100 Portraiture of Napoleon, by the Editor of "The cruel war," said Sir Richard, excited by the insatiable ambition of the monster BUONAPARTE, continues to devastate these fine countries. The vengeance of heaven sleeps, or it would blast the wretch, who, after he had by singular fortune attained the summit of power, and the means of doing so much good, treacherously seized the royal family of Spain, and wantonly invaded that country, for the sole purpose of his personal aggrandizement, thereby involving fifteen millions of people in unspeakable calamities. The MONSTER has therefore to atone to the world for the horrors of which he is the sole author; and in this war of PURE DEFENCE against the most unprovoked aggression, all generous, all humane, all free people, must wish success to the cause of the Spaniards!"—" If the author of such multiplied miseries," continued Sir Richard, have any remains of conscience, may we not hope that his severest punishment is the continuing TO LIVE, else one's nature revolts at the consideration that he has already survived, at least, TWO MILLIONS of his victims, whom in Spain and Portugal only he has been the means of consigning to an untimely grave. "The circumstances attending the capture of Tarragona have produced a climax in the history of his crimes. We hate war-we hate the trade of bloodyet this MONSTER ought not by the common consent of all mankind, to be mitted to continue his enormities!!! per ex It is a perversion of reason,' claims Sir Richard,” to palliate or give any countenance to such a MONSTER than whom ROBESPIERRE was a lamb! Robespierre was one of a committee which sacrificed human life to a calculation that appeared to them to secure the lives of sixteen millions, at the possible expense of eight; but this LIVING MONSTER places his mere personal aggrandizement as a counterbalance to the lives of fifteen millions!-Robespierre had the cause of liberty committed to his care, and he deemed great sacrifices due to the conservation of so precious a charge; but this ROBESPIERRE of ROBESPIERRES, having overturned all liberty, destroys in no cause-and has no assignable object-besides the gratification of destroying !! "What had the people of Tarragona done to him, that such unspeakable calamities should be made to fall on their devoted heads? Nothing, but defend their country against his invasion, and [Sept 1, BLOOD cries their firesides against HIS HOUNDS!-Did they attack him, or his subjects ?—No!─Had they been guilty of any great crimes to deserve to be destroyed in detail, their houses burnt, and their city razed to the ground?—No! have been heard by all nations.-They "Unhappy Tarragonians!-Your have created in every breast the sensation excited by cries of " murder," in the high way!-They have extinguished all differences of parties and opinions, and kindled a universal glow of resentment! Your BLOOD DEMANDS VENGEANCE ON HIM WHO SHED IT! MAY YOUR HAS BEEN MADE AN EXAMPLE TO FUMANES NEVER BE APPEASED, TILL HE TURE TYRANTS, OF THE CONSEQUENCE THE SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE, SEIZING ALL OF SUCH ENORMOUS CRIMES!!-MAY TO UNITE AGAINST SUCH A MONSTER NATIONS, EXCITE MYRIADS OF HEROES AND HIS WILLING SATELLITES!! Let when those brave men meet the assas"TARRAGONA" be their watchword, sins of the unhappy Tarragonians, and victory must always attend their steps !"* of Sir Richard Phillips, was Napoleon Such, according to the strong painting Buonaparte, when blazing in the merities; his pestilential course appalled and dian of his consular and imperial digniafflicted the nations with the direst calamities. glared along the political horizon, While thus the meteor spreading death and desolation before him, like the pestilential blast, which the inhabitants of the East have clothed with tion, he was uniformly denounced in the the attributes of the demon of destrucOld Monthly Magazine as the "violator of oaths;" the " second " enemy of liberty;" a tice and feeling; "a public robber, whom Attila," equally devoid of jusdown and bring to condign punishment;" it was the duty of all nations to hunt could bind to the performance of his en"a faithless ally, whom no obligations gagements;" "the oppressor of the weak and defenceless;" per and tyrant;" and to sum up all, "a an unprincipled usurmonster of perfidy and cruelty, the climax of whose atrocities consisted in the human race, for no other end than to wanton immolation of millions of the gratify his lawless ambition and insatiate thirst for blood!!" 66 as bad as he is painted; but it requires * Monthly Mag. for Sept. 1811. 1818.] the Old Monthly Magazine. deformity of vice, and afterwards to as sure the world that the very same being is an angel of light. If there be any truth in history, or if the memory of this generation has not been completely obtunded, the portraiture of Napoleon, exhibited in the former volumes of the Old Monthly Magazine, is strictly correct in the lineaments of the features, however high it may be in the colouring or coarse in the drawing. The facts which give life to this picture are upon record, even in the pages of the very work from whence these passages are extracted, and they will descend to posterity with new lights of information corroborating the fidelity of the portrait. Yet in the very face of these facts, and his former representations lying before him, the consistent editor of that publication is now from month to month employed in calumniating the powers of Europe, and libelling his own government for their injustice towards-whom?