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finished, the remainder of the burial fervice is read, and the awful cere. mony is clofed. The offerings at Llanbublic, and Caernarvon, are faid, upon an average, to amount to feventy-five or eighty pounds a year. Í have been told that it is the intention of the clergy of North Wales to abolish this custom, if poflible.

It is ufual in Caernarvonshire, and fome other parts of North Wales, for the nearest female relative of the deceased, be the widow, mother, fifter, or daughter, to pay fome poor perfon of the fame fex and nearly of the fame age with the deceased for procuring flips of yew, box, and other evergreens, to ftrew over and ornament the grave, for fome weeks after the interment; and in fome inftances for weeding and adorning it, on the eves of Eafter, Whitfuntide, Chriftmas, and fome other particular days, for a year or two afterwards. The money is given to the perfon on a plate, at the door of the houfe, where the body is ftanding on a bier. This gift is called diodlys; for formerly, inftead of it, the perfon ufed to receive from the hand of the female relative a cheefe with a piece of money ftuck in it, and fome white bread, and afterwards a cup of drink; but this practice is difcontinued; the gift, however, ftill retains it's old name. When this ceremony is over, the clergy man, or, in his abfence, the parish clerk, fays the Lord's prayer, after which they proceed with the corpfe. Four of the nearest of kin take the bier upon their fhoulders - a cuftom confidered as the highest refpec that filial piety can pay to the deceased. If the distance from the houfe to the church is confiderable, they are relieved by fome of the congregation, but they again take

it, in order to carry it in and out of the church. I have been told that it is ufual in fome parts to fet down the bier at every crois way, between the house and the church, and again repeat the Lord's prayer, and to do the fame when they enter the church-yard. They generally fing pfalms on the way, by which the ftilinefs of ruftic life is often broke into in a manner finely productive of religious reflections.

"In fome places it was customary for the friends of the dead to kneel and fay the Lord's prayer over the grave for feveral Sundays after the interment, and then to drefs the grave with flowers.

"Among the Welf, it was reckoned fortunate for the deceafed if it fould rain while they were carrying him to church, that his bier might be wet with the dew of heaven.

"I have obferved, that in many parts of Wales, as well as England, the relations most ridiculously crowd all into that part of the church-yard which is fouth of the church; the north, or as they term it the wrong fide, being accounted unhallowed ground, and fit only to be the dormitory of ftill-born infants and fuicides.

"Mr. Pratt has given us a moft animated and enchanting defcription of the neatness of the Welsh church-yards, and of the care that is taken by the relations of the graves of their kindred; but I am forry to fay, that, if this gentleman has stated facts, they must be not, as he has afferted, in general, but completely local; I never faw, nor could ever during the whole of the three months I fpent in Wales, hear of the graves being weeded every Saturday, of their being every week planted with the choiceft flowers of the feafon,'

or

or that if a nettle or weed were feen on the Sunday morning, the living party, to whom the grave on which it was feen belonged, would be hooted, after divine fervice. by the whole congrega tion.' Mr. P. throughout the whole of his volumes feems to have mingled too much of the novelist with his obfervations. To this there would be lefs objection, if by fome previous hint he could apprize us of the entire of the former: the characters which ought never to be confounded might thus be kept diftin&t. But when a writer, who feems to think himself entitled to credit (and in general perhaps not without reafon) in relating his real adventures, condefcends to em

bellifh his account with fiction, however I may admire his abilities, I cannot help reprobating his prac tice.

"The clergy of North Wales are in general very refpectable men, and their churches pretty well attended. The livings are in general rectories, and the incumbents for the most part men that have been educated at one of the universities. Thefe circumftances place them upon a much more refpectable footing than thofe of the fouthern divifion of the principality, whose ftipends, I have been told, are fo flender as to render their situations almoft worse than thofe of the labouring class of the community."

ACCOUNT of the JUMPERS, a SECT of WELSH METHODISTS,
[From the First Volume of the fame Work.]

