determined on the total destruction of Christianity, he remarked, that he must begin with the Jesuits. Chiefly by his own intrigues, and those of the kept mistresses in the different courts of Europe, the suppression of this celebrated order was effected. Very soon after this had taken place, the civilised Indians of America fell off rapidly from their improved state, and ultimately returned to their original wild habits, whilst vice and ignorance took the lead in the European settlements, and have retained it to this day. Frederick, the far-famed King of Prussia, foresaw the future evils of this suppression in their true colours, and he made the following remark in a letter to Voltaire: I have no reason to complain of Ganganelli; he has left me my dear Jesuits, who are the objects of universal persecution. I will preserve a seed of so precious and uncommon a plant, to furnish those who may wish to cultivate it hereafter.' In our days, we have lately seen the people of South America applying to Rome for missionaries from the Society of Jesus.

"I defend my sable friends the rooks here in England on account of their services to the

land. Should the adverse party effect their extirpation in Scotland, and then suffer by the ravages of the grub, I will, at any time, be happy to send you a fresh supply of these useful and interesting birds.

"I remain, Sir,

"Your most obedient

"And humble servant,

"CHARLES WATERTON

ON TIGHT SHOES, TIGHT STAYS, AND
CRAVATS.

THE form of man is allowed by all writers, ancient and modern, to stand foremost in the ranks of animated nature. Man has it in his power to retain his fine symmetry with greater ease than any animal, because Omnipotence has endowed him with reason; whereas it has only given instinct to those below him. Perhaps there is nothing more attractive in the living beauties of creation than the human figure, standing firmly on the right foot, with

the right arm elevated above the head in a curve to the heavens, and the inside of the half-closed hand towards the face; whilst the other out-stretched foot barely touches the earth with its extremity, forming as it were a graceful counterpoise below, to the elegant attitude above; and the remaining arm hanging loosely down, and at a little distance from the perpendicular line which is formed by the erect position of the body. With such a perfect form, replete with reason, health, and vigour, man acts strangely to his own disadvantage whenever he allows the foolish fashion of the day to injure his symmetry, or permits the gratification of his appetite to interfere with the arrangements for the preservation of his health.

It is but too true that the astonishing discoveries in the mode of preparing his food have disposed him to disease in many frightful shapes; whilst the unfitness of his attire to the true form of his body has been productive of so much mischief to his general symmetry, that there are doubts if he would not have been better off had he adhered to his original haunts, so admirably touched upon by Dryden : —

"When wild in woods the noble savage ran."

Civilised man has certainly an undoubted right to put on clothes of any colour, or of and! size and shape; but then, the rest of the conmunity ought not to be pointed at, nor turned into ridicule, if their own notions of raiment dissuade them from imitating his example. But how little is this liberality either practised or understood by man reclaimed from the forests! Some royal spendthrift, supported by the public purse, some brainless son of fortune just entered into the possession of enormous wealth, sets the fashion; and then all must adopt it, be their aversion to it ever so extreme. Fashion may be tolerable in some degree when it merely trims the purse, but it is utterly intolerable, when it affects the person.

He was a cunning and a clever shoemaker who first succeeded in turning old Grandfather Squaretoes into ridicule, and in setting up young Sharpfoot as a pattern for universal imitation. What must have been poor old Dame Nature's surprise and vexation when she saw and felt the abominable change? The toes have their duty to perform, when the frame of man is either placed erect, or put in

N

motion: shoes at best are a vast incumbrance to them; but when it happens that shoes are what is called a bad fit, then all goes wrong indeed, and corns and blisters soon oblige the wearer of them to wend his way

"With faltering step and slow."

When I see a man thus hobbling on, I condemn both his fortitude and folly: his fortitude, in undergoing a pedal martyrdom without necessity; and his folly, in wearing, for fashion's sake, a pair of shoes so ill adapted to his feet in size and shape. Corns are the undoubted offspring of tight shoes; and tight shoes the proper punishers of human vanity. If the rules of society require that I should imprison my toes, it does not follow that I should voluntarily force them on to the treadmill. The foot of man does not end in a point; its termination is nearly circular. Hence it is plain and obvious that a pointed shoe will have the effect of forcing the toes into so small a space that one will lie over the other for want of room. By having always worn shoes suited to the form of my foot, I have now at sixty-two the full use of my toes; and this is invaluable to me in ascending trees.