impunity, and the diforder will neceffarily fpread through all the branches of government -Fenelon.

IT is unquestionably a very notable art to ravage countries, deftroy dwellings, and, one year with another. out of a hundred thousand men, to cut off forty thoufand. This invention was originally cultivated by nations affembled for their common good. It is other wife in our time.

An odd circumftance in this infernal enterprife is, that every chief of thefe ruffians has his colours confecrated, and folemnly prays to God before he goes to deftroy his neighbour. If the flain in a battle do not exceed two or three thoufand, the fortunate commander does not think it worth thanking God for; but if, befides killing ten or twelve thoufand men, he has been fo far favoured by heaven as totally to deftroy fome remarkable place, then a verbofe hymn is fung in four parts, compofed in a language unknown to all the combatants.Voltaire.

IT is wonderful with what coolness and indifference the greater part of mankind fee war commenced. Thofe that hear of it at a diftance, or read of it in books, but have never prefented its evils to their minds, confider it as little more than a fplendid game, a proclamation, an army, a battle, and a triumph. Some indeed muft perifh in the moft fuccefsful field; but they die upon the bed of honor, refign their lives amidst the joys of conquest, and, filled with England's glory, fmile in death.

The life of a modern foldier is ill reprefented by heroic fiction. War has means of deftruction more formidable than the cannon and the fword. Of the thoufands and ten thousands that perished in our late contefts with France and Spain. a very fmall part ever felt the ftroke of an enemy; the reft Janguifhed in tents and fhips. amidst damps and putrefaction; pale, torpid, fritlefs, and helplefs; gafping and groaning, unpitied among men, made obdurate by long continuance of hopeless mifery; and were at laft whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean, without notice and without remembrance. By incommodious encampments and unwholefome flations, where courage is ufelefs and enterprife impracticable, fleets are filently difpeopled. and armies fluggifhly melted away.

Thus is a people gradually exhaufted, for the most part with little effect. The wars of civilized nations make very flow changes in the fyftem of empire. The public perceive scarcely any alteration but an increase of debt; and the few

The Whifle.

individuals who are benefited, are not fuppofed to have the clearell right to their advantages. If he that shared the danger enjoyed the profit, and, after bleeding in the battle, grew rich by the victory, he might fhew his gains without envy. But at the conclufion of a ten years war, how are we recompenfed for the death of multitudes and the expense of millions, but by contemplating the sudden glories of paymasters and agents, contractors and commiffioners, whofe equipages fhine like meteors, and whofe palaces rife like exhalations?

Thefe are the men who, without virtue, labour, or hazard, are growing rich as their country is impoverished; they rejoice when obfinacy or ambition adds another year to flaughter and devaftation; and laugh from their defks at bravery and fcience, while they are adding figure to figure, and cypher to cypher, hoping for a new contract from a new armament, and computing the profits of a fiege or a tempest.-Johnson.

HE who makes war his profeffion cannot be otherwise than vicious.

War makes thieves, and peace brings them to the gallows. -Machiavel

A SOLDIER is a being hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own fpecies, who have never offended him, as poffibly he can.-Swift.

The WHISTLE.

friends on

old, my
I went directly to

WHEN I was a child at seven years a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. a thop where they fold toys for children; and being charmed with the found of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the houfe, much pleafed with my whistle, but difturbing all the family. My brothers, and fitters, and coufins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth. This put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of my money; and they laughed fo much at me for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the while gave me pleasure.

This however was afterwards of use to me, the impreffion continuing in my mind; fo that often, when I was tempted to buy fome unneceflary thing, I faid to myself, Don't give too much for the while; and fo I faved my money.

As I grew up, came into the world. and obferved the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the while.

When I faw any one too ambitious of court favors, facrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repofe, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends to attain it, I have faid to myself, This man gives too much for his whistle.

When I faw another fond of popularity, conftantly employing himfelf in political buffles, neglecting his own affairs, and suining them by that neglect; He pays, indeed, fays I, too much for his whiffle.

