Just Heav'n! why shouldst thou punish the desires, The source of ills, which time can ne'er remove ? III. How in the world our noblest aims are crost! But it is time to conclude our narrative. We have already brought Urbanus to the crisis of his fate. The sequel is a proof, that despair is never either manly or rational; and that every thing may be retrieved except the loss of honour. At the very moment, when he was sinking under the last struggle with calamity, the fortune of a relation unexpectedly devolved upon him, and set him at once above the world. His debts were immediately discharged; and he had sufficient prudence and strength of mind not to plunge again into the whirlpool from which he had been so narrowly preserved. Fresh hopes and prospects were opened to him; he saw a faint possibility that he might yet begin life anew, and under better auspices. He now looked back to the fate which he had escaped, with the same sort of shuddering with which a man would regard a chasm, into which he was once within a few inches of being precipitated. Urbanus was a mere boy, when he was first known to the members of the Council. But from that time to the late meeting, which we have described, he had been entirely separated from all of them. He will now often relate the adventures of his past life without any disguise or false colouring; and with a remarkable degree of natural eloquence, which results from keen sensibility and strong feelings. Some of us still wish him to apply himself to law or politics; but he only thanks us with a mournful smile for the suggestion. We have better hopes of him; but he seems himself convinced, that his constitution is entirely broken; and anticipates without regret, a quick journey to the grave. No length of years, we are afraid, would now reconcile him to the world-that world, he bitterly says, in which faith, and heart, and honesty, are scarcely to be found; that world, which is ever ready to fawn upon the prosperous, and trample the unfortunate to the dust; which holds out its hand to the man who can get up by himself, and crushes him that is down: which only assists where it expects to be repaid with an exorbitant interest of assistance, and is selfish in the very benefits which it confers. Urbanus, we believe, has thrown together an account of many occurrences which have happened either to himself or his less-fortunate associates. Such a narration, he hopes, would not be quite without its use; and if he could be made an instructive warning to others, he would rejoice at the circumstance, as compensating in some measure for the errors and the mischief of his own conduct. He would, if it be possible, prevent the young, the idle, the sensitive, the thoughtless, from entering upon a course of life, which must as surely lead them to wretchedness, and ruin, and disasters of every kind, as the stream of a river carries its waters to the ocean. From such a fatal consummation, he says, nothing but accident preserved his latter career. For otherwise, in what might it have ended? in low and besotted profligacy, or in madness, or in suicide, or in any imaginable guilt; in crimes, which he at this moment shudders to contemplate. Such are the present members of "The Council of Ten." There are, even now, some other candidates for admission, whom it will be our pride and pleasure to introduce, when any vacancy occurs. At this moment they are mere supernumeraries; although we are far from holding them in the light of jury-masts, only to be hoisted upon absolute necessity, when the stronger and safer ones are dismantled or removed: in fact, we are very glad of this extra-number of associates; because, as it will be desirable to have our full complement at every sitting, they may assist in our deliberations, when any of the decemvirs, now in office, are absent upon their own business, or conducting in remote quarters the affairs of the Council. One of these candidates is a gallant naval officer, who was a midshipman under the heroic Nelson, and had his share in all the glorious achievements of this country, during the late war, on that element which is peculiarly her own. Another is a gentleman, who has devoted much of his attention to the colonial interests and policy of Great Britain; and is well acquainted with the state of all the various and immense dependencies of the empire from Canada to Calcutta ; from the Ionian republic to the settlement at Sierra Leone. A third, is a critic of great acuteness, just taste, profound knowledge, and, what is more than all, perfect integrity: who, when he reads a literary performance, and proceeds to form his opinion upon it, thinks only of the book itself, and not of the party or political connexions of the author. After this it is needless to add, that he is not a modern reviewer; and that none of the articles in any existing journal are of his composition. A fourth, is a young poet, who is too modest to publish his own verses to the town. His friends, too, have a notion, that he is capable of writing a really good play; but, alas! in these days