66

Thy purfe muft pay, the violation of the public bed."

a

It has been faid of Dr. Armftrong, and I believe by himself, that his fuccefs, as a phyfician, was impeded by exceffive fenfi"bility," and what he calls " "ticklith ftate of fpirits, occafioned or increased by the teazing and "uncomfortable circumstances of "the profeffion." This irritability produced, in fome of his publications, the peevithnefs of paffionate expreffion, and in one inftance, outrageous invective. He who affects to quarrel with, or defpife the world, has been aptly compared to a wayward, fpoilt child, who to revenge himself on his mother, for fome petty contradiction," refolved to ftay all night "on the bridge." To continue the fimile, the defpifer of mankind will, in general, find his anger or refentment repaid with ample intereft; he may ftay for fifty nights on the comfortiefs bridge of feceffion, frozen with cold, or drenched with rain, and the world, fo far from feeling for his fituation, or meeting him half way with offers of pity and condolence, will ridicule the impotence of that ineffectual revenge, which recoils only to its own injury, and add, by bitter infult, new barbs to the arrows of affliction.

The unfortunate, and of course, the penfive man, in his journey through life, induftrioufly hunts for, and fixes on, as objects of difcuffion or contemplation, his own ill treatment, the happy fortune of his rivals, and a thousand little harraffing circumftances, which a fortunate traveller, on the fame road, either fees not, or does not feel, refolved that the unavoidable rubs of envy and oppofition, fall not interrupt the congratulations of felf-applaufe, or darken the bewitching profpects of enjoyment and independence, which, through a variety of avenues, prefent them

felves to his view.

"But is the induftry of the pro"feffional ftudent to abate, because "he fometimes fees great and well "cultivated powers, neglected or "forgotten by mankind? Is he

"to exchange the glowing enthu"fiafm of expectation, for the im"potent languors of inactivity?"The man, who in spite of time "mis-fpent andunimproved talents, "has been able, by political ma

66

nœuvre, and fortunate incident, 66 to attain eminence, is beft qua. ❝lified to answer thefe queftions. "He knows, and feels the pecu"liar dangers of his fituation, that "the health and life of his best "friends are in the hands of a "man unfit for the important of"fice he has undertaken; that he "is every moment exposed to the

open attacks, or the infidious "artifices of competitors, eager, as "well as able, on every occafion,

“to dete&t imposture, and publifh “ imbecility.

"Let therefore every young mar, who avows himself a can“didate for fame and fortune, in law, phyfic, or divinity, by un"wearied diligence, by prudent “conduct, and by application, fe"cure himself from the ridicule "and contempt fo conftantly, and "fo properly attached to ignorant, "though fuccessful pretenders. "If, after devoting his days to “buûness, and his nights to books, "toil should prove ineffectual; if mankind fhall not be difpofed to acknowledgle merit, or reward "his labours, let not difappointment damp his spirits, or delayed hope make his heart fick; honeft, though unrequited effort, will afford folid comfort. He "may confole himself, with re“flecting, that he shares the fate "of many great and many good “men; that although he does not "move in a brilliant and exalted "circle, he is a valuable and use"ful member of fociety. The "conviction, that he has endea"voured, in fpite of a frowning "world, to fulfill the duties of that "ftation affigned him by Provi"dence, that he has not buried his

talent, nor yielded to the de"preffions of defpair, will heal the "wounds of ambition, and diffuse "a warm ray of honeft joy over the evening of life."

A of Brandenburgh, who exerARNOLD, JOHN, a native

cifed the trade of a miller, near Cuftrin, and a fubject of that illuftrious, and philofophic warrior, Frederick, King of Pruffia; who I believe needs no other addition to his name, to diftinguifh

him from his predcceffors, or the fucceeding king. The mill, in which Arnold lived, was plentifully fupplied with water, at the time he purchased the leafe; he had regularly paid his rent, and fupported himfelf and family in a comfortable manner, for upwards of fix years.

