Chorus. Surely some secret dread thou now dost hide. Prom. Ask aught but this !-suits not the time, nor tide 535 To tell it, but much rather to conceal By this I trust, which I may not reveal, The shameful pangs to 'scape, which now I feel. [END OF PARt 1.] ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. HISTORY OF EUROPE, from the commencement of the French Revolution, in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons, in 1815. BY ARCHIBALD ALISON, Esq., F. R. S. E. Advocate. New-York: Harper & Brothers. THIS work has attracted much attention in England, and is now in course of republication in this country. An English imprimatur generally passes current on this side of the Atlantic, and to this are to be attributed, in some degree, the unmeasured encomiums which have greeted the appearance of one of the rankest Tory productions of the present day. Jonathan seems to have forgotten his Democracy, or lost his keenness of perception, and swallows with avidity the doctrines of a hightoned Monarchist; and that too, one would think by the remarks of the press, without detecting the poison. We intend to have a few words to say on this subject, but rather concerning the sentiments and principles expressed by Mr. Alison, than the style of his work. It is always of more consequence what is written, than how it is written. Book-Anatomists will find something to repay the labor of dissection in Mr. Alison's History. Long, clumsy, involved sentences, gross verbal blunders, a tendency to verbose and vapid declamation, and annoying repetitions of language and sentiment, are of such frequent occurrence, as to deserve remark, if it were our object to dwell upon matters of such inferior interest. But mere book criticism is, at the best, trifling and unimportant in its aims, as no splendor of style or rich ness of ornament can compensate for the absence of intrinsic merit; neither does it matter much if vigorous, original and philosophic thoughts are clothed in ever so homely a garb. Besides, the defects alluded to as characterizing the composition of this work, are more than compensated by qualities which place the author among the first historical writers of the age. His descriptions of battles are said by judges to be accurate and faithful; to the ordinary reader they are delightful for their clearness, lively and vivid coloring, and for the masterly manner in which minuteness of detail, so necessary for their correct comprehension, is combined with bold and vigorous pictures, which place before us at a glance the thickly crowded incidents of the contest. The political history of the eventful period he has occupied is likewise narrated perspicuously and with extraordinary acuteness. With great skill and astuteness he has penetrated and wound his careful way through the tangled mazes of European diplomacy, "The wily shifts of state, those juggler's tricks, and laid bare the secret motives and springs of action, as well as the ostensible causes which influenced monarchs and cabinets; while a life-like truthfulness, and a rigid impartiality at times, are attained by following that good old classic custom of making the actors speak for themselves. The gorgeous oriental proclamations, and the bold paradoxical aphorisms of Napoleon; the dark and dreadful discourses of Robespierre; the animated appeals of Mirabeau; the warm, fervid eloquence of Fox; the grave, solemn, and philosophic predictions of Burke; the clear, eloquent, practical argument, and splendid declamation of Pitt, are all given to us in their original and native freshness, robbed of none of their personality. The political philosophy of Mr. Alison, though heretical in our judgment, is nevertheless commendable for its pertinacious consistency, so far as anything which is erroneous can be consistent, and though not profound, never fails to impress us with his sincerity and deep sense of his responsibility as an historical philosopher meditating upon the most important events in the history of humanity. From these causes, and in spite of many glaring faults, we confess that we have perused no modern historical work with such absorbing interest, and we wonder not that it should have met with general, we had almost said universal, applause. Before passing to these points, however, we cannot avoid observing that Mr. Alison has taken a high and noble position as a Christian, by fearlessly vindicating the manifestations of the providence of God in history. By this course, equally consistent with strict truth and just philosophy, history gains in character, unity and grandeur. Heretofore, the barren and naked record of tumults, wars, social and religious convulsions has almost universally usurped the name and place of history. If from the occurrence of these, deductions were drawn, they were mainly maxims of human policy for the guidance of rulers and legislators. In such histories there was no unity except as derived from territorial divisionsa local unity. But true history is nobler than this. It is no longer partial, narrow and contracted; no longer bound down to what has been achieved by individuals, races, or nations; no longer disconnected in broken fragments; no longer Grecian, or Roman, or French, or English; no longer territorial; but with an expansive impulse which bursts all bonds asunder, and is characteristic of the age, history has dilated and become universal. It contemplates man as its sole and great theme; not men as divided into nations and communities, but man as a unit. It sweeps in all ages from the creation to the present epoch; it regards the