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JOHN AND JAMES JACKSON.

age of twenty they each became possessed of riches. Their passion to acquire was too strong to allow them to enjoy these acquisitions, and their only pleasure was in hoarding up, and scraping to add to their abundant store. Riches, instead of a blessing, became in their hands a curse. From principles of economy, and from congeniality of disposition, they both lived together. They hired one miserable dirty room, into which for fifty years no human being except themselves was allowed to enter: they lived so penuriously that they denied themselves the necessaries of life; and their appearance was so squalid, that passengers in the streets bestowed their charity upon them, which these unworthy wretches were never known to refuse. Nothing could have been more sordid, and nothing more miserable, than such a life: yet perhaps by thus feeding their ruling passion, they derived some enjoyment from their existence. When at the respective ages of ninety-three and eighty-seven the two brothers were taken ill, and languishing for a week, they both died on the same day, leaving behind them an accumulation of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

A similar instance of fraternal misery is recorded in the Cambridge Chronicle of December 26, 1767. Two brothers named John and Joseph Palmer lived together in a most parsimonious manner at Witney, in Oxfordshire. Although possessing considerable wealth, they

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indulged themselves in no comforts inhabited a wretched attic-kept no servant-wore rags instead of clothes, and in their domestic arrangements were prodigies of filth and penury. They were both bachelors, and detested even the very sight of women; they would never permit one to clean out their chamber; and as they never took the trouble to fulfil that duty themselves, their apartment was a harbour for vermin, and a receptacle for dust and rubbish. In April 1767 they were both taken ill; and as in the case just quoted above, both died on the same day within a few minutes of each other. Having dwelled together in life, they were not separated in death.

Many years ago, there lived, at Cambridge, a miserly old couple of the name of Jardine: they had two sons, the father was a perfect miser, and at his death one thousand guineas were discovered secreted in his bed. The two sons grew up as parsimonious as their sire. When about twenty years of age, they commenced business at Cambridge as drapers; and they continued there until their death. During forty years, they never had their house cleaned but once, and that was on the occasion of their mother's death. to filial love, and the loss of a parent produced no sorrow. They begrudged the last tribute of affection; and, to save a trifling fee, they laid out the corpse themselves, and bargained for her interment on the lowest scale,

They were strangers

THE MESSRS. JARDINE OF CAMBRIDGE.

166 The establishment of the Messrs. Jardine was the most dirty of all the shops in Cambridge. Customers seldom went in to purchase, except perhaps out of curiosity. The brothers were most disreputable looking beings; for although surrounded with gay apparel, as their staple in trade, they wore the most filthy rags themselves. It is said that they had no bed, and, to save the expence of one, always slept on a bundle of packing cloths under the counter. In their housekeeping they were penurious in the extreme. A joint of meat did not grace their board for twenty years. They always had an eye to business; and if a shopkeeper or a farmer happened to purchase of them, they would enquire their address, and go a mile or two to purchase of them in return a few eggs or half a pint of beer; yet they always observed the utmost caution, lest, as they used to observe, any of their other customers should be offended. When the first of the brothers died, the other, much to his surprise, found large sums of money which had been secreted even from him. They both died suddenly and within a few months of each other. They left about eight thousand pounds, the whole of which, with the exception of a twenty pound legacy, was left to a neighbour, who, on one or two occasions had shown them some little kindness, and sent them now and then a dinner.

We do not pretend, from these facts, to build a theory

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or to maintain a new doctrine: we offer them simply as facts and illustrations, which may be useful in forming an opinion. We do not pretend to think them sufficient to prove the passion of avarice hereditary, but we regard them as examples of some weight in favour of that opinion. We would, in short, rather that our readers judged for themselves, than that we should point out the way that we would have them judge. The subject is a difficult one, and we think it rash and somewhat unseemly to decide prematurely upon that, which so many great men have been unable to decide, and so many philosophers have been unable to prove.

CHAPTER XIII.

MAMMON WORSHIP; ITS SACRIFICES AND REWARDS.

Love of Speculating-The Tulip Mania in Holland-The South Sea Stock bubble; its origin, &c.-Its demoralizing influence -The Railway Mania-Illustrations of avarice-Anecdote from Madame de Genlis of a miser and a Surgeon-Sacrifices of the parsimonious-The rewards of Mammon, &c.

WITH the advancement of science and the progress of civilization, the general tone of society has not proportionately improved. The age abounds with many illustrations of progress, of vast enterprize-of genius and of

talent. But the mainspring of all this activity-of all these gigantic schemes, admirable inventions, and discoveries, is evidently the love of gain. Napoleon designated us a nation of shopkeepers; could he now describe us, he would designate us a nation of speculators; competition has rendered the usual course of trade inadequate to satisfy ambition, and men look eagerly for some speculation by which their riches may be augmented with greater speed, they enter into any scheme however wild, and into any project however improbable; some few grow rich on the ruin of the many, and votaries of Mammon become more numerous. If we call to mind the bubbles which at various times have excited the cupidity of avarice, we shall be surprised that men have not learnt in their failure a little wisdom to protect them against such fascinations for the future. The tulip mania, which raged among the Dutch in the year 1634, will show how the reason will become dazzled with the hope of gain. We regard now, that singular infatuation as a species of madness; and we can scarcely credit, although the fact is well authenticated, that men could have been so absurd as to invest four thousand florins in the purchase of a single bulb. A tulip, called the Admiral Liefken was worth, at the market value, four thousand four hundred florins; and the Semper Augustus produced five thousand five hundred florins in cash. Holland was the El Dorado of enthu