504 PROSE HALIEUTICS. 



' fons ef origo mali/ "miist, we think, be ascribed to that 

 over-luxurious living, which arose out of the too liberal 

 provision made by the state to secure their good con- 

 duct. A Greek physician, looking upon the human sto- 

 mach with the eye of a physiologist merely, has called 

 it, somewhat quaintly, the house of Pluto, intimating 

 thereby that it is the seat at once of the pleasures and 

 penalties of life : the same organ, in the view of a Greek 

 moralist, is the spring of every man's corruption, and the 

 grand agent in his fall : and without implicitly adopting 

 either of these statements, most men, it is to be feared, 

 who should examine this 'horse-leech's daughter' of 

 theirs attentively, would not fail to see that they are 

 possessed of an organ which requires both much moral 

 and medical watching. But to the operation of what- 

 ever sinister influence other men might owe their down- 

 fall, the parasite's temptation was certainly gastric, and 

 proved too much for his virtue. Matelotte fishes, chine 

 of beef a la mode, and fine wheat-bread a discretion, pre- 

 vailed eventually against the very virtues which they had 

 been given to foster and reward. It was doubtless a sad 

 moral change and debasement, to pass thus from patriot- 

 ism to peculation — from the enjoyment of a good name 

 to the possession of a very bad one — ^from the odour of 

 sanctity to that of osmazome — all to gratify a worthless 

 viscus, OS iadiei ov Kara koct^ov ; but as Camoens pleads 

 for the amatory weaknesses of his hero Pemando, by 

 putting it to the reader's candour whether he be not 

 conscious of having himself given way to like errors, we 

 would subject the parasite's sad case to the same impar- 

 tial tribunal, and, mutatis mutandis, exhort, in his trans- 

 lator's words. 



All who have known the dear delusive art, 



By which. Culina moEifies the heart, 



In pity to relent the brow severe, 



And o'er a brother's weakness drop the tear. 



