in which bold and flippant ribaldry sometimes
takes hold of the mind, even when shocked at it. I knew well, that human
nature has in itself but too much of passion and sensuality, without
needing any additional stimulus. I was unwilling "to soil my mind" when
I could avoid it. For my own sake, I was unwilling to see the most
destructive vices treated as mere matter of jest, and the most awful
truths of religion introduced in connexion with ludicrous images, and
spoken of in the language of mockery. However much our judgment may
disapprove of these things, yet the ludicrous passages and images are
too apt to stick by us, even when we most wish to shake them off.

A book was advertised, called "The Beauties of Don Juan, including those
passages only which are calculated to extend the real fame of Lord
Byron." The editor acknowledges that the poem itself, from the unpruned
luxuriance of the author's powers, "has remained a sealed
volume"--certainly it _ought_ to be a _sealed volume_--"to the fairest
portion of the community." This _expurgate_ selection, however, though
it contains many passages of great beauty, is a book which I should be
sorry indeed to place in the hands of any young lady; and one against
which I would _forewarn_ every young man, who is not prepared to run the
risk of sacrificing, at the shrine of genius, Christian faith, and
Christian soberness, and Christian purity.

The description of the shipwreck had been spoken of as particularly
fine. I read it. Not long since several accounts of actual shipwrecks
and disasters at sea were published[159:1]. Some of these accounts, are
among the most interesting and edifying narratives, that I am acquainted
with. They abound in instances of heroic courage, of unshaken endurance,
of a noble disregard of self, of the warmest benevolence, and of the
most exalted piety. Don Juan seems to have taken a wayward pleasure in
culling from these narratives the most distressing and painful facts,
and then mixing them up in doggrel verse, with ludicrous images and
ludicrous rhymes; the main _wit_ often consisting in some unexpected
absurdity of sound or cadence.

One of the most dreadful consequences of shipwreck is, when a remnant of
the crew, cast off in an open boat, are reduced, by extremity of
hunger, to determine by lot, which of them shall first be made the food
of his companions. Even in such calamity, this perverse and bitter
spirit contrives to find matter for merri