Essays were soon forgotten, though this, at the time, was much read and admired as part of the history of the man and his political feelings. It was the effect which Buonaparte believed to have been produced by these on the public mind that tempted him to try to incarcerate Coleridge. Some time after, Otto, the French ambassador at our Court, was ready with a bribe, in the hope to obtain from Coleridge a complimentary essay to his sovereign. The offer of the bribe would have deterred him from writing any more on the subject. Had he been willing to sell himself to write a flattering character of the great hero-to raise that hero in the estimation of Europe, he would have been amply recompensed.

In his Biographia Literaria, he says, "But I "do derive a gratification from the knowledge, "that my essays have contributed to introduce "the practice of placing the questions and events "of the day in a moral point of view, in giving dignity to particular measures by tracing "their policy or impolicy to permanent principles, and an interest to principles by the application of them to individual measures. In "Mr. Burke's writings, indeed, the germs of al"most all political truths may be found. But I "dare assume to myself the merit of having first

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explicitly defined and analysed the nature of "Jacobinism; and that in distinguishing the

"jacobin from the republican, the democrat "and the mere demagogue, I both rescued the "word from remaining a mere term of abuse, "and put on their guard many honest minds, "who even in their heat of zeal against jaco"binism, admitted or supported principles from "which the worst part of that system may be 'legitimately deduced."

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With this view the following Essays and Observations have been republished here,—as illustrative of his early opinions to be compared with those of his more advanced life,-to shew the injustice of his political opponents, who never seemed to have troubled themselves about principle, and the necessary growth of intellectual power giving deeper insight, with the additional value of experience and its consequences.

PITT.

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From the Morning Post, March 19, 1800.

Plutarch, in his comparative biography of "Rome and Greece, has generally chosen for "each pair of lives the two contemporaries who "most nearly resembled each other. His work "would perhaps have been more interesting, if "he had adopted the contrary arrangement, and "selected those rather who had attained to the possession of similar influence, or similar fame,

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by means, actions, and talents the most dis"similar. For power is the sole object of philosophical attention in man, as in inanimate "nature; and in the one equally as in the other, "we understand it more intimately, the more "diverse the circumstances are with which we "have observed it co-exist. In our days, the "two persons who appear to have influenced the "interests and actions of men the most deeply, “and the most diffusively, are beyond doubt the "Chief Consul of France and the Prime Minis"ter of Great Britain, and in these two are pre"sented to us similar situations, with the greatest "dissimilitude of characters.

"William Pitt was the younger son of Lord "Chatham; a fact of no ordinary importance in "the solution of his character, of no mean sig"nificance in the heraldry of morals and intel"lect. His father's rank, fame, political connections, and parental ambition, were his "mould; he was cast, rather than grew.

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"A palpable election, a conscious predestina"tion controlled the free agency, and transfigured "the individuality of his mind; and that, which "he might have been, was compelled into that, "which he was to be. From his early child"hood it was his father's custom to make him "stand up on a chair, and declaim before a large company; by which exercise, practised "so frequently, and continued for so many years,

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"he acquired a premature and unnatural dexterity in the combination of words, which must "of necessity have diverted his attention from present objects, obscured his impressions, and "deadened his genuine feelings. Not the thing "on which he was speaking, but the praises to "be gained, were present to his intuition; hence

he associated all the operations of his faculties “with words, and his pleasures with the surprise "excited by them.

"But an inconceivably large portion of hu"man knowledge and human power is involved "in the science and management of words; and

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an education of words, though it destroys ge“nius, will often create, and always foster, talent. "The young Pitt was conspicuous far beyond "his fellows, both at school and at college. He was always full grown: he had neither the

"promise nor the awkwardness of a growing "intellect. Vanity, early satiated, formed and "elevated itself into a love of power; and in

losing this colloquial vanity, he lost one of the "prime links that connect the individual with "the species, too early for the affections, though "not too early for the understanding. At col

lege he was a severe student; his mind was "founded and elemented in words and generali"ties, and these two formed all the superstruc"ture. That revelry and that debauchery, which

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are so often fatal to the powers of intellect,

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"would probably have been serviceable to him ; they would have given him a closer commu"nion with realities, they would have induced a greater presentness to present objects. But "Mr. Pitt's conduct was correct, unimpressibly "correct. His after-discipline in the special pleader's office, and at the bar, carried on the "scheme of his education with unbroken uni

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formity. His first political connections were "with the reformers; but those who accuse him "of sympathising or coalescing with their in"temperate or visionary plans, misunderstand "his character, and are ignorant of the historical "facts.

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Imaginary situations in an imaginary state "of things rise up in minds that possess a power "and facility in combining images. Mr. Pitt's "ambition was conversant with old situations in "the old state of things, which furnish nothing "to the imagination, though much to the wishes. "In his endeavours to realise his father's plan of reform, he was probably as sincere as a being, who had derived so little knowledge "from actual impressions, could be. But his sincerity had no living root of affection; while "it was propped up by his love of praise and "immediate power, so long it stood erect and no

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longer. He became a member of the Parlia"ment, supported the popular opinions, and in a "few years, by the influence of the popular