and there is certainly more impoffibility implied in a camel going through the eye of a needle, than a cable. Whence in the most energetic and expreffive terms, the total impoffibility of a rich man en tering the kingdom of God is pointed out to us. On the word rich therefore, the fecond, principal and entire, import of the text depends, an import never yet fully confidered by commentators. Rich cannot entirely relate to worldly property; for as all the good things of this life are the difpenfations of divine Providence, when used properly, with humility and gratitude to our Creator and Redeemer, to the honour of God and the welfare of our fellow creatures, they never can be imputed to us for unrighteoufnefs. But (Mark, chap. 10, v. 24,) Children, how hard is it for them that truft in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is therefore the trufting or valuing ourfelves on the poffeffion of riches, or indeed all worldly acquirements that precludes us from entering into the kingdom of God. For those are things which the divine Creator and Preferver of the uni verfe makes no account of; the vileft piece of dirt is in his eyes, of equal value with the most precious metal or finest diamond; and the wifdom of man is foolishness with God. What have we therefore to pride ourselves on, or to efteem ourselves fuperior to our fellow creatures? we are all equally the works of his hands, and the breath of his nof trils; the tranfient beings of an hour, which to-day are, and to-morrow are no more. How ridiculous, and even contemptible, muft, in the eyes of a fenfible man, appear an ant who fhould value himself above his fpecies, on the accidental acquirement of a few grains of corn more than the others; how much more despicable in the fight of the divine and almighty Being muft appear men, who value themselves on their knowledge, birth and earthly poffeffions. Befides pride corrupts the heart, and is the roct of all evil; from it proceeds anger, malice, revenge, cruelty, envy, hatred, flander, murder, theft, and all uncharit fs; with every other evil, abomi nable in the fight of a juft, wife and adorable Creator, and detrimental to the interefts and happiness of human fociety. It is easier therefore for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a proud man to enter into the kingdom of God. Under this confideration, the text is a beautiful contraft to the fundamental precept of the chriftian doctrine delivered by its divine founder, in Matthew, chap. 5, ver. 3, Bleed are the poor in spirit; for their's is the kingdom of heaven. Here poor no more relates to the want of the gifts of fortune, than rich doth to the poffeffion of them; but ftands in oppofition to pride, implying an humble and contrite heart; a proper fenfe of the nature of our condition, with a pious refignation to, and a firm reliance on the divine will and protection. Alfo a grateful acknowledgment for the benefits which we receive at his hands, and an humble, meek and dutiful refignation on the goodnefs, protection and benignity of our all gracious Creator, through the merits of our ever bleffed, holy and beneficent Redeemer. Bleffed therefore are fuch; for their's is the kingdom of heaven. This precept is the real foundation on which is erected the entire fuperftructure of the chriftian doctrine. To correct the depravity of the human heart, to ftrengthen the imbecility of the mind of man, to bring him acquainted with the will of his Creator, and thereby render him a valuable, good, and happy member of fociety in this life, and capable of enjoying the company and prefence of his Creator in that to come, caufed our divine and adorable Redeemer to take upon him our nature, and be cloathed with the garment of mortality, that he might be enabled to deliver precepts for our conduct and happiness both here and hereafter; the truth of which he, with paternal affection fuperior to any thing human, towards an cbdurate and ungrateful world, laid down his life and fealed with his own blood. Humility therefore is the great and fundamental key of chriftianity; this is the new birth by which every one who comes to Chrift must be born again. We must put off the the gorgeous robes of worldly affections, for this depravity of fentiment in men of and be cloathed with the pure but fimple gallantry, but by fuppofing that their inwhite garment of humility. Humility is tercourfe with diffolute and abandoned the parent of every virtue; from her women induce the belief, that the vices proceeds piety, gratitude and homage to they know belong to fome, are likewife our Creator; to our fellow creatures, the property of others, whofe characters charity, beneficence, integrity