Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-02-28

nor IL it tbs jiiscrilsion on the columns of their
{ native soil abiie that show their merit, but the
memorial of them, better than all inscriptions.
in every foreign nation, reposited more dura-
t bly, i'll universal remembrance than ON their
Town tomb. From this very moment, emula-
ting those noble patterns, placing your happi-
ness IN liberty and liberty in valor, be prepared
to encounteral the dangers of war"
Gentlemen, does not every page, paragraph,
and sentence of what have read go home to
all our hearts, carrying most gratifed consci-
BUSINESS ofits resemblance in what is near and
dear to us in our native land! Is it Athens or
America! ls Athens or America the theme OF
these Immortal strains! Was Pericles speaking
OF his own country, as he saw it or knew it; or
was he gazing upon bright vision then two
thousand years before him, which we see in re-
atty, and he saw in prospect
But the contests of Sparta and Athens, what
Were they in lasting Importance, and in their
bearing on the destines of the world, in compar-
ison with that ever memorable struggle which
separated the Colonies from the dominion of
Europe!
How different the result which betided
Athens, from that which crowned the glorious
efforts OF our ancestors, and, therefore, this re-
nowned Grafton of Pericles, what is it in COM
parison with an effort of historical eloouence
which should justly set forth the merits of the
heroes and the martyrs of the American Rev
olution And the Liberty of Athens, and of
the other Grecian Republics, being found in
pure democracies, without any principle of
Representation, was fitted only for small States
The exercise of popular power in purely De-
mocratic form, cannot be extended over coun-
tres OF large extent; because in such coun-
tries, all cannot assemble in the same place, to
vote directly upon laws and ordinances, and 9TH
er public questions. But the principle of rep
resentation is expansive; it may be enlarged if
not infinitely, yet indefinitely, to meet new oc-
caslons, and embrace new regions. While,
therefore, the love of liberty was the same and
It's generalprinciple the same, in the Grecian Re-
public as with us, yet not only were forms essen
TALLY different, but that also was wanting viii Oh
we have been taught to consider as indispensa-
BILE to Its security that is fixed, settled, def
mite, fundamental law, Or constitution, imposing
limitations and restraints, equally on Governors
and governed. We may therefore inhale all the
tullness and greatness of the Grecian spirits, but
we necessarily give its development different
form, and subject it to new notifications.
But history is not only philosophy teaching
by example; its true purpose is ALSO to illustrate
the general progress of society in knowledge
and the arts, and the changes of manners and
pursuits of men.
There is an imperfection, both in ancient and
modern histories, and those of the best masters
IN this respect. While they recite public tran
sactions, they omit, in a great degree, what be-
longs to the civil, social and domestic progress of
men and nations. There is not, so far as [
know, a good civil history of Rome, nor is there
an account of the manners and habits in social
and domestic life, such as may inform us of the
progress OF her citizens, from the foundation of
the city to the time of Livy and Sallust in in
divldual exhibitions of character
We know, indeed, something of the private
pursuits and private vices of the Roman people
at the commencement of the Empire, but we
obtain our knowledge of these chiefly from the
severe and indignant rebukes of Sallust. and
the inimtabe satires of Juvenal Wars, for
eign and domestic, the achievements of arms,
and national alliances, fill up the recorded great
ness of the Roman Empire.
1t is only very remarkable that, in this re-
spect, Roman literature is far more deficient
than that of Greece. Aristophanes, and other
Greclan comic writers, have scenes richly filled
with the delineations of the lives and manners
of their own people, But the Roman imitators
of the Grecian stage gave themselves up to the
reproduction of foreign characters ON their own
stage, and presented in their dramas, Grecian
manners, also instead of Roman manners How
much wiser was Shakespeare, who unclaimed
the attention Of his audiences, and still enchains
the presentation Of English manners and Eng
fish History!
Falstaff, Justice Shallow, and Dogbery, are
not shrubs Of foreign growth transplanted into
the pages of Shakespeare, but genuine produc-
lions of the soil, the creations of his own home
bred fancy.
Mr.. Banks has written civil History Of
Rome, but it seems not to have answered the
great end which it proposed.
| n IL.
have accomplished much towards furnishing the
materials of such history, and Becker, in his
Gallus, has drawn picture not uninteresting
of the private life of the Romans at the COM
mencement of the Empire.
/ know nothing of the fact, but l once had an
intimation that one of the most distinguished
writers of our time and of our country has had
his thoughts turned to this subject for several
years. If this be so, and the work, said to be
in contemplation, be perfected, it will be true,
as have no doubt, that the civil History of the
great Republic of antiquity will have been writ
ten, not only with thorough research but also
with elegance of style, and chaste, classical il
lustration, by-a citizen of the great Republic of
modern times I trust, that when this work
shall appear, if it shall appear, we shall not only
see the Roman Consul and the Roman General,
the Comitia and the Forum, but that we shall,
also, see Roman hearths and and affairs, the Ro-
man matron at the head of her household, Ro-
man children in their schools of instruction and
the whole of Roman life fully presented to our
view, so far as the materials, now existing in
separate and special works, afford the means.
1t is in our day only that the history and pro-
gress of the civil and social institutions and man
ners of England have become the subjects of
particular attention.
Sharon Turner, Lingard, and more than all,
Mr. Ha1am have laid this noe and all follow
ing ages, under the heaviest obligations by their
labors in this field of literary composition, nor
would l separate from them the writings of
most learned and eloquent person, whose work
on English History is now in progress, nor the
author of the Pictorial History of England. But
there is still wanting full, through and domes-
tic, social account of our English ancestors; that
is, a History which shall trace the progress of
social life in the intercourse of man with man;