vileges of wealth and rank, and drew from the servile
condition of one class, an argument in favor of his scheme, since the
revenue and power annexed to a German principality afford so large a
field for benevolence. The evil flowing from this power, in malignant
hands, was proportioned to the good that would arise from the virtuous
use of it. Hence, Wieland, in forbearing to claim his own, withheld all
the positive felicity that would accrue to his vassals from his success,
and hazarded all the misery that would redound from a less enlightened
proprietor.

It was easy for my brother to repel these arguments, and to shew that no
spot on the globe enjoyed equal security and liberty to that which he
at present inhabited. That if the Saxons had nothing to fear from
mis-government, the external causes of havoc and alarm were numerous and
manifest. The recent devastations committed by the Prussians furnished
a specimen of these. The horrors of war would always impend over them,
till Germany were seized and divided by Austrian and Prussian tyrants;
an event which he strongly suspected was at no great distance. But
setting these considerations aside, was it laudable to grasp at wealth
and power even when they were within our reach? Were not these the two
great sources of depravity? What security had he, that in this change
of place and condition, he should not degenerate into a tyrant and
voluptuary? Power and riches were chiefly to be dreaded on account of
their tendency to deprave the possessor. He held them in abhorrence, not
only as instruments of misery to others, but to him on whom they
were conferred. Besides, riches were comparative, and was he not rich
already? He lived at present in the bosom of security and luxury. All
the instruments of pleasure, on which his reason or imagination set any
value, were within his reach. But these he must forego, for the sake of
advantages which, whatever were their value, were as yet uncertain. In
pursuit of an imaginary addition to his wealth, he must reduce himself
to poverty, he must exchange present certainties for what was distant
and contingent; for who knows not that the law is a system of expence,
delay and uncertainty? If he should embrace this scheme, it would lay
him under the necessity of making a voyage to Europe, and remaining for
a certain period, separate from his family. He must undergo the perils
and discomforts of the ocean; he must divest himself of all domestic
pl