his favourite maxim, "to suffer every choice of life to be entirely unbiassed, studious only of elevating the minds of his sons, and of fully impressing upon them the necessity of perseverance, after a deliberate selection." Where, however, these advantages of fortune are not enjoyed, this experiment is somewhat dangerous; as the youth who has no path of life recommended to him by the experience and situation of his parents, runs some slight risque of making no choice at all, or at the best but an imprudent one. At the same

time, this is, perhaps, a lesser evil than the too prevalent one of destining a son from infancy, either for the profession or calling of his father, or for any other; and nolens volens,—with the requisite ability for it, or without it,-contrary also,it may be, to a strong predeliction for, and perhaps with a peculiar adaptation to some other path, compelling him to pursue it, by exerting the whole weight of parental authority, to force the bent of his inclinations towards a destiny which he never could have chosen for himself, and in all probability never can approve. Strive, we say, where circumstances render it advisable to give a particular direction to a youth's pursuits, to accomplish your object by indirect means; for direct ones too earnestly and too obviously pursued, generally, if not uniformly, defeat their own purpose. Beware also, how, either in his education or otherwise, you expose him to the chance of making for himself a selection which prudence cannot approve; but if he does evince a clear and unconquerable preference for any particular profession or pursuit, and gives a fair promise of possessing the talents which it requires, point out to him with affection, with fidelity, and clearness, all its disadvantages, and the advantages of the course you would prefer; and if these move him not from his purpose, strain every nerve to forward him in the path of his election, for that has the fairest prospect of becoming ultimately the path of success. For want of attending to this obvious policy, we have often seen, on the one hand, men vainly toiling at a profession for which their predilection, if predilection it may be called, was originally but slight, but that it was injudiciously, though unintentionally cherished by their friends, or the associations they thoughtlessly were permitted to form; whilst, on the other, we have known many a valuable year, many an hundred pounds, as foolishly thrown away, in training up others in a path in which they never meant to tread, the moment their emancipation from tutelage permitted them to follow the fixed purpose of their mind, to which the

energy of their preference, and the obstacles they had-surmounted, were the promising, if not the sure harbingers of

success.

Of the brothers in this tale, for so we suppose it must be termed, though it really has far higher pretensions, the eldest, elegant in his address, of an easy submissive disposition, averse to learning, yet sedulously cultivating the lighter and more attractive arts, all that would adorn his person, give grace to his manners, and teach him the most profitable lesson of worldly wisdom that can be taught, how to please, becomes the companion to a nobleman's son, through whose influence he hoped to rise at court. Impetuous, firm, vivacious; restless in his disposition; athletic; submitting to the restraints of society, but submitting to them evidently as restraints, and irksome ones-the camp was the field in which the youngest was to try his fortune. Their selection pleased the father, and flattered his ambitious hopes; but Augustus neither pleased nor flattered him, for he could not be induced to select at all. Of the elements of his character we will suffer the author to give his outline.

"The second son, Augustus, differed not only from his brothers, but all his associates; he seldom entered into company, rarely ventured to express his opinions, and was strongly attached to domestic pleasures. His manners, his habits, and his temper, were all interpreted as characteristic of an ambition too placid for enterprise, and too reserved to become happy in the active world. The views of his brothers, as they grew up, attained a decided character; their remarks and manners displayed them to every observing mind: but Augustus had evinced no other inclination but to be studious, no other desire but to be tranquil. His father had repeatedly questioned him with respect to his wishes; he shewed the importance of an early choice, and the natural anxiety of his family to see him finally settled in the world. Augustus made no other reply than that he would reflect upon the subject; but reflection seemed very little to create or strengthen his resolutions. The father, angry at his backwardness, severely censured his apparent listlessness of mind, contrasting it with that laudable ambition evinced by his brothers, and which would advance them to honour and esteem, while he would remain neglected, and in that contempt which deservedly attends a sluggard." [pp. 11, 12.]

Such sluggards, we believe and know there are, even in the class of studious men, who read hard but to pass away their time, and make no good use of what they do read. Their virtue, if they have any, is at least of a negative de

scription; they wish not to do harm, and, though they can, they will not do good. Had the hero of this piece been of such a stamp, we should quietly have left him to his fate, conceiving that the family of the Ardelio's have not assumed any essentially distinct features, in our days, from those of Phædrus; in England than at Rome; and that to the whole species, in all its varieties, the character of the individual will attach; "multum agendo, nihil agens." Full, however, of high and generous purposes, imbibed from the frequent perusal of the purest works of antiquity-the records of heroic deeds, the memorials of the great and good of every country and of every age, he ardently panted, in the daydreams of his youth, for power and for influence; not for the adulation which they attract, but that he might become the benefactor of mankind; cherishing, fondly cherishing, with all the enthusiasm of genius, all the cloudless anticipations of a youthful imagination, these ennobling views; and strengthening them by the converse of a tutor, who had drawn his ideas of life from the same brilliant but deceptive guides; with a fortune sufficient to support a respectable character in life, he was sent by his father to a physician in one of the electoral courts, a man of prudence, who was to prepare, and in due season introduce him to the world, in the most eligible situation that might offer. Whilst residing with him, our hero meets with many characters, whose history and whose conduct, in various ways, which we have not room to particularize, have an imperceptible and slow, but sure operation in softening the rainbow colourings which fancy had given to the world, and shewing it to him as it is in fact, and not as depictured in the glowing page of the poet; or as the philosopher would make it, could he invigorate and embody the lofty principles and refined speculations of his study. He meets with one man, whom the ingratitude of friends of those whom he had fostered and cherished had driven into all the gloom and chillness of a settled misanthropy. He is introduced to another, who had risen by his merit and integrity, from obscurity to eminence as a magistrate; but whilst treated by him with parental kindness, and fortified in every virtuous resolution, and every generous purpose, he finds the world around him busy in detracting from the merits of a character, which they ought to have venerated and esteemed. At his house he meets with a young man of congenial sentiments, and engaged in similar pursuits, with whom he contracts an intimacy, which on his part has all the enthusiasm of the first

