next explained, and then follows an exposition of the phenomena of their actions. In his details, our author particularly dwells on the pleasures received by the senses, the physical causes of laughter and weeping: then the influence of novelty is considered; after which the passions of joy and sorrow, and the attributes of fortitude and timidity, are treated of with that varied and well selected plan of illustration, of which we have already given several specimens. With respect to the last of the subjects mentioned, timidity, our author particularly refers to it in connexion with the approach of death. It has always struck us, that Dr. Jeremy Taylor has stated no more than the rigid truth when he said, in his own bold and accurate way, "Take away the pomps of death-the disguises and solemn bug-bears, the tinsel, and the actings by candlelight; the fantastic ceremonies, the minstrels, and the noise-makers; the women and the weepers; the swoonings and the shriekings; the nurses and the physicians; the dark room and the ministers; the kindred and the watches; and then to die is easy." Compassion and Cruelty form the subjects of one of the most interesting chapters in these volumes. Cruelty, practised towards the brute creation, is particularly dwelt on, and is exposed in all its criminal deformity. Our author, however, we think, goes too far when he condemns, as cruel and unjust, the amusements of hunting, shooting, and angling. To denounce such sports, is only allowing one's self to lose sight of those distinctions which we are under the necessity of making every day. We shall ask the author, does he abstain from animal food? We will take it for granted that he does not; for there is too much evidence in this work, that he possesses at least common sense, to permit us to entertain the contrary suspicion: if, then, he be a feeder on the backs and legs of innocent sheep and lambs, does he not, in effect, encourage and take a part in the actual killing of these animals? This is a subject which requires the nicest discrimination to decide upon-all experience, all observation, have long ago decided, that in man resides an unlimited control over nature, animate as well as inanimate, and that he is authorised to render the materials which she furnishes subservient to his own uses and convenience. It is altogether another question how far, as a matter of feeling and propriety, a man may be allowed to treat an inferior animal. For our parts, we cannot look at any being in the shape of a man, inflicting unnecessary pain, for a single instant, on an animated creature, without feeling that he who causes the suffering, is doing what is unlawful in itself, and disgraceful and degrading to him. Cruelty is shown by our author to have arisen from pride and ostentation, as among the Romans, and also from love; but its most common source is ambition. With respect to cruelty as the result of love, our author relates, that Madame Necker was so fond of her husband's company, and he, of course, so fond of her's, that she made him promise that he would keep her, after her death, in a glass case; he was obliged to comply; and this obligation was, according to the theory of the present writer, with sufficient reason, we think, a cruelty. When we say that ambition is one of the most powerful motives to cruelty, we should premise that the remark applies exclusively to a state of civilization; but taking human nature in its most comprehensive capacity, and examining it under those forms in which we see it in the infancy of society, we must admit the existence of the appetite of man as a source of cruelty. In some countries the inhabitants have fed upon human beings. Captain Cook says, that Maquinna, a chief of Nootka Sound, killed a slave every month for the purpose of drinking his blood! Bruce has related, and his account has been confirmed by subsequent travellers, that in Abyssinia the inhabitants cut off slices from the body of a living animal, and eat it while it is quivering with life! But, even in this country, eels are brutally skinned while living, to the everlasting disgrace of those inhuman housekeepers who patronise the practice. Superstition has tortured brutes and human beings for the purpose of sacrifice. Macrianus, a prefect of Egypt, was fondly attached to the superstitions of that country; and, in celebrating the orgies of that obscene and cruel religion, he put to death a vast number of infants! When Gelon, King of Syracuse, made a treaty of peace with the Carthaginians, he insisted on the abolition of infanticide; and Mahomed accomplished a similar reformation among the Arabians and Persians: thus exhibiting the truth of the aphorism, that every evil is attended with some advantage. In China, in India, and in Africa, thousands of children have been sacrificed to the gods. In many of the South Sea Islands, among the Eareeoie Society (at the time of Cook's visit), the women destroyed all their infants, by putting a bit of cloth, dipped in