not at least a million of people, old and young, patrician and plebeian from dukes and duchesses, down to tailors and milliners, who would cheerfully pay their money rather than forego the truly British and liberal enjoyment which they inherited from their ancestors in the days of King John and Magna Charta, and which, next to the liberty of the Press, is the great bulwark of our Constitution, I for one should begin to despair of my country, and think that we deserved to be annexed to the French empire, where grumbling is not allowed, unless it be performed secretly and privately. that mauna greet;" and it may be said in like manner that it is a sorely degraded and spiritless people that cannot grumble. Wherever there is grumbling there is hope; where there is none, it is Heaven-the full fruition-where hope is needless. And as Earth is not Heaven, it follows that the benefactors of mankind are those who grumble to the best purpose. Grumbling has raised man from the condition of the Gorilla to that of the Judge on the bench of Justice. It has elevated woman from the squaw into the lady. It has superseded the wigwam by Acacia Villa and the mansions of TyGrumbling is not only useful in com- burnia. It has called into existence the pelling the attention of powerful people tailor and the jeweller, and has created who would like to be morally deaf to all the arts except music, painting, sculpremonstrances, though physically quite ture, and poetry. Doubtless_the_devil able to hear and understand them-but was the first Grumbler, as Sydney Smith is a positive safety-valve for the escape of said he was the first Whig; but he much steam that might otherwise burst made himself by his grumbling the the boiler of the State, or of society, and originator of clothes, and architecture. create all manner of political mischief. And let any self-deceiving enemy of Englishmen, who are continually grum grumbling tell me, if he can, what the bling, and who enjoy the excitement and world would be without either of these the flavour of it as epicures do olives or aids and ornaments of civilization? and caviare, never resort to the streets to whether man in the aggregate would throw up barricades, or storm palaces have advanced much further in the social and prisons, and upset the coach of State scale than that of the Troglodytes?—that whenever they have a grievance, like is to say, man in our European climates, their near neighbours on the other side of where the rain rains, and the snow snows, the Channel; but they talk their griev- and the wind becomes tempestuous, and ance out of countenance, and conquer it. the elements seem to conspire to do They grumble, and it disappears. They mortal injuries to the unprotected flesh of burn it up with hot words, and it goes off the featherless biped that is now, but in a smoke. Cannon-balls may fail to would not then be, the lord of the creahit their mark, but grumbling is the drop tion? The history of the world is noof water that wears away the rock. thing but the history of successful or unGrumbling and Liberty are like the successful grumbling, operating in great Siamese twins. The ligament which things as in small, in high social and binds them together cannot be dissevered political affairs, as well as in the meanest without fatal results to both. Stab and most intimate relations of a family Grumbling to the heart, and Liberty circle-inculcating through all of them expires. Destroy Liberty, and Grumbling is no more. When it was promulgated that "order reigned at Warsaw," it was a precise statement of the fact that there was no more grumbling, unless the grumblers chose to risk Siberia, martial law, or the scaffold, for indulgence in that blessed luxury of the free, The Scotch say that "it's a sair dung bairn the great moral, that it is not good for a man to be contented with evils that he can remove. A confession of content, unless the man be a prince, and have 300,000l. per annum, or have made himself the first in any intellectual art (and acquired a snug fortune at the same time), is a confession of idleness or imbecility. Why, I would ask, did the men of the last generation invent and construct club dining-room? The grumbler who railways? Why were they not satisfied speaks with a loud and authoritative with horse power and stage coaches? voice-who will stand no nonsense, and Why did they put gas into the streets? Why did our more remote progenitors abolish the ancient_cresset-bearers of the days of Henry VII.? Why have we all but displaced sailing ships by steamers ? In short, why do we do anything but eat, drink, and sleep, like pigs or periwinkles, unless for the vigour and enterprise that are in us, and that find an expression in grumbling, and consequently in an expansion of the powers and enjoyments of the race? who will report the slightest misconduc or failure of attention to the committee. Who is the best captain of a ship? The grumbler and the man of discipline, who will have things as they ought to be, even though he lose every sailor serving under him by his severity. Who is the best general? The grumbler, who insists upon having everything in mathematical order, and who has not the smallest drop of the milk of human kindness about him, whenever it is a question of duty or So thoroughly have the English under-efficiency. stood and methodized the great art and privilege of grumbling, to which they owe their liberties, that their constitutional government could not be carried on without it. Wherever there is a Parliament there must of necessity be an Opposition. The duty of the Opposition is to grumble: to keep sharp watch and ward, lest the Ministerialists should remain in office too long, or acquire too much credit with the country. It is rare indeed that there is not ample occasion for grumbling: but if by some remarkable and fortuitous concurrence of a heaven-born minister with heaven-born subordinates, concocting between them measures of absolute wisdom, there should be no real cause of complaint, it would be the duty of the Opposition to invent grievances, and to grumble as lustily as if the country were going to