more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a sunday dress;
casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it boasts the _honor_ of
a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper-leather with a bandage
of shop-thread. There are people who even _pride_ themselves in
humility.

This dangerous _good_, this necessary _evil_, supports the female
character; without it, the brightest part of the creation would
degenerate.

It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will answer,
"As much as you please, but _not_ to disgust."

It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the scene
of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this work with
erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject afresh, and that
pride will increase, should the world smi ---- "But why, says my friend,
do you forsake the title of your chapter, and lead us a dance through
the mazes of pride? Can there be any connexion between that sovereign
passion, and forging a bar of steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides
himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron.

This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was introduced by
the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to
posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of
Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.

From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which shines on
the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the lancet, which
bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock, which preserves the
beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it; the needle, equally
obedient to the thimble and the pole.

NAILS.

In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a
proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter
is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can afford to allow
upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money, the servant can afford
to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of
profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where imprudence sets her foot upon
the premises, the matter and the man starve together. Only _half_ this
is our present case.

The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we may
safely charge its antiquity with four figures.

We cannot consider it a trade _in_, so much as _of_ Birmingham; for we
have but few nail-makers left in the tow