with him at the theatres; he has no other claim to my acquaintance than this, but he had this claim to my assistance, that he wanted it: he asked it, and I blush to say that I have been compelled, from feelings of pride, to equivocate with a man in misery, and make him a promise of helping him here to-morrow, for I had not, upon rummaging my pockets, a shilling in the world: my weak nature concealed this; he saw my hesitation, and attributed it, with seeming justice, to a want of pity and commiseration for him, and expressed as much, in that eloquent tone of indignation which the heart will utter when man forgets his brother man. I could not explain away his suspicions, for I had not felt the sense of my own poverty, till I found myself helpless to do more than feel in silence for that of others. Here he broke off hastily, made me a short sudden bow, and hurried off into another walk: I interpreted his looks, and the hasty manner of his leaving me, rightly, when I conjectured that the undisguised disclosure he had unconsciously made of his own penury might seem like an appeal for himself as much as for the poor fellow he had mentioned; and that I should be induced by it to volunteer my purse in his service: it was my dearest intention, and I had made a movement in advance, but his sudden startlish sense of delicacy prevented me: he turned, however, at some distance, forgetting his own feelings, to think of another's: and, pointing to a poor object, who looked like a gentleman in ruins, sitting in one of the chairs, in the motionless fixedness of despair, motioned me to do that for him which he could not-help him: it was done; and I have since gratefully thanked him for the opportunity he allowed me of shewing that I am not altogether unworthy of his friendship. oœur. He is decidedly averse to the unnecessary destruction of animal or insect life: he would not destroy, willingly, the minutest creature that makes a link in the great chain of existence, from the mite to the mammoth: I have heard him say that he respected fleas for their nimble skipping spirits, and insist that they have a great deal in a miniature frame of the French gaieté de Even the uncleanly bugs he regards for their sober-suited gravity: "to be sure," he says, "the rogues do not smell like waiting-gentlewomen; but Nature knew what she did, when she gave them this essential and non-essential difference.". At one time, he compares them to Quakers, wanting in that virtue which elbows godliness,-cleanliness; at another, they are the beau ideal of a burly Dutch burgomaster; at another, amateur phlebotomizers, who bleed gratis, and that the fleas are their assistants in that branch of the chirurgic art. Yet, though he respects the lives of all things, he keeps a cat; not to catch mice, but only to awe them into good behaviour, having taught her, by rod and rule, to expel them from his territories, but to kill none, nor take prisoners. I shall not soon forget going home with him the " other night: his cat had usually met his entrance by jumping from her favourite seat on a high bracket by the chamber-door, where a bust of Wilberforce had formerly stood;" but, on this occasion, she only looked as if she would make her usual leap of welcome, but, turning round again, sat herself down: this, to his quick fancy, was either a dereliction of duty, a frivolous fear, (unworthy of a cat of her claws) of jumping before a stranger, or a consciousness of having done something contrary to home-regulations, which made her fear his approach: going up to her, however, and patting her on the head, he inquired the state of her health, and the colour of her conscience, by breaking one word (pusillanimous) into a punning question of two parts, as follows: "puss ill?-any mouse?"-the first question being put with great tenderness, and the second in a tone somewhat between offended doubt and contemptuous reproach. She did not solve his suspicions sans doubt; but he was soon satisfied of her white innocence of wilful mouse-murder, and her respect for the laws of humanity, by discovering that she had eaten the unwedded mutton-chop he had left over yesterday; and this act of petty larceny he attributed to every cause that humour could invent. Perhaps it was tainted, and she feared it would make her fond master ill: perhaps it was too fat, and redolent of bile, and she knew better the strength of her stomach, than he the weakness of his; and, perhaps, it was because he had neglected giving her her wonted and wanted dinner, and was meant by her to teach him this lesson, that if he forgot his duty, and the terms upon which she had consented to live in his service, and which "Bound each to each in natural unity," she must perforce forget her virtue and her respect for his conditionally-imposed laws; for hungry necessity has no nicenesses of conscience when the back of neglect is turned upon hera lesson for legislators of a higher character! As I passed with him through the suburban fields, the other day, he observed a young sportsman (who carried his cockney certificate in his face, of being duly qualified not to shoot) prowling along a hedge with his gun in his hand, and his terrier at his heels. My pleasant friend eyed him at first with a mild sort of scorn, which, however, instantly gave place to a smile of the most mixed meaning, and a look of the most profound diffidence at presuming to instruct a gentleman who looked so much like a qualified sportsman, as he informed him in the politest manner possible, that that was a cow in the next field. I thought my gentleman's gun would have gone off with astonishment at this humorous rebuke; but, though at first he looked all swan-shot and powder, he received the information with a suppressed smile, and whistling his dog off from a dead cat, went home, I dare say, converted from the error of his ways. This incident turned my 2 friends thoughts to the cruelty of field sports generally, and to the moral consequences of an indulgence in them: it was his opinion that war, and its slaughtering ferocities, and the ferocities that occur in civil life, (such as murders, duels, and other destroyings" of human existence) were greatly originated and encouraged by these minor cruelties and savage pursuits; he thought, humanely enough, that men who could destroy animals for sport, and not for existence, (which may be justified, though it might be done. without) would, if the same license were allowed them, hunt down and destroy their fellow-men for their autumnal amusement; and that it would, in a short time, be considered equally as fashionable and gentlemanly to bring down peasants and old women in September, as it now is to wing woodcocks and pheasants