what could he do with it, when it was written? We must keep the further delineation of these characters for a future opportunity. The present decemvirs themselves must be left to develop their opinions and dispositions more fully in the progress of our transactions. We have kept our promise of free and confidential communication; but it will never do, if no mystery whatever is observed: for we hold this proposition to be little liable to dispute;-that if we tell all, there will remain nothing to be told. Their names, therefore; the ages of most of them; their height, their com plexion; the amount of their fortune, and the important circumstance, whether they are married or bachelors, must continue to be a subject of conjecture. It is by this time evident, that upon many subjects there must be a wide difference in their opinions. But contrariety of opinion is then only a disadvantage, when it exists upon any of those fundamental points, which produce absolute estrangement and alienation of mind; and render it impossible for the men, in whom such contrariety appears, to act in concert for any great and common purpose: and this is not the case with the members of our Council. They have the same leading principles, (although their sentiments, on particular topics connected with them may occasionally disagree,) in religion, in morality, and even in politics: the same love of justice, the same love of their country. They would pursue their end in some cases by different means; but in all cases their end is the same. It may be hoped, then, that the lighter shades of discrepancy will only serve to enliven their conversation; strike out new hints and projects, lead to the discovery of truth; and prevent a dull and monotonous uniformity. Moreover different modes of life naturally induce different habits of thinking; and each, perhaps, engenders its peculiar prejudices. These, we believe, are often honest and even useful: yet it is well, that they should be sometimes contrasted and opposed to prejudices of an opposite description; they thus become neutralized by being brought and mingled together; and serve, by destroying each other, like the positive and negative quantities in algebra, to facilitate our search after a true and exact result. Some, who have read the characters of our decemvirs, may perhaps wish to inquire, by whose hand they were drawn. This task was intrusted to the Secretary of the Council, with the strictest injunctions to impartiality. He has endeavoured to execute the office according to the spirit of these directions; and has generally shewn his various sketches to all the members of the Council; except him, whose character was the immediate subject of delineation yet it may be, that he has failed somewhat in his duty on the side of affection, and painted them en beau. The colouring of friendship must of necessity be warm and glowing: the eye of friendship sees only the brighter parts of the object before it; and the hand can only trace, what the eye has seen. Yet if it be so, he can hardly repent it: for may shame and misery light upon the man, who can drag the harsher features into prominent notice, when he sketches the portrait of a friend! And who, then, is the Secretary himself? Whoever, or whatever, he may be, he is nothing to the public. He will not gratify idle curiosity by saying when, or how, or by whom, he was introduced to the Council, and admitted to its secrets. His only office, in its debates, is to listen and record: to preserve in the presence of that august body, a silence stricter than that of a young Pythagorean during his novitiate; and in all places to keep a restraint upon his tongue with regard to their proceedings, and never to reveal their private resolutions to the world. His other duties are, to despatch letters; to obtain the papers and documents which may be thought requisite; to give 'directions to the familiars and messengers; to establish a regular train of communication from all quarters; and to make all those minor arrangements, which are beneath the dignity of the decemvirs themselves. Suppose him an unhappy young author, to whose genius and merits the world never has done justice; who is unknown and neglected, because he has no friend to puff him; no brothers of the trade to bepraise him into notice; who scribbles in a garret, without health, without rest, without fame, almost without bread: suppose him all this, and you suppose him only what Johnson has been, and many other men greater and better than himself: suppose him even a political adventurer, that degraded and degrading term, which is synonymous with all that is cringing, or time-serving, or corrupt: suppose him a man, who is ready to do every thing, and say every thing, and accept every thing; who, if the Tories rejected him, would throw himself into the arms of the Whigs; and if the Whigs looked shy upon him, would range himself under the Banners of Universal Suffrage, and Election by Ballot and if the champions of this cause were unwilling to receive him, would form a still more popular party for |
