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supposing the existing laws not absolutely hostile to their operation, more likely to be awakened, encouraged, strengthened, by affectionate discourse, written or oral, than by the institution of new laws?

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But when I plead in favour of beaux discours as more influential upon manners than bonnes lois, I beg to be understood as not saying anything in favour of the lecturing which has now got into fashion, as if people wouldn't do better to sit by the fire with a good book, or engaged in rational and affectionate talk, than to go to this society, or that, to hear somebody lecture. This is all very well now and then, by way of variety, and when the matter to be learned cannot be learned at home; but the system which is arising in so many neighbourhoods of getting up "scientific institutions," and bringing people out of their houses after dark, that they may imbibe lectured knowledge in the lump, is a vile affectation, which ought not to be encouraged.

HARSHNESS TO THE POOR:

THE irreligious spirit which seems to inhere in the modern morality of convenience-which morality we assert to be, in any and in every aspect, a mistake, and arising out of ignorance of the nature which is in man-this irreligious

spirit is painfully manifested in the greater part of the advice which is given with respect to the poor. The counsel given almost uniformly amounts to this-that men should harden their hearts. Compassion is not only condemned as impolitic, but ridiculed as absurd. We are taught to square our conduct with reference to political and statistical considerations, and not with reference either to the impulses of the more tender parts of our nature, or the direct precepts of revealed religion. The favourite theme of those who profess superior wisdom and enlightenment is the folly of being pitiful and compassionate. It is undoubtedly true, that there be many impostors, who cheat the kind-hearted; and it is right that they who give, should be cautious; but to be kind and compassionate one towards another, and to relieve those who really appear to us to be in misery, is a religious duty, from which no considerations of human policy should turn us aside; no, not for a single mo

ment.

It was but the other day that a journalist, who is one of the adorers of" modern progress" and "amelioration," thought proper to notice, for the purpose of turning into ridicule, the conduct of two farmers, who made a practice of giving some relief in bread to their poorer neighbours, that kind of relief being denied by the poor law guardians of the district. Some of that bread it seems found its way to the beer

shops. That may be; but the vice lies not with these farmers (who deserve to be mentioned with honour by every one in whose breast there beats a kindly human heart), but with those who abet and encourage those traps for the unwary-those gross and gaping temptations for the weak-the beershops.

But these votaries of modern "enlightenment" never take into account the religion of showing mercy and kindness to the wretched. Let us entreat them to be instructed upon this point, not out of my imperfect criticism, but by the pious Bearcroft. "To do good," he says, " and to distribute, and to give alms for the sake of God, is the most acceptable of praise. It is a sure mark of a willing, grateful, and obedient mind, and it is accepted according to what a man hath, and becometh both the height of gratitude and the excellence of virtue too. It is the height of gratitude, because it is the best return we can make; and the excellence of virtue, because it is to imitate God in his goodness, the most glorious, amiable, and excellent of all his perfections. It is very possible to be grateful only in show, and thankful barely in appearance, and, with the Jews of old, to honour God with our lips, while our hearts are far from him, and very much estranged from a due sense of the great duty of praise. But when we honour God with our substance, it is beyond appearance; we are grateful in reality, and be

yond contradiction prove we have a tender sense of the divine favours deeply impressed upon our souls."

MR. GAY'S "TRIVIA."

In our December days of dampness, darkness, and discomfort, when " miror magis" (I rather add-mire) seems to be the motto of the weatherruling powers that preside over London, it is worth while to find out any association with such circumstances which may prove of interest enough to moderate for a brief space the expression of one's ill humour. To me, thus meditating, it has occurred that a talk about that very ingenuous poem by the author of The Beggar's Opera, upon the subject of walking the streets of London in winter, might not prove wholly unacceptable to such as sympathise with the realities of life, and have no objection to the theme of dirty streets, when sung in decent numbers.

Mr. Gay begins in the usual epic manner by a courteous invocation of supernal aid :—

Through winter streets to steer your course aright, How to walk clean by day, and safe by night, How jostling crowds with prudence to decline, When to assert the wall, and when resign, I sing thou Trivia goddess! aid my song, Through spacious streets conduct thy bard along. By thee transported, I securely stray,

Where winding alleys lead the doubtful way, The silent court, and opening square explore, And long perplexing lanes, untrod before." This opens the large purpose of the poem, and my listeners will not fail to admire the force and appropriateness of the epithets, and the harmonious vigour of the verse, even in the small part they have already heard. It would be doing injustice to the author not to observe how street, lane, alley, and even the more general term "way," have each their separate and well-fitting adjective, and even court and square are equally provided with epithets harmonious in respect of sound, and faithful in regard to description.

Our author proceeds with general directions as to the preparations which the wise will make for walking the streets in winter. That he is very forcible in this part, as well as minute, may be collected from one couplet respecting shoes :

"Let firm well-hammer'd soles protect thy feet

Through freezing snows, and rains, and soaking sleet.” But he is particularly great upon the subject of the cane, breaking off into some reflections upon the excellence of walking, which the worthy Dr. Jephson, of Leamington, (the greatest among modern advocates of pedestrian exercise), ought to have engraved upon the back of all the slips of paper upon which he writes his prescriptions:

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