in the same season: and then he fell, in his pleasant manner, to imagining an Osbaldistone of this class going out with a hearse, instead of a game-cart, and a pack of Israel Chapman's and pupil bone-setters, instead of ditto of spaniels and bird-setters; and coming home in the evening, after a long day's sport, bragging and boasting of their success in hearsing instead of bagging a brace or two of old women, a covey of young cottagers, four paupers brought down at a parish funeral in a country church-yard, a dozen of woodmen instead of ditto of woodcocks; two or three hedgers, instead of hedge-hogs; with cobblers, shot in their squat; tailors taken in form, and other "small deer" in various numbers. He thought it would be worth while to hint this to Malthus, who would, no doubt, be grateful in two volumes octavo, for so practicable a plan of thinning our over-thickening population. Here, in the very middle of his laugh of levity, he paused, to remove with his cane one of the common blind worms that had crawled midway into the path, remarking, with a humane sort of humour, that if he was blind, he should keep a snail to lead him; and if he could not afford that, he should stay at home, and let his sons go to his green-grocer's for him. Here I suggested, heartily, that this nice piece of humanity (the preservation of reptile life) though pleasing and praiseworthy in an individual like himself, was not generally practicable;-that the careless, the robust, and the unfeeling members of the world could never be brought to this nice sense of humanity: he, however, thought it not impossible, if powerful pens would stir in so poor a cause as that of humanity: he was conscious that a feeling of this kind would meet ridicule rather than respect; but this should not deter him from advocating the cause of Nature, or prevent him from respecting the meanest of her works: "these small creatures," said he, " are all the children of Nature, as much as man, are as dear to her, and as much her care: they are all parts of her great plan, objects of her bountiful provision, and labourers and workers in her fields and vineyards; yea, even that poor world-despised worm, that crawled in the common VOL. I. F path just now, was busy about her business, and does her part in her great work of husbandry, by conveying into her holes and hiding-places minute pieces of stick and straw, which, rolling into manure, enriches the earth, and makes it verdant, teeming, and fruitful. I grant it is not always possible to share the lives of these lesser brothers of one common mother; but where it can be done, it should be done. The man who would wantonly sacrifice animal or insect life, would, if the laws and the better affections of his fellow-men did not prevent him, as wickedly destroy his brother's children. If such a man were walking through his friend's farm-yard, he would be careful not to trample his young feathered broods under his feet; and why should any of us, who are indulged with walking through the green places and wild farms, where Nature rears her various tribes, trample and destroy the vilest and least-seeming object of her regard, the meanest member of her great family? Nature, who is humane to us, deserveth our humanity." This is a philosophy of the heart, rather than of the head; it is humane, but not human; yet I would recommend those who dislike the theory of my merciful friend as a whole, to indulge as far as they can in a part of my practice: it is only singular because it is uncommon; but would the world be persuaded into the practising a few of his peculiar humanities, it would not be less wise, less dignified, less prudent, or less happy; and it would be consi-derably more like heaven in its humanity, and more worthy of its love and bounty. Such are a few of the whims, opinions, and, better, the benevolent practices, of him whom I am proud to call MY FRIEND! THE WESTMINSTER PLAY. We A custom has prevailed for now upwards of a century, for the king's scholars of Westminster school to perform annually at this period of the year, one of the comedies of Terence or Plautus. In conformity with this ancient and laudable usage, the Andrian has been this year selected for representation. were present on Wednesday, December the 12th, which was, we believe, the second night of its exhibition; and we confess that we have seldom witnessed a more gratifying spectacle. Around us were ranged in proud array, nobles, statesmen, and senators, dignitaries of the church, and venerable judges: many. of whom had received within those walls, the seeds of that knowledge which has Grown with their growth, and strengthen'd with their strength, till at length it has borne fruit, some ten, some fifty, and some J. an hundred fold. Before us stood a band of youths, trained in the same paths, educated in the same principles which have conducted their predecessors to honour and to fame; all of whom we trust, will play well their parts on the great theatre of the world, on which they are shortly to make their first appearance. The characters of the play were cast as follows. It is but doing justice to these gentlemen, to say that the play was performed in a manner that reflected the highest credit both on their talents and their industry. Every one of them appeared to enter fully into the spirit of the author, and it is no trifling merit, that every one was perfect in his part. Where all was eminently good, selection may almost appear invidious: yet we cannot refrain from mentioning Mr. Braine's Pamphilus as deserving of peculiar praise. The conception of this character was singularly happy: and there was a chastity and elegance in the execution, and a keeping throughout the whole of it, which rendered it a finished performance. The Davus too of Mr. Eden, was an admirable piece of acting: there was a richness of humour, and mellowness of colouring about it, which would not have disgraced a veteran of the stage. The third scene of the second act, in which Davus advises Pamphilus to appear to consent to the marriage, and the fifth scene of the third act, in which the latter reproaches the former with having ruined him by his stratagems, exhibited these two characters to the greatest advantage, and drew down thunders of applause. Nor must we forget the Simo of Mr. Dodgson, which was a most judicious performance: the scene in the last act, in which he reproaches his son with having deceived him, was excellent: and his delivery of the lines Quid mi pater? quasi tu hujus indigeas patris. evinced marks of deep and intense feeling. The play went off in a very successful manner. The prologue was a chaste and classical composition, and was delivered with great propriety.. |