7 HILST I was at Caernar-fanguine, and, as it feems, like
von, I was induced from hyfteric affections, partly spread-

curiofity to attend fome of the meetings ofa curious kind or branch of Calvinistical methodifts, who, from certain enthusiastic extravagancies which they exhibit, are. denominated jumpers. I will defcribe them from an account of one of their own countrymen, as my own obfervations did not lead me to be fo minute as he has been.

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ing through the crowd by fympa

thy; its operations and effects varying according to the different degrees of conftitutional tempe rament, mock all defcription. Among their preachers, who are alfo very various in character, (illiterate and conceited-or well meaning and fenfible-or, too frequently 1 fear, crafty and hypocritical) fome are more diftinguifhed by their fuccefs in exciting thefe firavaganzas. One of thefe, after beginning perhaps in a lower voice, in more broken and detached fentences, rifes by degrees to a greater vehemence of 'tone and gefture, which often 'fwells into a bellowing, as grating

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They perfuade themselves that they are involuntarily acted upon by fome divine impulfe; and becoming intoxicated with this ima'gined infpiration, they utter their rapture and their triumph with 'fuch wildness and incoherencewith fuch gefticulation and voci'feration, as fet all reafon and decorum at defiance. This prefum-to the ear as the attendant diftorption feized chiefly the young and tions are difgufting to the fight

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⚫ of a rational man. In the early raptures continue, till, fpent with part he is accompanied only by fatigue of mind and body, the wofighs and occational moans, with 'men are frequently carried out in here and there a note of approba-a ftate of apparent infenfibility.

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In thefe fcenes indeed the youthful part of the congregation are principally concerned; the more elderly generally contenting themfelves with admiring, with devout gratitude, what they deem the ope

tion, which after a while are fuc⚫ceeded by whinings and exclama tions; till, at length, one among the crowd, wrought up to a pitch of ecftacy, which it is fuppofed will permit no longer to be fuppreffed, ftarts and commences the jump-rations of the fpirit.' Their exering; ufing at intervals fome ex- tions are fo great at these times, preffions of praife or of triumph. that the hardest labour they could The word moft generally adopted be put to would not so much waste " is "gogoniant."* (glory!) Between their animal fpirits, or weary their thefe exclamations, while labour- limbs, as two hours spent in this ing with the fubject, is emitted religious fury. Were their meetfrom the throat a harth undulating ings feven times a week, inftead of found, which by the profane has once or twice, I am confident that been compared to a stone-cutter's the ftrongest conftitution could faw. The conclufion, which I bear it but a very short time. am almost afhamed to defcribe, has more the appearance of heathen orgies, than of the rational fervour of Chriftian devotion., The phrenfy fpreads among the multitude; for in fact a kind of religious phrenfy appears to feize them. To any obfervations made to them they seem infenfible. Men and women indifcriminately cry and laugh, jump and fing, with the wildest extravagance. That their drefs becomes deranged or the hair difhevelled is no longer an object of attention. And their

"Befides these they have their general meetings, which are held once or twice in a year, at Caernarvon, Pwllheli, and other places in rotation. At these they fometimes affemble fo many as five or fix thoufand people. They hold their general meeting at Caernarvon in the open air upon the green, near the caftle; and not contented with their enthufiaftic extravagancies upon the spot, many of the people, from the country, have been known to continue them for three or four miles of their road home."

"These preachings are altogether in the Welsh language.

CLASSICAL

CLASSICAL AND POLITE CRITICISM.

On the CHARACTER of AJAX.

[From the Second Volume of LETTERS from a FATHER to his Son, on various TOPICS relative to LITERATURE and the CONDUCT of LIFE, by J. AIKIN, M. D.]

"A

LMOST ever fince I was a reader of Homer, the character of Ajax in the Iliad has ftruck me, among the group of perfonages fo admirably painted by the poet, as one of the most meritorious; and I have wondered that in common opinion it fhould have been held in fuch inferior estimation. The caufe, I fuppofe, has been, that the general idea of Ajax has been drawn from various other fources, and particularly from Ovid's Metamorphofes, where all the eloquence of Ulyffes is employed to fix upon him the ftain of ferocious and brutal ftupidity. The difcuffion of a character of fiction is of little importance in itself, and I confefs I have been fufficiently difgufted with the air of importance given to fome of these investigations; yet I think Homer's Ajax may afford a not uninteresting fubject for a letter, especially as I confider him as the exemplar of a moral clafs among mankind, to which fufficient juftice is not rendered. This is the very valuable clafs of perfons, well qualified for the ftations they occupy, and always ready to employ their beft exertions

when called upon, from a fteady unvarying principle of duty, which requires no animation from temporary feelings or particular circumftances;-a clafs of more confequence in the real bufinefs of life, than all the fplendid enthufiafts who are the favourites of poetry and romance, and too much fo even of history.

