The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-06-04 00:00:00, page 3

*ie*.rstd when we were led to expect
quite a different thing? Gentle reader,
hii question leads directly to the sub
ject ol this lucubration.—I begin to sus
pect that the Junket, under my loose
management, will occasionally play both
entertainer and entertained a similar
trick. For nothing, at this particular
moment, appears to me more probable,
than that I shall be abruptly stopped in
the middle ot some speculation, and led
into many a wide field ot digression, so
tar, perchance, as nearly to lose sight of
the object I may have had originally in
view. How my readers may relish this
desultory kind of entertainment, I pre
tend not to predict. It is possible that
such of them (it there be any such) as
my two preceding numbers may have
fed (or misled) into a liking of the en
tertainmentof the Junket,will feel them
selves disappointed when they find the
third number made up ot matter quite
foreign from their expectations.— For
tlu m an apt story occurs to nvy recollec
tion.—A gentli man once informed me,
that a custom prevails in certain parts of
Fngland, to rummage the larder, the
closets, and the corners of the kite lien,
once a fortnight, in order to collect all ’
the loose scraps and fragments, to be !
I uuiuicu logetner as ingredients tor a i
kind ot pie, which is known in that part 1
oi the country by the significant deno
mination of a muster pie. He assures
me that he once happened to be in
vited to dinner, where the good house
wife helped him to such a slice of
this economical dish as greatly puz
zled him to manage , for in the first
mouthful which he was preparing for
his stomach, he discovered, amongst o
ther fragments, one of a nature lie had
had no previous notion about: it was an
old small tooth comli, which he supposes
had been skittishly wiped from the dres
ser into the common receptacle of the
mustering materials. He, poor fellow,
it may easily he inferred, lost his dinner;
and in like manner, (to come to the ap
plication of the story) my readers may
not relish the Junket by reason of some
slovenliness in sweeping the materials
-of the work together.—Now I have too
much chatity to find fault with another,
simply for managing his own affairs in
the way he likes best; unless indeed his
management should be to the real preju
dice of his neighbour. Consequently
the right which every man possesses to
tell his story in his own way, appears to
me so legitimate as to claim it in my
turn. Perhaps such of my readers as
are acquainted with Tristram Shandy,
when they find where I now am in my
third number,after beginning rav second
with 7io other view than to introduce the
speech of Williftm Roscoe, on the sub
ject of the Slave Trade, will recollect
corporal Trim’s story of the seven kings
ot Bohemia ; which said story, after be
ing talked about through six or seven
chapters, vanishes entirely away with
out ever having been actually begun.—
Now this was only one way of managing
that story; and the reader's disappoint
ment is wholly owing to his having suf
fered his imagination to run away with
him so far as to anticipate something
which he supposed the author meant
to disclose.—I, however, do not mean
to lay myself so open to the charge of
inconsistency. For I have merely run
into a simple digression, from which I
promise to return as soon as I shall have
informed my readers what a clever
Rummager the orator I am about intro
ducing has proved himself to be, in the
history and literature of Italy. His at
tempt to illustrate a period of history
which had been long the object of in
quiry in the learned world, has been at
tended with much success in his Life of
i.orenzo cie ivieuici,u round whom eve
ry thing great and excellent in science
and in art, revolved, during the short
but spledid era of his life, as a common
centre, and derived from him its inva
riable preservation and support.” In
his elaborate performance of the Life
and Pontificate of Leo X. the author
professes to have been guided by Truth
alone ; and whenever she has steadily
diffused her light, lie seems to have en
deavoured to delineate the objects in
their real lorm and colour. *l History,”
says he, “ is the record of the experience
oi mankind, in their most important con
cerns. It it be impossible for human
sagacity to estimate the consequences of
a falsehood in private life, it is equally
impossible to estimate the consequences
of n false, or partial representation of
the events of former times. The con
duct of the present is regulated by the
experience of the past. The circum
stances which have led the way to the
prosperity or destruction of states, will
lead the way to the prosperity or destruc
tion of states in all future ages. If those
in high authority be better informed than
others, it is from this source that their'
information must be drawn ; and to pol
lute it, is therefore to poison the only
. channel through which we can derive
| f^mt knowledge, which, if it can be ob
tained pure & unadulterated, cannot fail
in time to purify the intellect, expand
tlie powers, and improve the condition
ol the human race.—As in speaking of
the natural world, there are some per
sons who are disposed to attribute its
creation to chance ; so in speaking of
the moral world, there are some who
are inclined to refer the events and fluc
tuations in human affairs to chance, and
are satisfied with accounting for them "
from the common course of things, or the
spirit of the.times. But as chance & acci
dent il they have any meaning whatever,
can only mean the operation of causes
not hitherto fully investigated, or dis
tinctly understood ; so the spirit of the
times is only another phrase for causes
and circumstances which have not hi
therto been sufficiently explained. It is
the province of the historian, to trace
and to discover these causes; and it is
only in proportion as he accomplishes
this object, tnat his labours are of any
utility. An assent to the former opi
nion may indeed gratify our indolence;
but it is only from the latter method,
that we can expect to acquire true know
ledge, or be able to apply to future con
duct the information derived from past
events. -“ Amongst the motives,”
says this writer, “ which have occasion
ally ■concurred to induce me to perse
vere in the present undertaking, is an
earnest desire to exhibit to the present
times an illustrious period of society;
to recal the public attention to those
standards of excellence to which Eu
rope has been indebted for no inconsi
derable portion of her subsequent im
provement ; TO UNFOLD THE EVER AC
TIVE. EFFECT OF MORAL CAUSES ON THE
ACQUIREMENTS AND HAPPINESS OF THE
people; and to raise a barrier, as far as
such efforts can avail, against that tor
rent of a corrupt and vitiated taste,
which it not continually opposed, may
once more overwhelm the cultivated
nations of Europe in barbarism and de
gradation. To these great and desirable
aims, I could wish to add others, yet
more exalted and commendable ; to de
monstrate the fatal consequences of an
ill-directed ambition, and to deduce^
iiom the unperverted pages of history ^
those maxims of true humanity, sound,
wisdom, and political fidelity, which
have been too much neglected in all a
ges, but which are the only solid foun
dations of the repose, the dignity* an$
•the happiness of mankind.” j*