La morale est la science des sciences à ne la considérer que sous le rapport du calcul; et il y a toujours des limites à l'esprit de ceux qui n'ont pas senti l'harmonie de la nature des choses avec les devoirs de l'homme. VOL. III. MADAME DE STAEL. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Measure for Measure. MR. MORTON's letter to Sackville caused neither surprise nor sorrow to the latter. The event of the execution was not unexpected nor unwelcome. On the contrary, it had been promoted by himself, under the agency of Allen, acting on the fears and impatience of Mr. Morton's other creditors; and the time at which it had been carried into effect had been expressly marked by his direction. He had secured to himself the hand of Agnes, by terrifying her weak-father with the prospect of a discovery of his embarrassment; and, having gained this object, he no longer feared to realize the threatened evil. His motives for procuring the execution to be levied against Mr. Morton were chiefly economical; and their object was check that course of expence, which was every day adding to the frightful magnitude of his embarrassments. to The fortune of Agnes he regarded as eventually his own; and, though he intended after their union to resist her wish of liberally administering to the necessities of her parents, he considered it desirable that those necessities should be previously contracted as much as possible, and that the accumulation of debt should be checked. He also thought it better that the situation of Mr. Morton should be known to the world before his marriage with Agnes. There would be something apparently |