water, over the mouth and nostrils a great resemblance to the modern system of burking. A cruel superstition has induced children to murder their aged parents, or to leave them to the rapacity of wild beasts. In India, it has made tender females burn themselves to a cinder, in conformity with a foolish custom. All public occurrences, and especially the funerals of great men, have been attended by acts of cruelty. When the Scythians interred a king, they massacred a great number of his household. Sometimes they encircled the sepulchre with forty or fifty pages on horseback, whom they brutally impaled, riders and horses, and left in that condition until they were dead, and their bodies putrid. A disposition for brutality. as it has been already observed, will generally increase. Nero began his diabolical career by catching flies and torturing them. This monster caused several houses to be lighted up in the city of Rome for his amusement, and when the flames began to spread, and when the safety of the whole city was endangered, he leaped for joy! After a short period, the finer sensibilities of the mind are destroyed, and the heart becomes callous. When Charles XII. was killed, Megret, one of his officers, exclaimed, as he looked upon the dead body—" Voilè la pièce finie; allons souper!"-The farce is now over; let us go to supper! When Don Carlos, the son of Philip II., had been sentenced to death by his brutal father, the executione rentered with a cord for the purpose of stran gling him. Don Carlos began to exclaim bitterly against his unnatural parent, when the man coolly replied to him-" Do not put yourself in' a passion, my young master; it is all for your good!"-vol. ii. pp. 13—15. There are few passions which have given rise to acts of greater enormity than revenge. Those who are prone to revenge may claim fellowship with the most barbarous nations of antiquity and of modern times, with tyrannical governors, and cruel task masters. A curious instance of the disproportion between the offence and the meditated punishment is given in these volumes. Collet D'Herbois, during the French Revolution, prepared to rase the city of Lyons, and murder the inhabitants-why? In early youth this man had been an actor, and not pleasing the play-goers in that city on one occasion, he was hissed. Alexander the Great acted disgracefully in persecuting the governor of Gaza for the resistance which he gave when that place was attacked. Alexander had his feet bored, and had him then dragged until he was dead. Darius, in order not to forget the grounds of his hostility to the Athenians, caused an officer to proclaim at stated times, in his hearing, "Remember the Athenians." Revenge is indulged in by the Mahomedans in very trifling matters. Whenever they meet with a particular kind of lizard, called Hardeen, they kill it, because they fancy that the posture of its head is an imitation of the form in which they place themselves when they say their prayers. We have now given, from specimens, a fair view of the merits of this performance; and as we cannot afford room for many further extracts, we shall content ourselves with a specification of the principal subjects treated of in the portion of the second volume, which yet remains to be reviewed. Veracity and Falsehood.-Here the nature of truth is considered, and the line carefully drawn between deceptions which are allowable, and those which are culpable. Liberality and Bigotry.—In the chapter on these subjects the author clearly shows how much even self-interest is directed to cultivate liberality. He then dwells in detail on the effects of bigotry, particularly in religion, and presents a mass of facts connected with it which are calculated to show human nature in no very agreeable light. Tranquility and Anger.-In this chapter the author describes the principal characters of cheerfulness, calmness, and coolness. He shows that an indulgence in the passion of anger is very hurtful to the health. He next proves that a good temper is adapted to every condition of life, and that it is, therefore, worthy of being cultivated by all who have no fixed patrimony, since it is calculated to promote the success of him who has to make his way principally through the good opinion of others. Contentment and Dissatisfaction.-These are treated by our author with great good sense. He shows that contentment is not the creature of circumstances, but that it originates in the mind alone, and that it is independent of worldly events. To prove this, he brings instances where there has been plenty of opulence without content; whilst other examples are adduced, from which we find that the blessing of content is consistent with a very small amount of wealth indeed. Humility and Pride.-The true nature of both are well and powerfully defined by our author. He shows the difference between pride and conceit; and the pride of science, and religious pride, are treated with a degree of truth and power, such as only long experience of the world could have enabled him to bring to his task. Modesty and Boldness.