"Let us run through, in order, the principal events of the Iliad in which this hero bears a fhare.

"The bodily ftrength and martial port of Ajax, by virtue of which he is placed immediately after Achilles in the military mufter, are not the proper objects of my confideration, which concerns foul rather than body; yet it may be allowed, that in thofe heroic times, as they are called, they were the qualities which effentially marked him out for the poft of a warlike chieftain. But the first display of character allo well justifies his reputation. When Agamemnon takes a furvey of the confederate army previously to the battle in book IV, he finds different leaders in different states of preparation; but the two Ajaxes (for here

their merits are blended) are diftinguifhed as having already formed their troops in perfect order to march. The formidable appearance of their cloud of infantry is ilhiftrated by one of the nobleft fimiles in the poem; and Agamemnon, at the fight, breaks out into a fervent with that all his commanders were infpired with the same spirit, in which event Troy could not, fail foon to fink under the Grecian

arms.

"When Hector, in the feventh book, challenges to fingle combat any of the Greek leaders, Ajax, as well as the reft, remains filent, apparently through modeft referve, till Neftor's fpeech roufes them to a voluntary offer of meeting the defiance. The determination, however, is committed to chance, and the lot, to the great joy of the whole army, falls upon Ajax. He expreffes a foldier's confidence in the refult, but in terms fufficiently modeft; and he defires the Greeks to pray to Jupiter for his fuccefs; which circumftance may ferve to obviate any charge of impiety that his little commerce with the gods afterwards may have brought upon him. That he is no favourite with any one of the deities, and neither afks nor receives their peculiar aid, will fearçely injure his character with those who are hocked at the injustice committed by Homer's divinities from their partialities, which are generally reprefented as founded upon the most unworthy motives. Whatever was the poet's intention in thus diftinguifhing Ajax from his other heroes, he is certainly a gainer by it in the true eftimate of worth, fince from native ftrength of mind he performs actions which, in others, are made the refult of a fupernatural impulfe.

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mer has been fwayed by Grecian partiality to give fo decided a fuperiority to Ajax, as interferes with the leading principle of the poem, which is, the neceffity of the return of Achilles, as the only proper an tagonist of the Trojan hero. Ajax, however, not only fignalizes himfelf as a warrior on the occafion; his language and conduct are praifeworthy. If he boasts, it is not perfonally, but of his countrymen. Befides Achilles, (fays he) there

are many among us able to meet 'your challenge. And when the chance of battle is clearly in his favour, he makes no objection to the propofal of the heralds to fufpend hoftilities, provided Hector, as the challenger, chooses to afk it..

"When he goes as one of the deputies to Achilles, for the purpose of perfuading that refentful hero to intermit his wrath against Agamemnon, and return to his duty, on finding Achilles inexorable to all the eloquence and offers of Ulyffes, he breaks out in a strain of generous and patriotic impatience, and propofes to put an end to their fupplications, and carry back their an fwer to the Grecians, unwelcome as it may be. His fpeech is fomewhat blunt and inartificial, but fuitable to one whofe own attachment to the common caufe makes him unable to excufe the dereliction of another.

"In the battle of book XI, so adverfe to the Grecians, Ajax, after refcuing the wounded Ulyffes, is attacked by the whole hoft of Trojans, with Hector at their head. Jupiter, likewife, ftrikes a præternatural terror into his breaft; fo that, throwing his broad fhield behind him, he flowly and unwillingly retreats. But his retreat is like. that of a lion from a crowd of foes; In the duel with Hector, Ho- and the awe with which he still

infpires

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