Count Schmettau, the miller's landlord, having occafion, in the year 1776, to enlarge a fish pond, contiguous to his feat, and to turn a greater quantity of water into it, ordered a canal to be cut from the stream a little above the mill, notwithstanding the earnest remonftrances of his tenant, who forefaw, and pointed out the injury he thould receive, and intreated, that if the canal must remain, he might be permitted to refign his leafe. This reasonable requeft being reffed, the current of the ftream was leffened, and the water fo evidently lowered, that the mill could only be worked during the floods, which fucceed violent rains. Arnold applied to a court of law for redress, but fentence was pronounced against him, and after much anxiety from his debts increafing, while his ability for raifing money daily diminished; his utenfils, goods and chattels, were at length feized and fold, to pay the arrears of rent, and a long lawyer's bill. By the advice of his friends, who knew the benevolent and equitable principles of their fovereign, he prefented a fhort memorial on the subject, to the king, whofe fcrutinizing eye, equally formed for minute precifion and vaft defign, was immediately ftruck with the fimplicity of the poor man's narrative; and though

during a confiderable portion of his reign, he was reluctantly compelled, by the united perfidy and canting hypocrify of the courts of Auftria, France and Ruffia, to havock and defolation, his heart was, on most occafions, alive to the interest and happiness of his fubjects. Frederick immediately dispatched a private agent to Cuftrin, who examined the merits of the bufinefs, furveyed accurately the mill, the stream, and the new canal, and enquired particularly into Arnold's former fituation, and the probable caufes of his failure. By the cautious deliberation with which he proceeded, the king feems to have guarded, as far as he was able, against thofe oppofite extremes, which the most amiable virtues fometimes hurry us into; he was fully aware of his natural, his well known antipathy to law and its profeffors, who are too often the fcourges and fire-brands of fociety, and the difgrace of a liberal pro. feffion; from the furly judge on the bench, who browbeats or misleads a jury, and boasts that he pays little attention to what evidence or counfel adduce, but determines a cause in his own mind, from an early glance of his eye, to the base tipftaff, who derives a difhonourable fubfiftence from the tears and groans of affliction.

Our royal legiflator, one of the few hereditary monarchs, who by perfonal merit, deferved to reign, revifed with his own eyes, the various evidence and pleadings before the court, and the whole of the law proceedings. Fearing alfo that refentment, and mifguided zeal might heat his imagination, warp his judgment, and lead him to inVOL. I.

juftice and oppreffion, the very crimes he meant to punih in others, and refolving not to trust to his own opinion, he confulted feveral eminent veterans, who had paffed in laborious study or daily practice, thro' the different provincial, municipal, and civil departments, before he finally determined on the conduct he meant to pursue.

Early in the month of December, 1779, having made up his mind, he ordered his chancellor, the judges of the high court of appeal, and the counfellors, who had approved and figned Arnold's fentence, into his prefence. After defcribing to them the purposes for which the feveral pofts they filled, were firft created, and obferving, that peasants or beggars were to the full as well entitled to impartial juftice as a king or a noble, and that an unjuft or negligent magistrate, who betrayed his truft, or a corrupt court of law, partial in its proceedings, were more dangerous in a state, and lefs easy to guard againft, than a band of robbers; he laid before them their decree against the miller, and remonftrated in fevere terms, on a conduct, fo oppofite to the fundamental principles of equity; he animadverted with warmth on their abfurd cruelty, in fuffering a man to be deprived of water, the only means by which he cou'd work his mill, and then pulling him to pieces for arrears of rent. The chancellor was peremptorily difmiffed from his poft, the several judges and the members of the court of Cuftrin, were taken into cuftody, and immediately profecuted. A fum equal to the produce of the effects of the F

miller

miller, and the amount of the law proceedings, was deducted from the falaries of all who had a fhare in the unjust sentence. Count Schmettau, a haughty German baron, who had long confidered his vaffals as animals, only a few degrees above his horse, his hounds, or his hogs, was reprimanded, and ordered to reimburse to his late tenant, all the rent he had received, from the time of the canal being first opened.

My readers will probably be furprized to hear that this conduct of the great Frederick, in which the keen eye of fevere fcrutiny perceives fo much to praise, fo little to condemn, has been branded with the opprobrious epithets of arbitrary and tyrannical, by an ingenious and enlightened writer, who in many inftances has proved himself an affertor of the Rights of Mankind. The force of his reafoning, or the correctness of his statement, I confefs myself unable to perceive, though they conclude

with a potent argument, which he

feems to mention with indecent exultation, that the determination in favor of Arnold, was reversed, a few months after the king's death, and that every poffible reparation was made to the honour, feelings, and interefts of the injured and degraded lawyers. After every enquiry into the bufinefs, I cannot but applaud the brave deceased old Fritz, as his foldiers ufed to call him; and fhall only obferve, that in fome kingdoms, I had rather be the husband of a pretty wife, a baron, or a lawyer, than a miller, a peafant, or a private foldier.