and truth; have not deferved the fmalleft impeachwith patience, contentment and long- ment. Upon the whole, I am most fuffering, and every other virtue accept clearly perfuaded, that a reformed rake, able to God and the welfare of fociety. or a man fatiated with the scenes of deAnd fuch must be the tenets of all thofe bauchery, is unworthy the preference who partake of the religion and inherit that the ladies are too apt to allow him, ance of Chrift. and that a good husband is only to be expected in the man of strict moral integrity. Let not therefore, the children of pride, let not the haughty, the vain, the conceited, the malicious, the envious, the cruel, the liar, the blafphemer, the flanderer, the backbiter, the uncharitable, and worldly-minded, deceive themselves; On Laughter. HE old caution, to be merry and for it is eafier for a camel to go through Tuife, is commonly conceived to the eye of a needle, than for such to enter into the kingdom of God. convey an implication that mirth and wisdom are not altogether compatible, at leaft in their extreme degrees. Now Whether reformed Rakes are the beft Huf- this, although the ufual, yet we conceive bunds. THIS HIS adage ought to be exploded, both because it carries abfurdity on the face of it, and has manifeftly an immoral tendency. Of a man who indulges in the groffeft fenfualities, it may be expected that he will abandon his vicious courfe rather from fatiety than fentiment, and therefore but little praife is due to him on the fcore of his amendment; for where is the merit of refraining from actions, whofe frequency has cloyed and palled the appetite, and destroyed the force of incitement? To eradicate ill habits, confirmed by long acquaintance, is a task of great difficulty. And a man who has been once a flave to intemperance and debauchery, is feldom able to refcue his mind from the dominion of that grofs fenfuality to which he had before yielded implicit fubmiffion. I believe I fhall not run the hazard of contradiction when I affert, that thofe who are called men of the world entertain a moft unworthy opinion of the female fex in general. Of this Lord Chesterfield is one instance, and many others might be eafily produced. How can we account to be a very erroneous, idea of the purport of this ancient maxim, which doth, in our opinion, if taken in its true and proper fenfe, mean to inculcate, if not that to be merry is to be wise, at least that it is wife to be merry. In mirth do we apprehend to confist the great distinction of man from beast. Ovid, we must allow, placeth it in another particular, in erect countenance. Os homini fublime dedit, cælumque tueri But with all due deference to our old very few are there of our fpecies who can vie in fagacity with the chien fervant; and we, although we pique ourselves upon our dexterity as gamefters, yet are with fhame obliged to confefs, that we loft no less than three games at put running, to the conjuring horfe, who made his appearance fome time fince in this metropolis, and yet that horfe was but a poney. But in whatever other inftances we may be equalled, or even excelled, by the animal creation, we may defy any of them to laugh. Tears feveral forts of brutes are reported to fhed; and it muft be confeffed, that the monkey will grin. But then it should be remembered, that the monkey is the immediate link between the human and the brute creation; and that even pug, near as he has the honour to approach the fuperior fpecies, yet never exhibits that diftinguishing mark of rationality, an haughty laugh. How abfurd, then, are the tenets of that fect of foi difnt philofophers who affect folemnity of countenance and behaviour as marks of wifdom? and how very happy is that explanation (at the mention of which, however, we remember an old gentleman who had obferved of himself that he was generally very grave, to have been highly offended), which we find in most of our dictionaries, of the word grave, by vide dull! Democritus and Heraclitus are recorded to have been in their times the chiefs, the one of the merry, and the other of the fad fect of philofophers. Now we are told in the hiftory of thofe ages, that the people of Abdera (the direct ancestors, as it fhould feem by this relation, of thofe of the modern Gotham) being a grave, that is to fay, a dull generation, took into their heads, from the inceffant mirth of Democritus, who refided in or near that place, that he was run ftark mad, and accordingly gave a fee to that prince of phyficians Hippocrates to undertake his cure; but that learned old Grecian, after having vifited and converfed with his patient, told his employers, that fo far from their fellowcitizens being