phecy, the knowledge of the predominant opinions and the fpeculative principles of men in general, between the age of twenty and thirty. Sir Philip Sidney, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, the paramount gentleman of Europe, the nephew, and -as far as a good man could be-the confidant of the intriguing and dark-minded Earl of Leicester, -was fo deeply convinced that the principles diffused through the majority of a nation are the true oracles from whence ftatesmen are to learn wif dom, and that when the people speak loudly it is from their being strongly poffeffed either by the godhead or the dæmon, that in the revolution of the Netherlands he confidered the universal adoption of one set of principles, as a proof of the divine presence. If Her Majesty,' fays he,' were the fountain, I would fear, confidering what I daily find, that we fhould wax dry. But he is but a means which God useth.' But if my readers wish to fee the question of the efficacy of principles and popular opinions for evil and for good proved and illuftrated with an eloquence worthy of the fubject, I can refer them with the hardiest anticipation of their thanks, to the late work concerning the relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, by my honoured friend, William Wordfworth, quem quoties lego, non verba mihi videor audire, fed tonitrua. * * I confider this reference to, and ftrong recommendation of, the work above mentioned, not as a voluntary tribute of admiration, but as an act of mere justice both to myself and That erroneous political notions—they having become general and a part of the popular creed to the readers of The Friend. My own heart bears me witnefs, that I am actuated by the deepest sense of the truth of the principles, which it has been and ftill more will be my endeavour to enforce, and of their paramount importance to the well-being of society at the present juncture : and that the duty of making the attempt, and the hope of not wholly failing in it, are, far more than the wish for the doubtful good of literary reputation, or any yet meaner object, my great and ruling motives. Mr. Wordsworth I deem a fellow-labourer in the fame vineyard, actuated by the fame motives and teaching the fame principles, but with far greater powers of mind, and an eloquence more adequate to the importance and majesty of the cause. I am ftrengthened too by the knowledge, that I am not unauthorized by the fympathy of many wife and good men, and men acknowledged as fuch by the public, in my admiration of his pamphlet. Neque enim debet operibus ejus obesse, quod vivit. An fi inter eos, quos numquam vidimus, floruiffet, non folum libros ejus, verum etiam imagines conquireremus, ejufdem nunc honor præfentis, et gratia quafi fatietate languefcet? At hoc pravum, malignumque eft, non admirari hominem admiratione digniffimum, quia videre, alloqui, audire, complecti, nec laudare tantum, verum etiam amare, contingit. PLIN. Epif. Lib. I. 16. It is hardly poffible for a man of ingenuous mind to act under the fear that he shall be suspected by honeft men of the vileness of praising a work to the public, merely because he happens to be perfonally acquainted with the author. That this is fo commonly done in reviews, furnishes only an additional proof of the morbid hardness produced in the moral fenfe by the habit of writing anonymous criticisms, especially under the further difguife of a pretended board or affociation of critics, each man expreffing himself, to use the words of Andrew Marvel, as a fynodical individuum. With regard, however, to the probability of being warped by partiality, I can only fay that I judge of all works indifferently by certain fixed rules previously formed in my mind with all the power and vigilance of my judgment; and that I should certainly of the two apply them with greater have practical confequences, and these, of course, of a most fearful nature, is a truth as certain as hiftoric evidence can make it: and that when the feelings excited by these calamities have passed away, and the interest in them has been displaced by more recent events, the fame errors are likely to be started afresh, pregnant with the same calamities, is an evil rooted in human nature in the present state of general information, for which we have hitherto found no adequate remedy. It may, perhaps in the scheme of Providence, be proper and conducive to its ends, that no adequate remedy should exift for the folly of men is the wisdom of God. But if there be any means, if not of preventing, yet of palliating, the disease, and, in the more favoured nations, of checking its progrefs at the first symptoms; and if these means are to be at all compatible with the civil and intellectual free rigour to the production of a friend than to that of a person indifferent to me. But wherever I find in any work all the conditions of excellence in its kind, it is not the accident of the author's being my contemporary or even my friend, or the fneers of bad-hearted men, that shall prevent me from speaking of it, as in my inmost convictions I deem it deferves. no, friend! Though it be now the fashion to commend, Recommendatory Verfes to one of the old plays. dom of mankind; they are to be found only in an intelligible and thorough exposure of the error, and, through that discovery, of the fource, from which it derives its speciousness and powers of influence on the human mind. This therefore is my first motive for undertaking the difquifition. The second is, that though the French code of revolutionary principles is now generally rejected as a fyftem, yet every where in the fpeeches and writings of the English reformers, nay, not seldom in those of their opponents, I find certain maxims afferted or appealed to, which are not tenable, except as constituent parts of that system. Many of the most specious arguments in proof of the imperfection and injuftice of the prefent conftitution of our legislature will be found, on clofer examination, to pre-suppose the truth of certain principles, from which the adducers of these arguments loudly profess their diffent. But in political changes no permanence can be hoped for in the edifice, without confiftency in the foundation. The third motive is, that by detecting the true fource of the influence of these principles, we shall at the fame time discover their natural place and object and that in themselves they are not only truths, but most important and sublime truths; and that their falfehood and their danger confift altogether in their mifapplication. Thus the dignity of human nature will be fecured, and at the fame time a leffon of humility taught to each individual, when we are made to see that the univerfal neceffary |