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 Clazomena 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 continued 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.†

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 management 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 ascendency 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,

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 offered 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

throne. He had neither the simplicity, sincerity, and perfect truthfulness of his predecessor's moral character, nor the unimpassioned sagacity and clearness of vision which distinguished his understanding; and is chargeable indeed with acting in many respects in a spirit of affectation and blind prejudice, anything but creditable to a philosopher. Yet, during his short reign of little more than a year and a half, Julian proved himself both an able monarch and a man possessed of great virtues. In war his valour was only equalled by his clemency. An enemy to all luxury and excess, he did every thing in his power, by his authority and his example, to repress the growing extravagances and debaucheries of the times, and abolished many customs of the imperial court which he considered only occasions of expense and effeminate indulgence. Much of his time was spent in conversing with learned men, much in solitary study; indeed, from a very early hour in the night till morning was generally devoted by him, even during his campaigns, to reading and writing. He has left several works, all written in Greek, which was then the language of the court.

In a still more recent but much darker age, we find literature cultivated with zeal by the emperor CHARLEMAGNE, when there were few other individuals to whom it was at all an object of attention throughout his vast dominions. This great conqueror, whose life was spent in almost incessant wars, was yet wont to give whatever leisure he could spare to reading, writing, and the converse of the learned; and a con siderable number of letters and other literary performances are still extant, the production of his pen. Even when confined to bed by sickness, he was accustomed to amuse himself, we are told by his biographer and contemporary Eginhard, in attempting to imitate