perdition. Anything is better than stagnation; and to pitch into the Ministry is wholesome exercise for the "outs," and necessary to the existence of the "ins." In private life the same rule of grumbling holds good. It is invariably found that the contented man is a weak man. Whose servants are the most inattentive, careless, slovenly, and dishonest? Those of the man or woman who never grum. bles, but takes things as they come, with no more concern whether they be right or wrong than the cabbage in the garden, that takes rain or sunshine, the slug or the maggot, as Heaven sends them? Who gets most quickly served in the Let the candid reader (why readers should be called candid I don't know, unless stupidity and candour mean the same thing, which they may do) understand, if he can, that I do not approve of grumbling in the abstract, and for the mere sake of grumbling; but that I only insist upon the solid benefit of such grumbling as is fairly justifiable by good to be done or attempted, or likely to be done or attempted, for the individual, the family, the community, or the State. Grumbling, like anything else, may be overdone, and then it becomes a nuisance. Bread is good; but who could live upon it with satisfaction, if he had nothing else, morning, noon, or night? So of beef. Who could tolerate beef for breakfast, beef for lunch, beef for dinner, and beef for supper? Toujours perdrix is sickening. To eat or drink too much, to play too much, to work too much, or to grumble too much - all these are equally pernicious. The wise man always looks to the degree of his indulgences. The wise grumbler, considered under this aspect, is a public benefactor. - The Gouty Philosopher. 66 [GEORGE ELIOT.] "WHAT!" said Bartle, with an air of disgust. "Was there a woman concerned? Then I give you up, Adam." "But it's a woman you'n spoke well on, Bartle," said Mr. Poyser. "Come, now, you canna draw back; you said once as women wouldna ha' been a bad invention if they'd been all like Dinah." "I meant her voice, man-I meant her voice, that was all," said Bartle. "I can bear to hear her speak without want ing to put wool in my ears. As for other things, I daresay she's like the rest o' the women-thinks two and two 'll come to make five, if she cries and bothers enough about it." 66 'Ay, ay!" said Mrs. Poyser; "one 'ud think, an' hear some folk talk, as the men war 'cute enough to count the corns in a bag o' wheat wi' only smelling at it. They can see through a barn-door, they can. Perhaps that's the reason they can see so little o' this side on 't." Martin Poyser shook with delighted laughter, and winked at Adam, as much as to say the schoolmaster was in for it now. "Ah!" said Bartle sneeringly. "ne women are quick enough-they're quick enough. They know the rights of a story before they hear it, and can tell a man what his thoughts are before he knows 'em himself." “Like enough,” said Mrs. Poyser; for the men are mostly so slow, their thoughts overrun 'em, an' they can only catch 'em by the tail. I can count a stocking-top while a man's getting's tongue ready; an' when he out wi' his speech at last, there's little broth to be made on 't. It's your dead chicks take the longest hatchin'. Howiver, I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God Almighty made 'em to match the men. "Match!" said Bartle; "ay, as vinegar matches one's teeth. If a man says a word, his wife'll match it with a contradiction; if he's a mind for hot meat, his wife 'll match it with cold bacon; if he laughs, she'll match him with whimpering. She's such a match as the horse-fly is to th' horse: she's got the right venom to sting him with-the right venom to sting him with." "Yes," said Mrs. Poyser, "I know what the men like-a poor soft, as 'ud simper at 'em like the pictur o' the sun, "Come, Craig,' said Mr. Poyser jocosely, "you mun get married pretty quick, else you'll be set down for an old bachelor; an' you see what the women 'ull think on you." 66 66 Well," said Mr. Craig, willing to conciliate Mrs. Poyser, and setting a high value on his own compliments, “I like a cleverish woman-a woman o' sperrita managing woman.' "You're out there, Craig," said Bartle drily; "you're out there. You judge o' your garden-stuff on a better plan than that; you pick the things for what they can excel in--for what they can excel in. You don't value your peas for their roots, or your carrots for their flowers. that's the way you should choose women: their cleverness 'll never come to muchnever come to much; but they make excellent simpletons, ripe and strong flavoured." Now "What dost say to that?" said Mr. Poyser, throwing himself back, and looking merrily at his wife. Say! why, answered Mrs. Poyser, with dangerous fire kindling in her eye; I say as some folk's tongues are like the clocks as run on strikin', not to tell you the time o' the day, but because there's summat wrong i' their inside." [G. WINGROVE COOKE.] THE CHINESE AND THEIR LANGUAGE. IN a country where the roses have no fragrance, and the women wear no petticoats; where the labourer has no Sabbath, and the magistrate no sense of honour; where the roads bear no vehicles, and the ships no keels; where old men fly kites; where the needle points south, and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of your head; where the place of honour is on your left hand, and the seat of intellect is in the stomach; where to take off your hat is an insolent gesture, and to wear white garments is to put yourself in mourning-we ought not to be astonished to find a literature without an alphabet, and a language without a grammar, and we must not be startled to find that this Chinese language is the most intricate, cumbrous, unwieldy vehi cle of thought that ever obtained among any people. SECTION VI. EPISTOLARY. displayed in these than in other productions, which are studied for public view. We please ourselves with beholding the wie in a situation which allows him to be at his ease, and to give vent occasionally to the overflowings of his heart. This [REV. HUGH BLAIR. 