-There is a distinction drawn by the writer, between genuine modesty, which he praises and recommends, and that spurious modesty which he divides into timidity and diffidence. With respect to timidity, he contends that habit will remove it. Sensibility naturally comes under this category, and some very useful observations upon it will be found in this chapter. Retirement and a Public Life.-The best part of this chapter relates to the disappointments resulting from the effects of retirement. The fact, that man is a social being, is one of the most interesting subjects of meditation, in the consideration of the great question of retirement. The state of monastic life, the retirement of literary men, the retirement of public men, are all treated with good sense, and a fund of information, by the author. Gratitude and Ingratitude.—The meaning of the first of these terms, which is not generally understood, is accurately stated by the author. He gives some very pleasing examples of gratitude; but these are, in some respect, thrown into the shade, by the specimens of ingratitude which are likewise presented to us. Praise and Blame.-The author very properly considers fame, or, what we may denominate, a sort of continued praise, as a strong stimulus to good actions. Those who acquire fame will be anxious to preserve it, and in this desire we may reckon that another motive is added for the preservation of virtue. Hope and Despair.-It is our author's experience, at all events, that hope is much more often appealed to than despair; and this is, to say the least, a lucky circumstance: for hope leads to, or rather is, the stimulus that induces men to great enterprises; it is, indeed, the only support under the most afflicting trials. There is a pleasing instance of the influence of hope in the history of Alexander. This warrior, as Bayle observes. was endowed with qualities which were extremely noble and extremely base. Before the Macedonian set out on his Asiatic expedition, he divided his hereditary possessions among his friends; giving to one a village, to another a town, and to a third a city and when he was asked what he had reserved for himself, he replied-Hope. When Louis XVI. had mounted the scaffold on which his life was to be offered as a victim to popular fury, his confessor, Edgworth, : seeing that all earthly hope was gone, used this sublime and consolatory exclamation-"Enfant de Saint Louis, montez au ciel!"-All nations, whether polished or barbarous, rationally delight themselves with the hopes of a future life. The Greenlander, among his snows, looks forward to a paradise of perennial summer; to an ever-brilliant sun; to a region of rest and enjoyment. The African, on the torrid zone, anticipates a period when he shall dwell in some delightful country, beneath the pleasant shade of myrtle and orange trees, by the side of cool and grateful streams. The Indian also, agreeably with Pope's poetical description, pleases himself with a similar reflection "Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind: The Mahomedan looks forward to a region of the most enchanting beauty, where he shall have his senses refined and made more susceptible of delight; where he will walk on plains of silver; where the river of immortal life will glide along, its crystal waves glittering in perpetual sunshine; where golden palm-trees adorn the margin of rivulets, whose waters roll on precious stones; where the most fragrant perfumes, the most delicious fruits, the most enchanting songs, and the most ecstatic pleasures, will always delight the faithful follower of Mahomed. The Christian possesses a more sublime and less sensual heaven. The Moslem imagines the description in the Koran to be literal; the Christian supposes the account in the Bible to be figurative. The Moslem's is a heaven of sense; the Christian's is a heaven of mind. The Christian, therefore, has an equally delightful anticipation, builded on a firmer foundation.-pp. 202, 203. Love and Hatred.-These are too common subjects to allow of much expectation of any thing new being said upon them. Amongst the curious facts related by the author in this chapter, one is, that the ancients employed various methods which they thought would counteract this powerful feeling. They made love-potions of the flesh of the lizard, of the brain of a calf, of the bones of the left side of a toad, of the blood of doves, of snakes, and owls; the hairs on the tip of a wolf's tail, human liver, rags, vermin, &c. Some suitors were induced to burn laurel, to wear a hyena's udder under the left arm, and to melt wax in order to soften the obduracy of his mistress. The principal cure for love was a bath in the river Solemnus; and another was a leap from the Leucadian promontory: Sappho tried the latter with success. Matrimony and Celibacy.-These are treated at considerable length, but nothing new is offered upon these exhausted questions. |