He went from hence to the court of Vienna, where he purposed to stay some time; but he was called home sooner than he had intended, upon a discovery, or suspicion, of intrigues managed by his sister. The strangers to whom he trusted most were so true to him, that those designs were crushed before he came back. But, on this occasion, he let loose his fury on all whom he suspected. Some hundreds of them were hanged, all round Moscow; and it was said that he cut off many heads with his own hand. And so far was he from relenting, or showing any sort of tenderness, that he seemed delighted with it. How long he is to be the scourge of that nation, or of his neighbors, God only knows. WILLIAM PENN. 1644-1718. Penn is distinguished, not only as the founder of the State of Pennsylvania, but as a writer in defence of the principles of the Society of Friends. In consequence of his Quaker views, he was repeatedly banished from his father's house, suffered much persecution, and was several times thrown into prison. While confined in the Tower of London, he wrote No Cross, No Crown, the most celebrated of his works, and still held in high esteem by the Friends. As the founder and governor of Pennsylvania, his perfect toleration in matters of religion, the kindness and good faith with which he always treated the Indians, and the affection with which they cherished his memory, are well known. By his intimacy with James II., he procured the release of fourteen hundred and eighty of his Quaker brethren, who were in prison when James came to the throne. [From "No Cross, No Crown."] AGAINST THE PRIDE OF NOBLE BIRTH. THAT people are generally proud of their persons, is too visible and troublesome, especially if they have any pretence either to blood or beauty; the one has raised many quarrels among men, and the other among women, and men too often, for their sakes, and at their excitements. But to the first; what a pother has this noble blood made in the world — antiquity of name or of family whose father or mother, great-grandfather or greatgrandmother, was best descended or allied! What stock or what clan they came of! What coat of arms they gave! --- Which had, of right, the precedence! But, methinks, nothing of man's folly has less show of reason to palliate it. For, first, what matter is it of whom any one is descended, that is not of ill-fame; since it is his own virtue that must raise, or vice depress him? An ancestor's character is no excuse to a man's ill actions, but an aggravation of his degeneracy; and since virtue comes not by generation, I neither am the better nor the worse for my forefather; to be sure, not in God's account, nor should it be in man's. Nobody would endure injuries the easier, or reject favors the more, for coming by the hand of a man well or ill descended. I confess it were greater honor to have had no blots, and with a hereditary estate to have had a lineal descent of worth; but that was never found; no, not in the most blessed of families on earth — I mean Abraham's. To be descended of wealth and titles, fills no man's head with brains, or heart with truth; those qualities come from a higher 'Tis vanity, then, and most condemnable pride, for a man of bulk and character to despise another of less size in the world, and of meaner alliance, for want of them; because the latter may have the merit, where the former has only the effects of it in an ancestor; and though the one be great by means of a forefather, the other is so too, but 't is by his own; then, pray, which is the bravest man of the two? cause. "O," says the person proud of blood, "it was never a good world since we have had so many upstart gentlemen!" But what should others have said of that man's ancestor, when he started first up into the knowledge of the world? For he, and all men and families, ay, and all states and kingdoms too, have had their upstarts, that is, their beginnings. This is like being the true church, because old, not because good; for families to be noble by being old, and not by being virtuous. No such matter; it must be age in virtue, or else virtue before age; for, otherwise, a man should be noble by means of his predecessor, and yet the predecessor less noble than he, because he was the acquirer; which is a paradox that will puzzle all their heraldry to explain. Strange! that they should be more noble than their ancestor, that got their nobility for them! But if this be absurd, as it is, then the upstart is the noble man—the man that got it by his virtue; and those only are entitled to his honor that are imitators of his virtue; the rest may bear his name from his blood, but that is all. If virtue, then, give nobility, which heathens themselves agree, then families are no longer truly noble than they are 'virtuous. * * * No, let blood and name go together; but pray, let nobility and virtue keep company, for they are nearest of kin. 'Tis thus posited by God himself, that best knows how to apportion things with an equal and just hand. He neither likes nor dislikes by descent; nor does he regard what people were, but are. * * But, methinks, it would suffice to say, our own eyes see that men of blood, out of their gear and trappings, without their feathers and finery, have no more marks of honor by nature stamped upon them than their inferior neighbors. Nay, themselves being judges, they will frankly tell us they feel all those passions in their blood that make them like other men, if not further from the virtue that truly dignifies. THOMAS OTWAY. 1651-1685. Otway was the son of a clergyman, and was educated at Oxford. After leaving college, he for a time performed as an actor on the London stage. He was not adapted to this profession, but it gave him a knowledge of dramatic art, which was serviceable to him afterwards as a writer of plays. Irregularity and extravagance in his habits caused him to be always in poverty and suffering. By one account, his death is said to have been occasioned by swallowing hastily, after long fasting, a piece of bread given him in charity; another states that he died of fever occasioned by fatigue, or by drinking immoderately of water, when heated. The Orphan, and Venice Preserved, are the tragedies on which his fame chiefly rests. In some scenes of passionate affection he is thought to excel even Shakspeare. SCENE FROM VENICE PRESERVED. Priuli. No more! I'll hear no more! begone, and leave me! Jaffier. Not hear me! by my suffering, but you shall! My lord, my lord! I'm not that abject wretch You think me. Patience! Where's the distance throws In right, though proud oppression will not hear me? Jaf. Could my nature e'er Have brooked injustice, or the doing wrongs, Pri. Yes, wronged me! in the nicest point, when you first came home From travel, with such hopes as made you looked on, By all men's eyes, a youth of expectation; Pleased with your growing virtues, I received you; Jaf. 'Tis to me you owe her; Childless had you been else, and in the grave, And I was with you. Your unskilful pilot And with the other dashed the saucy waves, Pri. You stole her from me! like a thief, you stole her, At dead of night! - that cursed hour you chose To rifle me of all my heart held dear! May all your joys in her prove false, like mine! Attend you both continual discord make Jaf. Half of your curse you have bestowed in vain. Pri. Rather live To bait thee for his bread, and din your ears Jaf. Would I were in my grave! Pri. And she, too, with thee! For, living here, you 're but my cursed remembrancers; I once was happy! Jaf. You use me thus, because you know my soul Is fond of Belvidera. You perceive My life feeds on her, therefore thus you treat me. As you upbraid me with, what hinders me |