2. Yet those men I could not but love and admire, that they returned to their studies. They left not diligence, as many do, when their rashness prospered; for diligence is a great aid, even to an indifferent wit, when we are not contented with the examples of our own age, but would know the face of the former. Indeed, the more (persons) we confer with, the more we profit by, if they be well chosen.

3. One though he be excellent, and the chief, is not to be imitated alone; for no imitator ever grew up to his author: likeness is always on this side of truth. Yet there happened in my time, one noble speaker (Lord Chancellor Bacon) who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man more neatly, more priestly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and made his judges angry and pleased, at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man who heard him, was lest he should make an end.

4. Some controverters in divinity are like swaggerers in a tavern, that catch that which stands next them, the candlestick or pots; turn every thing into a weapon; oft-times they fight blind-fold, and both beat in the air. Then arguments are as flexible as liquor spilt upon a table, which, with your fingers, you may draw as you will. Such controversies or disputations (carried on with more labour than profit) are odious, where, most times, the truth is lost in the midst, or left untouched. These fencers in religion I like not.

Howard, the Philanthropist.

Our superfluities should be given up for the convenience

of others.

Our conveniences should give place to the necessities of others.

the

And even our necessities give way to the extremities of poor.

MEMORABLE BEQUEST.

A CITIZEN of Berne, in Switzerland, who had

grown rich by habits of persevering industry, being advanced in years,

made a will of the following tenor, viz.

"Being anxious for my fellow citizens of Berne, (who have often suffered by dearth of corn and wine,) my will is, that, by the permission of Providence, they shall never, for the future, suffer under the like calamity: to which end and purpose, I give my estate, real and personal, to the senate of Berne in trust for the people, that is to say, that they receive the produce of my estate until it shall come to the sum of (suppose two thousand pounds); that then they shall lay out this two thousand pounds in building a town house, according to the plan by me left; the lower story whereof to consist of large vaults or repositories for wines; the story above, I direct to be formed into a piazza for such persons as shall come to market at Berne, for disposing of their goods, free from the injuries of the weather; above that, I direct a council-chamber to be erected for the committee of the senate to meet in, from time to time, to adjust my accounts, and to direct such things as may be necessary for the charity; and, above the councilchamber, as many floors and granaries as can be conveniently raised, to deposit a quantity of corn for the use of the people, whenever they shall have occasion for it. And when this building shall be erected, and the expence of it discharged, I direct the senate of Berne to receive the produce of my estate until the same shall amount to the sum (suppose two thousand pounds); and when the price of corn shall be onefourth part under the mean rate of the last ten years, they shall then lay out one thousand pounds in corn, and stow it in my granaries; and the same in wine, when under one-fourth of the mean rate of the last ten years. And my will is, that none of the said corn and wine shall be sold until the price of corn and wine shall exceed, at the common market, onefourth of the mean rate of the last ten years, and then every citizen of Berne shall demand daily (or proportionably weekly) as many pounds weight of wheat, and as many pints of wine, as he has mouths in his family to consume, and no more; and that, for the same, he pay ready money after the mean rate that it had been for the last ten years-a due proportion being allowed for waste, and that to be settled by the senate; and that each householder shall be so supplied as long as the price of corn and wine shall continue above the rate of onefourth more than the mean rate; and whatsoever increase shall be made of the capital, it shall be laid out, under the same restrictions, in adding to the stock of corn and wine, which, under the blessing of God, will, I hope, in a certain time, reduce these two necessary articles of life to very near a fixed price to the glory of God, and benefit of the poor."

For nearly two hundred years, this patriotic provision had subsisted, when an English merchant, returning from Aleppo by Berne, was so struck with the good effects it had produced,

that, on his return home, he settled a sum of money for the use of the poor at Kingston-on-Thames for the purchase of coals in the same manner. The right honourable Arthur Onslow, speaker of the honourable house of commons, and Nicholas Hardinge, esq. were two of the trustees, under whose auspices the poor were abundantly supplied, and the fund greatly augmented.

MORAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

A Fragment.

