"it happened, that in the victories of the people, the city of Rome became more virtuous; because the people, being eligible as well as the nobles to the administration of the Magistracies, armies, and the government of the republic, filled themselves with the virtue, possessed by the nobles, and that city, with the increase of virtue, increased in power. But in Florence the people vanquishing, the nobles were excluded from the Magistracies, and if they wished to obtain them, they were under the necessity, not only of making themselves alike the common people, but of appearing such in their behaviour, in their minds, and in their mode of living; * * * * * insomuch, that the valour in arms, and the generosity of mind, which was in the nobility, was extinguished, and in the people, where it was not, it could not be kindled." * * * * * * From the Secretary's discourse, we can argue how much the virtue of the preceptor must influence the mind and manners of the alumni; and we shall perceive too, that it will be but in vain to expect, that young people, because they go to school, should learn from the master that, of which he is ignorant; nay, we cannot even prevent pupils from learning from the instructer his manners. In a well constituted republic, instructers of youth are that nobility, whose virtue should be imitated by the alumni: in a badly constituted one, instructers stand for the common people of Florence, whose vulgar manners are to be imitated by the nobles, or sons of distinguished families, to make themselves worthy' of attention, and Magistracies. The carelessness, or perhaps the indolence, of those, who constitute the best portion of any people, is one of the primary causes, by which the manners of the common people are acquired by gentlemen, instead of theirs being communicated to the mass of the people. The illustrious Beccaria says, "Men most generally abandon the most important regulations to daily prudence, or to the discretion of those, whose interest is to oppose themselves to the most provident laws, etc. etc. Those, who by birth are distinguished from the common people, only endeavour to keep themselves from the sight of the people, and for this reason, the people and youth seeing only rude manners, make those manners theirs. For it instead of seeing nobles, or those, who in whatever manner are distinguished from the common people, introducing polish into all orders of society, we see the very sons of those distinguished families learning the manners of the common people: why is it so? Because they im 1 * itate what they see, and see only the manners of the common people! Hence we see, that the ferocity of mind, which was confined to mercenary men in the middle ages, has reached the best orders of society: hence we see schools opened, where the exercises of the low orders of society are learned by gentlemen. The people of ancient Greece, with the flourishing of arts and sciences, polished their habits; among us, while sciences and arts have nearly reached perfection, we see still preserved the manners of the Seythians and Normans; and to what should this difference be attributed, but to the circumstance, that the patricians, and the great geniuses of Greece, by not avoiding the common people, polished the manners of the people by their speeches and by their example; and ours by flying from the eye of the people, while polishing themselves, abandon to themselves the people, who still have the manners, which characterized the middle ages. Men of science, provided they may decompose a body, believed a simple element, discover a planet not yet observed, or at least find the square of a curve, feel but little concerned, if, out of their laboratories, their observatories and cabinets, blood is spilt, or God's likeness beaten to disfiguration. The philosopher, constantly looking after hidden truths, occupies himself with men in the abstract, caring but little for those, who were ; nothing for those, who are: and yet "that philosopher (these are words of Beccaria) will deserve. the gratitude of men, who from his obscure and neglected cabinet dared the first to throw among the multitude the long before fruitless seeds of useful truths."-Useful truths are those, from which is derived the greatest happiness divided among the greatest number-. The wise and those distinguished for the purity or their manners, by their indolence, cause crimes to be tolerated; because, by not showing themselves, they leave the people in lack of good examples; and because, if honest men will not guide the multitude, wicked ones will. Ně disastri d'un regno Ciascuno ha parte, e nel fedel vassallo Let us not refuse the lesson, because it is couched in soft verses by Metastasio.† * In the disasters of a kingdom every one is interested, and indifference is guilt in the faithful subject. A law of Solon declared those persons infamous, who espoused no side in an insurrection-he foresaw that in a republic torn by intestine divisions, there was reason to apprehend, the soberest part would keep retired. There are two reasons why duelling has not been prevented till now; 1st, because men have never positively undertaken to prevent it; 2d, because they have only aimed at punishing the crime, without correcting those abuses of civilization, and the want of a positive moral, which alone are the causes of duelling as well as many other crimes. The first cause originates from this, that there are but few men, who will act in order to banish evils, which neither do, nor ever will, afflict them. The second springs from the unpardonable indolence of the legislators of a nation, and of those holding Magistracies, who, instead of making criminal certain actions, which are the material causes of duelling, and of correcting the moral ones, by the uninterrupted execution of the laws, and the maintenance of a good moral, turn their ill-grasped sword of justice against a few, rather madmen, than criminals, who expiate with their blood the guilty indifference of their fathers, and their magistrates. There are two means, by which to suppress the practice of duelling; to establish national discipline, and to enact positive laws. If discipline be established by the law, it will determine the mode of education, which all citizens are to receive; and if all those, who compose a nation, are edu |