fee things in a very different light, take the world as it is, and drink their wine, their coffee, their punch, or their ale, with infinitely more comfort than they do at prefent.

vere without hard-heartedness; in trifles tenacious; in friendships, blind and undifcerning; but little connected by the ties of blood, and oftentimes more willing to oblige a ftranger, than a relation: they are fincere without civility, and without

T

SCHEMER.

O what folly and infatuation muft we impute this unfteady behaviour, that in no one article of their lives or manners are the Englifh directed by the principles of reafon? It is because not one in a thoufand acts upon any principle at all.

With hearts of republicans, they pen the flattery of flaves; with inward grumbling and difcontent, they raise fupplies for half the powers of Europe; and yet with fuch a base attention to private intereft, that near a fifth part is fquandered in lotteries and brokerage. In the fame day, they will greedily attend to the bittereft invectives again their allies, and spoil all the furniture of their diningrooms with clay candlesticks and farthing lights, in honour of their victories. With a gloomy fullennefs, they put on the fashions of their volatile neighbours; and at the fame time univerfally condemn and practise the fopperies of France. Without any true and honeft regard to their country, without any real public fpirit, they are brave even to rafhnefs, and courageous beyond the example of the firmeft patriots. The leaft turn of affairs, the most trivial lofs, will make them fearful of an enemy whom they daily deride and defpife. In private life, they are faucy without imperiousnefs, generous without kindness, fe

with little or no communion or fellowship, they profess to be members of one church. They believe in Chrift, and yet neglect his inftitutions. They acknowledge alfo two facraments in their church; that of baptifm they look upon as neceffary, more because it gives them a name, than for any other reafon; and therefore the fponfors will give fe= curity for the infant, without knowing or attending to the questions they are afked, or ever after examining the conduct and behaviour of the child committed to their charge. The other facrament, the Lord's fupper, is fuppofed very rightly to be a fervice which no one fhould engage in, that is not ferious in his duty; and for this reafon, not one in fifty ever goes near the communion-table; and by this behaviour confeffes to the world, that he is very willing to repent, or enter into a new courfe of life: fo that he would be thought a Chriftian, without performing the fervices of the church of Chrift. By this I mean only thofe who are really churchmen; for take the whole kingdom throughout, any one Sunday in the year, and you will find twenty at church, fifteen at different fchifm fhops, and the reft of the hundred in ale-houses, counting-houses, parties of pleasure, or following the domeftic occupations of the families they belong to.

I conceive this to be no partial eftimate of the manners of the Eng

lish; and now we must examine, whence comes this hydra-headed evil, which thus univerfally fprouts forth in every member of the community.

One popular author has referred it to effeminacy; but we must acknowledge him biaffed in his opinion, because the evil ftill continues, though that cause hath in many inftances ceased. Another of lefs note attributes it to fear; but that cause is not sufficiently general to be the main fpring of fuch va rious actions. No, the bafis of all the inconsistencies of this undifciplined, unprincipled, unenlightened nation, is a false appetite for liberty; which has, through an unreasonable pursuit, degenerated into licentioufnefs.

Ye are in all things, O Britons, a licentious people! Ye act upon that noble principle, which your mafter Satan established, when his refolute wit discovered fubjection to his Maker was fervile and disgraceful.

Ye fay, ye are loyal fubjects: and yet the greatest courtiers among ye are the greatest republicans, nor will the greatest in your tribes refufe, in the fame hour, to fing fongs of triumph in honour of your fovereign, and utter the indecent ribbaldries of difgufted traitors. What fervile fubmiffion do ye expect from thofe members who are to reprefent you; and how well pleafed are ye to level all authority, unto the dirt, even as low as yourfelves? Ye fay, ye have a value for your country, and yet how few there are among you that would not facrifice it to party or profit! How gay and loyal appearance of your tradef men, yet inwardly how debased by fmuggling, how cankered with debts! Public ftocks, and private

are the

loans, have filled near half your cities with idle gentlemen of pleafure, chiefly enlisted in the fervice of licentioufnefs. The retailed fcraps of difunited literature, which are jumbled together in every periodical paper, have made all the kingdom learned in every science; this teaches the mind to wander in uncertainty, and calls off the application which every individual should beftow folely upon his own business, into frivolous excurfions on the furface and fcum of learning. Dress, fashion, and affectation, have put all upon an equality; fo that it is difficult to tell the milliner from her ladyfhip, my lord from the groom, or his grace in Pall-mall from the tallow-chandler at Wapping.

