temper is likely to become irritable, his deportment forbidding, his spirit stern and soured, particularly against those who appeal to his charity; which then, indeed, he might be pardoned for feeling, and bitterly--_to begin at home_. It was not so, however, with Aubrey, whose constant feeling was--_Haud ignarus mali, miseris succurrere disco_; and though it may appear a small thing to mention, I feel gratification in recording of him, that, desperate as were his circumstances, infinitely enhanced to him as was the value of money, he went seldom unprovided with the means of relieving the humbler applicants for charity whom he passed in the streets--of dropping some small token of his love and pity into the trembling and feeble hand of _want_--of those whose necessities he felt to be greater even than his own. Never, indeed, did the timid eye of the most tattered, starved, and emaciated object suffered to crawl along the streets, catch that of Mr. Aubrey, without making his heart acknowledge the secret bond of misery which bound them together--that he beheld a brother in bondage, and on whom he cheerfully bestowed the humble pittance which he believed that Providence had yet left at his disposal!--Prosperity and adversity have equally the effect, upon an inferior mind and heart, of generating _selfishness_. The one encourages, the other forces it. Misery is apt to think its own sufferings greater than those of any one else--and naturally. The eye, as it were, is filled with the object--that is to say, of distress and danger--which is nearest--which is in such fearful contiguity, obscuring from view all remoter objects, at once scaring away presence of mind, and centring its hopes and fears upon _self_. Not so, however, is it when a noble nature is the sufferer--and more especially when that nature is strengthened and brightened by the support and consolation derived from philosophy--and, above all, religion. To many a strong spirit, destitute of such assistance, alas! how often, under similar circumstances, have come--ghastly visitants!--_Despair_ and _Madness_, with their hideous attendant SUICIDE, to do their bidding?