1718-1800.] ON EPISTOLARY WRITING. EPISTOLARY writing becomes a distinct species of composition, subject to cognizance, only, or chiefly, when it is of the easy or familiar kind; when it is con- Much, therefore, of the merit and the versation carried on upon paper, between agreeableness of epistolary writing, will two friends at a distance. Such an inter- depend on its introducing us into some course, when well conducted, may be acquaintance with the writer. There, if rendered very agreeable to readers of anywhere, we look for the man, not for taste. If the subject of the letters be the author. Its first and fundamental important, they will be the more valu- requisite is to be natural and simple; for able. Even though there should be a stiff and laboured manner is as bad in nothing very considerable in the subject, a letter as it is in conversation. yet if the spirit and turn of the corre- does not banish sprightliness and wit. spondence be agreeable, if they be These are graceful in letters, just as they written in a sprightly manner, and with are in conversation: when they flow native grace and ease, they may still be easily, and without being studied; when entertaining; more especially if there be employed so as to season, not to cloy. anything to interest us, in the characters One who, either in conversation, or in of those who write them. Hence the letters, affects to shine and to sparkle curiosity which the public has always always, will not please long. The style discovered concerning the letters of emi- of letters should not be too highly nent persons. We expect in them to dis- polished. It ought to be neat and corcover somewhat of their real character. It rect, but no more. All nicety, about is childish indeed to expect that in letters words, betrays study; and hence musical we are to find the whole heart of the periods, and appearances of number and author unveiled. Concealment and dis- harmony in arrangement, should be careguise take place, more or less, in all fully avoided in letters. The best letters human intercourse. But still as letters are commonly such as the authors have from one friend to another make the written with most facility. What the nearest approaches to conversation, we heart or the imagination dictates, always may expect to see more of a character | flows readily; but where there is no sub ject to warm or interest these, constraint appears; and hence those letters of mere compliment, congratulation, or affected condolence, which have cost the authors most labour in composing, and which, for that reason, they perhaps consider as their masterpieces, never fail of being the most disagreeable and insipid to the readers. It ought, at the same time, to be remembered, that the ease and simplicity which I have recommended in epistolary correspondence, are not to be understood as importing entire carelessness. In writing to the most intimate friend, a certain degree of attention, both to the subject and the style, is requisite and becoming. It is no more than what we owe both to ourselves, and to the friend with whom we correspond. A slovenly and negligent manner of writing, is a disobliging mark of want of respect. The liberty, besides, of writing letters with too careless a hand, is apt to betray persons into imprudence in what they write. The first requisite, both in conversation and correspondence, is to attend to all the proper decorums which our own character, and that of others, demand. An imprudent expression in conversation may be forgotten and pass away; but when we take the pen into our hand, we must remember, that litera scripta manet.-Essays. [WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH. 1520-1598.] ADVICE TO HIS SON. SON ROBERT-The virtuous inclinations of thy matchless mother, by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed; together with thy education under so zealous and excellent a tutor; puts me in rather assurance than hope, that thou art not ignorant of that summum bonum, which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death as life; I mean, the true knowledge and worship of thy Creator and Redeemer: without which all other things are vain and miserable. So that thy youth being guided by so sufficient a teacher, I make no doubt but he will furnish thy life with divine and moral documents. Yet, that I may not cast off the care of beseeming a parent towards his child, or that thou shouldst have cause to derive thy whole felicity and welfare rather from others than from whence thou receivedst thy breath and being, I think it fit and agreeable to the affection I bear thee, to help thee with such rules and advertisements for the squaring of thy life, as are rather gained by experience than by much reading. To the end that, entering into this exorbitant age, thou mayest be the better prepared to shun those scandalous courses whereunto the world and the lack of experience may easily draw thee. And, because I will not confound thy memory, I have reduced them into ten precepts ; and next unto Moses' tables, if thou ̄imprint them in thy mind, thou shalt reap the benefit, and I the content. And they are these following: : Inquire 1. When it shall please God to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife. For from thence will spring all thy future good or evil. And it is an action of life, like unto a stratagem of war; wherein a man can err but once. If thy estate be good, match near home, and at leisure; if weak, far off and quickly. diligently of her disposition, and how her parents have been inclined in their youth. Let her not be poor how generous soever. For a man can buy nothing in the market with gentility. Nor choose a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others, and loathing in thee. Neither make choice of a dwarf or a fool; for by the one thou shalt beget a race of pigmies, the other will be thy contiuual disgrace, and it will yirke thee to hear her talk. For thou shalt find it, to thy great grief, that there is nothing more fulsome than a she-fool. And, touching the guiding of thy house, let thy hospitality be moderate; and, according to the means of thy estate, rather plentiful than sparing, but not costly. For I never knew any man grow |