III WINIFRED.. Silly Wives too late discover, When the Honey Moon is over, Zounds why teaze, Morn, Night & Noon now, Your Pipe my Dear is out of tune now. Fal de ral, &c. Réfle&ions upon Iron in the Hand of Man. [From M. Mercier's Fragments of Politics and Hifiory.] LOVE to figure to myfelf the firft operation of the arts upon the earth. Behold the hatchet enters the forefts, and the wild beafts, ftruck with alarm, abandon their dens to men, who, with iron and fire, open fpacious alleys in woods, where the earth, by the exuberance of her ufelefs-productions becomes a burden to herself. notions of religion or virtue, knowing difperfed, without morality, without neither to admire nor to contemplate the wonders of the creation? Society and to the profperity which it affords gives the neceffary inftruction to man; in this world, it joins the hope of a future felicity in a new order of things. For the great and fublime idea of final caufes disclosed itself only in improved fociety, in which we perceive the concurrence of the rays of eternal wisdom. To endeavour to prove that the condition of the people of Europe is lefs deThe rays of the fun have purified the firable than that of the Caribs or Hotten poifoned foil, where the uprooted pines tots; or that the man who exercifes and old trunks, exhaufted by thick gar- the arts is lefs happy merely by reafon Jands of parafitical plants, gave to of his employment; than if all his vegetation a hideous afpect; the knowledge were confined to run, to marthes, concealed beneath heaps of leap, to wrestle, to throw a stone to Torten leaves, bred hideous infects; a climb a tree, and all his occupation to vent is given to thefe ftagnant waters. fatisfy the cravings of nature, and then, The air corrects the exceflive humidity void of thought, to flumber at the foot a temperature the moft pernicious to of a tree-this, I fay, is to play on our fpecies. Habitations arife in the the furface of things for the fake of fame fpots from whence ferocious ani- difplaying a brilliant eloquence. mals, lurking under the clustering boughs, darted out upon their prey. Inftead of the poifonous plants on which the quadruped and man languifhed alike, too near the green carpet of the fens, we now fee the treafures of a wholefome and fmiling husbandry fpring up! and fportive flocks now gambol where the hideous ferpent was wont to fhed his venon. Such in our own times were the operations of the American colorifts, when they entered thofe filent retreats that required the action of a-free air and the quickening influence of the fun, to purge the water and the earth. The intention of the Creator, in beflowing the arts, feems partieularly to have provided the permanent means of affociating men. Human fociety enters into the plan of God, not only as certain effect, but as a principal object to which moft other effects are meant to-concur. a The arts and fcience have doubtless their inconveniencies; but are thefe inconveniences to be put in competition with the advantages which refult from them? Can they be compared with the evils which follow the neglect of them? When men were without the arts, they fally forth from their retreats in purwere obliged, like famished wolves, to fuit of prey. They were continually engaged in deftroying each other, that they, might not be destroyed by famine. Hence the inundation of thofe barbarous hordes, which fear could no longer confine on the fhores of the ocean, or behind the mountains of the north. They migrated perpetually from their barren abodes to the regions of the fouth, and, there deftroyed every thing, till they were deftroyed themselves. which nature has lavifhed on man, he Notwithflanding all the bleffings would have remained poor and miferable, without the benefit of political dawe, which increase the force and enjoyment of a people, which banith famine, which break the yoke of flavery, and laftly, which inftruct individuals concerning their respective rights. Wife political laws collected into a focus focus abundance and liberty, and prevent men from becoming the flaves of their fellows! Political laws alfo, by confining nations within prudent limits, hinder them from rushing againft each other. Small tribes are fubject to this accident, as well as mighty ftates, when the means of fubfiftance are not founded on the fociat laws. Let us conclude, therefore, that men are only unhappy, because they are not fufficiently induftrious. Geography Confidered in a Political Point of View. [From the Same.]. HOEVER admits an original plan in the univerfe, whoever rejects the words fatality and chance, and furveys with an attentive eye the empires of antient and modern times, will perecive an order of demarcation pon the furface of our globe, and will Lot fail to recognize the hand that traced the limits and erected the ramparts. He will behold nations mutually contending till they are confined within the geographical circle drawn by nature; in that enclosure they enjoy the repofe hich was denied them when they overaped the bounds.. When in the height of metaphyfics, me feel fomething that refifts, that repels us forcibly, that defeats us in fpite four efforts, it is a decifive mark that We go beyond our limits, and ftrain to furpass our natural capacity: it is a fecret admonition which reminds us of our Frailty, and corrects a prefumptuous teak nefs. But, in the material world, when an evident principle enlightens afon at the commencement of its rearches, it is a certain token that the mind poffeffes a fund of refources which will enable it to draw infallible condufions. Let us firft be natural philofaphers I have thought I could difcern the globe a decided intention of nare to feperate ftates without too much joining