rise to a stinging
epigram by Lord Chesterfield, concluding with these lines:

"The _STATUE_ placed these busts between Gives satire all its strength;
_WISDOM_ and _WIT_ are little seen, But _FOLLY_ at full length."'(116)

(116) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.

THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

Walpole tells us that the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield _LIVED_ at
White's Club, gaming, and uttering witticisms among the boys of quality;
'yet he says to his son, that a member of a gaming club should be a
cheat, or he will soon be a beggar;' an inconsistency which reminds
one of old Fuller's saw--'A father that whipt his son for swearing, and
swore himself whilst he whipt him, did more harm by his example than
good by his correction.'

GEORGE SELWYN.

The character of Selwyn,' says Mr Jesse, 'was in many respects
a remarkable one. With brilliant wit, a quick perception of the
ridiculous, and a thorough knowledge of the world and human nature,
he united classical knowledge and a taste for the fine arts. To these
qualities may be added others of a very contradictory nature. With
a thorough enjoyment of the pleasures of society, an imperturbable
good-humour, a kind heart, and a passionate fondness for children, he
united a morbid interest in the details of human suffering, and, more
especially, a taste for witnessing criminal executions. Not only was he
a constant frequenter of such scenes of horror, but all the details of
crime, the private history of the criminal, his demeanour at his trial,
in the dungeon, and on the scaffold, and the state of his feelings in
the hour of death and degradation, were to Selwyn matters of the deepest
and most extraordinary interest. Even the most frightful particulars
relating to suicide and murder, the investigation of the disfigured
corpse, the sight of an acquaintance lying in his shroud, seem to have
afforded him a painful and unaccountable pleasure. When the first Lord
Holland was on his death-bed he was told that Selwyn, who had lived on
terms of the closest intimacy with him, had called to inquire after his
health. "The next time Mr Selwyn calls," he said, "show him up; if I am
alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad
to see me." When some ladies bantered him on his want of feeling in
attending to see the terrible Lord Lovat's head cut off--"Why," he said,
"I made amends by going to the undertaker's to see it sewed on again."
And yet this was the same