Ambition is a ladder * rear'd on high,

Which unsupported reaches to the sky;
A flight that none but fools or madmen take,
Who in ascending wish their necks to break.

his glory, caused a medal to be struck, representing (in allusion to himself) the sun in its meridian splendour; but having received a check from the arms of King William, at that time Prince of Orange, a Dutchman executed a similar coin, with this addition, that the Prince of Orange was represented as Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still. Such are the reverses which high vaulting ambition must look to; such proved the downfall of a Wolsey, and may such be the declension and the fate of that Imperial fool, whose ambition even now grasps at the attainment of universal sway! Abbraccia tal volta la fortuna coloro, che vuol poi affogare.

* It is of little consequence, whether or not the poet had his eye upon Shakspeare's simile in the above line, as the beauty of our dramatist's words it is hoped, will plead the annotator's excuse for their introduction here:

-"Tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upwards turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

Ambition is a gilded bubble bright,

That hoodwinks sense, and blinds the keenest

sight;

A specious phantom, deck'd in all that's fair, Which when embrac'd evaporates in air.

Ambition's every thing so long as sought, While wish'd for matchless, when possess'd but naught;

'Tis sunshine, darkness,-gold and worthless dross,

The wise man's scarecrow, and the ideot's loss*.

* With all deference to the ideas of our bard, I must nevertheless alter a word in one of the lines given by him to King Richard,

Great fools have greater sins, &c.

For certainly, the more inordinate the ambition, the greater the fool who aspires to its attainment; when even throwing in the back ground all those break neck casualties, of which history adduces so many instances, the very summit of this species of fools' glory, will not enable him to stifle the yearnings of conscience, to ward off old age, to shut out pain, and escape from the jaws of death; if such be the case, I will not only say cui bono? but equally answer to the cui malo? of any fool that shall propose the question-by stating, that the rapacious mind can enjoy

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

Weigh thy pursuits, nor trust the golden toy,
That only lures thy fancy to admire ;
The drunkard's pastime's visionary joy,
The ignis fatuus but a specious fire.

no ease, and what is life without a quiet spirit? Like a Sisyphus, the ambitious ideot rolls up the hill the ponderous stone, which sooner or later must recoil, and crush him; say then what becomes of all his glory? well may he at last exclaim,

Farewell;

I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness;
And from that full meridian of my glory,

I haste now to my setting. I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.

A famous

who might truly be denominated the modern Semiramis of the north, was a striking instance of ambitious folly, who did not scruple to connive at the murder of her own husband, as soon as she had grasped the reins of power: neither can I forget to instance the famous Cromwell, in England, who, after the publication of Colonel Titus's work entitled Killing no Murder, was in such a constant state of apprehension as to drive his own coach in disguise, fearful of assassination; while at the same time, he nightly changed his bedchamber, to evade the blow of the assassin.

N

SECTION XLII.

OF FOOLS WHO BOAST THEIR ANCESTRY
AND PEDIGREE.

Et genus et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi

Vix ea nostra voco.

FROM what great stock dost thou boast blood, From Babel's workmen 'fore the flood;

Or else from Asiatic?

Or, dost thou spring from that hot shore,
Which rears the savage black-a-moor,
Who boasts the dye of old nick?

Or, art thou sprung from Roman* race?
Or, canst thou to the Grecian trace
The kindred of thy daddy?

* It is said, that there may be found an English noble, whose pedigree goeth back even unto the era of the

Or, art thou from the famous seed

Of those who scratch beyond the Tweed;
Or else Hibernian Paddy ?

Or, does the harper e'er rehearse
Thine ancestry, in Cambrian verse,
And boast thee sprung from madam;
Whose noble ancestry would scorn
The thought of any man not born
Before the days of Adam* ?

Roman emperors; which may certainly be the case; as we find some of their extraordinary propensities handed down to the present period in his own person.

* The Welshmen are proverbial for priding themselves on the antiquity of their origin; to whom these lines of Shakspeare may well be applied:

I was born so high,

Our airy buildeth in the cedar's top;

And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. This love of pedigree reminds me of the story of a fool, who, having suddenly acquired wealth, was very desirous of armorial bearings; and, for that purpose, made application to an herald, in order to know whether he had any right to a coat of arms; but the research was vain, until the dealer in pedigrees inquired whether or no some of his ancestors had not rendered themselves