you make

A grofs mistake,

To think he wants his eyes,

There you are blind,

He aims aright,

Guided by fight,

And wounds in ev'ry feafon;

But most men think

Thofe opticks wink,

Which fhould direct his reafon,

Now pray, Sir, mind,

Elfe he would ne'er

Provoke the fair,

So ill to place their hearts,

Nor throw away

On vulgar clay,

The choiceft of his darts;

You take us right.

Yet this we know,

By what you show,

If love dim-fighted be;

His fubjects too,

If all like you,

Are full as blind as he;

SE

And fo goodnight.

A moral reflection on the vanity of riches.

Ee'ft thou, fond youth, yon precipice from high Whofe fummit makes a Turbant of the sky, How low'ring darkly o'er the fhadow'd plains, It ftrikes wild terror thro' the gazing (wains? Its craggy fides.can boaft no fertil foil, No promis'd harvest tempts a rural toil; No grazing cattle find their pafture there, Nor fragrant flow'rs perfume the ambient air No fweet maandring current glides along, Courting the meadows with its murm'ring fong

1

No fhady bow'rs adorn its barren fides,
Nor fair enclosure its rough ground divides;
No lofty fpires a wandring glance invite,
Nor artful gardens tempt the diftant fight;
All rough and wild, it rears its rocky head,
And ftrikes the wond'ring eye with awful dread:
From its high top impetuous torrents flow,
Form'd by diffolving tracts of native fnow;
Sorrow fits brooding on its furrow'd face,
And defolation triumphs o'er the place.
See'st thou all this, fond mortal? think if fo,
Such is the only blifs the Great can know,
Such are the barren pleasures they enjoy;
For this alone whole ages they employ.
They move our pity, tho' they tempt our fight,
High above all the reft, but wretched by their height.
Q. Whether the happiness of heaven be progreffive.

4. We ought not to indulge our curiofity in those particulars, of which God has not thought fit to make any discovery; fince it is enough that those things which are reveal'd belong to us and our children. But an happiness progreffive to all eternity muft fure after infinite ages advance to fo unimaginable a proportion as feems too great, too exceffive for a finite, for a created being.

Q. Divine Apollo, the following verfe puts me into a fort of fufpenfe, as to what the infidelity of the Jews may be imputed. He hath blinded their eyes, and hardned their hearts, that they should not fee with their eyes, nor underftand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them. 40th verfe of the 12th chapter of St. John's Gofpel.

A. Tho' none could come to the acknowledgment of the truth without the influence of God's Holy Spirit, agreeable to those words of our bleffed Lord, No man can come to me, unless the Father draw him; yet the unbelieving Jews were of fo perverfe, fo obftinate a temper, as to require thro' their own default à more than common portion of fo divine an influence. But they, who abufe the common fhare of grace allotted

them,

them, have no reason to expect a double portion; nay equitable fure that unexceptionable threatning, from him that has not (that makes no use of the bleffing he enjoys) fhall be taken away even that which he hath. God is therefore faid to have blinded their eyes (according to the ufual ftile of Scripture) in that he was not pleas'd (and who can impeach his justice in the matter) to afford them fuch a plentiful effufion of his Spirit, as to make them fee whether they would or no; but rather thought fit upon their inexcufable abufe of what he had already bestow'd upon them, to deprive them wholly of his affiftance, to withdraw his grace, and leave them to their impotent, to their wretched felves. And as this gives a folution to feveral paffages in Scripture, fo especially to that noted one, where God is faid to have harden'd Pharaoh's heart.

Q. What is the reason of bowing towards the altar, at coming in, or going out of the church?

A. As the altar is fituated in the eastern part of the church, fo we may fuppofe the custom to derive from the primitive practice of praying towards the eaft: of which practice feveral of the fathers give their feveral reasons; but Athanafius the most pertinently thus. We do not worship (fays he) towards the east, as tho' we fuppofed God confin'd to thofe parts of the world; but because as he is in himself, fo is he call'd in Scripture the true light, and therefore in turning our felves towards the created light, we do not worship that light, but the Creator of it; taking occafion from fo extraordinary an element to adore that God who was pre-exiftent to all elements and ages of the world.

