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strong detachment, and invaded Germany; then defen ded by the genius and heroism of Arminius, a savage chieftain, whose character has been drawn and immertalized by the genius of Tacitus. I am not about to follow Germanicus in this march-but if the reader wishes to see how the pencil of original truth can eclipse the brightest colors of fiction, in painting to the heart, let me recommend it to him, (may I not add, to her?) to peruse the historian's account of this interesting expedition. Let it suffice for me to say, that Germanicus, victorious and successful in his grand object, divided his detachment into two parts; and sailing with one of them on a new enterprize, he left the other, under the care of Cæcina, an able and experienced officer, to return to the camp on the banks of the Rhine. The Germans, dispersed but not vanquished, rallied on the disappearance of Germanicus, and hovering over the division under the command of Cæcina, harrassed it on its march, and menaced it with daily extinction.

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At this crisis, a report reached the camp on the Rhine, that the Roman army was cut to pieces, and that the Germans flashed with conquest, were pouring down to the invasion of Gaul. The consternation was such that it was proposed to demolish the bridge over the Rhine. It was then that Agrippina, awakened from dreams of love, and of her husband's glory, displayed that counterpart of his soul, which inflamed her bosom. The particulars of the recent expedition were unknown to her: Germanicus himself might then be flying to the camp with the remnant of his vanquished legions, and the demolition of the bridge would cut of his retreat, and throw him, at once, into the hands of his savage enemies. And even if he had fallen, did it become a Roman army, and one, too, over which the genius of Germanicus had presided, to betray this dastardly and infamous terror before a horde of undisciplined barbarians? The imbecility of her sex vanished: all the hero arose in her breast; and springing to the field, at the head of the astonished legions, she not only prevented the demolition of the bridge, but marched across it to the German bank, and scoured the country to relieve any flying remnant of the Roman army, and repel the invaders, or dissipate the fears of the camp by proving the fallacy of the report. The report was fallacious -but the glory of Agrippina was the same. "Pliny," says Tacitus, has left in his history of the wars of Germany, a description of Agrippina at the head of the bridge, reviewing the soldiers as they returned, and with thanks and congratulations applauding their valor. This conduct

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(pursues Tacitus,) alarmed the jealous temper of Tiberius- What remains for the commander in chief if a woman can thus unsex herself, at the head of the eagles

this woman towers above the commanders of the legions, and even above their general officer-she can suppress an insurrection, though the name and majesty of the Prince makes no impression.' 'These were the reflections,' says Pliny, 'that planted thorns in the heart of Tiberius."" They plant a very different growth in my breast. O! when I read of such a wife as this-combining all that tenderness which dissolves the heart with love, with all that grandeur of character which inflames it with enthusiasm, it is then, indeed, I wish that I were a Germanicus. Where is the human being, so cold & subterranean, who would not glory in cherishing such a being through life; and, "even in death" to "lay close his lips to her's, and catch the flying breath!” But the noble Agrippina had few parallels in her age. Contrasted with the infamous court of Tiberius, she resembled the solitary star which sometimes breaks upon us through the cliasm of a massy cloud, and becomes the brighter, from the blackness which surrounds it. To a picture of that degraded court, I have now no disposition to descend: I turn with pleasure, from a moral hemisphere, overcast with such accumulated darkness, to that cloudless and starry firmament which adorns our own.

My pen had here launched into a tribute, whose sincerity I would seal with my blood, to the spotless purity and ingenuous simplicity of my fair country-women of Virginia; but I erased the half-finished period, because I foresaw that it would draw upon me some sarcasm from the unthinking and the malicious; as if I were bent' on seeking the admiration and favor of the fair, and endeavoring to gain, by a general courtship, what I have confessed that I have sought in vain by a particular one. To save the necessity of any brilliant sallies of this sort, to spare the needless effusion of wit from those who I am sure can illy afford it, and to prevent the degradation of my real ob ject, I here frankly confess that my purpose is to court the fair; nay, if I can, to draw them into a conspiracy with me; a conspiracy to bring about a revolution in this country, which I am sensible that I can never effect without their aid. I cannot better explain myself than by describing a picture which I saw some years ago, in the parlour of a gentleman with whom I was invited to dine.

It was a small plate which represented a mother as reciting to her son the martial exploits of his ancestors.The mother herself had not lost the beauty of youth; and

was an elegant and noble figure-She was sitting-her face and eyes were raised-her lips were opened-her arm extended aloft, and her countenance exalted and impassioned with her subject. The little fellow, a beautiful boy, apparently about twelve or fourteen years of age, was kneeling before her; his hands clasped on her lap, and, stooping towards her, his little eyes were fixed upon her's, and swimming with tears of admiration and rapture.Such,' said I to myself, "is the impulse which a mother can give to the opening character of her child, and such the way in which a hero may be formed!"

