[ 2ti4 ] [MARCH, 



BREVITIES. 



IN every country there is a sort of trade- wind morality and religion, 

 and there are few who have sufficient energy to stretch beyond its in- 

 fluence. Mirabeau said that every man makes his own conscience ; 

 and this, perhaps, is true of the few who are able and willing to think 

 for themselves ; but it may be safely asserted, that the great majority 

 have their consciences made for them, and believe or disbelieve, rejoice 

 or tremble, according to the parallel of latitude in which they happen 

 to reside : so that a man may be pining with remorse in London for a 

 matter which, had he been born in Constantinople, he would have con- 

 sidered indifferent, or, perhaps, even praiseworthy. This would not be 

 the case had the most eminent men of all countries explicitly stated 

 their religious belief; but from fear of various kinds, they have mostly 

 hidden their lights in dark lanthorns, and only thrown a flash now and 

 then, which has merely bewildered, rather than guided, the great mass 

 who have looked to them for direction. 



It is a favourite paradox of some, that the greatest dandies make the 

 brayest soldiers ; as many take pleasure in repeating, that great men 

 have usually had small persons. These opinions spring from that love 

 of finding or making a wonder, which is one of the most tenacious 

 principles in human nature, and is the cause of half the error that 

 exists in the world. The fact seems to be, that brave men have been 

 in general neither dandies nor slovens, but simply neat and cleanly, 

 though, of course, there are exceptions of both kinds. Great men, also, 

 have been in general neither little nor big, though there have been 

 many of both classes. Size has nothing to do with the matter ; and the 

 middle class has produced the greatest number of geniuses, simply 

 because it is the most numerous ; just as those who purchase ten tickets 

 in a lottery have a greater chance of winning than those who possess only 

 one. * , 



The poor laws may be considered as a national benefit club, differing 

 from other clubs of a like description in this only, that all, in propor- 

 tion to their means, are compelled to subscribe to it, instead of being 

 left to their own discretion. To this fund the poor pay indirectly, as 

 well as the rich, since the general subscription to it forms part of the 

 price of the humblest lodging, and of every thing that every individual 

 eats and wears. It is clearly, then, no disgrace, but simply the exer- 

 cise of a purchased right, to declare on the common fund when really 

 pressed by want or sickness ; and if minute inquiry were made, it 

 would be perfectly astonishing to find what numbers once, not merely 

 well off, but affluent and others of the best families in the country 

 have been compelled to have recourse to it. The poor laws are usually 

 spoken of as established only for the benefit of the existing poor, as 

 though there were a low, distinct class or caste so distinguished, inca- 

 pable of rising itself, or of receiving falling members from the higher 

 ranks into its body. But the wheel of fortune is perpetually mocking 

 this definition. The poor laws are really instituted for the benefit of 

 those who may be poor, as well as for those who are so ; and there are 

 few indeed, compared with the great bulk of the community, who can 

 be considered entirely beyond the reach of the great drag-net of cala- 

 mity. 



J b. 