Nor is there to be found any alteration of this general plan in private families, or domeftic life: children making a flavery of dependance and obedience; and, taking advantage of the law of their coun try, renouncing the authority of their parents, as foon as they are able to crawl alone; wives in breeches; husbands abroad; fervants in ruffles; and the whole house anarchy and confufion. Nay, to fuch a pitch of impudence are thofe mean hirelings arrived who drudge in the party-coloured badge of fub miffion, that they will fpit in the cup of their master's friend if he be not liberal to excefs; give him water for wine; and turn him out of doors as though they were letting out a pickpocket or a thief.

But in religion the fcene is still worfe and worfe; there licentiouf nefs breaks out into fwarms of indigefted fectaries, who will lop off a branch from the mother trunk be cause a fingle leaf is faded or fickly; fuch as are offended because I

wear

wear a coat whofe furface refracts the rays of the fun more obliquely than they fancy is agreeable to the faith of a chriftian.

Nor is this the blackest picture of your licentious behaviour, ye have thofe among ye who call themselves men of fenfe and reafon. You, gentlemen, are free agents; you love a freedom and liberty of thought, and therefore you will ridicule the fcriptures, and try its facred doctrines by the teft of mummery and laughter: the next thing you fet about, will be to try your Maker in the fame fcales, and to put up the Creator of this univerfal frame as the laughing stock of wits and buffoons. This is a glorious liberty indeed! and this you call the freedom of the will, and the noble faculty of a difcerning reason.

I hope, my pupils, you will not think me tedious: The fubje& I have in hand is of confequence, and requires fome thought and recollection. I know, indeed, you are most of you great adverfaries to any thing prolix; every subject, every undertaking, must now be done in an hurry, or your licentious fpirits rife into ferment, and boil with hafty indignation. A fermon defigned to promote the falvation of your fouls, if it last half an hour, tires and fatigues you to death. An expedition, if it go not against wind and tide, in spite of fickness and climate, is confidered as loft, defeated, and overthrown. A peace, if it be not made juft at the time ye would have it, feems to be protracted, in order to enflave you, and reduce you to beggary and rags; and ye alfo, merry citizens, join in the common humour of impatiency; and, if ye can't find contractors, like bottle-conjurors, to promise you mi

racles, and a bridge in five years time, grow defperate for want of your play-thing; and ftorm at the dilatory mafon for not covering, with the utmoft difpatch, that profufion of bad Latin which ye have just sense enough to with buried in the earth. But, alas! ye are all aground: no carpenter nor mason, now can be found in the world, mad-headed enough to bind himself to the execution of impoffibilities ; is this not then licentiousness ?

But now for the scheme to remedy this evil: In the first place, as to your religion.-Make it not the tool of faction: continue not in error because it is the fashion of your friends; nor too nicely and rigoroufly infift upon trifles, and neglect the effentials of brotherly love, charity, faith, hope, and humility. Remember, an open hand makes not charity without an open heart; and that ftubbornness is the very oppofite of an humble mind. Judge not vainly of your own perfuafion; and if you are in a private station, remember it is your business to reform at home, nor fet about reform. ing others till you have brought yourself up to the true christian ftandard: and obferve this general rule, that all authority is derived from God, whether civil or pastoral. Therefore he that fets up for a teacher or governor upon his own foundation, advances his claim upon the fame principle which Satan urged against the dominion of the Almighty. As to teachers; indulge not ticklish ears, gape not, like the Athenians, after novelties every day, and be not given to change, except where you find doctrines offered to you that are inconfiftent with the gospel of your maf ter. Set not your clergy, like prize

fighters,

Aghters, to contend in ale-houses for your pulpits; nor wear out, by perpetual elections and oppofitions, that harmony and love which is the very cement of chriftianity. Exercife not your religion by starts and fits, but daily, univerfally, and confiftency; and encourage not thofe writers, or writings, which manifeftly tend only to abuse the most facred ordinances of God.