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I am sure that I am understood, The virtues of this country are with our women, and the only remaining hope of the resurrection of the genius and character of the nation rests with them. Need I assert that since the revolution this character has most woefully declined? Look to our public bodies and the question is answered. Where is the remedy? No national institution can be hoped for : it would cost money! How is the glory of the republic to be retrieved? How is the republic itself to stand? As to our men they are differently employed; how employed, through pity to them, I will not now say. But the mothers of the country, and those who are to become mothers, have the character of the nation in their hands.O! if to their virtues and their personal graces, they would superadd that additional culture of the mind which would fit them for this noble task, and warm them in the enterprize, I should not envy Rome her Agrippina, her Aurelia, her Atia, her Julia Procilla, or Cornelia. May I not say thus much without offence? And will they not permit me, old and bachelor as I am, to point their efforts to this exalted object, and aid them in the achievement of it? I am sure they will and with such fair and candid interpreters of my motives, I shall, without fear of offence, pursue that course which seems to me best fitted for the object.

Nor have I any fear that these remarks on the degene racy of national character, will give displeasure to those bright exceptions, the men of sense and virtue who remain among us. On the contrary, I calculate on their cooperation, and look for the tribute of their assistance to The Old Bachelor. I am not about to write a course of heavy lectures. My object indeed is one, yet greatly diversified and I shall cheerfully relieve the dullness and monotony of my own productions, by any virtuous sport of wit er fancy which may be furnished by another. If I shall be thought worthy of this assistance, any letter addressed to Dr. Robert Cecil, to the care of Thomas Ritchie,

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and lodged free of postage, in the office at Richmond, will reach me in ten days or a fortnight at the farthest, and meet with the notice which it shall seem to me to merit. I am well aware that this invitation may subject me to Some impertinence from low and little minds: but I have long since learned to look on such impertinence and such minds, without any other emotions than those of pity.

Number VI.

Nunc patimur longæ pacis mala, sevior armis,
Luxuria incubuit.

We suffer all th' inveterate ills of peace,
For Luxury, more fatal far than arms,
Hath hatched her baleful brood.

Lucan.

The maxim, dulce bellum inexperto, that war is sweet to him who has not tried it, cannot apply to our country. We have tried it. The vestiges of desolated towns-the ruins of houses perforated with cannon balls-our fields still marked with the breast work, the line of circumvallation, the traces of bursted shells and, here and there, in our cities, the still animated body of a poor old soldier, maimed, seamed with scars, hobbling on his crutch or stick, and reduced, not by the ingratitude of his country. but the unfeeling rapacity of speculators, to beg his bread -these spectacles are enough to remind us that war has been this way, and to prevent any wish, on our part, for a renewal of the visit.

And yet how strange is the condition of humanity! for it seems as if it were only amid the direful calamities of war, that man can be seen to advantage; as if all the trumpet's clangor and the cannon's roar were necessary, to keep his virtues and talents awake. The remark is not confined to America. "Mankind" it is said truly, "is pretty much the same in every age and nation." In all of them, the season of war has ever been that of talents and virtues on their grandest scale: and the heavier the préssure of the occasion, the higher have those noble properties risen. Such were the occasions on which Leonidas fought and Demosthenes spoke. Such in every country

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have been the most splendid epochas of orators and he roes. It is not my purpose, to enquire, at this time, with minute curiosity, why the dormant powers of man require this excitement of injuries and insults to awaken them; nor why the energies of his mind seem so dependent on the tumult and impulse of his passions. It will be more useful to examine the mournful collapse which follows this state of high exertion and marks the state of peace; and to enquire whether no remedy exists either to prevent or remove it.

This is not a topic of light and frui. ss speculation; nor one which relates merely to the litery ornament of the nation. On the contrary it is a topic which is connected with the very existence of the republic; for it is only by a state of constant preparation against both foreign and domestic ambition, that we can calculate on the continuance of that existence, and that preparation can certainly," be, in no way maintained but, by keeping the heart pure and stout and the mind enlightened and alert.

If those effects cannot be produced in a state of peace if they can by no possibility exist but in a state of war, then peace is a curse, and war a comparative blessing. But this conclusion is by no means necessary-because the premises themselves, I am persuaded, are not true. It seems to require no great penetration to discover why wars of uncommon duration and violence have been, always, followed in every country by a declension of virtues and talents. Have they been wars of foreign conquest? The first fruits are an influx of wealth into the victorious. nation; such as that which in the latter years of the Roinan republic, lined the bank of the Tiber with gardens and villas-and then the process is plain and easy-luxury-indolence-ignorance- multiform-vices imbecility

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subjection. Or has the war been one of internal defence? It has left the country desolate, although victorious-Then follows, first, the necessity of struggling for subsistence. Neither honest labor nor sly speculation can find time for liberal study. The first, leads the warrior slowly to independence and obscurity-but preserves the heart;-The latter leads rapidly to wealth and distmction--but is too apt to corrupt the heart, and debase the understanding. Such is the first state of things to which the return of peace directly conducts. But the long continuance of peace and prosperity, internal and external, leads regularly on to national wealth-and then, as in the case of wars of conquest, follows luxury with "ail her baleful brood."

It has now been thirty years since the sound of war har

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