The National Register. — London, England, 1814-10-23 00:00:00

OCT. 23. •, . . . ' ON AMBITION. No. 7. Continued frogs Page 368, (Am 6.) Happier is the Shepherd swain, With a mind not proudly vain, Than the Monarch on his throne, Bvitared with genii of Ambition. I. C. No position is more correct, than that Ambition increases 1 . in roportion to the ideal means of feeding it. -Whether in humble or exalted stations, if it acquires the least ascendancy, the mind becomes unhappy, all felicity. ceases, and the intel ligent faculty is continually on the rack for new acquisitions. This being the unhappy state of earthly grandeur, pomp, and noise, ought we not to suppress every irregular, loose, and eager desire, which might tend towards such criminal sen sations? Although we may conceive Ambition to be tardy in its progress, and judge from our own observations, the impossibiity of its overcoming our natural reason, imagin ing we have power to restrain it at pleasure, we should be sufficiently apprised, that, however slow, if encouraged beyond its proper limits, it is unerring in its principles. and roots itself so firm in our imaginations, that great strength of authority, and self government of mind are requisite attain ments to eradicate this destructive growing evil. Content with the mediocrity allotted by PROVIDEWCE, in his un• changeable wisdom, is the only sure restraint towards counteracting these lofty, aspiring pretensions. For without controul, Ambition devastates fields and cities, depopulates kingdoms and empires, and lays waste the most fertile and beautiful provinces. The bounties of our Creator• likewise become a prey to this devouring passion. It wars against the very elements and would willingly subdue*them : and even when really defeated in its vain projects it ceases not to rage with uncontroulable fury, though divested of its exaggerated power, but foams with madness at being foiled in its attempt and prevented from the gratification, however unlawful, of pursuing and .obtaining the fantastic vision of aggrandize ment so pleasing to The mental conceptions of weak minds : besides the most untoward and mischievous etTects accom pany inordinate Ambition, for it becomes disgustful to scscietv, ruinous in its consequences, and not nufreqttently defeats the least sanguine expectations of its possessor. Notwithstanding this, restlessness may possibly suggest to the unwary mind that its views are moderate. Thus we may perceive that by too eagerly grasping at the shadow, the substance is often lost. We are informed by an tient history, that Alexander the Great, on receiving intelli gence of any victory obtained by his Fath.T, Phillip, king of Macedon, appeared melancholy and sorrowful, exclaiming to his friends, " Alas t my Father will accomplish every tiling. and leave no feats for me to achieve." After al this pomp ous supremacy and ostentatious display of royalty, what was the issue ? Continually haunted with an uneasy and perturbed mind, his life must have been an incumbrance, the latter part whereof exhibiting an important lesson to mankind in general: the. sudden transitions from good to bad, from I)rudence to folly, from moderation to violence, ,from glory to ignominy, must make , every rational creature tremble upon the brink of the abyss dug by such ungovernable passions: yielding himself to the biassed dictates of an unrestrained ambition, he became the scourge of mankind, and the pest of the world. By dills brier sketch of his life we may conclude that Ambition. when suffered to supersede the valuable gift Of reason, is man's sreatest enemy, that it brings dawn upon CS3 him tna!evolence with her implacable satellites, - and destreye that happiness anti content depicted to have reigned in the earlyages of themniverse Long did Content her reeetataie maintain, " A 4 long maeeied were hlegm'd beneuth tier • " Tin dire Amlnlion, hellish fiend ! arose, "To }Aerie the world and banish males repose," Gent/ma/is Magazine. Nor does the character of a modem restless adventurer detract one iota from what is here advanced, but, on the con trary, more fully elucidates the dangers and sores ex perienced by suffering humanity, arising from this baneful and rapacious disposition, usurping sole dominion over the minds of weak mortals. For in whatever situatiou of life we view his conduct, whethor as a General in the field, a late self-created Emperor, or rather usurper, of France, a Go vernor over the feeble• mind of a princely victim, or au haranguer in the Senate, his conduct wae ersally atrocious ; his mind must, if possessed of any celestial attribute, be op pressed with as many unpleasant sensations as the renowned King Richard the Thum d, of whom it is recorded he was pre pared to comm_it the most horrid climes, which appeared ne cessary for the diabolical purpose of unlawfully seizing the reins of government. The field of blood and carnage affords this graceless despot the most visionary means of glutting his sanguinary appetite. and is the most capricious theatre wherein to display his ostentations and ill-gotten power. Yet even here ht 4 ira; hecile he appeared on a reverse of fot tune ; his courage for sook him, his thirst after greatness became more irascible. and his only ambition was then how to meanly withdraw himself from danger, under the plausible pretext of preserv ing a life to his subjects. Ile presented himself before his astonished people, and am bitiously inferred from external appearances that his infamous conduct of cowardly deserting his post and abandoning his vanquished army to the merey of an irritated enemy, was applauded by his unhappy subjects. But, alas! how short sighted is ambition when dazzled with the proud, though vain hope of subduing the world. This Tyrant is no doubt now a prey to his own wicked conceptions, and millers diabolically plotting something once mote to disturb Ern'ope. though cooped up in the Island of Elba.. The present era exhibits to mankind most important occurrences: .may the opportunity now afforded of mat:ing an everlasting; peace with the whole world be embraced, and prevent, by firte;y uniting, this or any other modern barbarian from once more 1 desoiatina fertile Europe—a man worthy only to be raneti with a Caligula who was an Emperor of Rome, the. successor of Tiberius and son of Germanicus, a very wicked PI hire : or a Nero Claudius Caesar, adopted by Claudius, a men, or rather a brute in man's form, who is reported to have been most infamous for cruc'e, rapioe, sacrilege, lust, extrava gance, and. to comprehend all crimes, iegra!itude. Through the interposition of Provideece, who aiAs the vir tuous, have we been 'delivered from this 'dreadful scouree which had so long diturt , ed the repose of the human and matie such dteadful havoc over (leif!ilteil EtirOpS..!: there ' Ine let us all preserve our minds from permit ,ine this deaci!y weapon to wound us past the asFistenee of remedy, ocar su!r , _!r such fleeting vision, so eldfereet from true courage, to eclipse our more solid enilywents, or rob us of that repose allotted by the Father of all totee;es. 1. C. Chapel Sired,Sal„rx-el, Manchester, Sept. 29, 1814. Mr. Bond, master ni' the Fit.cl overt), in A!!!ernriii bury, was mullenly 4eized with a tit of ap , vl..xy, at a buarjiti;- house iu Brigtitou, and expired very .4c:cm After. TION N L REGISTER. .