If I knew a mifer, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the fake of accumulating wealth: Poor man, fays I, you do indeed pay too much for your whistle.

When I meet a man of pleafure, facrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal fenfations; Miflaken man, fays I, you are providing pain for yourself. inftead of pleasure: you give too much for your whistle.

If I fee one fond of fine clothes, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in prifon; Alas, fays I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his whfile.

When I fee a beautiful, fweet-tempered girl, married to an ill natured brute of a husband: What a pity it is, fays T, that he has paid fo much for a while.

In fhort, I conceive that great part of the miferies of mankind were brought upon them by the falfe estimates they had made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whifiles.—Franklin.

WISDOM.

WISDOM, whofe leffons have been reprefented as fo hard to learn, by thofe who were never at her fchool, only teaches us to extend a fimple maxim, univerfally known, and followed even in the lowest life, a little farther than that life carries it, and this is, not to buy at too dear a price.

Whoever takes this maxim abroad with him into the grand market of the world, and conflantly applies it to honors, to riches, to pleasures, and to every other, commodity which that market affords, is a wife man, and muft be fo acknowledged in the worldly fenfe of the word; for he makes the belt of

Wifdom.-Want.Wit.

235

bargains; fince in reality he purchases every thing at the price only of a little trouble, and carries home all the good things I have mentioned, while he keeps his health, his innocence, and his reputation, the common prices which are paid for them by others, entire to himself.

From this moderation likewife he learns two leffons which complete his character; firit, never to be intoxicated when he hath made the best bargain, nor dejected when the market is empty, or when its commodities are too dear for his purchase.-Fielding.

WANT.

WANT is a bitter and a hateful good,
Because its virtues are not understood:
Yet many things, impoffible to thought,
Have been by need to full perfection brought.
The daring of the foul proceeds from thence,
Sharpness of wit, and active diligence.
Prudence at once and fortitude it gives:
And, if in patience taken, mends our lives:
For ev'n that indigence that brings me low,
Makes me my felf, and him above, to know.
A good which none would challenge, few would chufe,
A fair poffeffion, which mankind refufe.

If we from wealth to poverty defcend,

Want gives to know the flatt'rer from the friend.-Dryden.

WIT.

TIME his fervent petulance may cool;
For though he is a wit, he is no fool.
In time he'll learn to use, not waste his fenfe,
Nor make a frailty of an excellence.
His brisk attack on blockheads we should prize,
Were not his jest as a flippant with the wife.
He fpares nor friend nor foe; but calls to mind,
Like dooms-day, all the faults of all mankind.

What tho' wit tickles? tickling is unfafe,
If till 'tis painful while it makes us laugh.
Who, for the poor renown of being smart,
Would leave a fling within a brother's heart?

Parts may be prais'd; good-nature is ador'd;
Then draw your wit as feldom as your fword,
And never on the weak; or you'll appear,
As there no hero, no great genius here.

DOWN the fmooth ftream of life the ftripling darts,
Gay as the morn; bright glows the vernal sky,
Hope fwells his fails, and paffion fteers his courfe.
Safe glides his little bark along the shore
Where virtue takes her ftand; but if too far
He launches forth beyond difcretion's mark,
Sudden the tempeft fcowls, the furges roar,
Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep.
O fad, but fure mifchance! O happier far
To lie like gallant Howe 'midft Indian wilds
A breathlefs corfe, cut off by favage hands
In earlieft prime, a generous facrifice
To freedom's holy caufe, than fo to fall,
Torn immature from life's meridian joys,

A prey to vice, intemp'rance, and difeafe.-Porteus.

THAT the highest degree of reverence fhould be paid to youth, and that nothing indecent fhould be fuffered to approach their eyes, or ears, are precepts extorted by fenfe and virtue from an ancient writer, by no means eminent for chastity of thought. The fame kind, though not the fame degree of caution is required in every thing which is laid before them, to fecure them from unjuft prejudices, perverfe opinions, and incongruous combinations of images.-Rambler.

THE END.

D.C.