of the moment; they are always, when you
meet them in the street, "going to look at a gun
which Westley Richards is making for them."
They speak freely of horses and horse-dealing,
and understand such subjects about as well as
they do wine and wine-dealing. This is a
period, too, my dear father (and I beg you will
bear this in mind at quarter-day), when a
considerable amount of luxury characterises the
appointments of a young gentleman of fashion.
He requires many suits of knickerbockers of
various colours; he must have cricketing suits
and boating suits, and hunting costumes; and,
moreover, he needs not only a little bouquet for
his button-hole, but a little glass flower-vase to
stand upon his toilet-table and keep the said
bouquet fresh and bright. Our youths are
obliged to bend their minds seriously and
often, to tailoring questions; they go to Mr.
Poole's shop to try on, and take the great
proprietor of the establishment aside, in order to
converse with him on such topics as are
interesting to them; they stick out their chests
boastfully while trying a new waistcoat, and
make purchases in the back shop, where the
shirt-studs, and waistcoat-buttons, and cigar-
cases, are displayed so temptingly. They
consume Mr. Poole's sherry-and-water, and talk
with each other in an intellectual fashion
concerning Goodwood or the Oaks.

This is one class of my contemporaries, dear
sir. In some respects it is considered rather a
high class. Some of these will be our future
legislators, and will govern the country, as their
fathers did before them. There are other young
men who imitate them to the best of their ability,
and in so far as the lamentable fact that they
have something to do in the world will permit.
These imitators, of the second order of merit,
manage to get up a tolerable appearance, have
their buttons in the right places, keep clear of
offence in the matter of neckcloths, and in
some cases even contrive to talk a language
which will pass with the uninitiated for the real
thing, and which is indubitably characterised by
the needful amount of feebleness, and by "a most
plentiful lack of wit." These young men are for
the most part a grave race. They are little given
to mirth and laughter, and there is not much of
what is called fun among them. Perhaps
they are influenced by the precept and example
of our great namesake, to whom I cannot help
making reference from time to time, and who
says in one of his ever-memorable letters: "I
am sure that, since I have had the full use of
my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh."

I fancy, my dear father, from what I have
heard you say, that we of the present generation
are a much more prudent and cautious race
than you and your contemporaries were; that
we are more temperate in our ideas, and have
fewer illusions. Ah, sir! what things have I
heard you say on the subject of youth, and in
what terms have I heard you speak of your
own young days! How have I heard you
speak of your high standard of life, your lofty
aspirations, your anticipations of great things
to be achieved by yourself and others! You
had heard nonsense talked about the corruption
of human nature; but you saw no corruption,
and believed in none. Men were not what
crabbed old philosophers supposed them to be.
They were great creatures, with a high mission
to be gloriously fulfilled. These were the men;
while as to the women—-they were angels.

But you have told me also, my father, of
a time that succeeded to this period of strong
belief; of a time when it began to wane and
fade; when convictions long put aside, and
forced away, came on in strength. You have
told me that you were slow in finding things and
people out, and that the rosy splendour which
shone at first on all things, was not exchanged
for ordinary sober daylight until you had
reached that period of life which is generally
called its meridian: coming in contact with
many things on the way which had the effect of
sobering your views and lowering your standard
to an earthy level. Perhaps this knowledge,
gained by you and by others like you, may
have profited us of the next generation with
such profit as may belong to a second-hand
experience. Perhaps we have been let into the
world's secrets, earlier and more completely than
you were, and have been suffered to go behind
the scenes more freely than the former generation.
At all events, and be the origin of the
result what it may, I believe—-and I am
influenced in my opinion by studying the works
and lives of Byron, Keats, and others who have
"flown high" —-I believe, that if we do not rise
so high as the youth of another period, neither
do we fall so low as they in their season of
reaction. We do not rush from one extreme to
another, nor, after conceiving a very elevated
view of humanity, and lauding it in the most
exalted terms, do we take suddenly to speaking
of it as a thing too low for hope, and calling
it by all the bad names we can think of.

That we are a wary set, up to a great deal,
inclined to keep a good look-out ahead, and not
easily taken in, I admit freely; but where is
the harm of that? On the contrary, is it not a
very good thing not only for ourselves, but for
our parents and guardians? See how we keep
out of scrapes; see how we eschew imprudent
marriages, and all that sort of thing, that used
to be called romance, and the exceedingly
practical and unromantic consequences of which,
descended upon the parents and guardians just
mentioned. Come, sir! Was not that ardent
and generous young man who has been supposed
to personify youth, and to be the embodiment of
all its fine qualities—-was he not rather an alarming
customer to have to deal with? He was a
fine fellow? O no doubt! He was of a trusting
character; he was the creature of impulse; he
paused not to consider consequences; he was
above all paltry considerations of self-interest;
he considered that to look before he leapt was
to have an old head on young shoulders, and so
he leapt without looking. He was the creature
of good and generous impulse. What! does
his friend want money? He shall have it. This
model youth does not stop to consider where it
is to come from. It would be beneath him to