Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

us, and the sore repentance which it has always cost us. But the reflection calculated above all others to allay the haughtiness of temper, which is ever finding out provocations, is that which the Gospel proposes, viz., that we ourselves are, or shortly shall be, suppliants for mercy and pardon at the judgment-seat of God. Imagine our secret sins all disclosed and brought to light; imagine us thus humbled and exposed, trembling under the hand of God; casting ourselves on his compassion; crying out for mercy:-Imagine such a creature to talk of satisfaction and revenge, refusing to be entreated, disdaining to forgive, extreme to mark and to resent what is done amiss:-Imagine, I say, this, and you can hardly form to yourself an instance of more impious and unnatural arrogance. PALEÝ.

AMBITION.

THE desire of preferment or honour; derived from the Latin verb Ambio, which is formed of am or ambi, about, and eo, I go; it therefore literally means, I go about (seeking for honour); I desire something higher than what I have at present. AMBITIOUS, eager of advancement; AMBITIOUSLY, in an ambitious manner; AMBITIOUSNESS, the quality of being ambitious, &c., are also forms in which this word is used.

Fling away ambition; by that sin fell the angels.

How can man, then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it? SHAKSPEARE. Too often those who entertain ambition expel remorse and nature. SHAKSPEARE.

A purchased slave has but one master; an ambitious man must be a slave to all who may conduce to his aggrandizement. LA BRUYERE. Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude. SIR WALTER SCOTT.

If kings would only determine not to extend their dominions, until they had filled them with happiness, they would find the smallest territories too large, and the

[ocr errors]

longest life too short, for the full accomplishment of so grand and noble an ambition. COLTON.

Those great objects of self-interest, of which the loss or acquisition, quite changes the rank of the person, are the objects of the passion properly called ambition; a passion, which, when it keeps within the bounds of prudence and justice, is always admired in the world, and has even sometimes a certain irregular greatness which dazzles the imagination, but which, when it passes the limits of both these virtues, is not only unjust but extravagant. Hence, the general admiration for heroes and conquerors, and even for statesmen, whose projects have been very daring and extensive, though altogether devoid of justice; such as those of the Cardinals Richelieu and Ritz. The objects of avarice and ambition differ only in their greatness. A miser is as ambitious about a half-penny, as a man of ambition about the conquest of a kingdom.

But let eternal infamy pursue

ADAM SMITH.

The wretch to nought but his ambition true,
Who, for the sake of filling with one blast
The post-horns of all Europe, lays her waste.
Think yourself station'd on a towering rock,
To see a people scatter'd like a flock,
Some royal mastiff panting at their heels,
With all the savage thirst a tiger feels;
Then view him self-proclaim'd in a gazette
Chief monster that has plagued the nations yet,
The globe and sceptre in such hands misplaced,
Those ensigns of dominion, how disgraced!
The glass, that bids man mark the fleeting hour,
And death's own scythe would better speak his power;
Then grace the bony phantom in their stead
With the king's shoulder-knot and gay cockade ;
Clothe the twin brethren in each other's dress,
The same their occupation and success.

COWPER.

Alexander the Great demanded of a pirate whom he had taken, by what right he infested the seas? "By the same right," replied he, "that Alexander enslaves the world. But I am called a robber because I have only one small vessel; and he is styled a conqueror because he commands great fleets and armies." We too often judge of men by the splendour, and not by the merit of their actions.

Antoninus Pius, the Roman Emperor, was an amiable

and good man. When any of his courtiers attempted to
inflame him with a passion for military glory, he used to
answer: "That he more desired the preservation of one
subject, than the destruction of a thousand enemies."
The insatiable ambition of Napoleon Buonaparte led him
to become one of the greatest destroyers of his fellow-
men that ever existed; according to an account which is
derived from his own official journal, The Moniteur, he
slaughtered two millions and a-half, at the lowest compu-
tation, of his own subjects; if to these be added the
thousands and tens of thousands of Germans, Swiss,
Poles, Italians, Neapolitans, and Illyrians, whom he
forced to fight his battles, the number cannot fall short of
three millions. It is obviously just to assume that the
number who fell on the side of his adversaries, was equal
to that against which they were brought. Thus we are
justified in asserting, that the latter years of his glory were
. purchased at no less expense than six millions of human
lives.

Ah! why will kings forget that they are men?
And men that they are brethren? Why delight
In human sacrifice? Why burst the ties
Of nature, that should knit their souls together
In one soft bond of amity and love?