The late king's behaviour, when laying out his own garden, at Sans

Souci, was fomewhat different from Count Schmettau's; the builder and furveyor reported to his majefty, that a neighbouring mill was an infurmountable impediment to all his improvements; that the mil. ler had been treated with for the purchase of it, and double its value had been offered, o1, if he preferred it, that another mill fhould be built, in any part of the country he chofe; but that nothing could prevail on the old man to part with a fpot, to which he was particularly attached, and on which he had paffed the earliest and most pleafant period of his life. "Don't

66

you know," faid the king, who called on him to repeat his offers, "Don't you know, that if I please "I may take your mill, turn you "out, and not pay you a farthing "for it?" Aye," replied the miller, "that you might, if there

66

was no fuch thing as a fupreme "court of justice at Berlin." The king laughed heartily, and altered the whole plan of his garden.

ASPASIA, a Grecian female,

an inhabitant of Athens, and a cotemporary of Socrates and Xenophon, who devoting her life to licentious pleasure, emerged from infamy and indecorum, to honour and diftinction, won the affections, and fecured the lafting efteem of Pericles, the hero of his age and country, was refpected as the friend, and admired as the companion, of all that was illuftrious and exalted in either fex, during the most refined and brilliant period of Grecian history.

Our curiofity and attention are naturally excited by this fair Milefian, who, with vices which would have chained down most

women

women in the noifome and fequestered caves of proftitution, boldly claimed, and eminently enjoyed that confideration, and esteem, which the world generally beftows on virtuous and correct conduct alone. Athenian matrons, mothers of families, and the wives of senators and wealthy citizens, repaired, without fcandal, to the entertainments of Afpafia, where fociety was enlivened by beauty, wit, and wine; while the graces, with loofened zones, prefided at her repafts.

Inheriting from nature a bewitching form, and a mafculine understanding, no improvement had been spared, which education or money could procure; but the fame quickness of perception, and fenfibility of heart, which made her progrefs in acquirements fo rapid, rendered her only an earlier and an easier victim to the tender paffions, fo often fatal to youth and beauty; once plunged in the abyss of unhallowed indulgence, the imparted almost a dignity to loose desire, and often rushed from the couch of fenfuality and excefs, to the academic grove, where, to use the language of a lively writer, fhe outftripped in eloquence the master of moral philofophy, and furprized, by the depth of her reflections, and the brilliancy of her metaphors, the author of the Cyropodia.

Such have been the glowing expreffions of exaggerating partiality, perhaps of doating admiration; and that man must have more of the cynic than the lover in his compofition, who has not, at certain moments of his life, imagined fomething very excellent, and un

commonly ftriking, in words iffuing from a pretty pair of lips; words, which from a plain face, on the wrong fide of fix and thirty, would have paffed without praife, and without notice.

The fafcinating arts of this fyren muft, however, have been wonderful, or the domeftic life of Pericles, who was a married man, very uneafy, for not fatisfied with thofe clandeftine fnatches of enjoyment, preferred by our modern men of pleasure, far beyond the dull routine of lawful affection; he prevailed on his wife to confent to a feparation, provided her with another husband, and led Afpafia to the altar, a proceeding which did not escape the comic lafh of Cratinus and Ariftophanes.

"Tell me," said Afpafia to the wife of Xenophon, in one of those confidential moments, when her predominating powers of converfation had levelled every apparent diftinction between the honourable wife and the courtezan, "Tell me, without referve, if an ac

66

quaintance had more valuable "jewels, or a more fplendid fide"board of plate than your own, "fhould you not prefer them?" "Undoubtedly," replied the lady.

Suppose she had a better husband "than you?" continued Afpafia ; Xenophon, to whom, after a fhort filence, the queftion was repeated, hefitated; his wife, who did not at first fee whither the original queftion would lead, hung her head, and blushed. "You will " neither of you,' ,"exclaimed Afpafia, fatisfy me on a subject, "almost the only one, on which "I wish to hear your opinion. "You expect perfection in other

66

F 2

66

"people,