mind of one individual swaying the actions of thousands; it is gratifying, because we feel that we possess in common with that individual, a portion of the mysterious essence from which his power originates. The facility with which we can trace the causes that have contributed to produce those changes that are already past, is also gratifying, because it inspires a feeling of security with regard to future events, which could never be possessed by the victims of a blind and aimless chance.

To mark the gradual improvement of science, and to contemplate the rise and fall of empires, form the higher branches of this study. But these are lofty heights, to which I seldom aspire. It suits not my disposition to enter into details of war and rapine; to observe how the exercise of tyrannical power forces its victims to break their galling chains; and how the abuse of liberty by a lawless multitude, again raises up a tyrant to wrest it from them. To me it is more pleasing to mark the gradual changes that have taken place in society; to watch the varying modes of social intercourse, to contemplate the assembling together of friends and acquaintance, from the time wherein they met at sunset in the pastoral valley, to that in which they remain till sunrise in the gilded drawing-room. I love to conjecture what, at each different period, have been their objects of general interest; what have formed the subjects of their graver conversation: I say graver, because I suppose the elements of chit-chat to have been nearly the same in all ages; from the days when the damsels of Padan-aram, as they watered their flocks by the well of Haran, talked of the marriage of Jacob and Rachel, until the last week, when the Misses of Edinburgh, as they sipped ice at Mrs rout, discussed the particulars of the wedding of Lord and Miss When the hour of separation arrives, whether that hour be indicated by increasing darkness or increasing light, I love to follow the company into the retirement of their family circle; to see what then are their cares, their pleasures, their occupations. In short, I love to examine the minute economy of domestic life, and leaving it to others, to follow the prince, the statesman, and

S

the warrior through the mazes of intrigue, and the highways of bloodshed, I content myself with accompanying the father, the husband, and the son, to the domestic fireside.

If the changes which have occurred in modes of government, and in systems of philosophy, be great, no less great are the changes which time has wrought on the habits of social life. But society is not like an empire, nor its manners like the theorems of a science. The revolutions of society are not so sudden as the revolutions of a state, and a king is more easily banished than an opinion. Neither are modes of behaviour discovered, adopted, and thrown aside by the discovery of new modes; nor dare we, I fear, venture to affirm that morals, like the sciences in general, have been in a state of progressive improvement. In comparing the manners of one age with those of another, it requires a careful examination of their respective merits, ere we award the palm of superiority. We find in most ages something to approve, and in all much to condemn; and to weigh the good against the good, and the evil against the evil, is a nice and difficult operation. To trace the progress of an art or science is comparatively easy; for it is a mere narration of facts; an enumeration of discove ries which one age has made, and the next has corrected; or if the succeeding generation have substituted error for error, the perspicuity of later times has rectified the mistakes of both; but in morals the results are not so obvious, nor the facts so tangible. In every science, except the science of conduct, when the truth of a proposition has been fully proven, it has from that time been adopted as an axiom; the practice has always been coincident with the knowledge possessed. Widely different is the case in morals; there the principles are immutable; but even where their truth has been admitted, the strictness with which these principles have been observed, and the estimation in which they have been held, have varied much. The reason of all this is obvious, in the adoption of a principle of science, the head alone is concerned, the consent of the judgment alone is required; but in the adoption of a principle of conduct, the heart interferes; and the heart of

man is naturally unsteady, inconsistent, the slave of passion, and the sport of circumstance. :

But although the obstacles which lie in the way of the historian of morals be great, he has a powerful assistant, peculiar to the study in which he is engaged. He has not to trace the endless errors of opinion, for the theory of conduct is not like theories of the earth, a set of probable conjectures. The science of morals is one on which the happiness of man is so dependant, that his beneficient Creator left it not, like other sciences, to be perfected by the slow process of time. He himself condescended to communicate its principles perfect and entire, to which nothing could be added, and from which nothing should be taken away. When he, therefore, who reviews the manners of the world, in different nations, and at different periods, has removed from the tions of men that gloss with which hypocrisy or ignorance has varnished ome, and that crust of obloquy with which malice or envy has invested thers, he can compare those actions with the infallible standard he posesses, the morality of the gospel. Thus to examine the manners of ocial life, and thus to compare them with the standard of right, is, I have dready said, my favourite mental anusergent. I do not find, upon the hole, that comparisons with former imes, render me discontented with he present state of things; on the ontrary, I rather feel gratified for haing been reserved to these latter days. The manners of this age certainly exel all that have gone before, in puity, in gentleness, and in many other miable qualities. May this purity, gentleness, not be superficial! ay it be in the thoughts as well as in the words; in the heart as well as In the tongue.

his

I have not, at present, time to exend my speculations on this subject ny farther, as the large eight-day clock, which, in spite of the jibes of my cousin John, has stood in the corer of my library these fifteen years, as just struck ten, the hour at which promised to wait upon Mrs of

-; and as I am always punctual my appointments, I lay down my Den, intending to resume it again this vening, if the party do not possess ufficient attractions to detain me long.

