"Why, by themselves," reply the friends, in concert: thus disentangling themselves at once from their electorial perplexities. Megabyzus adds, that the few whom they selected must of course be the seven Satraps. For from seven men, every one of whom was, in the highest degree, qualified to fill a throne by himself, saving that they were too modest to aspire to such distinction, must needs arise a government seven times as good as that of the One. Orcanes, however, is not satisfied with this summing up of aristocratic deserts. "Pshaw," he cries, "were dominion confined to seven, or even more persons, these exalted patricians, through mutual envy and hatred, would each vie with the other in contriving the downfall of his rivals, for which the state must pay the penalty; and so many factions and public calamities would come to pass, that the hapless people would look back to the reign of Cambyses as a positive blessing, when compared with that of your more worthy few. So that

"Ne scampi il Ciel da sì ricca misura,

In cui tra tanti Re d' intenzione

Uno mai non se n' ha per le bell' opre,
E tutti il suon per nuocere."

"May Heaven defend us from such an abundance of kings; for, amongst so many as are intended, none is ever to be found for virtuous deeds, and the whole of them for mischief." The answer of Darius is, perhaps, the best excuse ever pleaded for despotism. Even the friends of liberty, who are acquainted with the world, cannot help feeling to their hearts its melancholy truth. In this comedy, though expressly levelled against monarchy, there are to be found many occasional attacks upon the government of the people. But Alfieri shews no farther lenity towards absolute power than will suffice to demonstrate the fatal necessity of re-establishing such a bulwark against the vices of mankind whenever the torrent of disordered times have swept it away; and the only objection which he advances to the substitution of a popular government is in the disqualifications contracted from a long servitude. Both of which arguments are of a republican cast. By pleading for absolute monarchy only the vices of the subject, our poet scandalizes it by the defence itself; by opposing to a new democracy nothing but the corruption of the intended people-king, he praises it by the very objection. Darius answers, that whatever Orcanes upbraids the chosen few with,

"Calza ed assai meglio

Ai sozzi Re di bettola, che darci,

O fingere di darci tu vorresti ;

Da cui poi tanto e tanto n' esce l'Uno

Ma n' esce sporco al quanto più che il mio.

Uditemi, credetemi; che omai

L'esperienza e il genio tutelare

Di Persia nostra un solo Re ci han dato

Per mal minore: facciansi le fole

Di un ben, che i rei c' infingono, e che i buoni
Si sognano-Fra gli uomini il gran numero
Sono i tristi; più tristo indi il governo
Quanti c'è n' entra più-Bastone e borsa ;
Borsa e bastone; e a tuo piacer poi gira
E volta e scrivi, e chiacchiera, e connetti
Esconnetti; baston, borsa, bastone,
Questo è il codice eterno-"

"Sticks are good enough, and far too good for the drunken alehouse kings, with whom you wish, or pretend you wish, to bless the state, and from whom, at last, whether you will or not, starts up the Oneperadventure, something dirtier than the One I propose. Hear me, believe me, experience hitherto and the tutelary genius of Persia have taught us that a single king is the least of unavoidable evils. Do not be deceived by the hopes of a blessing which is the dream of honest men and the nostrum of knaves. Mankind are, for the most part, rogues, and the more who have a share in the government, the worse it will be. You must employ the whip and the purse, and then do what you please at your leisure." Darius continues his entreaties that Orcanes will receive the whip and the purse from his friends rather than from the rabble, who, if they were suffered to bestow them, would arrogate to themselves the right of resuming them. Orcanes still declinesthe offer is too great to be believed. Megabyzus, however, grows jealous, and declares that if he ever should agree to the proposal of the One, that One should not be Orcanes. "Right!" exclaims the other; "I am not base enough to accept of it." The debate becomes warm, when Darius, who conducts his ambition with better temper, proposes that the question shall be referred altogether to Sobria, a philosophic Satrap, if ever a Satrap deserved the epithet. His two friends, rather than afford an opportunity for some brisker candidate to step between them and the prize whilst they are debating upon it, (for a vacant throne admits of no delay,) agree to the proposal, and depart. The wisdom and patience of Darius are now put to a harder test than they underwent even in the discussion of the new government. His groom, all in tears, brings him the intelligence that his beloved Chesballeno, the noble yellow steed, is in imminent danger of dying of the cholic. Darius is quite beside himself at the danger of his brave animal, and hurries off from the state council to the stable consultation, followed by the groom, whose wondrous dream is now beginning to be tit.

fulfilled.

