of fashion.

We have our great men and our higher classes. We discriminate between styles of living. We speak contemptuously of the great vulgar, and the little vulgar. There are those who deprecate the influence of an aristocracy, and others who live in terror of a mob. And yet, notwithstanding these seeming imitations of foreign manners, and customs, and caprices, and follies, there is nothing amongst us more truly American, than, if I may so denominate them, the principles of society. When, therefore, I say that we deride hereditary titles of nobility, and ridicule those who profess to have been born gentlemen, I mean only that we are true to the spirit of our institutions, which inculcate natural equality, and prompt us to treat all assumptions of this sort as preposterous. And when I refer to the disposition which evidently exists amongst us to adopt foreign fashions, manners and prejudices, I do it for the sake of showing by these very examples (as painters resort to caricature, in their sketches of society), how completely they have here failed to produce the effects that give to them all their value abroad.

Upon this point it is wise to rely upon observation and experience. Show me the instance in which the attempt has been made to appropriate wealth to the gratification of what is styled a taste for luxury, and elegance, and high life, in which the result has not proved that the short-sighted novice has totally misunderstood his own interests and also public sentiment. Abroad he may have witnessed that a splendid establishment is not only an agreeable but a necessary appendage of rank and fortune; but he commits a fatal error if he does not perceive that here its only effect will be to lessen his influence, to empty his purse, and, in the end, to turn him upon the community, of which he had vainly thought himself independent, abject and disconsolate. Show me the instance, in which the affectation of superiority of any sort, whether leaning upon wealth, or family connexions, or personal accomplishments, has not terminated in mortification and disgrace. Show me what, after all, fashion has ever gained for its delud

ed votary, beyond perhaps, the momentary gaze of a passing admirer, or hasty and heartless friendship succeeded by cold and lasting neglect; or what effect it has produced upon the character, other than the extinction of natural delicacy, and a fastidious, disregard of true moral refinement. Extend your recollection throughout the range of your acquaintance and point me, if you can, to a single instance, where external circumstances alone have secured consideration, respect, and influence without abatement or without reverses. I am happy thus to infer from what I believe to be the uniform testimony of facts, that the factitious distinctions which prevail abroad, exist here, only, as it were, to demonstrate the absurdity of their pretensions. I am still more happy to believe, that they are gradually yielding to enlightened views of real life and of our proper condition.

What, is it asked, are the principles of society on which we are dependent? Fortunately, be it answered, it is not so much for us to adopt, as to recognize them. They are engrafted upon our institutions. They are the cement of the political fabric. They are to be traced in the example of our ancestors. They enter into our opinions, feelings, and habits. They adhere to us through all changes. We lean upon them in adversity, and in the height of prosperity we find it in vain to attempt to rise above them. They are to be learned by observation and experience.

We have classes in our society; and it is easy to foresee that we must always have them. But tell me, from what you see and know, how are they constituted? Perhaps you will be inclined to answer, that the first class comprises the rich, the learned, and the fashionable. Such is the common impression; but this description is by far too general. There are rich men, respectable and respected, who adorn high stations; there are also rich men, despicable and despised, who have sunk into the lowest. Learning often confers upon its possessor undying honors; it has sometimes served to immortalize his infamy. All classes pay more or less deference to