-the once "treacherous, de-potic, and sanguinary," but now "virtuous”—“magnanimous". -"bene volent" and "patriotic" NAPOLEON!!! Without even condescending to assign a reason for this extraordinary change of opinion, or making the smallest apology for having been misled in the judgment which he once formed, and so long continued to express, respecting the character of Buonaparte, the conductor of the Old Monthly Magazine now insults his readers in every number with panegyrics upon the man whom he repeatedly denounced as unworthy of life. Then "myriads of heroes" were exhorted, with the zeal of Peter the hermit, to unsheathe their swords "to sweep the ty rant and his satellites from the face of the earth." Then even heaven itself was boldly accused of indifference to the sufferings of humanity, and of remaining passive while this merciless destroyer of unoffending millions was pursuing his deadly career, equally unmoved by the cries of nature and the rights of nations, the voice of conscience, and the execrations of mankind. Whatever presumption there might have been in thus arraigning the equity of providence, it cannot be pretended that there was any mistake in regard to the crimes which formed the subject of complaint, or the person by whom they were perpetrated. The history of the man and his iniquities remains uncontradicted; Switzerland, Holland, and Spain, record in letters of blood his robberies and his murders; nor is it in the power of the unblushing impudence of 101 his admirers to devise an excuse for enormities, the reality of which they dare not deny. But mark the virtue of those who set up their own caprice as the rule of moral action: no sooner does heaven in its high wisdom turn the counsels of the wicked into a snare for his feet, and crush him beneath the ruins of his own ambition, than the same men who cursed him in his elevation lament him in his fall. There is indeed a generosity of sentiment which feels something like commiseration for the terrible misfortunes of those who have abused power and prosperity to the injury of others. But in pitying the distress of fallen greatness, the man of liberal feeling and integrity will not, even in his own mind, endeavour to find a palliative for the guilt which provoked retribution. may be allowed to drop a tear over the abject Nero, but a sense of justice refuses to arrest the arm of vengeance, for pilová nai mabeïv čo:xe, “he that doth ill tis right should suffer." He In utter violation, however, of one of Now there never was the writer yet 102 On the Influence of Custom and Education. that debased Napoleon in language equal to that of his present encomiast, nor have any persons in the employ of government come near the same honest gentleman in epithets of abuse and insult. But surely if Napoleon has met with unjust treatment from this country, he cannot feel any obligation to the editor of the Old Monthly Magazine, who did all that lay in his power for several years to turn the popular fury against him, as one covered with infamy, and meriting universal hatred. I will not say that these philippics had the effect of directing public opinion at home, or of rousing the nations of Europe into resistance to their common oppressor; but unless the writer was a downright impostor, such must have been the object which he had then in contemplation. His conduct at present has all the appearance of fatuity, and a complete aberration of the intellect, otherwise the recollection of his former lucubrations would have made him more cautious in his censures, and moderate in his praises. Should the malady, which evidently afflicts him, not yet have proceeded to such a length as to be" tribus Anticyris caput insanabile," his friends would do well to keep from him all political pamphlets, newspapers, and even books of geography, till he can bear to hear or mention names and places without being thrown into a paroxysm of passion. August 6, 1818. CHIRON. ON THE INFLUENCE OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION. "Gravissimum est imperium consuetudinis." We imbibe the principles of all things as we do the common air, facili haustú, as Lord Bacon expresses it, without discrimination or selection. "Tis necessary it should be so; for as we begin to act before we are able to reason, we must borrow our notions from others for a while at least. The mind needs leading strings as well as the body. In life, as in religion, 'tis through faith we practise. We are too generally apt to worship the first objects we meet with in the morning of our days, and be superstitiously attached to those unexamined rudiments of knowledge and science; we acquiesce in our first received impressions without investigation; and these prejudices obtain such strength in our minds by custom and familiarity, that they often become not only our belief, but our very reason also. Quô semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem Testa diù [Sept. 1, Cicero mentions a musician, who being asked what the soul was, answered, harmony; upon which he observes hic à principus artis suo non recessit; hẹ had no knowledge beyond his art: Plato's scholars had been altogether brought up in arithmetic; they were educated solely in the knowledge of numbers; and when they afterwards turned the course of their studies to nature, either physical or moral, they referred every thing to the harmony of numbers. Number with them, was the primum ens of every thing, in the animal, vegetable, and mineral regions; in fine, the only datum in ethics, and the creator of the universe. We mostly argue in the same way with