many have willingly embraced comparative poverty in preference to riches. Among the philosophers of the ancient world, some are said to have spontaneously disencumbered themselves of their inheritances, that the cares of managing their property might not interrupt their philosophic pursuits. Crates, Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, are particularly mentioned as having made this sacrifice. But in those days, it is to be remembered, knowledge was only to be obtained by travelling into foreign countries, and those who sought it were therefore obliged, before setting out on the search, either to relinquish altogether the possessions they had at home, or to leave them in charge of trustees, who generally took advantage of their stewardship to embezzle or squander them. Doubtless no one of the celebrated persons we have enumerated would have thrown away his patrimony, if he could have retained it with as little inconvenience as such an incumbrance can possibly occasion a philosopher in our own times. The only worldly imprudence, even, of which they can be fairly accused, is, that of having preferred knowledge to wealth, when it was necessary to make a choice between the two; or that of having allowed themselves to be too easily cheated of the latter, in their enthusiastic devotion to the former. Bayle, who had himself a strong sympathy with this love of a quiet in preference to a splendid life, states the matter correctly in the case of Democritus, when he says, in his article on that great father of natural philosophy, "The spirit of a great traveller reigned in him; he journeyed to the heart of India, in quest of the riches of learning, and bestowed but little thought on those other treasures which he had almost at his door." Anaxagoras, in like manner, although he did not travel so far from home as Democritus, still owed the loss of his

property to his being obliged to leave it in the hands of others. This ingenious but somewhat fanciful speculator, the master of Socrates and Euripides, and the honoured friend of Pericles, was a native of Clazomenæ in Ionia, and the descendant of noble and wealthy ancestors, whose lands he inherited. But, determining to devote his life to philosophy, he did not hesitate, when only about twenty years of age, to bid adieu to his fair possessions, and, crossing the Ægean, to repair to Athens, where he con tinued to pursue his studies while his estate was running to waste, and at last maintained himself by giving lessons to others. Cicero mentions Anaxagoras, along with Pythagoras and Democritus, as having declined those public honours, and that share in the management of affairs, to which his birth and qualities entitled him to aspire, "for the sake," as he expresses it, of tranquillity, and for the sake of the sweetness of knowledge, than which nothing is to man more delightful"—propter tranquillitatem, et propter ipsius scientiæ suavitatem, qua nihil est hominibus jucundius*. This is the testimony of one who had himself tasted the charms of political power as well as those of philosophy t.

66

We may here notice the singular story of Nicephorus ALPHERY, as related in the Biographia Britannica. Alphery was born in Russia, about the close of the sixteenth century, of the family of the Czars. He was, we suppose, of the ancient race of Ruric, which, after occupying the throne for nearly eight centuries, gave place to a new dynasty on the death of Feodore Iwanovitch, commonly called Feodore I., in 1598. This event, which was immedi* De Oratore, lib. iii.

In modern times, Alfieri, the great Italian dramatist, gave up his estate to his sister, in order not to be distracted, by the ma, nagement of it, from his poetical studies.

ately followed by the usurpation of Boris Godunow, after he had caused Feodore's only brother Demetrius, the heir to the crown, to be assassinated, was the occasion of protracted troubles to Russia. It appears to have been about the commencement of these convulsions that Alphery and his two brothers were sent by their friends for safety to England, and entrusted to the care of a merchant, connected by commercial relations with their native country. Their protector gave them a liberal education, and at the proper age they were all entered of the University of Oxford. Soon after this, however, two of them were attacked by small pox and died. Nicephorus, the survivor, now resolved to take orders in the English church; and, accordingly, having been ordained, he was appointed in 1618 to the living of Wooley, in Huntingdonshire, the income of which was barely sufficient to afford him a maintenance. By this time the throne of his ancestors was in the possession of Michael Fedrowitch Romanow, who was the son of a patriarch of the Greek church, and had, in 1613, when only sixteen years of age, obtained the imperial crown, which has ever since been worn by his descendants. Thus, while, on the one hand, the church had received into her ranks the heir of an empire, that empire, on the other hand, received a sovereign from the church. The disturbances that had so long distracted Russia, however, were not settled by the accession of Michael; and it is asserted that, subsequently to this period, Nicephorus was actually twice invited to return to his native country and put himself at the head of a powerful party who desired to place him on the throne. But, with a want of ambition which many will despise, although its wisdom might perhaps be defended, he preferred, on both occasions, his humble parsonage to this splendid temptation. Never having obtained any additional

preferment, he long made himself happy by the discharge of his duties in the lowly condition he had embraced; and his meek spirit was probably but rarely troubled even by a thought of the exalted station to which he once might have attained. After settling at Wooley he married, and had a family. Alphery was not destined, however, even by his relinquishment of the rights of his birth, to escape the storms of political commotion; for, on the ascendancy of the republican party after the civil wars, he was deprived of his living, and, with his wife and children, compelled to wander about for some time without a home; nor did he recover his benefice till the Restoration. By this time the infirmities of advanced age had left him but little strength for the performance of his wonted duties; and, leaving his parish in charge of a curate, he soon after retired to Hammersmith, to the house of one of his sons who was settled there. In this retirement he lived for some years, unnoticed, but not unhappy; and when his death took place at last, his singular fortunes had been so much forgotten by all the world that nobody has recorded the date of the event.

We read nothing of any remarkable acquirements in literature made by this individual; but if moderation of desires be a quality of the philosophic spirit, he is entitled to be regarded as no ordinary philosopher. Many others, however, might be enumerated, who even on a throne have cultivated science and letters, and intermingled the occupations of study with those of sovereignty. We may mention among the Roman emperors the excellent MARCUS AURELIUS, a prince who, with some failings, manifested many virtues that have rarely adorned in the same degree either a public or a private station. Called to the imperial dignity contrary to his own wishes, Aurelius, who had been a philosopher before his exaltation,

remained the same in character, and as far as possible in habits, after he became the master of the world; and he is at least one instance of a naturally good disposition which power the most unbounded was unable to corrupt. To our common notions, or prejudices, his giving his attendance, when nearly sixty years of age, to a course of philosophical lectures may seem to savour something of pedantic display: but kings have often been worse employed; and it is at any rate delightful to find this good and enlightened emperor, after his victorious campaigns, repairing, ere he returned home to receive the congratulations of his impatient Romans, to the mothercity of philosophy, learning, art, and freedom, the subjugated but still illustrious Athens, and there examining the trophies of her old glory, mixing in her religious processions and ceremonies, rebuilding and re-endowing her schools, bestowing new honours and privileges on the teachers, and neglecting nothing that could make her once more the metropolis of the world of letters. Marcus Aurelius is said to have written several books; but only one work, his Moral Reflections, composed in Greek, has come down to us. How happy would nations be, this prince was wont to exclaim in the words of Plato, if the philosophers were their kings, or their kings were philosophers. And he afforded in himself, equally able as was his administration of affairs at home and abroad, in peace and in war, at least one splendid exemplification of the truth of his favorite remark—which yet might not be found to hold generally good, unless philosophy were to include, as it did in him, practice as well as speculation. The emperor JULIAN, in a later age, though, perhaps, surpassing Marcus Aurelius in literary talents and accomplishments, and endowed also with many great qualities by nature, does not exhibit to us quite so beautiful a picture of philosophy on a