CROMWELL. for thine The following is addressed to Mr. Major, whose daughter had married Cromwell's son. It is taken from a copy in the possession of the Cromwell family. The date is Newbury, July 27, 1649: I hear my son hath exceeded his allowance, and is in debt: truly I cannot commend him therein; wisdom requiring his living within compass, and calling for it at his hands; and in my judgment the reputation arising from thence would have been more real honor than what is attained the other way. I believe vain men will speak well of him that does ill. I desire to be understood, that I grudge him not laudable recreations, nor an honorable carriage of himself in them; nor is any matter of charge likely to fall to my share, or stick with me. Truly, I can find in my heart to allow him, not only a sufficiency, but more, for his good; but if pleasure and self-satisfaction be made the business of a man's life, so much cost laid out upon it, so much time spent in it, as rather answers appetite than the will of God, or is comely before his saints, I scruple to feed this humor; and God forbid that his being my son should be his allowance to live not pleasingly to our Heavenly Father, who hath raised me out of the dust to what I am. I desire your faithfulness (he being also your concernment as well as mine) to advise him to approve himself to the Lord in his course of life, and to search his statutes for a rule to conscience, and to seek grace from Christ to enable him to walk therein. This hath life in it, and will come to somewhat; what is a poor creature without this? This will not abridge of lawful pleasures, but teach such a use of them as will have the peace of a good conscience going along with it. Sir, I write what is in my heart; I pray you communicate my mind herein to my son, and be his remembrancer in these things. Truly, I love him; he is dear to me, so is his wife; and for their sakes do I thus write. They shall not want comfort nor encouragement from me, so far as I may afford it; but indeed I cannot think I do well to feed a voluptuous humor in my son, if he should make pleasures the business of his life, in a time when some precious saints are bleeding and breathing out their last for the good and safety of the rest. Memorable is the speech of Urijah to David, 2 Chron. xi. Sir, I beseech you believe I here say not this to save my purse, for I shall willingly do what is convenient to satisfy his occasions, as I have opportunity; but as I pray he may not walk in a course not pleasing to the Lord, so think it lieth upon me to give him (in love) the best council I may; and know not how better to convey it to him than by so good a hand as yours. Sir, I pray you acquaint him with these thoughts of mine; and remember my love to my daughter, for whose sake I shall be induced to do any reasonable thing. I pray for her happy deliverance, frequently and earnestly. The next letter is one from Cromwell to his daughter Ireton, from the original in the British Museum. The date is London, October 25, 1646: band, partly to avoid trouble, for one line of Dear DaughtER,--I write not to thy hus OLIVER CROMWELL. MY DEAR DAUGHTER,-Your letter was very welcome to me; I like to see any thing from your hand, because indeed I stick not to say I do entirely love you; and therefore I hope a word of advice will not be unwelcome or unacceptable to thee. I desire you both to make it above all things your business to seek the Lord: to be frequently calling upon him that he would manifest himself to you in his Son, and be listening what returns he makes to you; for he will be speaking in your ear and in your heart if you attend thereunto. I desire you to provoke your husband likewise thereunto. As for the pleasures of this life and outward business, let that be upon the by: be above all these things by faith in Christ, and then you shall have the true use and comfort of them, and not otherwise. I have much satisfaction in hope your spirit is this way set; and I desire you may |