these prisons; but an expectation of ordinary sensibilities at suffering or peculiar considerations of special distress, is an expectation incompatible with the inevitable operation of things. The heart perpetually conversant with these scenes of profligacy and wretchedness, becomes gradually obdurate in spite of its. native, gentleness and all counteracting influence of caution and reflection: just as a path, notwithstanding the vegetable influences of the season, is unavoidably worn by the perpetual feet of recurring passengers. - Yet no man can have either experience of human conduct, or philosophical knowledge of human nature, who can suppose culprits emendable by severity, or severity, or by any other means than kind treatment and useful knowledge. The Supreme Being exercises himself in reforming the wicked by boundless liberality and unwearied benevolence: he maketh his sun I to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth's rain on the just and on the unjust. We cannot conclude our quotations from Mr. Wakefield's remarks on these subjects without regretting that the unconnected and unfinished state of his papers enables us to give so small a part of them to the public. Yet it would be unjust entirely to suppress them. They may possibly, even in this imperfect form, assist to rouse the activity of those whose power shall bear some proportion to. our friend's solicitude for the improvement of our criminal institutions: men, whose felicity it shall be to have their names united to "the generons band, Who, touch'd with human woe, redressive search'd J Into the horrors of the gloomy gaol." P The manner in which he employed so many of his prison-hours, we are persuaded, will endear his memory to those who recollect how he might have passed them. The luxury of a literary life was still, in a great measure, within his power. Though inadequate to many of his learned projects, the books he could have procured would have furnished a constant entertainment. The kindness of his friends had supplied him with ample means to purchase the good behaviour even of his gaoler, in a place where every thing but liberty has its price. In his own case, he resisted what he thought an imposition, not from a parsimonious notive, to which he was an utter stranger; but because he would on no account, willingly, P Thomson. He sanction the demands of injustice. marked the condition of the prisoners, and ' suffered his mind to be occupied with their wants and miseries, because he was one of those who "scorn their ease" for the benefit of others a character that must command respect even where it fails to excite imitation. Without meaning to detract from the merit of those who have preceded him in the performance of these offices of humanity, we may be allowed to say, that, in his case, it required a fortitude which few can be expected to possess. To explore the recesses of a prison, with Mr. Howard, under authority from a magistrate, and in the character of a superior, might be the occupation of a benevolent man, and must be of great public utility. With Mr.Wakefield a prisoner under the suspicious eye of his gaoler-to examine "Where, in the dungeon's loathsome shade, The speechless captive clanks his chain, With heartless hope to raise that aid His feeble cries have called in vain." q This was, doubtless, the greater sacrifice to virtue. We trust, that he did not make this sacrifice in vain. He has certainly added some 9 Hayley. thing to a mass of evidence, and argument upon this subject, which must one day command general attention, from a nation, boasting of freedom, and professing a regard to justice. "Nor vain the thought that fairer hence may rise Mr. Wakefield's return to Hackney-Lectures on Virgil-His Illness and Death. 1801. MR. WAKEFIELD left Dorchester, on the fourth of June, to return with his family to Hackney. Having passed a night at Egham, he took that opportunity of paying his personal respects to Mr. Fox, at his beautiful retreat at St. Anne's Hill. Of this interview he often spoke with peculiar pleasure. For several months past it had been in his contemplation, at the suggestion, and by the advice, of a number of his friends, to deliver, on his return to London, a course of public classical lectures. They were intended to comprehend the Latin language, especially its poetry; to include every object connected with these subjects, and to be founded on the text of some author of acknowledged interest and importance. The second book of Virgil's |