produced other effects among the young, the thoughtless, and the vicious.

During the colder months there was a general rush to London in search of

amusement--the ties of public opinion were loosened; many were rich,

heretofore poor--many had lost father and mother, the guardians of their

morals, their mentors and restraints. It would have been useless to have

opposed these impulses by barriers, which would only have driven those

actuated by them to more pernicious indulgencies. The theatres were open

and thronged; dance and midnight festival were frequented--in many of

these decorum was violated, and the evils, which hitherto adhered to an

advanced state of civilization, were doubled. The student left his books,

the artist his study: the occupations of life were gone, but the amusements

remained; enjoyment might be protracted to the verge of the grave. All

factitious colouring disappeared--death rose like night, and, protected

by its murky shadows the blush of modesty, the reserve of pride, the

decorum of prudery were frequently thrown aside as useless veils. This was

not universal. Among better natures, anguish and dread, the fear of eternal

separation, and the awful wonder produced by unprecedented calamity, drew

closer the ties of kindred and friendship. Philosophers opposed their

principles, as barriers to the inundation of profligacy or despair, and the

only ramparts to protect the invaded territory of human life; the

religious, hoping now for their reward, clung fast to their creeds, as the

rafts and planks which over the tempest-vexed sea of suffering, would bear

them in safety to the harbour of the Unknown Continent. The loving heart,

obliged to contract its view, bestowed its overflow of affection in triple

portion on the few that remained. Yet, even among these, the present, as an

unalienable possession, became all of time to which they dared commit the

359

The Last Man