r they are occasioned by
circumstances unsusceptible of investigation or regulation, or by causes
which can be ascertained, and may be within human control. To us, as
Englishmen, it is of still deeper interest to inquire whether the causes
of our superiority are still in operation, and whether their force is
capable of being increased or diminished; whether England has run her
full career of wealth and improvement, but stands safe where she is; or,
whether to remain stationary is impossible, and it depends on her
institutions and her habits, on her government, and on her people,
whether she shall recede or continue to advance.

The answer to all these questions must be sought in the science which
teaches in what wealth consists, by what agents it is produced, and
according to what laws it is distributed, and what are the institutions
and customs by which production may be facilitated, and distribution
regulated, so as to give the largest possible amount of wealth to each
individual. And this science is _Political Economy.--Senior's Lecture
on Political Economy._

* * * * *

PROLONGING LIFE.

The notion of prolonging life by inhaling the breath of young women, was
an agreeable delusion easily credited: and one physician who had himself
written on health, was so influenced by it, that he actually took
lodgings in a boarding-school, that he might never be without a constant
supply of the proper atmosphere. Philip Thicknesse, who wrote the
"Valetudinarian's Guide," in 1779, seems to have taken a dose whenever
he could. "I am myself," says he, "turned of sixty, and in general,
though I have lived in various climates, and suffered severely both in
body and mind; yet having always partaken of the breath _of young
women, whenever they lay in the way_, I feel none of the infirmities
which so often strike the eyes and ears in this great city (Bath) of
sickness, by men many years younger than myself."

_Wadd's Memoirs._

* * * * *

FELLOW FEELING.

It is told of a certain worthy and wealthy citizen, who has acquired
the reputation of being a considerable consumer of the good things of
the table, and has been "widened at the expense of the corporation,"
that on coming out of a tavern, after a turtle feast, a poor boy
begged charity of him--"For mercy's sake, sir, I am so very hungry!"
"Hungry!--hungry!--hey!--what!--complain of being hungry!--why I neve