We have no other than this kind of demonftration (except from Scripture) that murder is a crime, yet we believe it is: we have the fame general innate affent that there will be an Hereafter, and may with equal juftice admit the evidence of the impreffion. In addition to fuch ftrong natural evidences of an Hereafter, may be prefented to the thinking man the union of minds, and the endearments of affection, of friendship, charity, and love, relationships which death appears to have no power to divide, and the mind no power abfolutely to forget. But another world appears to be yet more indifpenfable to our reafon, when we fee thoughout Nature, and even in the events of Providence, the admirable tendency that exists to reflore the equilibrium of things disturbed by the injultice or errors of mankind, and which would be incomplete without it. It is reasonable to think, that there will yet come a time to amend the unfair. nefs of man's conclusions, to better measure rewards and punishments, and to fet to rights the errors of human judgment. How weak and imperfect are the opinions we form! how infinitely, perhaps, does the man whom we call good fall short of that title! and how frequently is the one we denominate`bad, in the eyes of that Judge who knows hearts, better than the other! Secret faults, known only to himself and his Creator, might deform the character of the first; and bright and noble fen timents of virtue, defaced alone by an unhappy chain of events and circumftances, be acknowledged by the On. nifcient as claims of mercy and forgiveness: "No mother's care Shielded my infant innocence with even alluring, by the frequency and familiarity of temptation. The death of the unfortunate By is a reflec tion, not upon the laws, which have been framed with wildom to meet the cafe, but upon that spirit of gain whichleaves itself no room for any thing but, ufelefs pity, and no power to fave. It is to be lamented, that commerce cannot be protected by other means than punishment that does not meature the degrees of the offence; rather let the interests of trade fuffer a little, than man, the image of his Creator, the victim of an inftantaneous crime, urged, perhaps, by imperious want, be dragged to an ignominious death at the theatre of execution, with: the midnight plunderer and affaifin. Such a view of human infirmity de mands from every one of us a fhare of infinite compaffion to his neighbour; and it calls upon Legiflators rather to find means of preventing crimes, than to punish them. Punishment, when, for one breach against fociety, it fhuts out amendment with the life of the culprit, is falfe and injudicious; nór can we very well reconcile to humanity a fet of frail beings, depriving another. of existence for any crime less than murder. And who is it that we can call good in: a world like this? We can only fay, the man who has an honeft defire to do right-the man of juft intentions; for, if we infit upon that rigid confiftency. which fcarcely errs, we mult difown many valuable men in society; and the want of mercy to others would be felfcondemnation. The bad man is him whofe heart is infenfible to the offices of humanity; whole views are a fyftem of defign and encroachment against his neighbour; who envies, hates, and would destroy; who can give pain with pleasure; and tion, or opportunity, fecure from any who has the art to rob by ufury, exacinterruption of the law. This man it is who prefents ftrong teftimony of the neceflity of another world; for in this he lives and dies difowning a God and a future ftate, because he would.gladly efcape from the just fentence of his own confcience, even into annihila tion. After all, the best of us would em ploy our leifure moments to fome advantage, were we now and then to * An unfortunate Officer, latély executed at Dublin for forgery. recollect, recollect, that we have but a little time to live and to do well; that death at leaft is certain; that the things which occafion our uneatinefs will thortly ceafe; that the oppreffor cannot op prefs us long; and that death will difarm adverfity of all its power. It is aftonishing how feldom the thought of a departure from prefent fchemes and occupations appears to occupy the attention of men; pleasure or bufinefs engage them wholly; and if it were not for the effect of religion, diminished as it is, the impreffion would feldom arrive until the chill hand of death brought it in its most terrific shape. In every eager porfuit of life, let us remember the beautiful lines of Horace, "Tu fecanda marmora Locas fub ipfum funus: et fepulchri Immemor ftruis domos." "You provide the nobleft materials for the building, when a pickaxe and a fpade are only neceflary; and build houles of five hundred by a