Yet still they breathe destruction, still go on
Inhumanly, ingeniously to find out

New pains for life, new terrors for the grave;
Artificers of death! still monarchs dream
Of universal empire, growing up
From universal ruin. Blast the design

Great God of Hosts, nor let thy creatures fall
Unpitied victims of Ambition's shrine !

BISHOP PORTEUS.

ARBITRATION.

THE determination of a cause by a judge mutually agreed on by the parties contending.

This word is derived from the Latin noun Arbiter, a judge or umpire; from whence also comes ARBITRATE, · to decide; ARBITRATOR, One who decides between opposite parties; and ARBITRARY, capricious, absolute; hence we say an arbitrary disposition, an arbitrary prince, &c.

AN UNEXCEPTIONABLE SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR.Instead of settling the disputes of nations by fighting, the Peace Society proposes that a CONGRESS OF NATIONS should be held for the purpose of agreeing upon a CODE OF RULES, for the fair and friendly arbitration of any differences that may arise between them; and that a COURT OF NATIONS should be established, whose office it should be TO ADJUDICATE on such cases, according to those rules. The following extract shows the vast superiority of arbitration over war :

"First, it is observable that War pays no regard to the merits of a case. Its rule is might not right. But arbitration does consider those merits. Again; the stronger party being more likely than the weaker to be the aggressor, a resort to war, in the case, renders it probable that the injured party will receive additional injury, instead of obtaining redress: whereas, by arbitration, that party would in all probability obtain redress. In cases where two parties are nearly equal in strength, by resorting to war they generally leave off where they begin, nothing being decided, and both parties being sadly injured. Arbitration in such cases also, would answer a better purpose in both respects. And in cases where the stronger party is the injured one, although by a resort to war redress is generally obtained, how hard the way of obtaining it! Arbitration would afford it in an easier way. In every case, then, the ends of justice are better subserved by arbitration than by war, and all the evils of war are prevented besides.

"Furthermore, war is an infringement of the independence of nations. Surely it is such an infringement, for one nation to dictate to another, and to attempt to enforce its dictation, as is always done by one of the parties in war. But arbitration respects national sovereignty. Here is no dictation, no coercion, nothing but friendly counsel. Once more; by resorting to war, nations violate one of the plainest dictates of reason, viz., that parties should not be judges in their own cases, which they always assume to be in war. Arbitration respects this dictate, by providing a disinterested party as a judge. Then again; the custom of war affords the strong an opportunity to oppress the weak, and the ambitious to pursue their schemes of conquest and aggrandizement. Arbitra

tion is a check to oppression and ambition, and affords protection to the defenceless. And again; the custom of war, by which nations take their position on what they denominate the point of honour, refusing to make the proper concessions and overtures for the preservation of peace, and sacrificing justice itself to resentment and pride, is one vast system of duelling. The principle of international arbitration is the principle of order and peace on a scale of equal magnitude. In short, every reason that can be urged in favour of the peaceful adjustment of individual disputes, and against a resort to individual violence, can be urged with as much greater force in favour of international arbitration, and against war, as the evils of war exceed in every respect the evils resulting from individual combat.

"Now then, if the ends of justice itself can be better subserved by arbitration than by war, and so much evil prevented, and so much good done, what plea remains for war?"-APPENDIX TO THE AMERICAN PRIZE ESSAYS ON A CONGRESS OF NATIONS.

We cannot blind ourselves to the manifest advantages proffered by the establishment of a CONGRESS AND A COURT OF NATIONS. How insignificant by its side will appear those endless treaties, built up by stratagem and fraud, pulled down by violence and treachery, made but to be broken! This covenant would be as a rainbow across the political horizon, telling man that the storm of ages had passed away, and that peace, happy peace, was restored! Religion appeals to the conscience; mercy and humanity dictate to the heart; policy and prudence confirm the mind in abhorrence of war, and in favour of a system that may banish its horrors from the world for PRIZE ESSAY ON PEACE.

ever.

The history of every war is very like a scene I once saw in Nithsdale. Two boys from different schools met one fine day upon the ice. They eyed each other with rather jealous and indignant looks, and with defiance on each brow. "What are ye glowrin' at, Billy?" "What's

that to you? I'll look where I have a mind, and hinder me if ye daur." A hearty blow was the return to this, and then such a battle began! It being Saturday, all the boys of both schools were upon the ice, and the fight instantly became general and desperate.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »