vapour of thefe malignant minerals. An hundred thousand more at least are tortured without remiffion by the fuffocating fmoke, intense fires, and conftant drudgery neceflary in refining and managing the products of thofe mines. If any man informed us that two hundred thousand innocent perfons were condemned to fo intolerable a flavery, how fhould we pity the unhappy fufferers, and how great would be our just indignation against those who inflicted to cruel and ignominious a punishment? This is an inftance, I could not with a stronger, of the numberlefs things which we pass by in their common drefs, yet which fhock us when they are nakedly represented. But this number, confiderable as it is, and the slavery with all its baseness and horror, which we have at home, is nothing to what the rest of the world affords of the fame naturemillions daily bathed in the poisonous damps and destructive effluvia of lead, filver, copper, and arfenic. To fay nothing of those other employments, thofe ftations of wretchednefs and contempt in which civil fociety has placed the numerous enfans perdus of her army. Would any rational man fubmit to one of the most tolerable of thefe drudgeries, for all the artificial enjoyments which policy has made to refult from them? By no means. And yet need I fuggeft, that thofe who find the means, and thofe who arrive at the end, are not at all the fame perfons. On confidering the ftrange and unaccountable fancies and contrivances of artificial reafon, I have somewhere called this earth the Bedlam of our fystem. Looking now upon the effects of fome of thofe fancies, may we not with equal reafon call it likewife the Newgate and the Bridewell of the univerfe? Indeed the blindness of one part of mankind co-operating with the frenzy and villainy of the other, has been the real builder of this refpectable fabric of political fociety. And as the blindness of mankind has caufed their flavery, in return, their state of flavery is made a pretence for continuing them in a state of blindness; for the politician will tell you gravely, that their life of fervitude difqualifies the greater part of the race of man for a fearch of truth, and supplies them with no other than mean and infufficient ideas. is but too true; and this is one of the reasons for which I blame fuch inftitutions.

This

In a mifery of this fort, admitting fome few lenitives, and those too but a few, nine parts in ten of the whole race of mankind drudge through life.-Burke.

T

IN the most refined flates of Europe the inequality of property has rifen to an alarming height. Valt numbers of their inhabitants are deprived of almost every accommodation that can render life tolerable or fecure. Their utmost industry fcarcely fuffices for their fupport. The women and children lean with an infupportable weight upon the efforts of the man, fo that a large family has, in the lower order of life, become a proverbial expreffion for an uncommon degree of poverty and wretchednefs. If ficknefs, or fome of thofe cafualties which are perpetually incident to an active and laborious life, be fupper-added to these burdens, the distress is still greater.

It seems to be agreed that in England there is lefs wretchednefs and diftrefs than in most of the kingdoms of the coutinent. In England the poor's rates amount to the fum of two millions fterling per annum. It has been calculated, that one perfon in feven of the inhabitants of the country derives at fome period of his life affiftance from this fund. If to this we add the perfons, who, from pride, a spirit of independence, or the want of a legal fettlement, though in equal distress, receive no fuch affittance, the proportion will be confiderably increased.

I lay no ftrefs upon the accuracy of this calculation; the general fact is fufficient to give us an idea of the greatness of the evil —Godwin.

any

REFORMATION.

REFORMATION is one of those pieces which must be put at fome diftance in order to please. Its greatest favoure love it better in the abftract than in the fubftance. When old prejudice of their own, or any intereft that they value, is touched, they become fcrupulous, they become captious, and every man has his feparate exception. Some pluck out the black hairs, fome the grey; one point must be given up to one; another point mult be yielded to another; nothing is fuffered to prevail upon its own principles: the whole is fo frittered down, and disjointed, that fcarcely a trace of the original fcheme remains! Thus, between the retiftance of po ver, and the 'unfyftematical procefs of popularity, the undertaker and the undertaking are both expofed, and the poor reformer is hiffed off the ftage, both by friends and foes. --Burke.

Rofe.-Rule of Life.-Retrofpect of Life.

ROSE.

HOW fair is the rofe! what a beautiful flow'r !
The glory of April and May!

But the leaves are beginning to fade in an hour;
And they, wither and, die in a day.

Yet the rofe has one powerful virtue to boast,
Above all the flow'rs of the field:

When its leaves are all dead, and fine colours are loft,
Still how fweet a perfume will it yield!
So frail is the youth and the beauty of men,
Tho' they bloom and look gay like the rofe:
But all our fond care to preferve them is vain;
Time kills them as fait as he goes.

Then I'll not be proud of my youth or my beauty,
Since both of them wither and fade;

But gain a good name by well doing my duty;

This will fcent like a rofe when I'm dead,-Walls.