them, to delineate geometrilly the form of empires, and to domiate kingdoms; I have thought I uld perceive that the globe was fo figured, as that navigation would day be the tie to hind together the man race. These ideas will no doubt pleafe thofe who, ftruck with the harmonious immenfity, believe, that the government of the universe prefides majeftically and neceffarily over all other governments. We need only use our eyes, perhaps, to be convinced of thefe new truths: an attentive furvey of geographical charts, determines, in fome measure, the pofitive extent of states; for the mountains, the rivers, and the lakes, are the unquestionable boundaries and guardians which kind nature has placed for the prefervation and tranquility of human affociations. But if the order of nature have visibly feperated empires, it has on another hand decreed, that they shall have a mutual commerce of knowledge, its defign in this refpect is not concealed. When I hold in my hand a fragment of loadtone, and reflect that this ftone, / which appears in no way remarkable, informs us conftantly of the direction of the north, and renders poffible and easy the navigation of the most unknown feas, I have about me a convincing proof that nature intended a focial life for man. All these indications of defign feem, therefore, to evince that her views tend fimply to unite men, and make them fhare in common the good things diffeminated over the globe. Whenever, for the prefervation of the whole, a a great crifis of nature occafions the difruption of a fmall portion of the globe, you fuddenly perceive feas arifewhere iflands were fwallowed up. Never has a gulf, never has a large gap, invincibly feperated the different parts of the globe; on the contrary, the soft girdle of the waters every where invites man, every where prefents to him roads more dangerous than difficult, and which his courage and genius have furmounted. The celebrated English navigator, who difcovered the inhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean, failed from the Thames, paffed the Antipodes of London, and performed the circuit of the earth. Laftly, fince it has latterly been difcovered, by a never-erring experience, that winds which blow conftantly during a certain feafon of the year, waft our fhips to India, and that contrary winds, prevailing during another feafon, convey them back again to Our our ports-it is impoffible not to recognize certain admirable guides, calculated to approximate and unite the moft remote nations. If man has learned to construct a veffel, a bridge upan the ocean, if this frail machine nevertheless braves the angry elements; it is because the primary intention of nature was that men of all climates fhould not be frangers to each other. A dark cloud conceals from us the nations which inhabit the nothern extremity of America; but a flight convulfion of the globe may fuddenly form a fea, to conduct our veffels among thefe new nations; and, in a fimilar way, although the interior parts of Africa be nearly as much unknown as the centre of the earth, it requires only a happy occurrence to open for us the route. The great views of nature will fooner or later be accomplifhed. For the fame reafon that the gives mountains a gentle flope, to allow a free access to them, and facilitate the entrance into the vallies, he has diftributed in all directions a profufion of rivers and feas; every thing announces a circulation fimilar to that in the human body. She therefore wills, that all the people of the earth fhould be knit by the bonds of union, but without clashing fuddenly, and being too readily blended. Thus, by extending and connecting our various branches of knowledge, we fhall find that they all tend to the improvement of the human fpecies; and in this view art is nature. Whimfical Thoughts. Hic nugis, gryphis, ambagibufque meis condonare pofcimus. INSCR. VETUS. heart, it is fuppofed, is more inflammable. 4. A man newly married, if he has half the courage of Cæfar, paffes the Rubicon the firft night he enters the province of matrimony. 5. A houfe" left at fixes and fevens" is a house left to the care of fix or feven fervants. 6. Vermin, which attack the human body, are useful monitors. They ftimulate idle drones, and dirty drabs, to pay fome regard to the virtue of cleanlinefs. 7. The word ravish fignifies to commit a rape, and to charm or please exceffively-a mifchievous coincidence! 8. Merchant hips are generally called by female names. An excellent fcheme! It pleafes the failors. They go on board with alacrity; and if there happens to be occafion, they find fome confolation in going down with the Polly, the Betfy, the Peggy or the Nancy. 9. The cuts, or oppofitionifts, are like dogs barking in the ftreets, which, to ufe the words of an ancient author, "run here and there for meat, and grudge, if they be not fatisfied." 10. Hammer-cloth. When coaches and chariots were first introduced, our frugal ancestors ufed to load the carriage with provisions for the family when they came to London. The hamper, covered with a cloth, was_a convenient repofitory, and a feat for the coachman. This was afterwards converted into a box. Hammer-cloth is therefore, very probably, a corrup tion of hamper-cloth. 11. "Experience makes fools wife.” This is a falfe proverb. Fools go on in their old trammels. They have neither fenfe to fee, nor docility to rectify, their abfurdities. 12. A certain popular poet, who has frequently infulted fome of the refpectable characters by his malignant lampoons, feems to have been inftigated by this vifionary admonition, formerly addreffed to a namefake" Rife, Peter, kill and eat." 13. A ftaunch Catholic generally finds fome expedient for gratifying his inclination |