that those who feel a loss acutely ever can. No, no, such persons are never really afflicted." Thus in the one case, no allusion to the death or the dead is looked upon as an evidence of want of proper feeling, and forgetfulness of the bereavement; and in the other the garrulity of grief is considered as proof of its non-existence or non-durability. But, in both these cases, the judgment was equally unkind, uncandid, and erroneous. The late Henry Fuseli, speaking of the head of Buonaparte exclaimed in my presence, "O! there is no duplicate of that head in the world!" but added immediately, " but, then to be sure, there is no exact duplicate of any head and face whatever!" I was struck with the observation at the time and never forgot it; for it appeared to me applicable to moral qualities and feelings, as well as to faces and heads, particularly in appreciating the sensibility of others. I have convinced myself that no two persons feel the same thing alike; and if there be no duplicate of any head or face, neither is there one of any mind, heart, or sensibility; consequently all persons have a way of their own of expressing what they feel, a different way of venting their grief, and of comforting themselves under it; and it would be as narrow, invidious and presuming, for any one to say, that those who do not express, or conceal their grief as we do, are our inferiors in proper feeling, as it would be to assume that the weather could not be warm because we felt it cold, or that no one could think red and yel

low, fine colours, because they were in our eyes ugly and gaudy. I believe that there are as many diversities of grief as of dress, as many shades of sorrow as of colour, and the great Physician has mercifully furnished as many remedies for affliction as for diseases. But detractors know not this. Unsubdued by "the venerable presence of misery"-misery, which if silent they distrust, and if garrulous they distrust still more: they visit it not to sympathize but to judge, and to compare their own superior sensibility, with the supposed want of it in the object before them; thus converting the cypress of the bereaved into an ornament for their own vanity, and blessing themselves, like the pharisee of old, that they

are "not as other men are."

I must here insert another proof of the natural love of distinction, and the common tendency to competition, however unconsciously felt:-namely, that many are jealous, even of superiority in the trials of life, and I have been interrupted while expatiating on the sorrows and bereavements of some of my friends, by this exclamation from another, "Oh! what are their trials to some I could mention; they ought to be thankful it is no worse. Other people, as I bitterly feel, have had much more to undergo." And in physical inflictions I have seen the same desire of being supreme in suffering, and have heard the sufferer exclaim with obvious and strange self-complacency: "Oh! but what are their pains and agonies to mine!" and if this suppos

ed supremacy of trial was not attended with murmuring and want of proper resignation to the divine will, one can not be disposed to grudge the victims of pain, the apparent comfort derived from this innocent competition..

CHAPTER VI.

ON PRECEDENCE, &c.

I COME now to an important and universal species of competition. Important, I may indeed with propriety denominate it; namely, that of precedence. Who that has ever read the history of our own country, or that of others, but must be well aware, that a disregard of the right of an ambassador's precedence, or a denial of his claims, has sometimes involved kingdoms in war, and deluged the world with blood; affording one of the most melancholy as well as most convincing proofs of that pride of heart, disguised under the name of rights of nations, which is odious in the sight of him. who is the "King of Kings," and of whom it is said, that "he casteth down the mighty from their seats, and exalteth the humble and meek." But I shall confine myself to observations on the pernicious effect of this sort of competition on the well-being of private life, and the heart-burnings, the jealousies, and the consequent detraction, which it is so apt to produce. Even amongst those whose rights are recorded in the Table of Precedence, there is a possibility of dangerous mistakes, for

though the most ignorant giver of a dinner knows that dukes and duchesses walk before marquisses and marchionesses, and so on down the list, still it requires some knowledge of heraldry to remember the intricate distinctions of the degrees of precedence amongst their children. I remember the pain experienced by a good-natured man of my acquaintance, on finding he had wounded the pride and feelings of two noble ladies, by leading out before them the lady of a baronet. But, to my friend, a lady was a lady, and to be honoured, as he supposed, before the other pretenders, who were simply mistresses, though honourable preceded their names; and in confiding ignorance he led the dame down to dinner before them, little dreaming of "tomorrow's fate." But, the next day, the mother of one of the ladies desired to speak to him; and, with no little eagerness, though with the manner of a true gentlewoman, reproached him for the affront which he had passed upon the Honourable Mrs. A- -; the distressed host anxiously desired to know how he had offended; when, to his great surprise, as well as dismay, he learned that it was by giving a baronet's lady the precedence of the wife of the younger son of an English earl! My poor friend could not deny the charge; but he apologized, promised to do so no more, and also promised, that when in the ensuing week, Mrs. A. honoured him with her presence to nearly the same party, he would take care to let her precede every one else; and the good