Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1827-05-16

il with all their conceptions of life, of enjoy
ment. and of that obscure hope in which the
heather saw liiefo come The noble fsmi
lies owed a large portion of their rank and in
1 huepce to it. The emperor himself was the
high priest Old tradition invigorating into
living belief, made it the pledge Of safety to the
empire,-a sacred protector, without which the
glories Of Roman dominion were destined to
inevitable ruin. Yet against this colossal and
naughty erection,-the consummate work oil
subllety and strengths stood forth solitary
Being, and at his word the whole pile, the great
fortress that lowered upto heaven, came wall
4 and gate to the ground And by what means
had this been done? By nothing that can lind
a parallel in the history Of human impulse. Big
nal austerity, enthusiasm, wealth, military &C.
MUS, the promise of splendid success, visionary
doctrines, the displays of sensual paradise,
| have made proseIytes in barbarous ages, or a
mong the loose creeds OF contending heresles.
But the Founder of Chrtianity cast away all
those weapons of our lower nature. He shrank
from no declaration of the most unpalaiable
truth. He told the Jew that his spiritual pride
was deadly crime He declared that the cher
ished impurity oftheGentile was deadly crime.
He plucked up the temporal ambition OF his fol-
lowers by the roots, and told them, that it they
were to be great. it must be through the grave
In the full view ofunpopularlty, deserlon, and
death, he pronounced TO the Jews the exllnc-
ton OF their national existence; TO the disciples,
their lives Of persecution. AT the Time Of his
death, his name had scarcely passed beyond
his despised province; and when it al length
reached Rome, it was known only in contemp
tuous connexion with that Of a crowd OF unior-
c,,I H..
YET within The life Of man, his religion was
constituted the worship Of emperor and peo-
pie, his doctrines were acknowledged as inspi-
ration, and The civilized world bowed down be-
fore him as the God whom The heaven and The
heaven Of heavens cannot contain. Those won
ders are familiar 10 the christian, but they are
still wonders, the mehtiest phenomena on
which The spirit of man can gaze, the Stars OF
our mortal twilight and worthy Of our loftesl
admiration, till the gates Of the grave shall be
unbarred, and the vision of glory, shall spread
before US without a cloud"
Towards the close Of the history, the writer
adverts TO the signal successes which have cha
racterized England during the late war, and
gives passin sketch Of each of The four pre-
eminent public men by whom the country has
been led 10 glory. We have room but for one
PITr.
SIN all the interpretations OF Providence the
fewness Of the instruments is distinguishing
feature. IN the commencement OF the great
European conflict, man stood at the head Of
English affairs, fitted beyond all his predeces-
sors, for the crisis, gifted with all the qualities
essential 10 the frs. rpnk in the conduct Of en-
pire,-an eloquence singuIarly various, vivid,
and noble; a forlitudeof sorl tina, nothing could
shake or surprise; aFigor and copiousnrss Of
resources inexhaus,ile But he had still
higher ground o! influence with the nation, in
his unsullied honor, and The inter stainless.
ness 81 his mind and conduct; the unques,ion-
ed purity Of that zeal which burned IN his bo-
som, as on an altarlfor the glory Of England
The integrity of Pit gave him mastery over
the national feeling that could not have been
won by the most bri liant faculties alone. In
those great financial measures, rendered neces-
sary by the new presure of the time, and on
which all the sensiyeness Of a commercial
people was alive, the aIion would have trusted
to no other man. B9they followed Pitt with I
the profoundcst relnce They honored his i
matchess understandg: but hey honored still
more the lofty prncie and pure love of coun
try, that they felt to 2incapabc of deception t
The British ministeprn,ed class by himself {
He was the leader, monty Of English council, n
but Of European Estood an elevation to a
which no man beforsim had assembled He a
fought the battle Of tlworlt until the moment e,
when he struggle VITO be changed into vic D
tory: he died in the nit OF Europe, butit was lie
when The night was the verge of dawn. If e.
it coutd ever be said a minister, that he con- Ct
cen,rated in himself .mjnd and heroic heart CT
OF an empire, that bees once he spirit and ~
the arm Of mighty ;ple, Pitt WAS that mani" h,
II is not our proyl.ncr have VT ever en- of
tered the field of thesy, 20 decide any of its fri
great questions brous urward IN books which by
we have been called N 10 notice in the lite tn
,ary Gazette; nor sha { here depart from our he
nrura! principle. B,e would i'll discharge tn
our duty OF fair repGs 10 he public, if we hi
dismissed Mr.. Croly 'irk without expressing fol-
our very high admin OF the abilities and TIT
fgenius it displays. The powerful mind he III,
has brou ght to his IND, of the extraordinary ca,
vigor Of his style, Of originality of his his HI
torcal views, of the eywih which he seeks S
10 elicit what he conssto be the truth, and VIII
Of the great and vas inteleclual endow- IN
ments which he displatis our pleasant task gil
TO sneak in terms of Earnest eulogy. Ii is hat