fashion; the shameless wanton may be the most fashionable of her sex. Perceiving the necessity of being more minute, you will now tell me, that our first class consists of those who do not pervert wealth and learning, and who only defer to fashion according to their circumstances, from a willingness to obey universal custor, and never in violation of good sense and decorum. The description is more satisfactory, but it is still imperfect. Who are the rich men and the learned men, that fill high places in society? They are known to us, thus far, only as those, who do not abuse wealth and learning. How do they use these supposed distinctions, and how have they acquired them? Inquire into the history of such as must occur to your recollection, and tell me if I am not right in saying that they are memorable instances of industry, perseverance, economy, temperance and honesty, struggling against obstacles, and gradually attaining to the elevation which is accorded to them by general consent, in consideration of their talents, the extent of their influence, and the benefit of their example. Am I not right in saying that a large proportion of those, who now constitute, and who have always constituted the highest class of our society have had their origin in the lowest? Am I not right in saying that our richest merchants owe their wealth to their own exertions, and that the most distinguished members of the learned professions have earned their reputation by the daily and nightly toil of successive years? Am I not right in saying that they can maintain their standing only so long as they maintain their principles, and apply their means of usefulness to proper ends? Am I not further right in saying, that their acquisitions, at their death, are beyond their disposal, that a large fortune distributed amongst heirs is usually scattered to the winds, and that the treasures of learning can only satisfy the avarice of the mind?

The organization of the first class of our society, then, has reference as much to the respectability and usefulness of the individuals who compose it, as to their wealth and learning.

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Wealth or learning they are likely to possess; because, apart from prejudice, it is plain that these are the ordinary results of human exertions, as directed to different pursuits, and when justly appreciated and properly used, they imply the substantial comforts and proper ornaments of life.

I have said that our society will ever be divided into classes, and I have referred to what must be regarded as the only permanent distinctions of the highest class. It ought further to be remarked that the constitution of one class is the constitution of every other-that they are only distinguished by different degrees of attainmert-that they propose the same objects of pursuit that no barrier is interposed between them—but that, like the arrangement of guests at the table of Cyrus, merit is promoted from the lowest grades, while imbecility, indolence, folly and vice are constantly receding from the highest. I repeat it, there is none so low in the lowest class, that he may not raise himself to honorable distinction; there is none so high in the highest, as to be secure from degradaion, if he stoop to infamy. This is the alchymy which converts the meanest substances into gold, and which detects alloy in the most glittering metals. These are the principles which are at work in all the changes that we witness and experience, and which lie at the foundation of society as it exists with us. "It is in England," says Sir Richard Steele, "come into our very language as a propriety of distinction, to say, when we would speak of persons to their advantage-they are people of condition." In America, none can deserve, or should desire higher praise, than to have it said of them— they are people of merit.

The relation of classes in our society deserves to be further considered. Here, as elsewhere, the progress of society is indicated by the degree of advancement of the higher class; but it should be remembered, that here, not as elsewhere, the advancement of the higher class depends altogether upon the improvement of the lower.

In Europe, refinement is co-existent with barbarism; it

being in the nature of her institutions that the extreme of luxury should meet the extreme of want, and that those only should be admitted into high life, who are born in the midst of it. Property and rank are secured to the possessors during "life, while the laws of entail and primogeniture provide for their transmission. In this manner a permanent aristocracy is established, which can exist only by virtue of its independence of the great mass of the population; and which will seek to maintain its independence by monopolizing the influences of wealth, knowledge, and even religion. Society is forced to accommodate itself to institutions thus reared and thus sustained. It is "divided horizontally." The upper class becomes such by birth; and the political design is to keep it uppermost by placing within its reach, and by placing beyond the reach of the lower class all social as well as political advantages. It is thus, as I think we may see clearly, that, under every government except our own, the superiority of one class depends upon the inferiority of the other; and that the permanent separation of the two classes is sought to be maintained, as it can only be maintained, by super-adding to political restraints the influence of all the causes that affect the improvement of individuals and society. Such a policy is opposed to reason, and is an offence against nature; and, sooner or later, reason and nature, enabling men to understand their rights, and prompting them to feel their wrongs, by those mighty revulsions, which have so often shaken government and society to their foundations, restore the equilibrium alike essential to political and social harmony.

In our country such a revulsion (not so violent as elsewhere, because preceded by a gradual amelioration), has resulted in a political and social system precisely the reverse of that which has been described. This system is founded in opposite principles; it proposes a different end, and therefore requires a resort to different means. So far from rendering the great body of the people politically powerless, it recognizes the people at large as the rightful possessors of all political power; and so

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