work it into life, as if all went on there like a rule-ofthree sum. ELLESMERE. After all, this error arises from the man's not having enough political economy. It is not that a theory is good on paper, but unsound in real life. It is only that in real life you cannot get at the simple state of things to which the theory would rightly apply. You want many other theories, and the just composition of them all, to be able to work the whole problem. That being done, (which, however, scarcely can be done) the result on paper might be read off as applicable at once to life. But now touching the essay; since we are not to have population, what is it to be? MILVERTON. Public Improvements. ELLESMERE. Nearly as bad; but as this is a favourite subject of yours, I suppose it will not be polite to go away. MILVERTON. No, you must listen. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. WHAT are possessions? To an individual, the stores of his own heart and mind, preeminently. His truth and valour are amongst the first. His contentedness, or his resigna tion, may be put next. Then his sense of beauty, surely a possession of great moment to him. Then all those mixed possessions which result from the social affections great possessions, unspeakable delights, much greater than the gift last mentioned in the former class, but held on more uncertain tenure. Lastly, what are generally called possessions. However often we have heard. of the vanity, uncertainty and vexation that beset these last, we must not let this repetition deaden our minds to the fact. Now, national possessions must be estimated by the same gradation that we have applied to individual possessions. If we consider national luxury, we shall see how small a part it may add to national happiness. Men of deserved renown, and peerless women lived upon what we should now call the coarsest fare, and paced the rushes in their rooms with as high, or as contented thoughts, as their better fed and better clothed descendants can boast of. Man is limited in this direction; I mean in the things that concern his personal gratification; but when you come to the higher enjoyments, the expansive power both. in him and them is greater. As Keats says, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: "Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing." What then are a nation's possessions? The great words that have been said in it; the great deeds that have been done in it; the great buildings, and the great works of art, that have been made in it. A man says a noble saying: it is a possession, first to his own race, then to mankind. A people get a noble building built for them: it is an honour to them, also a daily delight and instruction. It perishes. The remembrance of it is still a possession. If it was indeed pre-eminent, there will be more pleasure in thinking of it, than in being with others of inferior order and design. On the other hand, a thing of ugliness is potent for evil. It deforms the taste of the thoughtless: it frets the man who knows how bad it is: it is a disgrace to the nation who raised it; an example and an occasion for more monstrosities. If it is a great building in a great city, thousands of people pass it daily, and are the worse for it, or at least not the better. It must be done away with. Next to the folly of doing a bad thing is that of fearing to undo it. We must not look at what it has cost, but at what it is. Millions may be spent upon some foolish device which will not the more make it into a possession, but only a more noticeable detriment. It must not be supposed that works of art are the only, or the chief, public improvements needed in any country. Wherever men congregate, the elements become scarce. The supply of air, light and water, is then a matter of the highest public importance and the magnificent utilitarianism of the Romans should precede the nice sense of beauty of the Greeks. Or rather, the former should be worked out in the latter. Sanitary improvements, like most good works, may be made to fulfil many of the best human objects. Charity, social order, conveniency of living, and the love of the beautiful, may all be furthered by such improvements. A people is seldom so well employed as when, not suffering their attention to be absorbed by foreign quarrels and domestic broils, they bethink themselves of winning back those blessings of nature which assemblages of men mostly vitiate, exclude, or destroy. Public improvements are sometimes most difficult in free countries. The origination of them is difficult there, many diverse minds having to be persuaded. The individual, or class, resistance to the public good, is harder to conquer than in despotic states. And, what is most embarassing, perhaps, individual progress in the same direction, or individual doings in some other way, form a great hindrance, sometimes, to public enterprise. On the other hand, the energy of a free people is a mine of public welfare and individual effort brings many good things to bear in much shorter time than any government could be expected to move in. A judicious statesman considers these things; and sets himself especially to overcome those peculiar obstacles to public improvement which belong to the institutions of his country. Adventure in a despotic state, combined action in a free state, are the objects which peculiarly demand his attention. To return to works of art. In this also the |