Tully's fiddler and Plato's disciples, difficulter a principiis artis nostræ recedimus, may take us all in together. The philosopher tells us that the soul of man is rasa tabula, like a white sheet of paper, out of which therefore it must be more than common art that can erase the first writing, so as to superinduce a new copy unadulterated with the former text. Thus is the belief of the child confirmed into the religion of the man; and we either charitably pity, or most piously condemn, according to the different spirit of our nature or devotions, all those whom we think so wicked or misguided as to differ from our creed. We feel a natural kindness in our hearts towards those opinions which we have imbibed with our milk; they are like foster-brothers, to whom our inclination is as strong as to our natural ones. We play and converse with them from our cradles, and as soon as we are able to go alone, we take them by the hand; we sleep with them in our bosoms, and contract an insensible friendship, or pleasing familiarity with them, which remove whatever deformity there may be in the object, as black and flat noses are more prized in Africa than the most delicate European set of features and complexion. It has been well said that "every man's own religion seemeth to him the best, because he judgeth of it, not by reason but by affection:" like those philosophers of whom Cicero speaks, who had not common charity for any discipline but their own. Hence we find, that the best account we can render of our faith is, that we were bred in it, and most are driven to their religion by custom and education. Thus do we judge all things by our anticipations, and condemn or applaud them as they may happen 1818.] On the Influence of Custom and Education. to differ or agree with our first opinions. Almost every country censures the laws, customs, and devotions of every other state as absurd and irrational, adhering to their own prejudices beyond a possibility of conviction. ""Tis custom forms us all. "Born beyond Ganges I had been a Pagan; "In France a Christian,I am here a Saracen." For during childhood we are capable of any impression from the documents of our teachers; witness the self-devoted Curtius, the Decii, and the discipline of the Spartan boy. The half-moon or the cross are indifferent to us; and with the same ease we may write on this rasa tabula the words Turk or Christian! Hence, therefore, it is, that there is no religion so irrational or absurd but has its Martyrs to boast of; nor any opinion so idle or extravagant, but has had some philosopher or other to support and defend it: tot homines, tot sententiæ, so many men so many minds, must ever continue to be an aphorism, while there remains but one meridian of truth and so many parallels of error; while reason is warped by prejudices, and even revelation staggered by scepticism, or undermined by infidelity. In a word, the mighty sway of custom and education renders the rankest follies and improprieties sacred; and usage makes those things appear proper to a native, that an alien would think strange, uncouth, or vicious! Pindar calls custom the Empress of the world; and Seneca terms her the chart of human life, as men steer their course more by her than by reason; accounting that most fit and decent which is most in practice wherever we abide; and error serves us for a law, wherever it has obtained an usage. Custom has erected her dominions even in the science of medicine, and is particularly so much respected by the great Hippocrates, that he goes so far as to affirm, that "whatever habits we have been used to, although hurtful in themselves, are less dangerous than a deviation from them to those, which are more salutary in their own nature. And in the courts of Justice, prescription is always esteemed the best title, and possession reckoned eleven points of the law. The common law, which is nothing but ancient usuage, is even now, as extensively referred to as the statute-law, and is deemed the noblest part of our constitution. Custom reigns absolute over our very affections, and we love often from use and familiarity, more 103 than from reason, duty, or even nature. Mothers are generally fonder of their offspring than fathers are, because they play and converse more frequently with them; and nurses are sometimes known to conceive a stronger affection for their fostered infants than either of the parents who begat or bore them, as if the sympathy lay more in the milk than the blood. imagination, not only of the waking Custom has a power even over the but the sleeping man; for in our dreams we are apt not only to think, but speak upon those subjects which have been most familiar or interesting to our minds. Let this hint be a warning to all villains, who have often been known they have been able to conceal by day; to reveal by night the crimes which for providence, still active for its moral contrives frequently to make conscience purposes, where ordinary methods fail, itself to become its own accuser. naturally betrays itself by looks and acGuilt tions; and Shakespeare, that great anatomist of the human heart, says "The thief doth fear each bush an officer." But to return to my subject. Not only the inward but the outward senses are affected by use, as is experienced by persons, who after being kept for some time in a dark place, and brought suddenly into the light, feel their eyes dazzled by the glare, which others look upon with ease and indifference. Thus blacksmiths, millers, and those who inhabit the vicinity of cataraets, both hear and rest