THE YOUNG AMERICAN. 371

proud commoner, the reflection that a fop, who, by the magic of title, paralyzes his arm and plucks from him half the graces and rights of a man, is himself also an aspirant excluded with the same ruthlessness from higher circles, since there is no end to the Wheels within wheels of this spiral hea: ven. Something may be pardoned to the spirit of loyalty when it becomes fantastic; and something to the imagination, for the baldest life is symbolic. Philip II. of Spain rated his ambassador for neg- lecting serious affairs in Italy, whilst he debated some point of honor with the French ambassador ; “ You have left a business of importance for a cer-

emony.”

The ambassador replied, “ Your Maj- esty’s self is but a ceremony.” In the East, where the religious sentiment comes in to the support of the aristocracy, and in the Romish church also, there is a grain of sweetness in the tyranny ; but in England, the fact seems to me intolerable, what is commonly affirmed, that such is the transcendent honor accorded to wealth and birth, that no man of letters, be his eminence what it may, is received into the best society, except as a lion and a show. The English have many virtues, many advantages, and the proudest history of the world; but they need all and more than all the resources of the past to indemnify a heroic gontlelnan in that (troun-

try for the mortifications prepared for him by the