CONVENTIONAL FALLACIES. 417 



your time of life a sufficient guardian to a house like this ? No, no, 

 if Jerry has his faults he has his merits also." 



" Is it usual/' said I, seing my aunt softening, " is it usual for him 

 to treat you in this way ? have you never reasoned with him ?" 



" Reason indeed the brute !" 



" Why it may not be too late to reclaim him, and the pleasure of 

 doing so would amply repay " 



(< Bah !" said my uncle. 



At this moment there was a low growl at the outer door, followed 

 by a clear boo, woo, woo, wooh ! 



" Thank heaven," exclaimed my aunt, rising from the table, " there 

 he is !" 



In a few seconds the parlour door opened and in rushed a fine 

 black-tan terrier dog : his tail fell as he caught my aunt's eye, and he 

 crawled imploringly towards me as she reached a little stick from the 

 top of the looking-glass. 



te And is this the culprit?" said I, on the servant's closing the door, 

 " I expected to have seen my cousin Stanley." 



" Alas I" said my aunt, shaking her head, and looking mournfully 

 at the dog, " He has been dead these four years/' 



I afterwards learnt that Jerry had been the favourite attendant of 

 my unfortunate cousin in his nightly rambles. My poor aunt Ursula 

 who had loved her nephew, loved his dog also ; but Jerry still clung 

 to the old habits of his master. A chain and collar would have done 

 the business, but my aunt was a lover of liberty, and would not hear 

 of such a thing ; she bore with Jerry as long as she could, but at 

 last felt compelled to get rid of him on account of inveterate predi- 

 lection for late hours. 



J.W. 



CONVENTIONAL FALLACIES. 



IT is a singular feature in the moral history of man, that the un- 

 certainty of life presents no counter-check to ambition and selfish- 

 ness. The subaltern departs for an infectious climate with the most 

 complacent expectations of promotion, from the probable mortality 

 likely to occur in his regiment, the first volley from whose arms may 

 be fired over his own grave ! The grasping commercialist stints the 

 measure of justice and charity, avoids making friends, and risks 

 making enemies, for the sake of accumulating gains ; the first use of 

 which may be, to furnish his own funeral ! 



This exemption from the consciousness of our own mortality, is 

 held to be one of the wise provisions of nature, necessary to give 

 energy to enterprize ; and it is thought that, without it, man would 

 stagnate in utter inertness, or capriciously limit his performances to 

 the possible prospects of his existence. But I am inclined to regard 

 it as the consequence of the system of general education, of which 

 self-knowledge, necessary and difficult as the science is allowed to 



M. M. No. 88. 2 Z 