MADRIGAL TO APOLLO.

FROM GILBERT.

Durant mes jeunes ans mes ardeurs insensées, &c.

In early youth, by passion led astray,
Venus and Mars alone possessed my lay;
Now wiser grown, dispell'd each idler dream,
I make the God of Verse my only theme.
His ripening powers the fairest forms disclose,
The bashful virgin and the blushing rose;
The happiest bard, that pours the living song,
Is but a well-tuned lyre by Phoebus strung.

M.

LONDON AND THE COUNTRY.

"O, bear me to the paths of fair Pall Mall!

Clean are its pavements, grateful is its smell."-GAY.

"The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it."-JOHNSON.

WHAT affectation and ignorance do they not display who affect to despise London! for it is only affectation that can lead any to assert the superiority of the country. London is too mighty an object to be sincerely contemned, and the abuse lavished upon it is therefore nothing more than mere cant. The country is very well in its way; and they who prefer to do so, may "babble about green fields" as much as they list. Let them keep their cattle and dank pastures to themselves; let them exclusively move in the obscurity, uniformity, and insipidity of their rotatory existences; let them resign the exhibitions, pleasures, and decorations that give to life a more exalted character; let them prefer an isolated to a social state of being;—but let them not affect to despise that for which they have no relish. "Is not this fine?" said Johnson to Boswell, in Greenwich Park. "Yes," replied the parasite, knowing what reply was expected," yes; but not equal to Fleet Street.""You are right, Sir," said Johnson; and he was right. In London all that can contribute to comfort and elegance, all that can embellish life and heighten the pleasure of existence, is to be found in greater perfection than in the country. He who has known London a little time, and then leaves it to reside in the country, feels that he makes a great sacrifice. Filthy streets and a murky atmosphere, long rows of dingy houses, and clamorous cries heard there upon every side, are to be classed among those drawbacks which occur in every state and situation

But the intellectual advantages of London are incomparable; it affords a union of a higher order of mind than can be found elsewhere. The middling shopkeeper of London is far superior to the foxhunting country squire in intelligence, though the squire is considered in society a grade above the shopkeeper in rank. Go into the little country town or village and mark the narrowness of feeling, the scandal, and backbiting that exists there. Were it not for the gentry that reside part of the year in London, and carry back and diffuse around their country residences some little of the manners and polish of London, added to the newspapers from thence (for country newspapers have neither novelty, life, nor independence, with a few exceptions, and are mere copyists,) that excite and keep up a spirit of inquiry, besides giving information, the inhabitants of the country would be all downright boors to the Londoners. From London has flowed in a continued stream over the kingdom, all its refinement and information; it is from thence that the farthest corners of the land have been fertilized at later or remoter periods, and by London is the current still kept up.

There is a fashion lately come in of praising the country at the expense of London, and comparing meadows, hedgerows, corn-fields, and blue skies, with brick walls, a foggy atmosphere, and sooty streets; as if London had nothing more to display in the arena of dispute on this subject. The advocates of the country bring all their strength into the field-and what is that all but a few things pleasing to the eye?-while

London has a vast reserve to bring forward, and in modern warfare the reserve is the hope of the battle. Art, science, literature, fashion—all the stores of intellect-all that is truly noble and great, concentrate in London. It is a vast storehouse for the mind, perpetually increasing its contents, and delivering them to the multitude. In the country the mind degenerates; its knowledge of what is moving on the great stage of life gets more and more confined, and it rapidly diminishes its stock of ideas while in London the entire of human life, in all its shifting variety of forms and inexhaustible combinations, is united in one focus. "How great the mystery! let others sing

The circling year, and promise of the spring,
The summer's glory, and the rich repose
Of autumn, and the winter's silvery snows:
Man through the changing scene let me pursue—
Himself how wondrous in his changes too;
Not man the sullen savage in his den,

But men called forth in fellowship with men."

What is a country life but a mere repetition of the same things-a very round-about-the "labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum?" If man be placed upon the earth to perform high duties, he cannot fulfil them by gazing upon luxuriant foliage, or bending over the reflection of his own image in a trout-stream. He must live in a congregation of his species, watch their pursuits, mingle in their amusements, listen to their complaints, and even indulge in their vanities.

