"tleties of logic, and all the fyftems of ethics at de"fiance. With fuch a clue to guide us through the

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labyrinths of life, no procefs would occur in the "cultivation of our beds, which would not give a "leffon to our confciences, while it provided a meal "for our tables. We should not then water a plant, "without dropping, at least from our mind's eyes, "the fostering tears of tranfport over our growing "virtues, or of repentance over our tranfgreffions. "We fhould not rake the ftones, or root the weeds "from our foul ground, without at the fame time "raking out the foul paffions with which our "hearts are choked and overrun- -or roll the "gravel of our walks, without adverting at the "fame time to the rifing turbulence of our de"fires, which need to be preffed down by the "roller of reflexion. Above all, we fhould not "fail to imprefs on our hearts the fragility and "transitoriness of all fublunary things, when we "confider how foon the luxuries of the garden "fade away, and elude the moft confident hopes " of hunger.

"O let the ambitious man learn to despise the ❝ladder on which he stands, while he confiders

"that yon towering artichoke shall shortly wither "off its ftem, or be fcalded in the pot! O let the "lover withdraw his adoration from Chloe's eyes, "when he fees the blushing apple of love droop "and fhrivel in the odious embraces of time, and "the amorous pea torn from its darling stick, and "facrificed to the voracity of man! O let the

epicure renounce his delicacies, while he reflects "that, like yon cauliflower, he fhall foon adini"nifter to the gluttony of the worm! and the fop "his effences, while he faints at the fumes from "thofe corrupted beans, fo late the pride of ve"getable fragrance!-In a word, let all the hunt"ers after worldly delights refign their ardour for

them, as they contemplate that period when "kings and cabbages, popes and peas, fages and "fallads, beauties and brocoli, artichokes and "archbishops, lords and leeks, princes and parf"nips, tyrants and turnips, cucumbers and conquerors, fhall lie in one promifcuous heap of "faplefs putrefaction.”

I do seriously apprehend that these false models have been fo fuccefsful in corrupting the taste of the public, that it may be neceffary to apprife

fome

fome few of my readers, that what they have been

reading is really not fublime.

N° 66. .

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10.

Πανία εν μεταβολή.

All things are in a constant flux.

ALTHOUGH

LTHOUGH I really believe that the re verfes of fortune and the revolutions of matter have been felt in lefs proportion by me and my race than by the generality of the world, yet I muft own that no fentiment is fo frequently in my mind as that which is inspired by a view of the tranfitorinefs of our natures, and the perithable allotment of every thing that appertains to man. I was grey-headed at twenty-five, and grey-headed I remain: and my mother affures me, that forty years have made but little alteration in my face or figure. But, in the mean time, what a wreck have I beheld of things around me! How many have been fwept away, and how many have been led forwards by the hand of Time! How many have

again fucceeded and departed, and carried away with them all memory of their existence! How often have I marked the early promise of manhood bloom, ripen, wither, and drop off! How often have I seen the throne of beauty difputed, till both competitors have loft their claims! And what a lift of queens in the empire of love have thefe forty years afforded! In the midft of fuch caducity, one almost wonders that man fhould be merry; but one wonders more that he should be fad; and, most of all, that he fhould be ambitious; that he fhould have his objects, and hopes, and friendships, and enmities, is all wonderful in the few fhort years of this paffing existence.

That our habits fhould fo outlive our powers; that our ambition fhould begin at the clofe of life; that our hopes and anxieties fhould bloom in our wrinkles; that the love of acquifition fhould fo long furvive the enjoyment; and that our defire of knowledge fhould increase with our decay; are to me irrefiftible proofs of the vaft difproportion between our existence and our faculties, and of the feparate natures of our corporeal and mental con

ftitution.

ftitution. This princely permanence of the mind, this" forma mentis æterna," is proved in a clear and aftonishing manner by the inverfe proportion in which its capacities improve under a vifible decay of the inftrument of its operations. Even in the hour of mortal decrepitude the foul afferts its independency, and exhibits proofs that, however it may fail in its organical functions, its effential powers are in no fort diminished. The living faculties are deftined here to work with inftruments not immortal, like themselves, but of frail and perishable natures. When these are injured by age or accident, they are fometimes repaired, fometimes fupplied, by human contrivance: the mind, when called upon, is always ready; give it but an engine, and its action re-commences, Now either it was the fame, or it was reduced in its capacities during the fufpenfion of its operations, and mutilation of its inftruments. If it were defalcated and reduced, we must consent that human means could reftore the living powers? If it were the fame, then is the mind as feparate from the body, its vehicle, as is the charioteer from the chariot in which he rides.

Yet