become blunted, the passion of avarice augments "Like our shadows, "Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines," and the milder charities of our nature recede before that flagrant cupidity which the Roman poet has happily termed the "Amor sceleratus habendi." Chatterton, in alluding to the mercenary Bristolians, says "Notions which disgrace "The boasted reason of the human race, "Bristol may keep her prudent maxims still "I scorn her prudence, and I ever will." The "London,” of Johnson, a satirical poem, and his "Vanity of Human Wishes," present fair specimens of the ideas he entertained of wealth being conceived more honourable than virtue, as they respectively stand in relation to the distorted eye of man. Through his other works are scattered various sentiments on this subject, with many strictures on so great a perversion of the moral and intellectual nature of mankind. The avaricious man is too often looked upon as a sagacious man. It is a pity that the criminality of avarice is not understood, when we should be the better able to see the barrier which divides it from wisdom. STEWART. Riches are not to be desired when we consider the power they exercise in warping the best affections of man. They form a fungus, from whence issues a deadly and rank poison on their being made the vehicle of licentiousness and luxury, instead of administering to the claims of charity. Let not the ostentatious flatter himself that his donations purchase for him a reward in heaven. His gifts may comfort him here in administering to his vanity, but they become a greater condemnation in future.-"Let not your right hand know what your left hand doeth," is a scriptural admonition, if not a positive command, to avoid giving but under purely disinterested and charitable motives. But to wave the evils attendant on covetousness, are you persuaded there is an innate faculty in man, giving him the desire to acquire? PHRENOLOGIST. This desire is a common principle of our nature, as I just now intimated. It is universal in the savage as well as the civilized man-in the infant as well as the adult it is dominant. From the time of Adam, the mind has sought for possessions—lands, cattle, and, in later periods, all kinds of merchandise, gold, and silver. I confess that the possession of property beyond what would content a savage, is necessary to afford such advantages as spring from civilized life. In this case, the propensity to covet more than what may be necessary to the existence and gratification of a savage, is required. Spurzheim, seeing the desire to acquire, or a coveting propensity in man as a natural element of his constitution, called it the faculty of covetousness. This was afterwards altered by Sir G. S. Mackenzie to "acquisitiveness;" a much more appropriate term to convey a proper idea of the economy of this propensity. Whatever propensity is necessary to man, and hence universally present in the human family, must be innate. Unabused, it proves a blessing-an exciter of most of the faculties which belong to man. STEWART. That there is a coveting desire in man no one can doubt; but is it instinctive? Might it not proceed from a combination of circumstances unconnected with instinct of this nature? Our condition in life points out the necessity of supplies being made to satisfy the demands of appetite and other contingencies concerned with life, civilized or savage. Reason may discover this, and suggest a plan, meanwhile, for their provision. A proposition has been made to the effect that the desire of wealth, or the possession of property in any form, depends entirely on the capriciousness of the mind, it being required or sought after so far only as it may be wanted to administer to some feeling, such, for instance, as benevolence on one side, and vanity on another. I have known it said that an amiable mind wishes for power, that it may be able to bring into action its gratitude and liberality. PHRENOLOGIST. Reason has power to direct the distribution of whatever might be acquired and possessed. It may even so act upon the faculty as to stimulate it to exertion; but there is an instinctive appetite giving desire for the thing itself. In brutes this appetite is manifested without reason. In idiots, who look not forward to contingencies, whose reason, such at least as may exist, is entirely subservient to feeling, it is a hoarding propensity, and an appetite for property. They collect even what is not valuable, and have no idea of the value of what they do collect. In those persons who enjoy money for its own sake, a passion exists wherein neither reason, nor benevolence, nor any other faculty seems to have had the least influence. Its chief object is to obtain whatsoever relates to property, without regard to the uses or distributions to be made of it. How much soever, then, the appetite may be prompted by other feelings, certain it is an instinctive feeling exists which gives an appetite for property, so far as it may be necessary to supply our absolute wants. Beyond this impulse I pretend not to say how much the desire of acquisition depends on the influence of other faculties. The attainment of riches is certainly rendered pleasant, and more vehement in proportion to the number of appetites we have to gratify: in this case it is greatly subservient to other feelings. A great activity of this passion produces dishonesty, if the moral feelings are low, and there exist no honest means or a desire to pursue those means by which it can be gratified. But the strength of the passion is also regulated according to the size and constitution of its organ. Its abuses are great in proportion. This is an established fact, of which hundreds of proofs may be brought forward. COLLOQUY VIII, THE County of Devon is proverbially known for the salubrity of its air, and the variety of its scenery. The pasture-like glens of the south, very highly fertilized, and bending their way to some magnificent river, are well contrasted with the bold and barren high lands of the north. In one extremity, nature has been most prodigal in giving abundant and luxuriant vegetation; in the other, sparing and comparatively unkind. These observations refer rather to the general features of the two divisions of the county, as they each present isolated spots of barrenness and fruitfulness. For variety and beauty we must seek the south; and if we wish for extensive views, nowhere to be had in the north, we must visit the heights of Dartmoor and Haldon. From hence the grandest of English scenery is to be seen. Some part of the latter mountainous tract was said, by George the Fourth, to command the most extensive and varied prospect in his dominions. The south of Devon has considerable advantage over the north, particularly from the succession of beautiful rivers to be met with along its coast. The Exe, the Teign, the Dart, and the Tamar, are too well known, or too often heard of, to need description. The Dart, from its serpentine course, and high banks covered with luxuriant foliage, and presenting |