THOUGHTS OF THE TIMES.
THIS little volume contains essays on History, Religion, Poetry, Utilitarianism, Absenteeism, and three other subjects of longer and less expressive titles; and though not of a very striking merit, they possess sufficient to be worth reading.
The distinguishing characteristic of the writer is shrewdness of thought and neatness of expression. He does not always pene- trate very deep, or see very far; but, though not a person on whom one feels inclined to place implicit reliance, his views are often just, sometimes novel, and mostly acute. Not so paradoxical as Ilizsirr, be frequently recalls that writer to mind, by a terse- ness and point of expression, which seem the result of the thought, but in reality is the effect of words. His opinions, however, differ widely from those of that singular writer ; being Conserva- tive in politics, and somewhat strait in religion.
Of the different essays, or articles, that on History is the best ; running over the annals of the world, and giving in some forty pages the general results which the writer has drawn from his reading. In this be sometimes puts forward opinions of question- able soundness; as in the following quotation. The "notion that nations, like individuals, must decay," is so far confirmed by faets, that all nations hitherto have decayed ; and the facts, too, seem to establish this principle, that nations, like natural bodies, fulfil certain objects, and their utility ia exhausted when those objects are attained. The estimate of Justus CESAR is also unjust : his public weaknesses arose front the " milk of human kindness;" and it must be remembered that he was cut off when about to develop his peactfal policy. The characteristic of our own " gen- tlemen " is true enough, whatever may be thought of the Roman republic.
No age, perhaps, that hail gone before or that has followed has so great an affinity with our own as the last century of the Roman republic. The great men of those times, and they woe many, were emphatically gentlemen, men of the world, distinguished for their acquaintance with all classes of society, shrewd, sensoal and refined, little susceptible of strong emotions, and indifferent to human suffering, provided it was a means of accomplishing their ends. We have here too the first recoided age vf terror, as Sylla and Illarires successively gaiued the imendancy, which each employed to proscribe the other's adherents. Syllti'm was a character not common in history. Never was man more un- 'crapulous in his mode of attaining power, or sooner tired of it, when attained. Sylla was no favourite with the fawning Romans of the empire, because Omar, Isis more renowned imitator, belonged to the opposite faction ; but there must have been something about him more than commonly grand, or the unlimited power, which he dared to resign, would have debased, instead of ameliorating Isis nature. In this respect he resembles Cromwell, rather than Alexander, Cesar, or Napoleon, all three of whom proved themselves unequal to the weight of their fortunes ; and Cesar was the least excusable of all. Alexander, the sovereign of an obscure province of northern and barbarous Greece, had con- quered the whole country from the Egan Sea to the Indus befote he was thirty years of age. Napoleon, in the course of a very few years, from the humble rank of a subaltern officer, raised himself to that of Emperor of the French, and virtual ruler of half Europe. But cresar was born a noble Roman ; the highest dignities of his country, the mistress of the civilized world, were by birth within his grasp: he arrived at supreme power by steps, and Stan age when the passions have generally cooled, yet in ite exercise he was sometimes asextravagant, as vain, and even HE impolitic as a boy. The fah of the Roman empire, that greatest of all revolutions, gave rise 10 the notion, that nations, like individuals, must decay,—a ptoposition equally needless and extravagant, if the ruin of the Romans can be accounted for on more simple and obvious grounds, namely, their own corruption and meta) de- gradation, the result of a combination of unfavourable circumstances.
There is considerable truth in this description of the middle classes ; though the exceptions to it are very numerous, as indeed they must be in so numerous a body.
In all countries the men of the middle clasees are the most satisfied with
themselves, and the least disposed to admire intellectual excellence. The higher orders, more cultivated, are interested by an appeal to their taste; the lower, more warm, by an appeal to their feelings. But the middle classes, though more tegular iii their moral conduct than either of the former, are, from the nature of their pursuits, more sordid and calculating, and at the same time more vulgar, because they ate perpetually attempting to appear what they are not. To make money, the great ohject of their livee, mental cultivation is not necessary, nor iniked mental power, " for riches are not always to men of understanding:" their sell love is not exposed to the same mortification* as that of the higher classes in a constitutional country, for they do not compete with each other in trials of intellect, nor is their conviction of inferiority, thought felt, so constant and so galling as that of the lower classes. There is also another reason for the want of humility observable among the middle ranks. Every man naturally thinks that kind of knowledge most important Which is most beneficial to himself. A tradesman is necessarily better acquainted with his owu trade than his customers can be, among whom his life is spent ; their ignorance is his triumph, and furnishes him with continual mat- ter for self-applause. Thus his habits are singularly unfavourable to self-know- ledge, to "setting his mind at a distance and making it his own object ; " and without self.knowledge no man can bear reproof.
Of the remaining essays, that on Absenteeism is wanting in novelty of argument : the fallacy of M'CuLsoell—that so much wealth is transported—has been shown in almost every variety of illustration. The paper on Poetry is deficient both in critical oepth and comprehension, as well as faulty in a selection of titt poets : CAMPBELL is passed over as the "author of some hely, dozen spirit-stirring lyrics, which are in every one's month:. whilst eight pages are devoted to the merits of Messrs. TENNy, SON, TAYLOR, and TALFOURD. The paper on Religion espial* more of a sectarian than a philosophic spirit in its general fees]) & but there is acuteness in its estimates of different sects.
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