Postscript. I have just returned from Mrs -'s ball. I went thither in good humour with myself, and with all around me. I have come back fatigued, disappointed, dispirited; in short, with all the bitter feelings of one who sees his newly raised theory fall to the ground, like a swallow's nest which the rude hand of some wanton boy has severed from its hold.

I had not given the contents of my card of invitation that attention to which the work of a lady was entitled, in consequence of which, I erroneously imagined that the party was to be a rout, a species of entertainment which I prefer to a ball, as it affords more scope for the exercise of my favourite propensities. Upon discovering my mistake, I was about to adjourn to the house of a lady in the neighbourhood, who this evening gives a concert; but as I was quitting the room, my steps were arrested when I beheld one of the lords of the creation, six feet two inches in height, beginning to play the part of Cavalier seul in a quadrille. Oh! 'twas a goodly sight, to see those herculean limbs, whose natural paces were "full ell long," mincing, and tripping, and twirling, in a circle of twelve feet diameter! When he had completed the appointed number of steps, the lady opposite to him took up the theme; and gathering her garments tightly around her, (as Aladdin was desired to do when he went in search of the wonderful lamp,) she bent forward, and described with her body an arc, whose chord made with the horizon an angle of forty-five degrees. (I love to be correct.) I have seen a man dance upon his head, and a monkey perform Scotch steps with his fore paws; but I never before saw a lady trip on the light fantastic toe, in a position at once so painful and so hazardous. "This is folly," said I to myself, "but it is harmless folly." At the conclusion of the quadrille, several couples advanced to the top of the room, and ranged themselves side by side. The music struck up a beautiful air, and the dancers advanced a few steps, when suddenly, to my no small horror and amazement, the gentlemen seized the ladies round the waist, and all, as if intoxicated by this novel juxtaposition, began to whirl about the room, like a company of

And is this pernicious exotic to be allowed to flourish and to spread in the cold and pure regions of the North? Ungraciously was it received at its first importation into Caledonia. For years after it was deposited in our soil, it could only put forth, here and there, a weak and puny stem, which was quickly trodden down; but, upon its being transplanted into the hot-bed of the "Select Assembly," it sprung up, fungus like, in the course of a single evening, and in a few weeks it had attained a strength and vigour appalling to those who look with a jealous eye on modern innovations. Oh, may its precocity be symptomatic of its speedy decay!

Bacchanalians dancing round a sta- in their superiors such a glaring detue of the jolly god. "A waltz!" reliction from propriety." Piqued by exclaimed I, inexpressibly shocked, this rebuke, her Ladyship arose and "have I lived to see Scotch women left us. waltz?" I looked at the spectators, and hoped to see the blush of modesty tinge the cheeks of those who were thus forced to witness such a disgraceful exhibition; but if it had excited in any the glow of virtuous indignation, they had prudently retired behind the crowd; as those who met my view were either gazing with perfect unconcern, or critically examining and commenting upon the different styles of dancing. "And this," thought I, "is the nineteenth century! This is the age of purity which I have been so highly extolling! Are the reasonings of the wise to be ever thus overthrown by the practice of fools?" I gazed on them in bitterness of spirit. "Ah!" said I mentally, "had I seen Maria waltz with the Lieutenant the night before her elopement, I would have regarded that event as a most blessed deliverance."

While I was thus musing, Lady panting and breathless, came and threw herself on a seat near me. Her face was fair, and her dress was elegant; but I thought of the days of downcast eyes and plaited handkerchiefs. I looked at her first with pity, and then with indignation; for I remembered that the great-grand-father of this waltzer married my grandaunt, the Lady Betty M, after having been her acknowledged lover for seven years. "And art thou," said I internally," the descendant of the grave, the chaste, the domestic Lady Betty?-she who, in the fourth year of her courtship, had a quarrel with her lover, so serious as almost to end in separation, occasioned by his presuming to raise the tip of her forefinger to his lips!"-" I perceive by your countenance, Mr M

said her ladyship to me, "that you do not admire waltzing." I felt too sore to be able to speak, so I only bowed assent to this remark. "Lord said she, addressing a gentleman who stood near us, “will you allow us to waltz at your house next Friday?"" Not," answered he, "unless we can procure a sufficient number of blind fiddlers-for I have too much regard for the morals of the lower class to suffer them to witness