crack brained, he was indeed a perfon of infinite parts and know ledge, and that they were very great fools for not having found it out: a decifive authority, fure, on the fide of mirth. Where Heraclitns lived, or what were his neighbours' opinions of that gentleman, we do not recollect to have read ; but as it was not at Abdera, they prob ably did not think it worth while to trouble their heads about him; or, if they thought him mad (and they had no fmall reafon fo to do), looked upon him as incurable. Milton hath indeed written in praise both of mirth and melancholy, in order, perhaps, to fhew, that he could take either fide of the queftion, whether right or wrong; but as a man generally begins with the difh he likes beit, fo we may obferve L'Allegro precedes Il Penferofo, and that in L'Allegro he abuses "loathed melancholy," as Of Cerberus and blackeft midnight born 'Mid Stygian caves forlorn. Whereas when, according to the plan of Il Penferofo, he is obliged to take the other fide, as a counfel is fometimes called upon to plead against his own opinion, he is not by any means fo fcurrilous, only ftiling the lady Of idle Fancy without father bred— (we thus calling the one a fon of a b— are aware that it is of a lady we are fpeaking, we cannot fomehow exprefs the idea fo well in the feminine gender), and only reproaching the other with not having had a father; a circumstance not near fo difgraceful as the having had one that a perfon ought to be alhamed of owning. Shakspeare alfo is obferved by Dr. Johnfon to have found Comedy much more congenial to his difpofition than he did Tragedy; and fo entirely are we of this opinion, that had we the fettling of a cartel of characters, we would not exchange our old friend Sir John for all the ftatefmen, heroes, and philofophers that ever exifted. Many abfurd conceits enter the brain of of man (efpecially grave and ferious men); but that a being whofe life is in common very amply dafhed with mifery, fhould be fond of artificially adding to that forrow, is to us right wonderful. puts on a grave countenance whilst he is taking measure of the alderman for his coffin, would be more pleased to see his worship alive. No; it is the laugh, the hearty laugh alone which is the true mark of rationality, and the true fign of mirth, that is, of wifdom: and the laugh of half a dozen jolly Englishmen, fuch as Englishmen once were, would have fhaken a whole battalion of French into convulfions. On Drefs. NOTHING appears more becoming the foft and captivating qualities of the fair-fex than an inviolable decency in whatever regards the minutest article of drefs. The beauty which fhines independent of embellishment or art, is an object of univerfal admiration and love. The charms of a country girl, unaided by the meretricious affociations of folly and fashion, especially when her fhape, her features, and her complexion discover no tincture of deformity and vulga rity, are irresistible. And here, left fome may be hurt at this our theory of wifdom, as tending to exalt the character of our Gallic neighbours in this inftance over that of the inhabitants of our native land, we shall enquire into the foundation of that claim to fuperior mirth which is fet up by our Gallic neighbours. The French do, it must be allowed, defcribe us as a gloomy race of mortals; and an old French writer, Froflairt, fpeaking of the English when in poffeffion of Aquitaine, the land of claret, fays, Ils fenyveroit moult triflement à la mode de leur pays. "They got drunk very forrowfully, according to the cuftom of their country." And we muft allow, that it has been the general opinion, although we think very miftakenly, that there is more mirth in France than there is in our island (be it remembered, however, that although we ufe the prefent tenfe, we are fpeaking of what England lately was, and we hope foon will again be, not of what the now The real temper of a young woman's is; for our mirth feems to be flown mind is in nothing fo fully and literally along with the rest of our virtues. A pourtrayed, or fo unequivocally marked, Frenchman, indeed, conftantly grins. as by her tafte in difpofing, or attention In arms Victorious, he grins; con- to, perfonal decoration. True modefty quered, he alfo grins. In arts: If fuc- may receive as grofs an injury from the cefsful, he grins; if unfuccefsful, (which, garb as from the gait of a harlot. The however, he is not early perfuaded he look, the gefture, and the drefs, will can be), he grins on. In love: If he always correfpond. She whofe intengains his miftrefs, or if any body elfe get tions are uniformly innocent, will not, her from him, still he grins. In fhort, in any ftation, on any