if she admires Donizetti's compositions, but tenderly
inquires if she loves beef-steak pies. This sordid vice of greediness is
rapidly brutalizing natures not originally spiritual; every other
passion is sinking, oppressed by flabby folds of fat, into helplessness.
All the mental energies are crushed beneath the oily mass. Sensibility
is smothered in, the feculent steams of roast beef, and delicacy stained
by the waste drippings of porter. The brain is slowly softening into
blubber, and the liver is gradually encroaching upon the heart. All the
nobler impulses of man are yielding to those animal propensities which
must soon render Englishmen beasts in all save form alone."

I have now finished my _Elegant Extracts_ from the work of Mr. Ward. The
reader can judge for himself of Boston's "_vigorous volume_," of
Philadelphia's "_delightful treat_," of Rochester's "_chivalrous and
genuine Amercan feeling_," of The Christian Advocate's "_retort
courteous_," and of New Orleans' "_aggregate outburst of the great
American heart_," &c. These compliments from the Press derive additional
value from the following passage in the work they eulogize. Pages 96,
97, Mr. Ward writes: "It is the labour of every author so to adapt his
style and sentiments to the tastes of his readers, as most probably to
secure their approbation.... The consciousness that his success is so
wholly dependent on their approval, will make him, without his being
aware of it, adapt his ideas to theirs." And the New Orleans Press
endorses all the author's sentiments, and insults American gentlemen and
American intelligence, by asserting that it "_admirably reveals the
sentiments of the whole people, and will find sympathy in the mind of
every true son of the soil_."

Before taking a final leave of _English Items_, I owe some apology to
the reader for the length at which I have quoted from it. My only excuse
is, that I desired to show the grounds upon which I spoke disparagingly
of a portion of the Press, and of the low popular literature of the
country. I might have quoted from various works instead of one; but if I
had done so, it might fairly have been said that I selected an isolated
passage for a particular purpose; or else, had I quoted largely, I might
have been justly charged with being tedious. Besides which, to
corroborate my assertions regarding the Press, I should have been bound
to give their opinion also upon each book from which I quoted; and,
bey