LINES ON THE DEATH OF N. M. ROTHSCHILD. 273 



smaller number of persons than at present, that is, to the positively 

 vicious, who will still be found, spite of every humanizing effort, 

 in the highest as well as in the lowest ranks of life. Drunkenness, 

 or rather dram-drinking, very generally proceeds from poverty, and 

 poverty in its turn is the result of idleness or imprudence, both imper- 

 fections of character which judicious training must tend to diminish, 

 at the same time that it substitutes for them habits of inappreciable 

 value application, regularity, and forethought. Can it be a matter 

 of surprise that the labouring man whose mind cannot rise higher 

 than the clods that he has been breaking, and who at most can with 

 difficulty and without intelligence read a few lines in the Bible or the 

 Prayer Book, is it surprising that, like " the school-boy whistling for 

 want of thought," he should seek the company of his boisterous and 

 rollocking boon-fellowsj in the skittle-ground and the tap-room ? 

 There is the poor man's ruin effected ; he either gambles or drinks 

 his earnings, and on his return to his cottage is met by the intempe- 

 rate scoldings of a sour wife and by the cryings of a starving family ; 

 and thus his home becomes weekly not dearer but more and more 

 abhorred, quitted with pleasure and entered with disgust, f by the ig- 

 norant und demoralized labourer. Alas ! this picture is too true, and 

 too generally true. To humanize, to reform such a population is 

 surely the object of a generous ambition. The establishment of a 

 judicious system of education through the country education fitted 

 for the labouring classes, such as shall provide means of mental enjoy- 

 ment and give them a distaste for the gross pleasures of a semi-bar- 

 barous state will be an inestimable blessing to the nation ; and, if the 

 government cannot be induced to take up the subject heartily them- 

 selves, it is still to be hoped, in this philanthropic age, individuals 

 and societies will stir themselves in promoting the success of a cause 

 which may raise the condition and increase the wealth, happiness, and 

 social comfort of at least five millions of our fellow-countrymen. 



A TEACHER. 



SONNET. 



VEXED with vain thoughts, I anxious haste 



To the green woods and ever-fresh'ning sea, 



That 'mid their myriad echoes I may taste 



Thoughts of a kindred sanctity. 



Yet 'tis not there whence comes the breath 



That bids the spirit to be free ; 



'Tis not from earth, so fraught with death, 



We learn our nobler destiny. 



Then look we to the stars that, scattered round, 



Like beacons pointing to some happy shore 



Of spirit laud, amid the far profound 



Of heaven ! O, I could dream for evermore 



Of that blest land, and deem the sounds I hear 



Of once loved voices, 'mid the ecstatic swell 



Of angel choirs, calling to those that dwell 



On this dark world to fix their yearnings there f 



E, W. G, 



