It is well known that the channel of the Po, as it approaches its embochure, is considerably elevated above the surrounding country. The earth which it washes down from the Alps is gradually deposited where the river runs more slowly. The banks, in consequence, require to be periodically elevated; and were that neglected, the river would soon sweep them all away, and render some of the most fertile portions of Italy a wide and noxious marsh, a focus of malaria and fever. Now, it is the same wherever man's cupidity has thrown up artificial mounds in Commerce. They are always attended with danger, and sooner or later they are swept away. It is the sure decree of God: "He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundance with increase." THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. DELUSIONS BELIEVED. One such illustration may suffice for all: but there is another memorable Scheme to which it seems proper to refer--that which is known in this country as the South Sea Bubble. About the beginning of last century, an opinion generally prevailed that the wealth of South America was exhaustless. A privileged Company to trade with it was accordingly formed, and though the genius of the French and the English are widely different, a passion for speculation and gold seized upon our countrymen, as violent and absorbing as that which appeared in connection with the Mississippi Scheme of France. By various devices, in which the principles of the Word of God were outraged, the managers of the South Sea Scheme excited expectations of the most visionary kind. The mania seized upon the nation through all its borders. The stock of the Company rose till it was eagerly bought at a premium of 1000 /per cent./ Catching the general spirit, joint-stock companies sprang up everywhere as rapidly as the Prophet's gourd; and so willing were men to be deceived, that schemes which should have been put down on their first appearance were eagerly embraced. One of these was denominated, "A Company for carrying on an Undertaking of Great Advantage, but nobody to know what it is;"[27] and yet Englishmen, proverbially calculating and cautious in their financial affairs, actually embarked in that transparent deception, like men infatuated by their haste to be rich. The projector of the scheme asked a deposit of £2 on each share of £100, and the promised return was £100 /per annum/. On the first day of his scheme he received about 1000 deposits, or nearly £2000, and with that sum he immediately and for ever disappeared. In this manner, the original South Sea Scheme branched out into eighty-seven cognate speculations, each of which was eventually a fountain of misery to multitudes. THE RULING PASSION.