No. XXI. PREJUDICE CONCERNING SUPERIORITY OF BLOOD FROM ANCIENT DESCENT-ITS ORIGIN, &c. When Adam delv'd and Eve span, 6 "CICERO, in his Offices, gives the first claim on duty to our country, next to parents, then to children, relations, and friends. But,' he says, 'there are some things so flagitions, that a wise man would not perform them, even to save his country from ruin.' He proves, however, that man can never be called upon to perform any duty contrary to virtue; because every thing that is vicious unjust or deceitful is unprofitable; and that even to doubt upon the subject is criminal. To be true to ourselves, therefore, we should do that only which is profitable to our selves; for the practice of every thing connected with virtue is profitable. It is advantageous to be prudent, just, temperate, brave, patient, liberal, generous, and magnanimous; preferring the public good, and the happiness of others, to our own base enjoyment of ease, indolence, sloth, appetite, passions, desires, and pursuit of wealth, unconnected with the wish of having it merely to extend our power of doing good. All the virtues exalt and ennoble us in the empire of thought within our own breasts; and, in proportion as they operate internally, they fix the attention of men: for every one loves what is beautiful; and virtue, being the most beautiful object to the human eye, raises her possessor to fame and glory, on earth as well as in heaven. Such is the origin of real distinction and rank; and from this principle springs the vulgar reverence for the ancient blood that flows in the veins of the nobility of this land. I have heard my turfmakers, up to their middle in mud, talking with rapture about the effects of blood from ancestry. 'No man, nor the son of man, nor man's man,” says one, in all Ireland, England, Scotland, or Wales, can back a horse with 'Squire H of Narrow-Water.'- Och! botheration to me if I know,' said another; but, bad luck to me, but I tink Mr. C― his match. O, Jasus! man dear, if you saw them altegether t'other day after the pack, flying all over the ditches just like the mail on the clane road.'-'I hae seen it, mun,' said a third; but fine a bit o' Mr. C can crack a whip wi' the 'Squire.'-How should he?' said a fourth; he has not the blood in his veins.' The descendant of the Scotchman entered into an argument, and explained that all men, having come from Adam, must necessarily have the same sort of blood in their veins. The original Irishmen made faces at him all the time; and, with his 'grape,' one of them nearly covered him with mud and water, but coincided with the descendant of an Englishman, that some horses, and dogs, and cocks, had superior blood; and that, therefore, one man had better blood than another. The fourteen turf-makers were divided in opinion, and almost came to blows in the pit where they were splashing in dirt; but there was a large majority in favour of Mr. H and |