Like most beasts of prey, the seducer is not found to be fond of a gregarious life, although conformity to specific laws is indispensable. The principal of these, the _law of honour_, is to be obeyed indeed with scrupulous exactness. This law was first framed by a number of these _elegant_ monsters, who, without having any settled or fixed design, merely as a mark of distinction designated themselves “_men of the world_,” and, having heroically dubbed one another in this manner, agreed thenceforth to look down with contempt on the peaceful, moral, and industrious habits of their less ambitious neighbours. To deal no longer in metaphor, though the analogy may be considered both close and applicable, it may be allowed me to make an attempt at an explanation of this all-prevailing _law of honour_, an aristocratical code, not less preposterous in conception than dangerous in tendency. This iniquitous system has for too long a time served as a nursery or hot-bed for the propagation of the most odious vices, generated and nurtured, it may be asserted without its truth being questionable, equal to the most sanguine expectations of its infamous supporters. At the head of these vices stands irreligion: and when once a total disregard for the attributes of God takes place; when this great barrier to human presumption is trampled down; when this invaluable link, which unites civilized man to his christian fellow, is once broken, the infatuated votary may well consider himself fully qualified to become _a man of the world_. Vain thing! how short-lived is his mad career! His situation in the world very much resembles that of a leaky ship in the middle of the ocean, without compass or rudder, gently wafted in the wished-for direction for a short time while the propitious breeze continues; but no sooner does this change, than she is left defenceless to the mercy of the elements, to be driven by every wind, buffeted by every wave, and ultimately sure to perish in the gathering storm. As this law was made exclusively for the convenience of these redoubtable sons of pleasure, it imposes no obligation but what tends to facilitate that _refined_ intercourse they wish to subsist between themselves; nor does it proscribe as criminal, or mean, any thing that has not a similar tendency. It inculcates the unbridled indulgence of licentious passions, which the polished rake alertly may pursue at times when he ought to be employed in cultivating his understanding; and, after a longer or shorter tutoring, according to his capacity, he bursts forth upon the world a scourge and pest to society.