And must the friends of propriety, of decency, hold their peace? Must they look on in silence when the evil spirits of the Continent are sowing tares amongst our wheat? Let it not be. If no father will prohibit his daughter from mingling in the waltz, -if no rich old aunt will threaten to leave her fortune to niece Grizzy instead of niece Matilda, unless the said Matilda behave with more decorum,-if no lover will look grave at beholding his mistress in the arms of another,-I, even I, a neglected old bachelor, will lift up my voice and cry aloud against such a corruption of our manners. I shall not interfere with married ladies, they belong to their husbands; and if, in this age, when so many are imperiously calling upon us to share our property with them, the husbands of waltzers have abandoned the mean spirit of monopoly, far be it from me to condemn the liberal principle. It is to you, ye virgin daughters of Albyn, that I now address myself. By your delicacyby your graceful modesty-by the pure and eloquent blood which once mantled on your cheeks at the very name of Waltz-I adjure you to relinquish this shameless exhibition. Oh! could you behold it as it appears to a Bystander-could you see what I see-could you hear what I hearyou would for ever abjure the hateful practice. Let no one attempt to excuse herself by saying, that, so long as waltzing was rarely seen, she never consented to join in it. If the thing

be wrong, it is not the less wrong because many are guilty of it.

would be sufficient to guard the jewel within from harm.

I do not say, I wish not to think, that the converse of this is true; that when this natural defence is removed, the other bulwarks of virtue are easily overcome; but certain it is, they are more laid open to an attack; and she who has descended one step in the scale of indelicacy, is not so secure of descending no farther, as she who has never set her foot on the slippery ladder.

Some worthy people, possessed of more piety than good taste, have presented to the world their meditations upon all the cominon events of life. If some of you whom I am now addressing will favour me with your Meditations while Waltzing," I will, with all due solemnity, lay them before Mr DS and the Rev. J- — E-, and if, after a careful examination of those symptoms, these physicians of the mind declare that the waltz has a good moral tendency, I shall cease my then impertinent remonstrances. But, in INQUIRY RESPECTING AN HISTORICAL

the conviction that the opinions of these two great men will coincide with that of the unlearned Bystander, I shall conclude the advice I have begun to suggest to my dear countrywomen. If my other appeals fail, I will appeal to their self-interest. What makes British lovers so much more constant-what makes British marriages so much more happy-than those of any other nation under Heaven? Is it not the superior purity of mind and manners possessed by the females of Britain? Be yourselves. Imitate not the loose manners of those countries, from whose impiety and impurity Providence has separated you by a barrier of waves, which it were well you might never cross.

Yet I would not be too severe on the fair inhabitants of other kingdoms. I have no doubt that some, I hope many, of those who have submitted to partake of this degrading amusement, are pure even in thought; but this I must say, and I call upon every female to attend to me, that a woman who can, without blushing, feel her waist encircled by the arms of a man who is neither her father nor her brother, has lost something which she can never regain. She has lost that innate, that shrinking delicacy which was born with her; that feeling which, independent even of thought, nature gave her for the preservation of her purity. If it be not the strongest defence of virtue, it is at least, so long as it remains entire, a secure one. Until that barrier be overleaped, no other advantage can be of any use. If it were possible that while religion, reason, and the fear of the world's censure, were done away, this virgin armour could remain; this of itself

George Street, April 17.

WORK OF SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

To the Second Volume of the Works of Sir George Mackenzie, published at Edinburgh in 1722, the following advertisement is prefixed:

"Whereas in the list of the Author's MSS. there is mention made of an History of the Affairs of Scotland, from the Restauration of King Charles II. in 1660 to 1691, which subscribers might have readily looked for in this second volume; but, that MS. being in the hands of some of the Author's relations, who think it not ready for the press until it be carefully revised, they have reckoned it more proper to have it printed by way of Appendix to this second volume, how soon they have it revised and transcribed by a good hand."

It is well known that no such history has ever been published, and it cannot be doubted, that, however partial it must be, yet such a work, from a writer of so great talent on events in which he had a great part, would be highly interesting. It probably still exists, and the publication of it would be a material service to British history. Information about the hands through which it had formerly passed might perhaps lead to its discovery, and would at all events be acceptable to the curious inquirer.

The estates of Sir George Mackenzie devolved in succession on the second Earl of Bute, the Right Hon. J. Stuart Mackenzie, and the Hon. Archibald Stuart Wortley.

The history was withheld from the public in 1722, probably because the Earl of Bute had espoused the cause of the House of Hanover, and had married the sister of John and Archi

Sir Robert Walpole.-Translation from Petrarch.

bald, Dukes of Argyle, successively he never possessed it; and is better leaders of the Whig party in Scotland. HISTORICUS.