RULE of LIFE,

LIVE while you live, the epicure will fay, And take the pleasure of the prefent day : Live while you live, the facred preacher cries, And give to God each moment as it flies.-Lord, in my view let both united be!

I live in pleafure when I live to thee.-Doddridge.

RETROSPECT of LIFE.

RICHES, chance may take or give ;

Beauty lives a day, and dies; Honor lulls us while we live ;

Mirth's a cheat. and pleafure flies,

Is there nothing worth our care?

Time, and chance, and death our foes;

If our joys fo fleeting are,

Are we only tied to woes?

Let bright Virtue anfwer, no;

Her eternal powers prevail,

When honors, iches, ceafe to flow,

And beauty, mirth, and pleafure, fail.

T 2

219

RIOTS.

RIOTS, tumults, and popular commotions; are indeed truly dreadful, and to be avoided with the utmost care by the lovers of liberty. Peace, good order, and fecurity to all ranks, are the natural fruits of a free conftitution, True patriots will be careful to difcourage every thing which tends to deftroy them; not only because whatever tends to deftroy them, tends to deftroy all human happiness, but also becaufe even an accidental outrage in popular affemblies and proceedings, is ufed by the artful to difcredit the cause of liberty. By the utmost attention to preferving the public peace, true patriots will defeat the malicious defigns of fervile. courtiers; but, whatever may happen, they will not defert the caufe of human nature. Through a dread of licentiousness, they will not forfake the standard of liberty. It is the part

of fools to fall upon Scylla in ftriving to avoid Charybdis.→→ Spirit of Defpotifm.

SCANDAL.

THERE is a luft in man no charm can tame,

Of loudly publishing his neighbour's fhame :

On eagle's wings, immortal, fcandals fly,

While virtuous actions are but born and die.-Havard.

WHAT other man fpeaks fo often and fo vehemently againlt the vice of pride, fets the weaknefs of it in a more edious light, or is more hurt with it in another, than the proud man himself? It is the fame with the paffionate, the defigning, the ambitious, and fome other common characters in life; and being a confequence of the nature of fuch vices, and almost infeparable from them, the effects of it are generally fo grofs and abfurd, that where pity does not forbid, it is pleasant to obferve and trace the cheat through the feveral turnings and windings of the heart, and detect it through all the shapes and appearances which it puts on.-Sterne.

HOW frequently is the honefly and integrity of a man dif. pofed of by a fmile or fhruug!-how many good and generous actions have been funk into oblivion, by a diftruftful look, or ftampt with the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!

Look into companies of those whofe gentle natures fhould difarm them, we fhall find no better account. How large a portion of chastity is fent out of the world by diftant hints,nodded away and cruelly winked into fufpicion, by the envy

Scandal.Shame and Difgrace.

of those who are past all temptation of it themselves! Dow often does the reputation of a helplefs creature bleed by a report which the party, who is at the pains to propagate it, beholds with much pity and fellow-feeling that the is heartily forry for it;- hopes in God it is not true: however, as archbishop Tillotfon wittily obferves upon it, is refolved, in the mean time, to give the report her pafs, that at least it may have fair play to take its fortune in the world,-to be Believed or not, according to the charity of thofe into whofe hands it fhall happen to fall!-Idem

THE tongue of a viper is lefs hurtful than that of a flanderer, and the gilded fcales of a rattle-fnake lefs dreadful than the purfe of the oppreffor-Fielding.

THE company of a flanderer should always be avoided, except you choose to fealt on your neighbour's faults, at the price of being ferved up yourfelf at the tables of others; for perfons of this ftamp are generally impartial in their abuse. Indeed it is not always poflible totally to efcape them; for being barely known to them, is a fure title to their calumny; but the more they are admitted to your acquaintance, the more you will be abused by them.-Idem.

SHAME and DISGRACE.

THEY who have confidered our nature, affirm, that fhame and difgrace are two of the muft infupportable evils of human life; the courage and fpirits of many have mastered other misfortunes, and borne themfelves up against them; but the wifest and beft of fouls have not been a match for thefe; and we have many a tragical inftance on record, what greater evils have been run into, merely to avoid this one.

Without this tax of infamy, poverty, with all the burdens it lays upon our flesh-fo long as it is virtuous, could never break the fpirits of a man; all its hunger, and pain, and pakednefs, are nothing to it, they have fome counterpoife of good; and befides, they are directed by Providence, and mullb e fab. mitted to; but thofe are afflictions not from the hand of God or nature" for they do come forth of the dufi," and moit properly may be faid to fpring out of the ground, and this is the reafon they lay fuch firefs upon our patience, and in the end create fuch a diftruft of the world, as makes us look up and play, Let me fall into thy hands, O God! but let me not fall into the bands of men,-Sterne.