hundred feet, forgetting that of fix by two." True advantage and fafety in our concerns, and a proper fenfe of our fituation here, feldom arrive until we reach that time of life when we ceafe to care for the opinions of the world it then no longer entraps us with its fashions or allurements; and then we first begin to judge rightly of the value of temporal bleflings, and to use them with a difcretion that will preferve us from danger and disappointment in this ftate, and render us not altogether unfit for a better, of which we may reasonably indulge a contemplation. Gerradius was one of the old fchool, a man with a mind above the common rate, who combine no ideas for themfelves, but take them ready made from the stock of prejudices which the world is conftantly delivering gratis to every paffer-by. Gerradius thought for himfelf; but his ftrong faculties of good fenfe were employed for the benefit of all mankind; with him folly stood no chance, and ignorant impudence made no way; the only recommendation to Gerradius was merit, and from him it was always fure to have the tribute it deferved. Gerradius was never afraid to fay, "This is good; this is true;" however ftrong the current might run against his opinion, which ftood like an infulated rock in the midst of the ocean, against which the billows of power or prejudice might beat for ever in vain. Gerradius was eccentric in his manners, but was more extraordinary by uniting a benevolence of heart with a itrength of judgment always clear and correct. Gerradius is no more! and, in the wretched poverty of worth and talents in these days, has left but few behind who poffefs fuch qualities of the head and heart; and those few, wherever they are, are mourners. It is not relations alone who feel the lofs of fuch a man; it is the humanity, genius, and talent of the country that weep over his afhes, and cry out in accents of true concern, "We have lost a friend!" G. B. 1 ON THE PRESERVATION OF STORES ON BOARD SHIP. SIR, HAVE made fome efforts, of late years, towards improving and extending the common methods of pre. ferving stores on board fhip; and the refult of a few of them I take the liberty of fending to you, for the use of your publication, if thought worthy of notice. Finding the potatoe the most useful of all vegetables, I have had recourfe to every poffible means of preferving it. I have found this root moft effectually preferved by flicing and gently baking it after this procefs it will keep tweet for years. And in this ftate it is very ferviceable to eat as bread, to boil for various purposes, or to be ground into flour, which may be mixed with wheaten flour, for many falutary and profitable uses. I have a hand-mill on purpose to grind these potatoe flices, and likewife to grind bifcuits. I have always been careful in felecting a dry mealy potatoe for this use, particularly that species diftinguished by the name of champions. I always order the peel of the potatoes to be scraped off, and the eyes clearly taken out (in the fame manner as every judicious cook prepares this root for the table), prior to their being fliced. and dried or baked and this will remove that strong flavour and and smell of the potatoe which would otherwife prevail in the flour. Due care thould, in this cafe, likewife be taken in the selection of dry and feafoned cafks for the reception of this food, especially if intended to be kept for a long voyage; and to infure a certainty of continuance of dryness, I have generally packed this preparation in what is almoft the driest thing in nature, the hulks of oats, or what is called meal-feeds, which may be procured in abundance in any of the northern parts of this country, wherever oatmeal is made. or Another species of prefervation I have likewife practifed, to good effect, on wheat flour, by carrying it to fea in the state of bifcuits rather than in that of flour, and reducing them to flour again by means of my hand mill, as occafion might require. These bifcuits, confifting only of fine meal, ftowed in cafks, in the fame manner as the above preparation of potatoes, with a confiderable quantity of the dry husks of oats at each end of each calk. I am your humble fervant, Liverpool. A WEST INDIA CAPTAIN. ON SOAP ASHES AS A MANURE. SOAP-ASHES are, in fome measure, as the refufe of bleach fields: they principally, however, confift of lime, which is employed by the foap makers to deprive the alkaline falts of their fixed air, and by that means increase their action upon the oil and tallow. The addition of lime to foap athes is, therefore, unneceflary; they are ge nerally made into compofts with earth and well fermented dung, in the proportion of two loads of dung to one of earth; the ashes are then added, in the