better in the midst of mills, forges, and the roaring of waters, than they would do in a quiet sylvan scene, and grow deaf and disturbed by silence.The power of custom is so great, that it proves itself stronger even than nature, and at the same time, cannot be either altered or destroyed, but by itself.Montesquieu says, "That laws may be repealed by laws, but custom cannot be abrogated but by custom." In short, this great ruler of our lives and manners works within us. so imperceptibly, that we are apt to mistake its motions for the very law of nature itself, operating irresistibly upon our hearts and minds, which when philosophically investigated, will appear to be the insensible effects of usage, prejudice, or education. That affection which we pretend to say every man naturally bears for his own country, whence comes it but from use and custom? For it would be ridiculous to attend to those who 104 On the Influence of Custom and Education. tell us, that a love for our native soil is such an instinct of nature, as makes beasts love their dens, and birds their nests. This partiality arises solely from civil institution, as accustoming us to the same laws, the same ceremonies, the same temples, markets, and tribunals, the society of friends, the intercourse of neighbourhood, the connexions of kindred, and attachments of temporal interests. It may therefore seem ridiculous to think, that there is any common standard of reason among men, since what charms in one country creates disgust in another; and the very imaginary lines which divide kingdoms, seem likewise to separate the ways of thinking of the different nations, and to make a distinct geography in their reason as well as on their map. Hence, all our interests and affections being centered in any one spot of the globe, render that spot, as it were, the whole world to each individual inhabitant of it; and the customs and manners of every state, by becoming familiar, are deemed sacred, for want of a comparison with those of different nations. The Greeks and Romans styled all foreign people Barbari, in respect of themselves; the Venetians are of opinion that no one has a soul to be saved who cannot pray for pardon for his sins in Italian, as if religion consisted in dialect. The Chinese esteem themselves the only rational animals on the face of the earth, and have a proverb among them, that the people of China see with two eyes, but all the rest of the world with only one. This narrowness of mind we find perhaps too prevalent among the most civilized nations. They resemble the Hermit, who thought the sun shone only on his own cell, and that all the rest of the world was hid in darkness.This is to measure truth by a partial standard, and to circumscribe her within too narrow a compass, not considering that different climates induce different manners as much as different dresses, yea, and different morals too, and that in the three distinctions of government, despotism, monarchy, and democracy, the subject is actuated by as many different principles, fear, honour, and self-interest; so that laws and customs are not things of merely arbitrary institution, but naturally or necessarily following the situations of the globe, or the politics of the states. But to proceed, since custom bears so arbitrary à sway over all our actions, as [Sept. 1, well as opinions, we may justly consider it as another nature. A rooted habit becomes a governing principle, and rules almost equally with the natural one."It is (says Tillotson) a kind of new nature superinduced upon the old, and even as hard to be controlled as the primitive or original one." When we bend a plant at first, it will for some time endeavour to recover its naturally erect state, till wearied with the struggle, it acquiesces in the curve, grows crooked of itself, and would then even require more force or violence to return it to its former straightness, than it did before to pervert it from the right line. We are all naturally of the same clay, and Education is the potter's hand which forms us into vessels of honour or dishonuor. This, of all means, is the most effectual one towards refining and strengthening men's intellects and manners, which being applied at an age when their faculties like their joints are pliant and tractable, the benefit of it must "Grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength." In fault of this noble and necessary advantage our sense and goodness are in a manner over-laid in the cradle; for whatever notions or principles we happen to adopt in our infancy, we generally carry with us to the grave. It is education makes the man, or mars him; a false step made at first setting out, makes us limp and hobble through all the journey. "The slaves of custom and establish'd mode, With pack-horse constancy we keep the road, Crooked or straight, through quags or True to the jingling of our leaders' bells, Since education, then, so assuredly is of such power and authority, how accountable to heaven are those parents who are regardless of this great concern to the temporal, and perhaps eternal happiness and welfare of their children. This attention may not always prove successful, from the example of a few historical instances: Nero was educated under those wise and virtuous preceptors Seneca and Burrhus. The son of Cicero to his natural stupidity added drunkenness, and returned from the city of Athens and the school of Cratippus as great a dunce as he went. And Marcus Aurelius provided no less than fourteen of the most approved masters to educate Commodus, his successor; yet |