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Untitled Article
there wanted little at that time to effect a revolution similar to that of France . Some regiments were shut up in that very Mews . Would it have been good or evil had the revolution happened ? Evil , boy , at the time , for men ' s minds were not then enlightened , and strong parties would have been mustered both ways , to the perpetration of much cruelty and bloodshed , and consequently to the
hinderance of public enlightenment . The revolution has now happened peaceably , and the oligarchy will be scoffed down . But it might possibly have happened that a blighting , blinding despotism was about to extinguish the free spirit of the nation . In such a case it would have been the duty of all good men to gripe their death weapons for a
death struggle , be the amount of bloodshed what it mig-ht . From such a ruin , —and all violent revolutions , however successful , are ruinous , —from such a ruin the nation would again have arisen by its own inborn energy ; but the blight of a despotism would have destroyed all good seed , and hope herself would have perished .
Oh ! father , what church is that with the beautiful portico of Corinthian columns which look like palm-trees ? Martin , boy , is its patron saint . Thy simile is like . Often have I looked upon their beauty since the time that space was first afforded for my gaze , with a dim consciousness that they were like nature in some of her works . They are stone palms , supporting an entablature . The differing chemical composition of the various courses of stone of
which they are built has been variously acted on by the atmosphere ; they are of all shades , from greyish white to black , and the concentric rings make them look as natural as though they were palms petrified . Would that some architect would chop -away that unsightly pagodalooking thing of a steeple , which cumbers the roof , and is in addition too lofty , like an over-masted vessel . Were it away , you might arch your hands , and looking through them to shut out the surrounding
buildings , deem that you beheld a portion of the i marble waste' of Thebes or Tadmor . How majestic that portico looks , in spite of the pagoda on it . The United Service House opposite is , when compared with it , like an Arab hut by the side of an Egyptian temple . Look a little to the left ; that is the parson ' s house . Those lurdane priests always contrive to get well lodged . One would have no objection to it or to their large payment , if they did any thing useful for it . Even
the tithe might be bearable , were the men really what they ought to be ; not teachers of blind , unreasonable submission , but moral instructors for the people , elevating their nature to high things , such as Christ inculcated , but which his disciples have ill understood , being content to take the letter instead of the beautiful spirit , the husk and not the kernel . —By heavens ! these new streets gladden one ' s
eyesight , even though the taste of them be vitiated . They have the effect of physical enlightenment . The statue thou art looking on is the semblance of a Stuart king , about whose descendants a number of unreasoning people tbought it was proper to be enthusiastic for many years . The name is now extinct , or nearly so . What was the cause of dispute between the Stuarts and the Guelphs ? They both wished for the kingly authority . The Stuarts wished to
