The Monikins

tirely above its prejudices; but, this much admitted, few divines were more willing to defer to the ethics and principles of the Bible than himself. His humility had, of course, a decent

lt the most surprise after the draft was presented and duly honored, he who found himself in possession, or he who found himself deprived, of the sum of ten thousand pounds sterling. Still Dr. Etherington acted with the most scrupulous integrity in the whole affair; and although I am aware that a writer who has so many wonders to relate, as must of necessity adorn the succeeding pages of this manuscript, should observe a guarded discretion in drawing on

ry predominant feeling of human nature (which, singularly enough, renders us uniformly averse to being troubled with other people's affairs), I think he must have found sufficiently vexatious, quite as well as my good mother had any right to expect. Most of my vacations were spent at his rectory; for he had first married, then become a father, next a widower, and had exchanged his town living for one in the country, between the periods of my mother

t exercise, or any passion by indulgence, so did his ardor in favor of the great object of his affections grow with its growth, and become more manifest as an ordinary observer would be apt to think the motive of its existence at all had nearly ceased. This is a moral phenomenon that I have often had occasion to observe, and which, there is some reason to think, depends on a principle of attraction tha

nation was concerned. He cared not for the days of courts leet and courts baron; nor for the barons themselves; nor for the honors of a pedigree (why should he?-no prince in the land could more clearly trace his family into obscurity than himself), nor for the vanities of a court, nor for those of society; nor for aught else of the same nature that is apt to have charms for the weak-minded, the imaginative, or the conceited. His political prepossessions showed themselves in a very different manner. Throughout the whole of the five lustres I have named, he was never heard to whisper a censure against government, let its measures, or the character of its administration, be what it would. It was enough for him that it was government. Even taxation no longer excited his ire, nor aroused his eloquence. He conceived it to be necessary to order, and especially to the protection of property, a branch of political science that he had so studied as to succeed in protecting his own estate, in a measure, against even this great ally itself. After he became worth a million, it was observed that all his opinions grew less favorable to mankind in general, and that he was much disposed to exaggerate the amount and quality of the few boons which Pro

its) had attached him to one who owed so much to his care, and h

time (omitting the part misspent in

. Owing to the strength of his affections for the deceased, or for his daughter, or because he could not please himself in a second marriage as well as it had been his good fortune to do in the first, Dr.

iration at the marvels of London. At fourteen, I began to pick up her pocket-handkerchief, hunt for her thimble, accompany her in duets, and to read poetry to her, as she occupied herself with the little lady-like employments of the needle. About the age of seventeen I began to compare cousin Anna, as I was permitted to call her, with the other young girls of my acquaintance, and the comparison was generally much in her favor. It was also about this time that, as my admiration grew more warm and manifest, she became less confiding and less frank; I perceived too that, for a novelty, she n

een a sort of mystified masque), "more particularly the fat old butler, of whom they had made a Cupid, as Dick Griffin said

inherently like to hear her pronounce the word "Jack"-it was so different from the bois

, Anna," I answered; "more particularly as

ciates, and you know, my dear, that Mr. Goldencalf, though a very respectable young man himself, could not expect one of the olde

eable commentary on her notions concerning the fitness of associations. Anna herself looked earnestly at her governess, and I saw a flush man

heard the melodious voice of Anna wishing the rector good morning. My heart beat quicker as she approached the casement, tenderly inq

suddenly resumed Anna, whom I hear

who buys and sells in the publi

a PARTICULARLY disg

seems to be well enough-among merchants and banke

ou say why

sudden reverses-what is termed gambling-and whatever renders property insecure is sure to obtain odium among those whose pr

dishonest pur

essarily, my dear; though

utable, generally

very apt to be condemned; but I rather think his character rises in pro

an usual, and it is certain that she lea

Sir Harry Griffin's because his father was a

ues himself on his wealth, is not as rich as Jack's father by a million or two-in other words, as they say on 'Change, Jack's father could buy ten of him. This motive was perhaps more likely to influence him than the first. In addition, Si

really become stoc

elves are getting to be little better than political establishments to add facilities to the accumulation of mone

?" asked Anna, whose thoughts had been wanderin

elieved

ck is h

ugh it is not easy to say what so sin

will disinh

nary speech of Anna, and at the moment I would have given all my interest in the fortune in question to have seen her face (most of her body was out of the window, for I heard her

a thing?" resumed Dr. Ethe

riches, father. Were Jack poorer, it s

and most blooming of the flowers. Dr. Etherington laughed, and I distinctly heard him kiss the blushing face of his d

ifest a disposition to a pure and disinterested philanthropy is either distrusted as a hypocrite or derided as a fool. The accursed revolution among our neighbors the French has quite unsettled opinions, and religion itself has tottered in the wild anarchy of theories to which it has given rise. There is

birth, father, a mistaken preju

rinciple acknowledged, the lettered and the accomplished must descend to an equality with the ignorant and vulgar, since all men cannot rise to the attainments of the former

e good rector himself, I had no difficulty in understanding his bias, though neither his premises nor his conclusions possessed the logical clearness that used to render his sermons so delightful, mo

h Job, another celebrated dealer in the funds, in an interview that took place in the house of the former in Ch

for union and cordiality among the holders of property. Should these damnable opinions get fairly

oseph, it is very alarmi

-will become the prey of political robbers, and our children will be beggared

and government is very culpable that it

of their names. It is a great mistake, sir, that we give so much importance to birth in this island, by which means proud beggars set unwashed bl

I never could see the

is the parent of money, and by money a state becomes powerful and prosperous. But this accursed revolution

it to be so in every nerv

, men warm enough and substantial enough at present, will be in the ditc

for

sacred property

month, sixty-two thousand seven hundred and twelve pounds difference (as bull and bear), owing to the fact of the knight having got some secret information through a clerk in one o

erington and those of Sir Joseph Job. On the one side, I was taught the degradation of birth; on the other, the dangers of property. Anna was usually my confidant, but on this subject I w