occafion, or from whether fortunate or unfortunate, whe- any motives whatever, be readily' diftinther pleafed or difpleafed, you never fee guished for giddinefs, gaiety, or extraa Frenchman but upon the broad grin. vagance, in any part of her behaviour. But this conftant grin is no more the in- It is your light, fantaftic fools who have dication of true mirth in the Frenchman, neither heads nor hearts, in both fexes, than it is in the head of a bass viol; and who, by dreffing their bodies out of all although the Frenchman grins until, ac- fhape, render themfelves ridiculous and cording to Falstaff's fimile, "his face looks contemptible. Thefe are they who aflike a wet cloak ill laid up", yet the grin, fect to take a lead in whatever is most as we have before obferved, is not the oppofite to decency and nature; who start diftinguishing mark of rationality. It is prepofterous innovations, and fedulously indeed as abfurd to think the French- inflame and pamper the paffions of others, man is merry because he grins, as to as well as their own, by a conftant adopfuppofe the widow is forrowful because tion of every thing newest or most in The weeps; or that the undertaker, who ton. But But what are thefe modes in which the worthless of the fex are so proud to place their diftinction? Are they not the laborious invention of idlenefs and luxury, and regularly imported from a people whofe profligacy, diffolutenefs, and caprice, are proverbial? Are they not calculated to deprive fociety of decency, and the fex of purity; to invite the prying eye of wanton curiofity; to bring certain ridicule and infamy on every veftige of female honour; and to render lewdness of the groffeft kind an avowed object of traffic?" A defire to excel by fuch unhallowed means as these, can originate only in the loofeft inclinations. and wretched is that woman's condition, who depends for admiration, regard, or attachment, on the form, the quality, or the fashion of her clothes. All In former times, drefs was deemed one of the most palpable diftinctions in rank Ladies then took their precedencies, and understood their respective stations, by what they wore, and their manner of wearing it. This ancient and eafy mode of difcrimination is no longer known in fociety. The very fervant not only apes but rivals her mistress in every fpecies of whim and extravagance. forts of people are confequently confounded or melted down into one glaring mafs of abfurdity or fuperfluity. The lower orders are entirely loft in a general propensity to mimic the finery of the higher; and every woman we meet would feem by her gefture and apparrel to poffefs at least an independent fortune: no difference at all in this respect, is left to tell the mere spectator, whether her circumftances be narrow or afflu ent. Proportion, therefore, ye parents! the drefs of your daughters to their fituations in life. Every approach to excess in this article must be followed with the worst effects. It is a deception easily detected, and will never be forgiven. An appearance of wealth cannot be fupported on nothing; and the fhifts to which it is fometimes a temptation, are not always the most reputable. Nor is an inordinate love of drefs a very promifing scheme for obtaining the most refpectable matrimonial connections. Young men are now too wary to be thus duped. Though it were certain to fucceed, who could wish those dear to them to commence fo ferious an enterprize, by means thus fubtle and crafty? It is dangerous to tamper with truth or decency in any caufe. Candour, fimplicity, and fair dealing, never fubject to the leaft rifque, are always fafe, and always honourable. The following description of the toilet, from Pope, expofes the labour and refinement of this prominent but pernicious foible. And now unveil'd, the toilet ftands difplay'd, Each filver vafe in myftic order laid. First, rob'd in white, the nymph intent adores, With head uncover'd, the cofmetic powers. A heavenly image in the glafs ap pears; To that the bends, to that her eyes the rears: The inferior Prieftefs, at her altar's fide Trembling, begins the facred rites of pride. Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here The various offerings of the world appear: From each fhe newly culls with curious toil, And decks the Goddefs with the glitt❜ring fpoil. This cafket India's glowing gems unlocks, And all Arabia breathes from yonder box: The tortoife here and elephant unite, Transform'd to combs, the fpeckled and the white : Here fides of pins extend their fhining rows, Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billetdoux. Now awful beauty puts on all its arms; The fair each moment rifes in her charms; Repairs |