other criminals whom he was appointed to try, there was an old woman charged with witchcraft. To fupport this charge, several witneffes fwore that she had a fpell, with which fhe could either cure fuch cattle as were fick, or deftroy thofe that were in health. In the use of this spell, they faid, fhe had been lately detected, and, it having been found upon her, was ready to be produced in court. The judge then defired it might be handed up to him; when it appeared to be a dirty ball, covered with rags, and bound round with packtbread. These coverings he removed, one after another, with great deliberation; and at laft came to a piece of parchment, which he immediately perceived to be the fame he had once used as an expedient to fupply his want of money. At the recollection of this incident, he changed colour, and was silent for some time. At length, however, recovering himself, he addreffed the jury in the following manner. "Gentlemen, I must now relate a circumftance of my life, which very ill fuits my prefent character, and the ftation in which I fit: but, to conceal it, would be to endanger innocence, and to countenance fuper, ftition. This bauble which you fuppofe to have the power of life and death, is a fenfelefs fcrawl which I wrote with my own hand, and gave to this woman, whom, for no other cause they accufe

as

as guilty of witchcraft." He then related the particular circumftances of the tranfactions, which had fuch an effect on the minds of her accufers, that they blufhed at their folly and cruelty of their zeal; and Judge Holt's quondam hoftefs was the laft perfon ever tried for witchcraft in that county.

A

Life fufficient to all Purposes,

IF WELL EMPLOYED.

N ancient poet, unreasonably discontented at the prefent ftate of things, which his fyftem of opinions obliged him to represent in its worst form, has obferved of the earth, "that its greater part is covered by the uninhabitable ocean; that of the reff, fome is encumbered with naked mountains, and fome loft under barren fands; fome fcorched with unintermitted heat, and fome petrified with perpetual froft; fo that only a few regions remain for production of fruits, the pasture of cattle, and the accommodation of man."

The fame obfervation may be transferred to the time allotted us in our present state. When we have deducted all that is abforbed in fleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irrefiftibly engroffed by the tyranny of

custom;

(7)

custom; all that paffes in regulating the fuperficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the difpofal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of difeafe, or ftolen imperceptibly away by laffitude and languor, we fhall find that part of our duration very small of which we can truly call ourselves mafters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice. Many of our hours are loft in a rotation of petty cares → in a conftant recurrence of the fame employments; many of our provifions for eafe or happiness are always exhausted by the prefent day; and a great part of our existence ferves no other purpose, than that of enabling us to enjoy the rest.

Of the few moments which are left in our dif pofal it may reafonably be expected, that we fhou'd be fo frugal, as to let none of them flip from us without fome equivalent; and perhaps it might be found, that as the earth, however ftraitened by rocks and waters, is capable of producing more than all its inhabitants are able to confume, our lives, though much contracted by incidental diftraction, would yet afford us a large space vacant to the exercise of reafon and virtue; that we want not time, but diligence, for great performances; and that we fquander much of our allowance, even while we think it fparing and infufficient.

This

This natural and neceffary comminution of our lives, perhaps, often makes us infenfible of the negligence with which we fuffer them to flide away.. We never confider ourselves as poffeffed at once of time fufficient for any great defign, and therefore indulge ourselves in fortuitous amusements. We think it unneceffary to take account of a few fupernumerary moments, which, however employed, could have produced little advantage, and which were exposed to a thousand chances of disturbance and interruption.

It is obfervable, that either by nature or by habit, our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent, to which we adjust great things by divifion, and little things by accumulation. Of extensive furfaces we can only take a furvey, as the parts fucceed one another; and atoms we cannot perceive, till they are united into maffes. Thus we break the vaft periods of time into centuries and years; and thus, if we would know the amount of moments, we must agglomerate them into days and weeks.

The proverbial oracles of our parfimonious ancestors have informed us, that the fatal waste of fortune is by fmall expences, by the profufion of fums too little fingly to alarm our caution, and which we never fuffer ourfelves to confider to

gether.

gether. Of the fame kind is the prodigality of life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with fatisfaction upon past years, muft learn to know the prefent value of fingle minutes, and endeavor to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.

It is ufual for those who are advised to the attainment of any new qualification, to look upon themselves as required to change the general courfe of their conduct, to difmiis bufinefs, and exclude pleasure, and to devote their days and nights to a particular attention. But all common degrees of excellence are attainable at a lower price; he that should fteadily and refolutely affign

any science or language thofe interftitial vacancies which intervene in the most crowded variety of diverfion or employment, would find every day new irradiations of knowledge, and difcover how much more is to be hoped from frequency and perfeverance, than from violent efforts and fudden defires; efforts which are foon remitted when they encounter difficulty, and defires which, if they are indulged too often, will shake off the authority of reason, and range capricioufly from one object to another.

The difpofition to defer every important defign to a time of leifure, and a state of fettled uniformity, proceeds generally from a false estimate of