as led to an irresolution
which we feel at once, in such a man, to be a degrading weakness, and
altogether inconsistent with the part he is playing in life. It is an
indecision which, in spite of the philosophical tone it assumes,
pronounces him to be unfit for the command of men, or to sway the
destinies of a people. Artevelde, too, reflects, examines himself,
pauses, considers, and his will is the servant of his thought; but
reflection with him comes in aid of resolution, matures it, establishes
it. He can discuss with himself, whether he shall pursue a life of
peaceful retirement, or plunge into one of stormy action; but having
once made his election, he proceeds along his devoted path with perfect
self-confidence, and without a look that speaks of retreat. A world of
thought is still around him; he carries with him, at each step, his old
habit of reflection--for this, no man who has once possessed, can ever
relinquish--but nothing of all this disturbs or impedes him.

Do not you, Eugenius, be led by the cant of criticism to sacrifice the
real interest of your _dramatis personae_. Some dry censor will tell you
that your Greeks are by no means Greek, nor your Romans Roman. See you
first that they are real men, and be not afraid to throw your own heart
into them. Little will it console either you or your readers, if, after
you have repelled us by some frigid formal figure, a complimentary
critic of this school should propose to place it as a frontispiece to a
new edition of Potter or of Adam--applauding you the while for having
faithfully preserved the classic costume. I tell you that the classic
costume must ruffle and stir with passions kindred to our own, or it had
better be left hanging against the wall. And what a deception it is that
the scholastic imagination is perpetually imposing on itself in this
matter! Accustomed to dwell on the points of difference between the men
of one age and of another, it revolts from admitting the many mere
points of resemblance which must have existed between them; it hardly
takes into account the great fund of humanity common to them both. The
politics of Cicero, it is true, would be unintelligible to one unversed
in the constitution and history of Rome; but the ambition of Cicero, the
embarrassment of the politician, the meditated treachery, the boasted
independence, the doubt, the fear, the hesitation,--all this will be
better studied in a living House of Commons, than in all the