sums, but these seem to have escaped detection. It is obviously practicable for persons who do business after this fashion to estimate their own income-tax in defiance of the government myrmidons, and thus the most opulent of the Hindoos are able to conceal the amount of their riches, and the extent of the transactions they carry on.

Most Asiatics entertain peculiar notions respecting silence, and it was from them, unquestionably, that Pythagoras learned to associate disuse of the tongue with the study of wisdom. At the Borneo diamond-mines there is a superstition connected with this subject, which may be worth mentioning. The persons employed in the washings are enjoined to abstain at least from loud talking, lest they should offend the presiding spirit of the mines, who, in revenge for the disturbance of his repose, might frustrate their search after the riches he dispenses to mortals. Yet all sounds are not displeasing to him: with the voice of a woman's singing his ear is charmed; and, if in addition to a sweet voice, she happen to possess a beautiful countenance, he pours the jewels without stint into her lap.

A complete revolution was brought about in the diamond-trade, in 1844, by the discovery of the mines of Sincura, in Brazil. For ages it had been known that the diamond was produced in that empire, whence the King of Portugal obtained the gem long regarded as the finest in the world. But in the year above mentioned, accident threw open to the enterprise of the Brazilians what may be denominated the great diamond-fields, which have been not unaptly compared to the valley of Sindebad, and the jeweled gardens of Aladdin. All the social phenomena since witnessed at the diggings of California and Australia were then exhibited at Sincura. The sugar-growers deserted their works, the merchants their counting-houses, sailors their vessels, and even effeminate gentlemen their pleasures, and rushed to the diamond-mines, where for a while they picked up jewels by handfuls. This new source of wealth was discovered by a slave, who, having collected gems of immense value, traveled a great distance to dispose of them. The avarice of the authorities being thus excited, the slave was seized and thrown into prison, where means none of the gentlest, we may be sure-were employed to

VOL. XLIX-NO. 3

compel him to disclose the site of his discovery. But the obstinacy of the African proved more than an equal match for the cruelty of the Brazilians, though not for their cunning. His escape was purposely connived at, but several Indians were put upon his trail, and these following him like blood-hounds night and day, at length beheld him rooting up for diamonds at the foot of the Sincura Mountains.

What became of the black finder is not stated; but no sooner had it been ascer tained that the precious stones really existed there in great abundance, than the population of the province multipled as if by miracle, swelling in a few months from eight thousand to thirty thousand. To the credit of the government, freedom of search was granted to all comers, which at the outset induced the most fearful desperadoes, robbers, and murderers to engage in the operation. No police existed, provisions were scarce and difficult to be procured, and violence and assassination became common incidents. By degrees, however, a regular police was established, and a certain amount of order introduced, after which the business was conducted in something like a civilized fashion.

Three fourths of the early exports from Sincura found their way to England, the remainder was distributed through France and Germany, and employed all the lapidaries in Europe for several years. But however abundant may be the mines, the Brazilian gems are inferior in lustre, as well as in dimensions, to the oriental. Those of Paraguaçu are of a dun color, while such as are found at Lancoës are white or pale green, which are most highly valued in commerce. The flooding of the market occasioned by this discovery diminished, as might have been expected, the value of diamonds, which, in a few years sunk twenty-five or thirty per cent. The chemical experiments, moreover, which have lately been made in all parts of Europe, have deprived this gem of its title to be considered adamantine - incapable of being subdued by the force of the elements. Innumerable experiments, however, have now shown that a degree of heat insufficient even to affect the pol ish of the ruby, will reduce the diamond to white ashes. But, though more inde structible, all rubescent gems are inferior to the diamond in beauty. In this quality it still surpasses every species of jewel,

28

"The court, the camp, the grove,

And men below, and heaven above."

But the dominion of Love, as compared with that of Worry, would be found, in the number of subjects, as the Macedonian to the Persian-in extent of territory, as the county of Rutland to the empire of Russia.

Whence comes the power of this great goddess? what are the scourges that she wields? To men of a certain age it is only necessary to mention some dread names which will at once recall to their minds her mighty influence, and make them desirous of propitiating her awful power. Law, repairs, taxation, partnership, executorship, trusteeship, bankruptcy, are some of the names, which, if pronounced before the most innocent and even the most cautious of men, will often act like a spell upon them, bringing a slight shudder through their frames and not a slight gloom over their countenances. If they are blessed with progeny, one has only to mention the words education and furtherance of children, to tame them down a little in case their spirits should ever be too bounding.

Perhaps, however, it is in minor matters that the power of Worry is preeminently conspicuous. When we think of voting, testimonial-giving, attendance at public dinners, attendance on committees, management of servants, buying and selling, and, last and greatest, correspondence by lettera trouble which you mow down each day, and each day see a new crop rising up for the scythe-we can form some slight notion of the power of the great goddess Worry.

What contrivances there are in modern life for losing time and adding to worry! Consider the distances in a great capital that have to be traversed upon the most trivial occasions, the various social annoyances that have to be encountered-visits as tiresome to the person visiting as to the persons visited the duties and responsibilities of a witness, a juryman, a creditor, a godfather, a trustee.

Then there is the worry of pleasure, which is often accompanied by all the difficulty, the tiresomeness, and the monotony of business, without any attendant credit or inward satisfaction of mind. See what a tyrant is fashion; and how much every one endures in the way of dress in order to disfigure himself as much as the

rest of mankind, and to avoid being hooted by little boys in the streets!