quantity of one load to ten of this mixture, taking care to turn and incorporate the whole completely. The quantity neceffary for strong clays or deep loams is about ten cart loads of this compost to an acre. If the dung has been well fermented and properly reduced, perhaps the most profitable way of using this article will be as a top-dreling, harrowed in with the grain; care, however, fhould be taken, when it is employed in this way, that the caultic quality of the Thefe afhes, when beat fmall, may be made into a very rich compoft with oil and earth, and used as a top-drefling for young crops. In whatever shape they are ufed, they will be found i deftroy flugs and vermin of every de fcription. This quality will render them highly valuable upon lands where the early wheat is injured by the worm. If they are either applied as a topdreffing, and harrowed in along with the feed, or ufed upon the young wheat in the fpring, as foon as the worm appears, the evil will be campletely prevented perhaps mixing it well with the foil at feed-time will be found preferable, as it will have a chance of killing the vermin in the embryo. CLERICAL ANECDOTE, The following curious anecdote is given on the authority of a record in the ConGitorial Court of Cork. The Bishop's picture in his Captain's uniform (the left hand wanting a finger), his name, and date of appointment, are alfo ftill to be seen in the Bishop's palace at Cork.] DOCTOR WILLIAM LYONS, who was preferred to the bithoprick of Cork, Cloyne, and Rofs, towards the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was originally a Captain of a fhip, who had distinguished himself fo gallantly in feveral actions with the Spaniards, that on being introduced to the Queen, fhe told him he should have the first vacancy that offered. The honeft Captain, who understood the Queen literally, foon after hearing of a vacancy in the fee of Cork, immediately fet out for Court, and claimed the Royal promife. The Queen, altonifhed at the requeft, for a time remonftrated against the impropriety of it, and what the could never think of as an office fuitable for him. It was, however, in vain; he faid, the Royal word word was paffed, and he relied on it. Her Majesty then faid, fhe would take a few days to confider of it; when examining into his character, and finding him a fober, moral man, as well as an intrepid Commander, the fent for Lyons, and gave him the Bishoprick; faying, at the fame time, "the hoped he would take as good care of the Church as he had done of the State." Lyons accordingly fet out for his bifhoprick, which he enjoyed for above twenty years, with great reputation to himself; but never attempted to preach but once, and that was on the death of the Queen. On that melancholy oc THE cafion he thought it his duty to pay the last honours to his Royal Mitres, and accordingly mounted the pulit in Chrift Church, in the city of Cork; when, after giving a good difcourfe on the uncertainty of life, and the great and amiable qualities of the Queen, he concluded in the following warm, but whimsical manner : "Let thofe who feel this lofs deplore with me on this melancholy occasion; but if there be any that hear me who fecretly wished for this event (as perhaps there may be), they have now got their wifh, and the Devil do them good with it." LYCOPHRON's CASSANDRA. Δαίμων, Ενόρχος, Φηγαλούς, Φαυτήριος, Leonem ab epulis, plantam implicans viminibus, Cohibebit, ne radicitùs perdat fpicam Tondente dente, & voracibus maxillis. HE Greeks failed to Myfia. The reception, which they experienced from Telephus, king of that country, is here foretold. He flew many of the Greeks, and threatened to delroy the whole army. But the interpofition of Bacchus, whom they had conciliated by facrifices, repreffed the fury of Telephus, and defeated his intentions. Bacchus, fays Caffandra, fhall entangle the lion's feps in vinebranches; and thus difable him from rooting up the corn. The language of Lycophron is here, as on other occafions, metaphorical. The commentators complain of a confufion of metaphors. To root up, they have told us, is properly the act of a boar, and not of a lion. It is in truth the act of both; but by a different procefs. The boar points his ravages immediately at the root; and, turning up the foil with his fnout, deftroys whatfoever the foil produces. The lion .crushes the ftems with his teeth, and tears the roots up with them. His devaftations begin with the ftems, that ftand above the ground; not with the roots, that lie beneath it Still the certain effect of his fury is to root up. The ferocity of both beafts equally inclines them,and their strength equally enables them or disacar. Eraqus is here ufed in an extended fenfe; which includes, together