of a man, however strong and tender, would not reach this. We women love the person beyond all abstract principle; and the error (for it is an error in morals) is seated in the organization which makes us wives and mothers. Men love principles, and even prejudices, more than the persons they love best; that is, they love themselves best of all, and love themselves in that point of honour on which the world's opinion depends.

"I could not love thee, dear, so well,
Loved I not honour more."

Ah! this "honour more!"
Every woman has not the "

cœur aimant" of

Julie: women of gallantry never,-coquettes and prudes rarely. Still, woman may be defined a loving animal, and tant pis pour elle.

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MALTHUS.

COBBETT and the Irish reformers look with detestation on Malthus and his doctrines: and many right thinking" persons, as they call themselves, fancy that they have discovered a valuable ally in him. The same error is common to both. If Malthus's position be true, (and no naturalist can doubt it,) it follows as a matter of demonstration, that there

greater necessity for political freedom. The greater the obstacles nature opposes to man's comfortable existence, the greater efforts are required to overcome them, and the greater is the necessity VOL. II-N

that all his powers should be developed to the uttermost. Hitherto, the animal has been fully equal to the task of self-subsistence, wherever bad governments have not interfered with the natural distribution of the products of industry, and quartered noble indigence upon plebeian activity. Civilization confers an increased power over the elements, and a corresponding facility in manufacturing food; but unjust governments weigh down the labourer, and avail themselves of every improvement to increase the lion's share of the product. Malthus, properly understood, is a powerful radical reformer.

PATERNAL BENEDICTIONS.

MADAME DE GENLIS regrets the abandonment of the nightly ceremony of paternal benedictions (Dict. des Etiquettes). The mere repetition, however, must destroy any efficacy it might be supposed to possess, in forcing good conduct. A benediction is at first valued as a reward of virtue, or a symbol of pardon for repented error: but it inevitably becomes a thing of course; and is desired for its own sake alone, or as a pledge of the favourable prepossession of a doting old man who has something to leave.

If a benediction be supposed to possess efficacy in procuring good to its object, so also must a curse be potent in evil; and by the prevalence of this notion, the delirious ravings of disappointed ambition may become the cause of misery to the innocent. Thus considered, the benediction enters into the category of spells and enchantments; and the

formulary once recited, the omnipotence of heaven is enchained to the performance of its conditions. This is a most degrading superstition; and, like all similar errors, it cannot in the long run be serviceable to the species. Its obvious ill effect is to make the will of others, and not the morality of things, the standard of action.

SENTIMENT.

SENTIMENT is at best an invention of vanity to mask the infirmities of mind and body: no wonder that it so easily lapses into affectation. Joseph Surface is but a cynical display of what passes in the mind of the great majority of the species; and of what the hypocrite is as anxious to hide from himself as from the rest of the world. Marriage is the grave of sentimentality: because the parties are like Cicero's Augurs; they cannot carry on the farce, and keep their countenance.

PRESENTS.

THE great are fond of presents; but they are superlatively ungrateful. Little people, in their need of protection, instinctively apply to the great, with a bribe in their hand: and they do so wisely. Flattered self-love yields what justice or benevo

lence alone might deny. It is, however, by a succession of trifling gifts that the experienced toadeater makes way with a patron. Women par parenthèse) enter into the details of toad-eating much better than men.

An ignoramus offers something valuable, some thing above his means to afford; and he "takes nothing by the motion;" for neither money, nor money's worth is valued by those whose wants are supplied as soon as they arise. Such persons receive without compunction or consideration; and are neither obliged, nor disposed to return in kind. It is courtesy, and not pecuniary value they want; and it enters not into their conception that the value, which is nothing to them, may be an inconvenient sacrifice to the donor. Valuable presents must be rare; while it is unceasing homage that wins. The spooneys alone are taken in, and strive to astonish by the splendour of their gifts. The "able-bodied" toadies "win with honest trifles to betray to deepest consequences."

Kings, however, like substantial presents; but they will take any thing, even from the poorest of their subjects. When George the Third went to return thanksgivings at St. Paul's, on the recovery of his health, a picture was made by Dayes of the ceremony in the interior of the church. This picture was bought by an engraver, and a print executed from it; and an application was made for the king's permission to dedicate the work to him. The permission was graciously granted by that patron of the arts; with a stipulation that the original picture should be consigned to himself: a proposition with which the spirited engraver refused to comply.

Courtiers laud the liberality of kings; and, in the eyes of poets-laureate, regal munificence is the

first of virtues: but a present-taking king is less mischievous, than he whom a silly vanity and ignorance of the value of money, betrays into wasting the treasure which is not own. Besides, a greedy monarch is further excusable, inasmuch as the cupidity of those who surround him may be supposed to give an intelligible lesson: he has only to profit by the example.

PER CONTRA.

Ir the great are fond of presents, the little make their gifts in the same spirit, in which the farmer commits the seed to the earth. M, in reading Lucian this morning at breakfast, hit upon this curious question: whether, on occasion of some general assembly of the gods, the divinities should take precedence according to the respective value of their materials, as images, or according to the merit of their sculpture. The more weighty consideration very properly carried the day; for the gods, both of this world and the other, are honoured only as they have something to bestow. The reverence for mere wealth, which is the besetting sin of the English character, is a sad mark of moral degradation; but it is at least wiser than a stupid admiration of the oppressors and destroyers of mankind, or an adoration of titles, ribbons, and the accident of noble birth. It is a mistake to suppose that the homage paid to riches is a homage to the folly or roguery of the possessor: it is to his merit. and utility as a conduit pipe, for distributing that of

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