FEW men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of the support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware, how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain; how powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God; how palsied would be human benevolence, were there not the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it; how suddenly the whole social fabric would quake, and, with a fearful crash, sink into hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a Supreme Being, of accountableness, and of a future life, to be utterly erased from every mind. Once let men thoroughly believe that they are the work and sport of chance; that no superior intelligence concerns itself in human affairs; that all their improvements perish for ever at death; that the weak have no guardian, and the poor no avenger; that an oath is unheard in heaven; that secret crimes have no witness but the perpetrator; that human existence has no purpose, and human virtue no unfailing friend; that this brief life is every thing to us, and death is total, everlasting extinction; once let men thoroughly abandon religion, and who can conceive or describe the extent of the desolation which would follow? We hope, perhaps, that human laws and natural sympathy would hold society together. As reasonably might we believe that were the sun quenched in the heavens, our torches could illuminate, and our fires quicken and fertilize the creation. What is there in human nature to awaken respect and tenderness, if man is the unprotected insect of the day? And what is he more, if Atheism be true? Erase all thoughts and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint, and poverty and suffering having no solace or hope, would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws, Virtue, duty, and principle, would be mocked and spurned as unmeaning sounds. sordid self-interest would supplant every other feeling; and man would become, in fact, what the theory of Atheism declares him to be-a companion for brutes.

A

CROOKED COINCIDENCES.

A PAMPHLET published in the year 1703, has the following strange title :-"The Deformity of Sin cured; a Sermon preached at St. Michael's Crooked-lane, before the Prince of Orange, by the Rev. J. Crookshanks. Sold by Matthew Denton, at the Crooked Billet, near Cripplegate, and by all other booksellers." The words of the text are-" Every crooked path shall be made straight;" and the prince before whom it was preached, was deformed in his person.

LINES ON JOHN TISSEY, A PUNSTER.

MERRY was he, for whom we now are sad;
His jokes were many, and but few were bad.
The gay, the jocund, sprightly, active soul
No more shall pun, alas! no more shall bowl.
Now at his tomb, methinks I hear him say-
I never lik'd to be in a grave way!"

66

Then, by and by, he cries-" for all your scoffing,
I now am only in a fit of coffin!"

Thy passing bell with heavy hearts we hear;
For thee each passing belle shall drop a tear.
That sable hearse which drew thy corpse along
Shall be rehears'd in dismal poet's song.
Oh! how unlike-yet this is he, we're sure,
Who once in Gratton's coach sat so demure.
Many a ball he gracefully began;

Well may we bawl to lose so great a man.
Thy friendly club their mighty loss deplore
Their faithful secretary now no more.

Thou ne'er shalt secret tarry, though in death,
While puns are puns, or punning men have breath.

EPITAPH ON A GYPSEY.

A POOR, friendless, but honest Gypsey became so attached to Mrs. Smyth Stuart, that she followed her fortunes, and shared in all her mishaps, shipwrecks, and disasters, both by land and sea, from England to the West Indies-through America-and back to her native country, where she expired,

grateful and attached until her death. To her memory the following Epitaph was inscribed for the benefit of the living:

HERE LIES A POOR GYPSEY;
Yet her face was perfectly white,
And her disposition strictly honest;
Possessing, likewise, many excellent qualities,
And has seen as much of the world
As most Gypsies,

And undergone as great vicissitudes of fortune ;
Without the smallest stain or blemish
Throughout her whole life.

For, besides much of England,

She travelled thousands of miles in the Indies,
And over the vast continent of America,
Attacked and nearly devoured by wild beasts;
She suffered also

Shipwreck, famine, war, and pestilence;
And always with a degree of
Patience, resignation, and fortitude
That would not disgrace
STATIONS

The most exalted;

And CHARACTERS

The most honoured and applauded.
At last, she was carried off,
From this transitory life,
By a mortification,
Which terminated her existence,
After long and painful sufferings:
Still patient therein,
And

Grateful, to the last,

For every mark of kindness, attention, or pity.
READER!