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CHIVALRY.

1. Among uncivilized nations there is but one profession honourable that of arms. All the ingenuity and vigour. of the human mind are exerted in acquiring military skill or address. The functions of peace are few and simple, and require no particular course of education or of study as a preparation for discharging them. This was the state of Europe during several centuries. Every gentleman, born a soldier, scorned any other occupation. He was taught no science but that of war; even his exercises and pastimes were feats of martial prowess. Nor did the judicial character, which persons of noble birth were alone entitled to assume, demand any degree of knowledge beyond that which such untutored soldiers possessed. To recollect a few traditionary customs which time had confirmed and rendered respectable, to mark out the lists of battle with due formality, to observe the issue of the combat and pronounce whether it had been conducted according to the laws of arms, included éverything that baron who acted as a judge found it necessary to understand.

2. But wien the forms of legal proceedings were fixed, when the rules of decision were committed to writing and collected into a body, law became a science, the knowledge of wiich required a regular course of study, together with long attention to the practice of courts. Martial and illitente nobles had neither leisure nor inclination to undertake a task so laborious, as well as so foreign from all the ocupations which they deemed entertaining or suitable o their rank. They gradually relinquished their places incourts of justice, where their ignorance exposed them tocontempt. They became weary of attending to the disassion of cases which grew too intricate for them to comprehend. Not only the judicial determination of points which were the subject of controversy, but the conduc of all legal business and transactions, was committed to persons trained by previous study and applica

tion to the knowledge of law. An order of men to whom their fellow-citizens had daily recourse for advice, and to whom they looked up for decision in their most important concerns, naturally acquired consideration and influence in society. They were advanced to honours which had been considered hitherto as the peculiar rewards of military virtue. They were intrusted with offices of the highest dignity and most extensive power. Thus another profession than that of arms came to be introduced among the laity, and was reputed honourable. The functions of civil life were attended to. The talents requisite for discharging them were cultivated. A new road was opened to wealth and eminence. The arts and virtues of peace were placed in the propei rank, and received their due recompense.

3. While improvements so important with respect to the state of society and the administraton of justice gradually made progress in Europe, seniments more liberal and generous had begun to animae the nobles. These were inspired by the spirit of chvalry which, though considered commonly as a wild intitution, the effect of caprice and the source of extravagance, arose naturally from the state of society at that period, and had a very serious influence in refining the manners of the European nations. The feudal state ws a state of almost perpetual war, rapine, and anarchy, during which the weak and unarmed were exposed to inults or injuries. The power of the sovereign was toc limited to prevent these wrongs, and the administration of justice too feeble to redress them. The most effectualprotection against violence and oppression was often fand to be that, which the valour and generosity of privae persons afforded. The same spirit of enterprise which had prompted so many gentlemen to take arms in efence of the oppressed pilgrims in Palestine, incited thers to declare themselves the patrons and avengers o injured innocence at home.

4. When the final reduction of the Holy Lan under the dominion of the infidels put an end to theseforeign

expeditions, the latter was the only employment left for the activity and courage of adventurers. To check the insolence of overgrown oppressors; to rescue the helpless from captivity; to protect or to avenge women, orphans, and ecclesiastics, who could not bear arms in their own defence; to redress wrongs and remove grievances, were deemed acts of the highest prowess and merit. Valour, humanity, courtesy, justice, honour, were the characteristic qualities of chivalry. To these were added religion, which mingled itself with every passion and institution during the middle ages, and by infusing a large proportion of enthusiastic zeal, gave them such force as carried them to romantic excess. Men were trained to knighthood by a long previous discipline; they were admitted into the order by solemnities no less devout than pompous; every person of noble birth courted that honour; it was deemed a distinction superior to royalty, and monarchs were proud to receive it from the hands of private gentlemen.

5. This singular institution, in which valour, gallantry, and religion were so strangely blended, was wonderfully adapted to the taste and genius of martial nobles, and its effects were soon visible in their manners. War was carried on with less ferocity when humanity came to be deemed the ornament of knighthood no less than courage. More gentle and polished manners were introduced when courtesy was recommended as the most amiable of knightly virtues. Violence and oppression decreased when it was reckoned meritorious to check and to punish them. A scrupulous adherence to truth, with the most religious attention to fulfil every engagement, became the distinguishing characteristic of a gentleman, because chivalry was regarded as the school of honour, and inculcated the most delicate sensibility with respect to those points.

6. The admiration of these qualities, together with the high distinctions and prerogatives conferred on knighthood in every part of Europe, inspired persons of noble birth on some occasions with a species of military fanati

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cism, and led them to extravagant enterprises. But they deeply imprinted on their minds the principles of generosity and of honour. These were strengthened by everything that can affect the senses or touch the heart. wild exploits of those romantic knights who sallied forth in quest of adventures are well known, and have been treated with proper ridicule. The political and permanent effects of the spirit of chivalry have been less observed. Perhaps the humanity which accompanies all the operations of war, the refinements of gallantry, and the point of honour-the three chief circumstances which distinguish modern from ancient manners-may be ascribed in a great measure to this institution, which has appeared whimsical to superficial observers, but by its effects has proved of great benefit to mankind. The sentiments which chivalry inspired had a wonderful influence on manners and conduct during the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. They were so deeply rooted that they continued to operate after the vigour and reputation of the institution itself began to decline.-Dr. William Robertson (1721-1793).

CATO'S SOLILOQUY.

[Marcus Porcius Cato, great-grandson of Cato the Censor, was born B.C. 95. From his youth he was celebrated for his bravery, virtue, decision, severity, and sternness of character. He was the principal supporter of Cicero in his measures for suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy; and on the commencement of civil war, B.C. 49, he joined the party of Pompey against Cæsar. After the defeat of the former, Cato proceeded to Africa, where the hopes of the republican party were finally extinguished by the battle of Thapsus, B.C. 46. Failing to inspire his countrymen, who were collected at Utica, with courage to endure a siege, he resolved not to outlive the downfall of the republic. After providing for the safety of his friends, and spending the greater part of the night in reading Plato on the Immortality of the Soul, he inflicted on himself the wound of which he died in the forty-ninth year of his age.]

1. It must be so- Plato,1 thou reasonest well!—
Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

"Tis Heaven itself, that points out a hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

2. Eternity!-thou pleasing, dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a power above us,-
And that there is, all Nature cries aloud

Through all her works,-He must delight in virtue;
And that which He delights in must be happy.

But when? or where? This world was made for Cæsar. I'm weary of conjectures, this must end them.

[Laying his hand on his sword.

3. Thus am I doubly armed: My death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to my end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secure in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds.

-Addison (1672–1719).

Plato, the great philosopher of ancient Greece, born at Athens B.C. 430, died B.C. 347. He wrote several dialogues on philosophical subjects. The most celebrated dialogue, called Phædo, is on the immortality of the soul.

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