portion of mankind glide down the stream of existence after the manner of a team of wild ducks, who fly with outstretched necks, without turning their heads to either side: these persons open wide their mouths for the cram of nonsensical garbage, and are crammed to the tongue accordingly: if your informants belong to that class, I pity them; if they knew better, I fear "they lied, and they knew they lied;" which is the quintessence of falsehood. And further, I, who from being in possession of the privileges you have noticed, ought to join in the necessity of inequality, if I wished that system to last, or sincerely believed it to have truth for its foundation, will endeavour to prove that it is founded on error, has no connexion with Nature and Reason, and is consequently hollow and artificial : and, lastly, that being established on positions purely local and temporary, it now totters to its base before the mighty engines of knowledge, which batter it forlorn on all sides. Happy are they who escape crush and suffocation from the rubbish which will accompany its fall. Rather let us fervently hope its fall will not be precipitate— that it will not fall; but that gradually and carefully lowered, story after story, by efficient workmen, this old, towering, and over-built

edifice, now pregnant with disease and rottenness, will be converted into numberless dwellings of equal height, filled with happy faces, and divided into compartments allotted for the abode of industry, sobriety, cleanliness, honesty, and social order.".

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 .... edge, tail erect, and jaws d

the air with incessant ba around. "Behold," said L

in the inner

m, rent

nacing all

in that fierce

Man has

beast a type of perverted intellect. 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 3 frame which now render him a terror to his own species, and to man his instructor. Now,