Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Decline And Fall Of The Dutch Republic.
ON THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC .
r 'jj 'HOUGH ' the political establishments of modern Europe may apr ? - pear superior to those ofthe ancient world in promoting personal industry , securing individual property , and increasing the fund of private and domestic happiness ; yet they possess less stability in their general principles , and enjoy less influence in forming the charaaers and manners of nations . In contemplating the history ofthe enli ghtened states of Greece , and in tracing the progress of Roman
authority and domination , we admire the steadiness with which each community adhered to the fundamental laws of its constitution , and ascertain the effbas which those laws produced on the deportment and views of its different members . The spirit which enabled the Spartans to withstand the Persians at Thermopylse , and to conquer them at Platea , animated them , after the lapse of centuries ,, to repel
Pyrrhus from their city , and to bleed with Cleomenes on the heightsof Sellasia . The same thirst of power and consciousness of merit which impelled the Roman people , in the zenith of their prosperity , to trample oh the kings of Asia , and subjugate the barbarians of Gaul and Germany , roused their untutored ancestors to the plunder of a Volscian villageor the storming of a Samnite camp . By uniforml
, y appealing to that desire of pre-eminence which is one of the strongest springs of human aaion , the commonwealth of Rome attained to that excellence which she had so long arrogated to herself ; and the splendid magnificence of her exploits almost compels the impartial observer
of the present hour to forget the guilt of original usurpation , to regard submission as a duty , and consider resistance as rebellion . Thus was reared the most durable political fabric the world ever beheld , a fabric , which withstood , for ages , the attempts of open violence and secret corruption , and which at length was subverted by those resistless instruments which Providence employs to baffie the utmost efforts of human wisdomrather than by any concurrence of those minuter
, circumstances which would be sufficient to overturn the puny systems of latter days . The myriads ofthe north , and ofthe east , forced by the necessity of subsistence , or inflamed by the genius of superstition , at length succeeded in destroying the well-construftedsuperstruaure ; and the lords of mankind were lost in the crowd of their Gothic
conque rors , and crouched beneath the sceptre of a Turkish tyrant . But since the revival of letters in the 15 th century , the kingdoms of Europe have exhibited various specimens of transient grandeur and of rapid decay . Spain and Portugal , Sweden , and the Italian states , have terminated their career of glory , have sunk into insignificance , or are consigned to contempt . And , even in these nationswhere
, the dignity of the human charaaer has been more uniforml y preserved , we are presented with scenes of internal fluctuation and of civil discord , which have ended either in the dismemberment of their possessions , the disorganization of their government ,- or
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Decline And Fall Of The Dutch Republic.
ON THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC .
r 'jj 'HOUGH ' the political establishments of modern Europe may apr ? - pear superior to those ofthe ancient world in promoting personal industry , securing individual property , and increasing the fund of private and domestic happiness ; yet they possess less stability in their general principles , and enjoy less influence in forming the charaaers and manners of nations . In contemplating the history ofthe enli ghtened states of Greece , and in tracing the progress of Roman
authority and domination , we admire the steadiness with which each community adhered to the fundamental laws of its constitution , and ascertain the effbas which those laws produced on the deportment and views of its different members . The spirit which enabled the Spartans to withstand the Persians at Thermopylse , and to conquer them at Platea , animated them , after the lapse of centuries ,, to repel
Pyrrhus from their city , and to bleed with Cleomenes on the heightsof Sellasia . The same thirst of power and consciousness of merit which impelled the Roman people , in the zenith of their prosperity , to trample oh the kings of Asia , and subjugate the barbarians of Gaul and Germany , roused their untutored ancestors to the plunder of a Volscian villageor the storming of a Samnite camp . By uniforml
, y appealing to that desire of pre-eminence which is one of the strongest springs of human aaion , the commonwealth of Rome attained to that excellence which she had so long arrogated to herself ; and the splendid magnificence of her exploits almost compels the impartial observer
of the present hour to forget the guilt of original usurpation , to regard submission as a duty , and consider resistance as rebellion . Thus was reared the most durable political fabric the world ever beheld , a fabric , which withstood , for ages , the attempts of open violence and secret corruption , and which at length was subverted by those resistless instruments which Providence employs to baffie the utmost efforts of human wisdomrather than by any concurrence of those minuter
, circumstances which would be sufficient to overturn the puny systems of latter days . The myriads ofthe north , and ofthe east , forced by the necessity of subsistence , or inflamed by the genius of superstition , at length succeeded in destroying the well-construftedsuperstruaure ; and the lords of mankind were lost in the crowd of their Gothic
conque rors , and crouched beneath the sceptre of a Turkish tyrant . But since the revival of letters in the 15 th century , the kingdoms of Europe have exhibited various specimens of transient grandeur and of rapid decay . Spain and Portugal , Sweden , and the Italian states , have terminated their career of glory , have sunk into insignificance , or are consigned to contempt . And , even in these nationswhere
, the dignity of the human charaaer has been more uniforml y preserved , we are presented with scenes of internal fluctuation and of civil discord , which have ended either in the dismemberment of their possessions , the disorganization of their government ,- or