ERROR. § 1. ITS NATURE. ERROR consists in misunderstanding the properties of creatures or the names by which they are. called. A young lady partook of some salad with which an onion had been mixed, and, for the purpose of destroying the unpleasant odour, she purchased a quantity of camphor, of which she ate; she was soon seized with violent symptoms of illness, and was conveyed home in a state of insensibility. Such is the nature of error with respect to inani mate creatures. Benvenuto Cellini, when speaking of his grandfather Andrew Cellini, says: "He was still living when I was about three years of age, and he then above an hundred. They had one day removed a water-pipe, and there came out of it a large scorpion, which they had not perceived: it descended upon the ground, and had crept under a great bench, when I saw it, and ran to take hold of it. This scorpion was of such a size, that, whilst I held it in my little hand, it put out its tail on one side, and on the other darted its two mouths. I ran overjoyed to my grandfather. The good old man begged it of me, but I grasped it the harder and cried, for I did not choose to part with it. My father took a pair of scissars, and, humouring me all he could, he cut off the tail and head of the scorpion, without my having received any injury." Such is the nature of error with respect to animals. England has long held a high character in foreign countries for her riches, her courage, her love of liberty, but above all, for her benevolence and hospitality to strangers. This character, so justly earned and so nobly maintained, is known in every part of the globe. When did the forlorn and outcast touch her shores, without finding consolation and shelter? No matter to her whether they came hugging their superstitions as servants of the Pope and the Bourbon, or victims of an attempt to shake off those fetters, refugees for the sacred cause of freedom, a deposed king or a houseless and homeless liberal, all, all were welcome, free, and unquestioned, except how far they could be served. A few years since the mother of an Italian boy sent her child to England to seek his fortune. She saw him quit his sunny skies, and did own beautiful country and not grieve, because he was going to plentiful, kind, and happy England. He had scarcely landed, when a villain saw the friendless boy, asked him to eat and drink and play with his children, and then murdered him to sell his body. -Such is the nature of error with respect to man. Perhaps no greater error exists than the supposition, that two human beings, because they resemble in some respects, resemble in all. There are no two animals that differ more from each other than man from man. How different was Howard from Jefferies,-Eve on the first day of her creation from Milwood,-Caliban from Ariel. In a very interesting novel entitled "Marriage," there is the following dialogue between the couple a few weeks after their marriage: "Henry Douglas saw the storm gathering on the brow of his capricious wife, and clasping her in his arms, Are you indeed so changed, my Julia, that you have forgot the time when you used to declare you would prefer a desart with your Henry to a throne with another?' 'No, certainly not changed; but I did not very well know then what a desart was, or, at least, I had formed rather a different idea of it.' 'What was your idea of a desart?' said her husband laughing, do tell me, love.' 'Oh I thought it was a beautiful place, full of roses and myrtles, and smooth green turf, and murmuring rivulets, and, though very retired, yet not absolutely out of the world, but where one would occasionally see one's friends, and give déjeunés and fêtes champêtres."" Such is the nature of errors from misunderstanding the word marriage. It is written in the code of Hindoo laws, "That a woman who, on the death of her husband, ascends the same burning pile with him is exalted |