attachment of such a mind, so ill prepared to sustain with equanimity the attempered joys and sorows of real and active life. The friend, however, seems not to partake, or partakes but transiently, of the generous, but, as the world thinks, unnatural transport. He has other friends; and to them, without fairly subjecting himself to the charge of faithlessness to his new connection, he could remove with a calmness, that excited the wonder, and roused in some slight measure the indignation, of his enthusiastic friend. At the court of the elector, he found that merit alone could seldom rise, and few could or would discover his. At the house of his friend, the judge, he meets however, with a lady of high intellectual attainments, mingled dignity and sweetness of manners; beautiful, and highly accomplished of course, and with whom, although she was the only daughter of a nobleman of high rank and influence at court, as proud and ambitious, as he was elevated and powerful, it is equally of course, according to the usages of novelists, in the preparation and management of heroines, that our hero should at first sight fall desperately in love. But still his love is the affection of a man of genius, of acute sensibility, but of great strength of mind and energy of character, infusing into his hopes, his wishes, and his pursuits, a definitiveness which they hitherto had had no object, or none sufficiently powerful and individualized, to impart. He had panted long for distinction, but had taken no steps to obtain it, satisfying himself with laying in a large stock of information, to which, what the world calls chance, rather than his own exertions, might afterwards give its direction and its use. Now, however, he wished to be distinguished by one object, and therefore retired to the country to compose a poem-for poetry, we know, is the offspring of genius and of love-distinguished by the high tone of its morality, by its public spirit, and its evident tendency to improve, while it delighted. Here, as poets should be, and as poets are, he is delighted with the stillness, and the thousand nameless charms of retirement, and a country life; but even in this delightful cup, he finds a portion of the mingled bitterness of life. He lodges at the house of an officer, whose services to his country have been repaid with contumely and wrong. Smarting under a sense of injuries, for which the malice of his enemies prevents his obtaining redress, he flies to dissipation for relief-the comfort of his family is destroyed-habits of inebriation produce insanity-his property is wasted-he falls a victim to his intemperance, and the daughters, who in his prospe

rity had been the pride of his life, and had soothed the earlier days of his misfortunes, are left orphans, unprotected and in want. His poem, when finished, is presented to, and graciously received by Olympia, for such is the name of his inspiring muse, to whom it is dedicated, under an express promise to keep his name a profound secret-as he had learnt at court, one lesson at the least of the world's thrift, that to be known and even admired as a poet, is seldom the way to rise in any of the lucrative or honourable walks of life. The lady takes, however, another and more effectual mode of acknowledging the favour conferred upon her, by procuring him, through her father's influence, the honourable post of secretary to an embassy to the imperial court, whihe proceeds in the minister's suite, full, of course, of dreams of glory and of love. But on such dreams, the ambassador is not precisely the man propitiously to shine :--a finished diplomatist, an accomplished courtier, a self-interested politician, he uses the talents of his secretary, as long as it suits his own purposes to do so; and in spite of the coldness and jealousy of the sprigs of nobility in his suite, honours him with particular attention, until, in an evil hour, the young man, put off his guard (he was not formed indeed often to put it on) by the apparent kindness and frankness of his superior's manner, was led, by a love of argument, and a still stronger devotedness to the principles of virtue and of truth, to question some of the ambassador's political axioms, and to defend his own views, with a warmth, which lost him his favour, and speedily procured his recal. On his arrival at the electoral court, disgraced in the eyes of the world, and momentarily humbled, even in his own esteem, he learns that Olympia, whom he had presumed to hope might one day be his, was about to be united to the son of a neighbouring prince, whose worthlessness rendered her a sacrifice to the ambition of her father. Hopeless love, and disappointed ambition, led him to form a resolve, as moderate and rational as any which we recollect to have met with, under similarly provoking circumstances, in the whole course of our lighter reading. Convinced that the court was not an atmosphere for him to breathe, he determines to return home to the bosom of his family, anticipating, with his wonted delight in the pictures. of his creative fancy, the rapture with which he should be received the tenderness which would console him, under the shock of sudden and unmerited misfortune. The gate of his father was however closed against him; and, instead of the parental embrace, he received a letter, reproaching