with the ear, the stalk that fupports it. But Lycophron has incurred the difpleafure of his commentators in another inftance. The lion, fay they, is reprefented as feeding upon corn; which is not the food of lions. Nothing is here faid about the lion's feeding, or his food. Bacchus, Caffandra foretelis, fhall reftrain the lion Telephus from his treat. This treat confiited in the deftruation of the Gre cian army. The lion is not reprefented as entering into the field of corn in fearch of food, but only with a view to devaftation. Odin, epulæ, is here ufed, not in its literal, but in a figurative fenfe. The utter extinction of the Greeks, to mógdilo, aiswon, was the intended treat of Telephus. The Grecian army is in another place com. pared to a field of corn. To this image rax refers. Lycophron is partial to this allufion. He found it in Homer, and it has been imitated by other Greek poets. R. IN SIR, MILTON. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. a fmall but elegant Work of Criticifm, intituled "A Letter to the Rev. Mr. T. Warton on his late Edition of Milton's Juvenile Poems," published in 1785, and afcribed by you, very justly I believe, to the late Rev. Samuel Darley, is the fol. lowing paffage: "Towred Cities pleafe us then." MILTON: Allegro. "Then, that is, at night!" WARTON. “An odd time, furely, for TOWRED Cities to pleafe, when they cannot be feen. It is not Milton's wont to throw about his epithets thus at random. I remember, indeed, a party of young ftudents from the Univerfity, who kaited down the river to Ely, and, arriving there late, would view the cathedral by candle and lantern. But the fact is rather fingular; and it may be faid in their excufe, that they were educated-juncofi ad littora Ceami, THEN ferves only, I apprehend, to fhift the fcene from the country to the town. The defcription of the morning is inimitable; and Milton must have been a very early rifer, as well as an excellent poet, to mark its progrelive beauties fo diftinctly and minutely as he has done. The lark startling the dull night with his fong-the dappled dawn-the cock with lively din fcattering the rear of darkness, and ftrutting out before his dames-the poet ftealing forth to take his walk by hedge-row elms or hillocks green, to meet the fun (as Gray expreffes it) at his Eastern Gate-robed in flames of amber, the clouds dight in a thoufand colours, (forgive his liveries)-the plowman, the milkmaid, the mower, the fhepherd, all with their proper attributes the eye catching new plea fures as the fun advances-the dif covery of the lawns, fallows, nibbling flocks, clouds refting on the breafts of the mountains, meadows, rivers, towers and battlements bofomed high in tufted trees-form, in the whole, a picture which is unequalled, and would give new force and fpirit to the glowing pencil of Reubens. I think the words, v. 67,-"Every shepherd tells bis tale," are well explained, as in this interpretation (which I own is new to me) the time is precifely marked. The defcription of the day is carried on with the fame fpirit, and the evening clofes with a difplay of rural amufements and rural fuperftition. We are then carried to town amidit the bufy hum of men. We are not to expect here the fame entertainment we met with in the country. There is, however, a day-piece and a night-piece; and the evening is paffed in a manner most agreeable to a man of taste and reflection, with Jonfon and Shakeipear, or in hearing loft Lydian airs, married to immortal verfe." P. 7. Now, Sir, with the most unfeigned refpect for the author of thefe ftrictures, whofe learning I reverence, and whofe tafte I admire, I fhall endeavour, in the firft place, to fhow, that Warton's conftruction is admiffible; and, thould I be fuccefsful in this attempt, I fhall proceed with confiderable confidence to maintain in the next, that, if admiffible, it is by far the moit poetical. "The inquiry," we may fay, with perhaps ftill more propriety than Mr. Gibbon †, "cannot be devoid of entertainment, whilft MILTON is our conftant theme: whatever may be the fortune of the chafe, we are fure it will lead us through pleasant prospects and a fine country." The only objection exprefsly alleged against Mr. Warton's conítruction, is the epithet "toured:" but there may be thought an indirect reference to two others-the defcription of the "bufy hum of Men"-and the allufion to tilts and tournaments :-and all three may be confidered as equally unfavourable to the interpretation for which we are contending. Let us examine, therefore, each of thefe objections in its order. The epithettowred" is manifeftly European Magazine, Vol. XXV, p. 327 (April 1794). + Critical Obfervations on the 6th B. of the Æneid. VOL. XLII. DEC. 1802. Ggg employed |