is no bad thing in itself "I hate a Tory," says my honorable friend; "and
another man hates a cat; but it does not follow that he would hunt down the
cat, or I the Tory." Nay, so far from it, hatred, if it be properly
managed, is, according to my honorable friend's theory, no bad preface to a
rational esteem and affection. It prepares its votaries for a
reconciliation of differences; for lying down with their most inveterate
enemies, like the leopard and the kid in the vision of the prophet. This
dogma is a little startling, but it is not altogether without precedent. It
is borrowed from a character in a play, which is, I dare say, as great a
favorite with my learned friend as it is with me,--I mean the comedy of the
Rivals; in which Mrs. Malaprop, giving a lecture on the subject of marriage
to her niece (who is unreasonable enough to talk of liking, as a necessary
preliminary to such a union), says, "What have you to do with your likings
and your preferences, child? Depend upon it, it is safest to begin with a
little aversion. I am sure I hated your poor dear uncle like a blackamoor
before we were married; and yet, you know, my dear, what a good wife I made
him." Such is my learned friend's argument, to a hair. But finding that
this doctrine did not appear to go down with the House so glibly as he had
expected my honorable and learned friend presently changed his tack and put
forward a theory which, whether for novelty or for beauty, I pronounce to
be incomparable; and, in short, as wanting nothing to recommend it but a
slight foundation in truth. "True philosophy," says my honorable friend,
"will always continue to lead men to virtue by the instrumentality of their
conflicting vices. The virtues where more than one exists, may live
harmoniously together; but the vices bear mortal antipathy to one another,
and, therefor, furnish to the moral engineer the power by which he can make
each keep the other under controls." Admirable! but upon this doctrine, the
poor man who has but one single vice must be in a very bad way. No fulcrum
no moral power, for effecting his cure! Whereas his more fortunate
neighbor, who has two or more vices in his composition, is in a fair way of