The advocates for a country life contend strongly for the superior moral excellence of country people. This, however, is not a tenable position; there is a greater aggregate of virtue in London than in an equal population in the country. Besides, country people are more shy in their vices, and are apt to conceal those which a Londoner would commit at least without such hypocrisy. In the country, men are often virtuous from feeling no temptation to be otherwise; while in London, the man of virtue, surrounded by snares, yet invulnerable to temptation, exhibits the moral character in much higher perfection. The morality of the countryman often arises out of blind custom, or the fear of detection in evil; while that of the Londoner must originate more in principle. It is true that among great associations of men the greatest extremes will always be found; but there is a sort of liberality even in the vices of London, which those of the country do not exhibit:-the profligacy of the country is also coarser than that of the town, and it is equally abandoned.

As to the simplicity, rural love, unsophisticated manners, and primitive innocence of country life, if they exist beyond the gilded halo that encircles the poet's dream, or beyond the visionary field of romance, they are not to be found among Norfolk ploughmen or Yorkshire farmers. Let the careful observer attend the quarter-sessions and the assizes in the country; let him put on a waggoner's frock, and, mingling at a wake, witness the loathsome vulgarity of a rustic debauch let him inquire of the parish officers the number of illegitimate children it is their lot to dispose of in a year, and his idea of the optimism in morality of the inhabitants of the country will dwindle into nothing. It is really painful to dissipate one's early notions of rural perfectionof the virtues of shepherds and shepherdesses, and the innocent loves

of cooing Corydons. But the race of these fancied creatures is extinct, and we only recall the remembrance of an absurdity when we dwell upon them; for they have none of the redeeming beauty of the pastoral images of Greece to preserve them from oblivion. Our country wenches and stiff-jointed ploughboys never remind us of Fauns and Silvani and Nymphs or Naiads. In short, we must dismiss from our minds the whole machinery of the poets in making our comparisons, and place ourselves among the stern realities of life. There is much more of the imaginary character of a nymph in a pretty London shopgirl, or a neat-footed little milliner, than can be found in half-a-dozen country villages among the assembled Blouzelindas. Churchill has drawn a picture of a modern Naiad:

"Beneath an aged oak Lardella lies

Green moss her couch, her canopy the skies.

From aromatic shrubs the roguish gale

Steals young perfumes, and wafts them through the vale.

The youth turn'd swain, and skill'd in rustic lays,

Fast by her side his amorous descant plays.

Herds low, flocks bleat, pies chatter, ravens scream,
And the full chorus dies adown the stream."

The London chambermaid, or the smirking waiting-woman of my lady, are far before the rustic in neatness of dress, elegance of appearance, and intelligence. What is there captivating in the drabs of a farmer's kitchen, or the Pastoras of his turnip-field? A cottage and cottage love may sound well in a tale, and may be very pretty things to hang poetical associations upon; but I hate hogsties, and smoky peat fires are, to my seeming, a bad substitute for Wallsend and Russel's Main, blazing through the polish of a London grate.

Then, as to rural sports, what an animal is a foxhunter; yelling, like an Indian savage, after an unfortunate animal, that he pursues over hedge and ditch, for twelve successive hours, with a regiment of yelping curs; and finishing his day's diversion with a drunken debauch! That statue-like being the angler, also, who stands a whole day among wet flags to be repaid with a "glorious nibble," the very image of unproductive population, of stagnant bodily and intellectual powers! A walk in Hyde Park, a Thames water-party, a visit to Vauxhall, or to the theatre, are superior pleasures, giving and communicating social delight. The good health enjoyed by that portion of the city's population which is not confined to labours directly prejudicial to being, shews that the violence of country exercise is not essential to good health. Men live to as great an age in London as in the remotest villages of the country. I would not be thought to disparage the beauties of nature; on the contrary, I think they are very delightful in their way; but

"the loveliest prospects may be seen Till half their beauties fade."

We cannot look at a green field for ever, and I always feel in a state of widowhood when I am long among them. I am isolated, and become melancholy and dull; nor do I recover until I find myself again on

"The sweet shady side of Pall Mall;"

or watching "the full tide of human existence" rolling its triple current