666 Pyrology. 



a grand obstacle to the propagation of 6rcs. The obnoxious impost was 

 consequently repealed. And what has been the result? The number 

 of interesting cases (to use the language of Medical Reports) so far 

 from increasing, has been continually falling off; and Government is now 

 driven to rely on the Reform Bill as a forlorn hope. Something perhaps 

 \vould be effected by a heavy tax upon fire engines : surely they might be 

 included together with steam boats in the next ministerial budget. 



In the same spirit of philanthropy which has dictated the foregoing 

 remarks, the following random suggestions are offered. The advantage 

 which Juvenal points out as peculiar to those who reside in a garret, is 

 submitted to be of an equivocal character ; it is this, that if a fire com- 

 mences in the basement story, the man who is nearest the roof will be 

 the last to be burnt, 



Ultimus ardebit quern tegula sola tuetur a pluvio. 



Most assuredly it would be desirable to postpone such a catastrophe till 

 the latest possible moment ; but perhaps the object will be attained quite 

 as well by eschewing the top of the house, at least until some improve- 

 ment shall been effected in the construction of escape-ladders. Those 

 who have a horror of being burnt to death will do well not to indulge in 

 spiritual liquors to excess, since a toody which is thoroughly saturated 

 with brandy is likely to go off in a spontaneous combustion. Other pre- 

 cautions will probably suggest themselves to most prudent individuals for 

 avoiding personal danger from fire. And this should be the more espe- 

 cially attended to, as it will be scarcely possible for any one to regard even 

 the finest conflagration with any degree of comfort and complacency, on 

 an occasion when the probability is that he himself will be a prey to the 

 fury of the devouring element. 



It will perhaps occur to some people that all these things have been 

 written in jest, and that it is utterly impossible to derive any enjoyment 

 whatever from an occurrence which is always a calamity, and which must 

 always necessarily involve mischief and destruction to a certain extent. 

 But a philosophic poet of antiquity tells us, that it is pleasant to behold, 

 from a place of security, such scenes as a ship in distress, or a battle, not 

 on account of any malicious satisfaction which the spectator derives from 

 the calamities of other people, but because it is gratifying to reflect that 

 he is not himself exposed to the evils which he contemplates. And this 

 may account for the marvellously great appetite of the reading public, for 

 the details of the most flagitious offences, and of the most horrible acci- 

 dents. And if so much gratification is derived from the mere newspaper 

 account of a fire, when all its excitements, and all its poetry have eva- 

 porated in description, surely it is not unnatural to be delighted with the 

 scene itself in all its glowing and vivid reality. Have not conflagrations 

 been frequently represented on the stage ? Has not. Moscow been burnt 

 innumerable times at Astley's, amidst the most, rapturous applause from 

 admiring and enlightened audiences ? Let the man who decries a passion 

 for fires reply conscientiously to the question, whether he ever beheld one ? 

 If not, then let him take the first opportunity of doing so, and in the 

 mean time hold his peace ; but if his answer should be in the affirmative, 

 then let him be aware that he stands convicted of utter bad taste at the 

 bar of public opinion, at once the most tremendous, and the least fallible 

 of all earthly tribunals. M. 