Then consider the worry connected with conjoint action-how, when you are acting with others, you are never certain of being up to time; and how it requires a long and painful experience of the world before you learn to make allowance for the necessary variation in your calculations which results from other men's backwardness, unpunctuality, and even their reasonable hindrances. There is nothing like certainty in any transaction where you have colleagues. This man, just at the point of time when you relied upon him, is ill; that man torn by domestic affliction; a third indifferent to the project which he had hitherto been sanguine about; a fourth won over to the enemy, while you, assured of his adherence, have been working in other directions and neglecting him. The army is to concentrate upon a certain point at a certain time; but this marshal has lost his way, and that one has been beaten on the road; and one is stupid, and another is traitorous and a third is unlucky; and at last you find, that to have insured success, you must yourself have been every where at the same time. These things happen, too, in private life; for the ordinary affairs of man are not very different from war, diplomacy, and government; and the impartial goddess Worry finds time to attend to private and most obscure persons.

Indeed, it is such persons- commonplace, unromantic people, who are not likely to cut any figure in history-that are mainly thought of in this essay. Pity is sure to be given, and is justly due, to a Charles the Fifth in his old age, lying sick at Innspruck, the clouds of ill-fortune gathering round him from all quarters, and each post bringing intelligence of Duke Maurice's stealthy and treacherous approach; to the sorry ending of a Columbus, who was to gain so little himself from the discovery of a New World; to the struggles of a Napoleon during his closing campaign, grasping still at great projects which he could not hope to realize, and the stern facts coming daily to him, a master of facts, which contradicted all his hopes; to many a poet like Dante or Camöens, who has to sing what song he may amidst the most sordid and miserable accompaniments of poverty, exile, imprisonment, and debt. But all our pity must not be given to these high-raised ex.

amples of men suffering from the great or small miseries of human life; and the ordinary citizen, even of a well-settled state, who, with narrow means, increasing taxation, approaching age, failing health, and augmenting cares, goes plodding about his daily work thickly bestrewed with trouble and worry, (all the while, perhaps, the thought of a sick child at home being in the background of his mind,) may also, like any hero of renown in the midst of his world-wide and world-attracting for tune, be a beautiful object for our sympathy. The suffering, no doubt, is great of the conquered general, reluctantly hurried by his attendants from the field of battle, who thinks with anguish how differently he would play the game if he had to play it over again. But neither is the suffering light of any one of the peasants whose charred and blackened home the conquerors and the conquered press unheeding over.

To return to the worry incident upon conjoint action. If the matter upon which a man is engaged in conjoint action with others be a great matter, something that may be dignified by the name of "a cause," what an amount of life-long trouble there is to any person sincerely embarking in it! What an immense number of people have to be persuaded, silenced, or tired out, before any thing good can be done! How uncertain it is whether such a subject will surge up at the right time! how the cause becomes incrusted with fools, and bores, and vain men, who hinder its progress far more than the marine creatures that stick to the keels of vessels, hinder theirs and thus it is that the men, who of all others should, for the highest interests of mankind, be least obstructed by worry of all sorts, are often those who have to endure, and if they would succeed, to bear down the most of it. That delicate German writer, Jean Paul, says somewhere, when magnifying the office of a learned writer, that kings and princes should sit in dutiful humility upon the bench before him; and so, when a notable man comes into the world, resolutely bent on doing some good in it, and giving fair promise of ability to work, the world could scarcely spend its time better than in defending such a man from all the small cares, hindrances, and worries which seem to grow up in greater profusion under his feet than under those of other

men, and often make him a victim instead of a defender.

The especial plague of modern life lies in the perpetual acts of decision which it requires, while at the same time the power of decisiveness is enlightened, encumbered, and often deadened, as the generations of men proceed, by more insight, more forethought, and a constant increase of the sense of nice responsibility. The great Von Humboldt went into the cottages of South-American Indians, and, amongst an unwrinkled people, could with difficulty discern who was the father and who was the son, when he saw the family assembled together. These comfortable Indians took misfortune when it came, without regret, without much looking back, without much looking forward; bearing it with the exemplary patience of a dumb animal. It would, perhaps, be not too much to say, that a man, living in a highly civilized community, makes, at some expense of thought and suffering, (if indeed we can dissociate the two things, for steady thought is a kind of suffering,) four hundred decisions whilst the savage makes one.

No sane man is likely to talk now as Rousseau did, and to magnify beyond measure the blessings of a savage life; but it may be well occasionally to pause in the midst of counting our gains from civilization, and looking at the other side, to see in what directions worry invades and torments us most successfully-also to study how she may best be resisted. This last investigation may be resolved into two branches: the art of abridging needless annoyance, and the art of taking things coolly.

How much might be done, for instance, in studying taxation with reference to the abridgment of needless annoyance, yet how rarely we find that statesmen enter with any heartiness into financial discussions, except with regard to the amounts to be raised! in short, how little they seem to care about the worry endured by the tax-paying subject!

In physical matters, too, such as the building of houses, how much might be done to avoid worry! Fire insurance is a great field for the influence of our goddess, yet by a little skill and resolve we might baffle her completely there.

But perhaps the field where she might be encountered with most chance of suc