Gazette Of The United States

EXTRACT.

PERHAPS I shall be told that men such as the great characters of antiquity are no longer to be found. I am however of opinion, that there is not the least foundation for speaking or thinking in this manner. Was Chatham in greatness inferior to a Roman? Will his son, who when yet a youth, thundered forth in the Senate like Demosthenes, and like Pericles rivetted the attention of those who heard him, and who now, when little more than thirty years of age, makes himself be feared and respected as the Prime Minister of England, ever think or act with less dignity than his father? What men have once been they may always be. Greece or Rome never had on their thrones, or at the head of their armies a great man whose equal may not be found at present in Europe. Wherever there is a desire for it, wisdom and virtue profit, at court as well as in private life, in the palaces of Kings equally as in the cottage. Wise solitude is never so respectable as in a palace: There in profound tranquility, may one weigh the most important affairs, live calmly, happily, and contented, when one does without ostentation whatever duty requires and when one knows how to avoid the contagion of frivolous and weak minds. One may acquire instruction every where, and at all times; and if we cannot return and begin a new career, we may at least employ properly that time which remains, unless the man who has it in his power to display the lamp of truth chooses rather to be satisfied with the feeble light of the glow-worm.