are dragged unwillingly from their peaceful homes into the field of battle. A soldier is a man whose business it is to kill those who never offended him, and who are the innocent martyrs of other men's iniquities. Whatever may become of the abstract question of the justifiableness of war, it seems impossible that the soldier should not be a depraved and unnatural being. To these more serious and momentous considerations it may be proper to add a recollection of the ridiculousness of the military character. Its first constituent is obedience: a soldier is, of all descriptions of men, the most completely a machine; yet his profession inevitably teaches him something of dogmatism, swaggering, and self-consequence; he is like the puppet of a showman, who, at the very time he is made to strut and swell and display the most farcical airs, we perfectly know cannot assume the most insignificant gesture, advance either to the right or the left, but as he is moved by his exhibitor.---Godwin's Enquirer, Essay v. I will here subjoin a little poem, so strongly expressive of my abhorrence of despotism and falsehood, that I fear lest it never again may be depictured so vividly. This opportunity is perhaps the only one that ever will occur of rescuing it from oblivion. FALSEHOOD AND VICE. A DIALOGUE. Whilst monarchs laughed upon their thrones FALSEHOOD. Brother! arise from the dainty fare, Which thousands have toiled and bled to bestow; A finer feast for thine hungry ear Is the news that I bring of human woe. VICE. And, secret one, what hast thou done, FALSEHOOD. What have I done!- -I have torn the robe Borne safely the bewildering charm: Flow from her bosom's hideous rent, Which this unfailing dagger gave..... I dread that blood!-no more--this day Is ours, though her eternal ray Must shine upon our grave. Yet know, proud Vice, had I not given VICE. And know, that had I disdained to toil, In this cold grave beneath my feet, Will our hopes, our fears, and our labours meet. FALSEHOOD. I brought my daughter, RELIGION, on earth; She smothered Reason's babes in their birth; But dreaded their mother's eye severe,- Did her work o'er the wide earth frightfully; VICE. I have extinguished the noon-day sun, For the bloated wretch on yonder throne While the snakes, whose slime even him defiled. They thought 'twas theirs,--but mine the deed! Theirs is the toil, but mine the meed, Ten thousand victims madly bleed. They dream that tyrants goad them there These tyrants on their beds of thorn, Swell with the thoughts of murderous fame, Thy daughter, that relentless maid, FALSEHOOD. Brother, well:---the world is ours; And whether thou or I have won, The pestilence expectant lowers On all beneath yon blasted sun. V. PAGE 35. Thus do the generations of the earth Go to the grave, and issue from the womb. One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again, according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whence the rivers come, thither shall they return again. Ecclesiastes, chap. i. V. PAGE 35. Even as the leaves Which the keen frost wind of the waning year Has scattered on the forest soil. Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, So flourish these, when those are past away.. Pope's Homer. V. PAGE 36. The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings. Pleased we from land the reeling bark survey, V. PAGE 37. And statesmen boast Of wealth: Dr. Busby's Lucretius. There is no real wealth but the labour of man. Were the mountains of gold, and the valleys of silver, the world would not be one grain of corn the richer; no one comfort would be added to the human race. In consequence of our consideration for the precious metals, one man is enabled to heap to himself luxuries at the expense of the necessaries of his neighbour; a system admirably fitted to produce all the varieties of disease and crime, which never fail to characterize the two extremes of opulence and penury. A speculator takes pride to himself as the promoter of his country's prosperity, who employs a number of hands in the manufacture of articles avowedly destitute of use, or subservient only to the unhallowed cravings of luxury and ostentation. The nobleman, who employs the peasants of his neighbourhood in building his palaces, until "jam pauca aratro jugera |