outrages
of the day to these continual miseries? Let those sorrows hide
their diminished heads before the tremendous mountain of woe that
thus defaces our globe! Man preys on man, and you mourn for the
idle tapestry that decorated a Gothic pile, and the dronish bell
that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty
pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, and the sick heart
retires to die in lonely wilds, far from the abodes of man. Did the
pangs you felt for insulted nobility, the anguish which rent your
heart when the gorgeous robes were torn off the idol human weakness
had set up, deserve to be compared with the long-drawn sigh of
melancholy reflection, when misery and vice thus seem to haunt our
steps, and swim on the top of every cheering prospect? Why is our
fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the
grave? Hell stalks abroad: the lash resounds on a slave's naked
sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread
of unremitting labor, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long
good-night, or, neglected in some ostentatious hospital, breathes
its last amidst the laugh of mercenary attendants."

Occasionally Mary interrupts the main drift of her "Letter" to refute
some of the incidental statements in the "Reflections." But in doing this
she is more eager to show the evils of English political and social laws,
which Burke praises so unreservedly, than to prove that many existed in
the old French government, a fact which he obstinately refuses to
recognize. This may have been because she then knew little more than
Burke of the real state of affairs in France, and would not take the time
to collect her proofs. This is very likely, for the chief fault of her
"Letter" is undue haste in its composition. It was written on the spur of
the moment, and is without the method indispensable to such a work. There
is no order in the arguments advanced, and too often reasoning gives
place to exhortation and meditation. Another serious error is the
personal abuse with which her "Letter" abounds. She treats Burke in the
very same manner with which she reproves him for treating Dr. Price.
Instead of confining herself to denunciation of his views, she attacks
his character, she accuses him of vanity and susceptibility to the charms
of rank, of insincerity and affectation. She calls him a s