THE ROBBER'S FINGER-TIP.
MATHEWS, in one of his entertainments, tells a story of a matter- of-fact person, whom he calls Felix Fact, going to "see the sea;" and, after looking at the waves for some time—dipping his finger in, to feel that it was water—popping it into his mouth, to taste that it was salt—picking up a pebble, to put in his pocket, as evi- dence of his having trod on the shingly beach—straightway re- turning home, satisfied with having seen the ocean. This is hardly a caricature of some of our dear countrymen. They have no ima- gination; and are so stolid with regard to a fact, that they must not only see, but touch, taste, or possess the evidence of it. They will hardly believe you if you merely describe Pompey's Pillar or the Great Pyramid; but if' you show them a bit of rotten wood, and tell them it is a bit of "the true cross," they are, as credulous as monkery would desire. Their minds can comprehend nothing but what is visibly and palpably presented to their senses; when their understandings are as utterly unable to deal with the fact, as their imaginations were to receive the idea. They are fairly flab- bergasted; and all they can do is to "wonder with a foolish face of praise."
Another instance of this miserable ignorance occurred the other day. A gentleman, attacked by footpads, resisted; and in the struggle, bit off the tip of the finger of one of the rogues, who forthwith took to flight. The owner of the finger-tip was dis- covered by his loss; and, together with one of his companions, was apprehended. The constable has the finger-tip preserved in spirits, to produce as evidence on the trial : and hundreds of the country-folks have been to see it!
People that flock in droves to see the scene of a murder—who offer a guinea an inch for the rope with which a criminal was hanged—and who lapped like brutes the water in which the wretch BISHOP drowned his victims—may be guilty of any act of absurdity or folly, without exciting our surprise. The dulness of their senses, the opacity of their perceptions, the vacuity of their minds, may sufficiently account for any thing. Their love of the Newgate Calendar,and the detailsof murders, prize-fights,and such- like substantial horrors—and their belief in all kinds of quackery— are thus explained : their brutality arises from their ignorance, their gullibility from the same cause. "Seeing, they do not per- ceive, neither do they understand." Thank God, this grossness is beginning to be purged away; this film over the mental vision is in process of removal; and the numbers who are deluded by quacks, in medicine or in politics, get fewer and fewer every year. Those, however, who judge of the working and the trading classes by the population of large towns only, can form a very imperfect idea of the vast extent and the impenetrable depth of the igno- rance that exists in rural districts; where even Penny Magazines could not be understood. This is one of the consequences of the country parsons being toadeaters of the squirearchy, instead of teachers of the poor.
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