LETTER IV.

On retiring to rest, after this conversation, I slept but little: all night I was harassed with visions of huge towers nodding, and seeming to bend before some invisible power. At length one appeared to fall headlong towards the very spot where I stood, rooted, unable to stir, although striving furiously to do so: my eyes ached from gazing upwards, with a painful throb; my ears rang with the crash of ruins, and amidst the din I awoke. The day was far advanced, the sun shone in full lustre into the apartment, and I rose and joined L, who waited for me to begin the morning repast. "Ah," said he, "looking at my eyes, I see how it is with you, your sleep has been heavy and broken! I said too much last evening; you endeavour to comprehend more than your mind can yet bear: but let us see if you can eat; we English say of our horses, if they feed heartily they can work hard: it is about the same with us bipeds. We will then walk out and look about us, it is time to shew you theory reduced

to practice besides, there is an old and true saying, “example is better than precept."

Accordingly, forth we strolled : but to describe with any degree of exactness, the figures we encountered in gliding through the throng on the pavement, is utterly beyond the powers of my unpractised pen. Figure to yourself swarms of men and women walking in the same and in opposite directions, some swiftly, some slowly; some sauntering with an air of vacancy, stopping to gaze listlessly on the articles exposed for sale in the shops; others bounding along with looks which seemed to say, “do not delay us, we carry the weight of empire on our shoulders;" some with contracted brows, looking downwards, as if to search for treasure hidden beneath the surface; others looking anxiously straight forward, as if trying hard to catch a glimpse of some object invisible to the rest; some with mouths close pressed, as if biting secret information; some whistling or humming; some muttering a bitter curse. Every where faces sharpened with misery and disappointment, sallow with care, or lighted with a sickly, unmeaning smile; only here and there one radiant with hope or joy. We met continually, men walking in pairs, with arms linked and heads bent together, one talking

with an air and tone of decision and certainty, the other listening with looks of incredulity, or forced attention. Not a few with nostrils dilated upwards, as if to indicate a sovereign contempt for all but themselves; filth jostling neatness, rags shaking against finery.

The centre of the street presented contrasts no less striking: carriages of all sorts meeting and passing, shabby and splendid, full and empty; drawn by horses, famished or pampered; some full of heavy packages, or vessels of wood bound with iron. In the front part of many of these latter, a large dog was placed, who with his fore feet on the inner edge, tail erect, and jaws dropping foam, rent the air with incessant bark, menacing all around. "Behold," said L- "in that fierce

beast a type of perverted intellect. Man has not been content with misleading his fellows, his cruelty and perverseness are extended even to the inferior genera: it is more than probable that very animal was born docile and playful; he would have grown to maturity happy in his limited capacity; would in dumb fondness have licked the hand that caressed him. Blows and confinement, cruelty of every description, have produced the excitement of frame which now render him a terror to his own species, and to man his instructor. Now,

if unrestrained by habitual dread, he would tear the hand which gives him food: and if a stranger came within reach, would bury his fangs and muzzle in the flesh of his victim: he stands an emblem of cruelty and despair. In like manner is man born innocent and sinless; he comes into the world in obedience to primary laws, an involuntary being, containing in himself the seeds of reproduction, of goodness, of happiness to himself and his species. His hours of childhood are like the cool hours of twilight, dim, yet beautiful, precursive to a brighter day. It is true, his feeble wail is heard even at this early period; but it is generally the cry for nourishment, often from pain, produced by improper treatment, or the unnatural aliment derived from a more unnatural mother: they are no more the cries of mental anguish, no more the inheritage of a curse denounced on his race, than is the bleat of the lamb for the ewe. His eyes too soon shed tears, but they are as soon dried by the hand of kindness, soon smile brighter from their moisture: as the flowers renew their freshness from the dews of night. But this fair dawn is of short duration; full quickly the clouds of evil lower round its horizon, late so serene and promising. Scarcely do the buds of intellect begin to burst into blossom, promising, with the aid of judicious

culture, a harvest of good fruits, when Superstition puffs her breath across the germs. 'Hear me,' she says, 'or wither on the stem, 'tis I can ripen without scorching.' Pride blows his blast, and scattering blight proclaims, 'I seize you as my own; yours are the boughs predestined to spring aloft, to shade more lowly shrubs.' And last creeps Avarice, marking her path with slime, first drawing in her cautious horns, snail-like, and anon, thrusting them forth more boldly, and she whispers, be mine, or perish untimely, for lack of nutriment.' And thus pushed from the stalk, the fruit falls premature, a prey to wasps and pismires; and leaves the trunk naked, branchless, leafless; a mounting block for craft and villainy; a soft butt for fools and knaves to kick their heels against with impunity."