imbibes new impressions through his sense of hearing; thus forming reciprocity of communication. He is produced a simple animal, with only two unmixed derivative sensations, those of hunger, and desire of procreation; on these two hang all the requisites of his existence, considering him as a simple animal machine; to these two alone are referable all the wants and wishes he would feel, if left to himself, as "Unity." But place him in contact with numbers of his genus, and his existence assumes a widely different character; then, his powers and latent capabilities are drawn into play; he becomes more like a complicated piece of mechanism. His original uniform simplicity of will becomes subject to impressions of Pride, Ambition, Hope, Despair, Love (refined), Hatred, Anger, Envy, Malice and the emotions, compounds of all or some of these, infinitely varied and amalgamated, according to the constitutional temperament of the individual: Joy, Grief, and Fear, I think, pertain to him as a single animal.

By the invention of letters, the art of forming sounds into objects of sight, and which, from the intimacy between his eyes and his brain, strike as forcibly on the latter as sounds through his power of hearing; he is enabled to communicate with surprising rapidity. And

lastly, in many instances, through accident and combination of chances, and in others, by the application of the reasoning faculty before noticed, he has obtained such an insight into his own nature and properties, and those of the objects around him, both animate and inanimate; has got such a fixed knowledge of the physical powers and necessitous laws which govern the universe; that at this day, no one can put an ultimatum to the progress and diffusion of science; no man can assign to it even a probable limit of discovery.

"Then," said I, "to what does this tend, allowing it to be a clear proposition, that happiness is the sole aim of man? has the knowledge acquired fortuitously, or through search, increased the aggregate joint stock of such his staple commodity ?"-"You ask," said he, "a question of vast magnitude, of tremendous import, but it shall be answered: what you mean to ask is, in effect, this; Does knowledge constitute happiness?' are they synonymous? Now we come to the second grand division, to the pleasure of the soul. And I say, at once, that if we are allowed to define knowledge, as consisting in knowing, as truth, those things which belong to man, as man, by virtue of his superior understanding and prerogative, as the master-piece of that part of

the universe demonstrably known by him; and to define the happiness we are now treating on as consisting in that most different and higher degree of pleasurable emotion, of which he is capable from peculiar organic structure,KNOWLEDGE IS HAPPINESS.'

"I presume no one would be hardy enough to assert, that man has no more capability than a brute; and I pass over the sensations of feeding, procreation, and sleep, which he holds in common with the beasts, assuming them as properties indisputable. And therefore, on the strength of the assumptions before made, I do declare my perfect conviction of the truth of the deductions made from them, of which truth we are at this moment eyewitnesses."

"What then," I interrupted, "is not this crowd happy, either in corporeal or mental enjoyment; will they not attain their wishes to-morrow, if not to-day, or next week, next month, next year, at least at some indefinite period, before the termination of their career of existence ?"-"No," said L, "they are not happy, nor will they attain their wishes."

Why not?

Because they are uncertain of a plenitude of food from day to day; because they are

ignorant, and ignorance is the parent of misery, at least such I consider the corollary, from our last proposition concerning knowledge and happiness.

And why are they ignorant, seeing that, as men, they possess a capability of acquiring knowledge?

Because the society which owns them as members is founded on inequality, as a primordial base.

But if inequality is found to be the parent of ignorance, and ignorance of unhappiness, why is inequality tolerated?

"Ah!" said L

66 now we are come to it at last, now we shall go on regularly; now you have, without intention, struck the key-note to the strain of human woe; you have thrust sore at me in a vulnerable point, and here I must take my stand; for, as our Song says, 'Alas! there's no retreating.' It is tolerated for precisely the same reason, that one dog takes a bite from another stronger than himself; the little one smarts and howls, but the fear of a worse thrashing restrains him from returning the favour; while the great one paces off, with a gait betokening a sense of having bestowed requisite chastisement, duly tempered with mercy; as if the other should consider as compliments, the

It is the that the

extra holes just made in his hide. triumph of the few, over the many few should hold dominion over the many, may sound paradoxical to the ears of inexperience; nevertheless such is the fact, and a fact admitting easy explanation. If the many presume to shew their teeth, the few extract them instanter, by way of timely preventive: 'Be quiet,' say they, waving off the crowd; 'thus it has always been, and thus it must be.' That remains to be seen."