Do not, in politics, blindly follow any party to extreme; be not bafely fervile, nor licentioufly faucy. Know and acknowledge that fubordination is the neceffary cement of a ftate For if all parts are alike, they cannot be framed into different ufes and members. Have more fenfe and prudence than to talk of matters which you do not underftand; rather gladly fuffer, than hurt the public faith; for however fpecious that argument may appear, that home is to be first confulted, yet ought the faith of the nation to be kept facred and inviolable. But in these things, as private men, ye have no concern. If you profefs yourselves to be patriots, remember, you may do more good by a difpaffionate choice of a worthy honeft member to represent you, than by learned harangues for feven years on continental measures over a dish of coffee or a bottle of port. Be careful of your choice of a good man; and when you have got him, be not ready to hear the idle tale of every fool against him; for politics, in private, take a caft from the relater, and are varioufly reprefented according to the various interefts of mankind. Look upon your fovereign with reverence, and be not defirous of diminishing the dignity of his perfon or crown. When your nobility will give you

an opportunity, by a proper exertion of their talents, honour them as the noble defcendents of an illuftrious race, and pay them the due distinction which their birth and quality demand. Scorn not to be obliged, nor fret at an honeft dependence. Your maxim is, that all mankind are free, and therefore you fet up for independency. My maxim is, that all mankind are bound by one common link, bound to aid and affift one another, and therefore I will receive with thanks, and, if poffible, repay with generofity. Good offices to one another are the common traffick of mankind; being connected through neceffity, we practife the duties of love, friendship, and humanity. In private life, be affable; know your place, your condition, your expences, and your income: put not the yearly profits of a precarious trade upon the fame footing with the rents of an estate, or the statutable intereft of a certain capital stock; for this alfo leads to a licentious equality. Remember that excellent chriftian rule, Whatsoever je would that men fhould do unto you, even do fo unto them. Attend feriously each man to his own bufinefs, fo ye will attain fuch perfection and knowledge, and thofe who deal with you will be led to put an entire confidence in your abilities; and let none of you expect more from man than nature, time, or the univerfal principles of things will permit.

Thus would I have you, my countrymen, inwardly diftinguished; and as to outward distinctions, I could alfo with them more certain and general. The flourishing trade and circumftances of the middling people in this kingdom have put all diftinctions of this kind entirely

afide, yet I could wish that riches alone might not be the outward diftinction between man and man.

On the extraordinary cleverness of the

Moderns.

Have often been of opinion, that fhould our language ever become what the Greek and Latin are now, and any of our news papers (which by the way is not very probable) have the good fortune to efcape the rage of times, and be perufed a millennium or two hence; the reader will not be a little furprized, in conning over the advertifements, to find the amazing perfection to which all things have been brought here, towards the middle of the eighteenth century. Indeed, in this refpect the ancients were but mere novices to us; and notwithstanding the veneration which many ftill pretend to retain for antiquity, I will undertake to make it appear evident to every one who has his fenfes about him, that neither in the reigns of Auguftus or Trajan, put together, were there half the number of clever fellows existing, as are in the fingle reign of George III. My proofs for this fhall be drawn from the aforefaid advertisements, in which we find complete hiftories, complete bodies of architecture, complete husbandries, complete cookeries, complete juftices of the peace, complete militia men, and complete rat catchers. Let any man now only compare thefe, and the innumerable other complete things which this age has produced, with the pandects, digefts, and anthologs of old, and he will moft certainly own, at the very firft fight, that the fages of Greece and Rome, (though complete fellows enough

too in their way) yet were, by no means, half fo complete as the prefent fages of Great Britain. Nor is our ingenuity confined to the theory only, for in practice we shall be found equally eminent. Every difeafe has its never-failing, infallible, grand fpecific, or univerfal_remedy for all ages; and down from the great Dr. Rock, the powerful reftorer of broken conftitutions, to the fagacious Mr. Tobit Earle, who, with equal fuccefs, prefides over fmoaky chimnies, we find them all ready to engage their honour for the efficacy of their refpective performances. In fhort, whether the point be to kill time, or destroy fleas, we have the most infallible receipt always at hand for either; and the bookfellers, who, it must be allowed, of all the modern fages that this kingdom has produced, beft understand their own intereft, feem fo thoroughly to have confidered the ftrict union there is between the foul and body, that the fame fhop which fells pills to purge melancholy, now furnishes us alfo with a fafe and speedy remedy for almoft every kind of diftemper. Should it be objected, indeed, hereafter, by any ill-natured critic, who repining at the inferiority of his own times, may have the confidence to tell his readers, that these were merely devices to catch the unwary; and, in fupport of his objection, produce the bills of mortality inserted in the very fame papers; Í make no doubt but fome able commentator will arife, who, with much force of atgument and difplay of literature, fhall prove that the faid bills of mortality, were only registers of fuch as, like the critic, had no confidence in these advertisements, and therefore quitted this life for an

early