dire conflicts which have devastated the world as spots upon its brightness, and viewing man as a perfectible being, traces his progress, through all time, in social, moral, and religious advancement, in knowledge, the cultivation of the taste, sentiments and intellect, and in the acquisition of moral and physical happiness. The history of man then is the history of civilization. But civilization is the product of our moral and intellectual faculties, and these like to our physical nature, are constituted and act after an admirable contrivance and order, in obedience to the divine laws under and by which they were created. Hence the necessity that man, as a social, moral, and cultivated being, exists and must exist, and be developed in conformity to certain unchangeable rules. History then, in its more enlarged signification, is the development of the human race; and as humanity is divinely created, so are the laws of its development divinely instituted; and being divinely instituted, they are not only orderly and methodical, but this order is perfect; this method is full of wisdom. This, we confess, brings us to historical optimism, and likewise to the unity and universality of history. But it brings us also to the belief that the hand of the Supreme Being presides over human destinies: for the very existence of historical laws implies design and intention, and design implies the existence of the providence of God in history. The human instruments of providence are of diverse character. Sometimes they are masses or nations, at others, particular classes, and oftener still they are Great Men. Now "The whole history of great men," says Cousin, "gives this result, that they have been taken by others, and have taken themselves for the instruments of destiny, for something fatal and irresistible. A soldier who had seated himself upon a throne was once told, 'Sire, the education of your son should be watched over with great attention; he must be educated so that he may replace you.' 'Replace me,' answered he, 'I could not replace myself, I am the child of circumstances.'" The same man, when he had reached the summit of his glory, when he wielded a despotic power over Europe, when princes thronged his courts, and Sovereigns were his Prefects," as he left France behind him, defended only by his "name and renown,' to bury his countless hosts in the snows of Russia, said to those who remonstrated against this fatal step, "Can you not see, that as I was not born upon a throne, I must support myself on it, as I ascended it, by my renown; that it is necessary my fame should go on increasing; that a private individual become a sovereign like myself can no longer stop; that he must be continually ascending, and that to be stationary, is to be lost," and then, though the arbiter of the fate of kingdoms, he adds, as if with a melancholy consciousness of his real weakness and dependence, these remarkable words, "I feel myself impelled towards a goal of which I am ignorant; as soon as I shall have reached it, so soon shall I no longer be of service; an atom will then suffice to destroy me, but till then all human efforts can avail nothing against me." History is crowded with similar facts, which shew that the minds of great men have been strongly impressed with the sentiment that they are instruments in the hands of a Superior Power; a sentiment in perfect accordance with true philosophy. That Mr. Alison should have carefully pointed out, in the narrative of the mighty events he has portrayed, their providential connexion, and thus raised the mind far above the immediate consequences of particular occurrences; taught us to look for far distant results; for a system, an order, a harmony not to be discerned in narrow limits; that he has taught us to meditate with elevated contemplation upon historical facts as fragments of the history of humanity, regulated by the providence of God-is just cause of gratulation to the Christian philosopher, and is an essential point gained in the truth and dignity of all history. Having spoken thus freely of what Mr. Alison has achieved of good, we have a duty to discharge in relation to the prominent defect of his work, which shall be done with equal candor. In a word, he has made this History a complete text book for the promulgation of the most bigotted Toryism; and what is sufficiently remarkable, amid the general approbation with which it has been greeted in America, not a voice has been raised against the odious tenets he maintains. It is by such blind, gross, and indiscriminate applause of European authors of celebrity, that the doctrines of the monarchical school are sown broad cast over the intellectual and moral soil of our country. Not that we think so meanly of the glorious practical triumph and vindication of Republicanism, evinced in the so called "experiment" now being tried in America, as to imagine that such sentiments can be generally and permanently injurious to the great cause of freedom. But Freedom, like everything good, cannot exist in its purity without continual struggles. Its adversaries are legion, and its champions must never slumber. With the foot in the stirrup, armor bright, and lance in rest, they must ever be ready for the strife; and when the Press, its firmest defender, has relaxed its vigilance, it is time to sound the alarm. What says Mr. Alison of that Press? After admitting that "Freedom of discussion is the natural resource of liberty, whether menaced by regal, Republican, or military violence," he adds, "The press is not to be feared in any country where the balance |