As our church in her canons takes notice of turning towards the altar at the repetition of the creed, fo whether her children will do fo or no, the leaves. it to their own discretion.

Q. Pray let me bave your opinion, whether it be chas vity to give the common beggars about the streets.

A. Since there are too many cheats among common beggars, we should direct our principal freams

of charity to thofe of whofe neceffities we have a reasonable affurance: but fince there are fome real objects among them, we fhould fuffer our leffer rivulets to flow in that lefs confiderable channel, but yet with the very utmost caution, that external appearances will poffibly admit of.

Q. I hope you'll pardon these reflections on your answer in Numb. xxiv. where you fay, when any play for more, •&c. By your argument I am guilty of covetousness, when I'm uneafy at a bad return; and indeed I am then more concern'd than for a loss at play. I think venturing my money in any fort of traffick is much the fame as at square play; and there may be a stricter comparison, when by engroffing a commodity I keep it at an extravagant price, tis fomewhat like the high game at putt, you are at last bound to have this or none, and at my price too, or I shall get your customer; befides there is a certain pleasure in playing for fomewhat extraordinary, which extreamly heightens the recreation. Indeed there are crimes often attending it, as quarrelling and swearing, but while I can keep my felf from thofe two, and divert my felf at feafonable times with thofe I know (or believe) are fair gamefters, I fhall not fear to wager confiderable fums, nor then to rob my family: and tho' I defire to win, not think my self convicted of covetousness more than at my business; but I Shall fubmit to your fuperiour judgments in the answer I hope to receive. Sic fubfcribitur Count Hatchet.

A. We think the adventurers in the way of traffick hold no analogy with the chances in play, either in refpect to the circumstances, or to the ultimate end of both. The merchant gives a valuable confideration for what he expects a profit from; the gamefter de figns none: if you urge the rifque he runs as a valuable confideration for the other's lofs; we anfwer he defigns no fuch confideration when he plays: the merchant's affairs oblige an industry in his attending thereon, which gives not vice an opportunity to gain an afcendant over him; whereas the gamefter's is an idle course of life, which lays him open to vice; nor is it fufficient (as you fay you do) that you keep free

from

from the vices of quarrels and fwearing, fince you ought alfo to avoid all temptations to thefe crimes. We cannot think it a real but fallacious pleasure, where the perfon converts a certainty into a chance; or prudence to bring into question, whether his own be his own, by putting it in hazard. Befides he always plays against odds in effect, fince what he lofes, is really fo much; but what he wins, generally from the cafinefs of the purchase, is lightly difpers'd, whilft what is gain'd by induftry fticks by a man. Thus the comparison will in no points hold between the merchant-adventurer and the gamester.

Q. Whether this terraqueous orb does continually move on its axis, and fo the fun is fixt in its centre; or whether that is continually moving, and this orb fixt and immoveable: if fo, how does the fun compass it in fo small a space as 24 hours; and why the moon in fo long a space as 28 days? Your answer to this will oblige a fubfcriber.

But

4. That the earth moves round its own axis may be gather'd from the nature of wisdom, whofe property it is to act by the most simple methods; and therefore we cannot rationally fuppofe, that when the fucceffion of the night and day might be perform'd by fo cafy and natural a motion, infinite wisdom should rather choose a strangely rapid and unnatural one. on supposition that the old Ptolemaick fyftem were true, you yet compare the monthly courfe of the moon with the fun's diurnal progrefs; whereas you fhould have compar'd it with its annual one. For upon the forementioned principle the moon has a diurnal motion, correfpondent to the diurnal motion of the fun, with no other difference than what naturally proceeds from the greater fwiftnefs of its retrograde motion thro' the ecliptick. But why upon the fame principle the moon fhould perform her revolution in a month, which the fun cannot perform in lefs time than a year, this might readily be accounted for from the vicinity of one, and the vaftly greater diftance of the other.

Q. I