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their reason they know to be false. Natural religion is the only religion God ever gave to man; and it is sufficient to secure the welfare of every man, both here and hereafter.

12. Thus, having rejected the true God, and the true morality, from disaffection to both, and framed a system of religion to suit their hearts, they cry peace, peace to themselves, until sudden destruction cometh upon them.

PRINCE EUGENE'S PRAYER.

O GOD, I believe in thee: do thou strengthen my belief. I hope in thee: do thou confirm my hope. I love thee: vouchsafe to redouble my love. I am sorry for my sins: O increase my repentance. I adore thee as my first principle; I desire thee as my last end: I thank thee as my perpetual benefactor; I call upon thee as my supreme defender. My God! be pleased to guide me by thy wisdom, rule me by thy justice, comfort me by thy mercy, and keep me by thy pow

er.

To thee I dedicate all my thoughts, words and actions, that henceforth I may think of thee, speak of thee, act according to thy will, and suffer for thy sake. Lord, my will is subject to thine, whatever thou willest, because it is thy will. I beseech thee to enlighten my understanding, to give bounds to my will, to purify my body, to sanctify my soul. Enable me, O my God, to reform my past offences, to conquer my future temptations, to reduce the passions that are too strong for me, and to practise the virtues that become me. O

fill my heart with a tender remembrance of thy favours, an aversion for my infirmities, a love for my neighbour, and a contempt for the world. Let me also remember to be submissive to my superiors, charitable to my enemies, faithful to my friends, and indulgent to my inferiors. O God! help me to overcome pleasure by mortification; covetousness by alms; anger by meekness; and lukewarmness by devotion. O my God! make me prudent in undertakings, courageous in danger, patient under disappointment, and humble in success. Let me never forget, O Lord, to be fervent in prayer, temperate in food, exact in my employ, and constant in my resolutions. Inspire me, Lord, with a desire to have a quiet conscience, an outward as well as inward modesty, an edifying conversation, and a regular conduct. Let me always apply myself to resist nature, to cherish grace, to keep thy commands, and to become meet for heaven. My God! do thou convince me of the meanness of the earth, the greatness of heaven, the shortness of time, and the length of eternity. Grant that I may be prepared for death, that I may fear thy judgment, avoid hell, and obtain paradise, for the sake and merits of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

A LETTER FROM JOHN CALVIN TO LELIUS SOCINUS.

You need not wait for my answer to those monstrous questions which you propose to me. If you are inclined to indulge in

such airy speculations; suffer me, I pray you, a humble disciple of Jesus Christ, to employ my self in those meditations, which tend to my edification in the faith of the gospel. And I shall certainly obtain by my silence, what I so much wish, that you may not trouble me in this way in future. I am truly grieved to perceive, that the noble talents which God has bestowed on you, are not merely misemployed about objects of no moment, but actually perverted by pernicious fancies. What I formerly declared to you, I seriously warn you of again, that unless you restrain in time this inquisitive pruriency of mind, there is reason to fear that you are preparing for yourself grievous punishments in a future world. Were I, under the pretence of indulgence, to encourage you in a faut which I judge so ruinous, I should certainly act toward you a treacherous and cruel part. Wherefore I am willing, that you should now for a little be offended by my seeming asperity, rather than that you should not be reclaimed from those curious and alluring speculations, by which you have been already captivated. The time will come, I hope, when you shall rejoice, that you have been awakened even in this violent manner, from your pleasing, but fatal dream. Yours,

JOHN CALVIN.

January 1, 1552.

Rel. Mon.

FRAGMENTS.

HEALTH OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

ONE circumstance peculiarly worthy of notice, is the perfect

and uninterrupted health of the inhabitants of New Zealand. In all the visits made to their towns, where old and young, men and women, crowded about our voyagers, they never observed a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint; nor among the numbers that were seen naked, was once perceived the slightest eruption upon the skin, or the least mark, which indicated that such an eruption had formerly existed. Another proof of the health of these people is the facility with which the wounds, they at any time receive, are healed. In the man who had been shot with a musquetball through the fleshy part of his arm, the wound seemed to be so well digested, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed, that if Mr. Cook had not known that no application had been made to it, he declared that he should certainly have inquired, with a very interested curiosity after the vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the country. An additional evidence of human nature's being untainted with disease in New Zealand, is the great number of old men with whom it abounds. Many of them, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, and yet none of them were decrepid. Although they were not equal to the young in muscular strength, they did not come in the least behind with regard to cheerfulness and vivacity. Water, as far as our navigators could discover, is the universal and only liquor of the New Zealanders. It is greatly to be wished that their happiness in this respect may never destroyed by such a connexion

be

with the European nations, as shall introduce that fondness for spiritous liquors which has been so fatal to the Indians of NorthAmerica.

Life of Capt. Cook.

OPINIONS OF FREDERIC 2d. OF
PRUSSIA ON FIELD SPORTS.

As to sporting, it was the object of Frederic's abhorrence. Any gentleman known to be addicted to this passion would wholly have lost his esteem.

His

nephew, to procure himself the pleasures of the field only once or twice a year, did so with every possible precaution, that the intelligence might not reach the ears of Frederic.

The butcher, said this monarch, even the butcher does not kill animals for his pleasure; but does it for the necessities of man. But the sportsman kills for pleasure; this is odious! The sportsman, therefore, should be placed below the butcher in the order of society.

Ch. Ob.

IN MEMORY OF THE LATE JOHN THORNTON, ESQUIRE.
By William Cowper.

POETS attempt the noblest task they can,
Praising the Author of all good, in man;
And next, commemorating Worthies lost,
The dead, in whom that good abounded most.
Thee, therefore, of commercial fame, but more
Fam'd for thy probity from shore to shore;
Thee, Thornton worthy in some page to shine,
As honest, and more eloquent, than mine,
I mourn or, since thrice happy thou must be,
The world that has sustained the loss, not Thee.
Thee to deplore, were grief mispent indeed;
It were to weep that goodness has its meed;
That there is bliss prepar'd in yonder sky,
And glory for the virtuous, when they die.
What pleasure can the miser's fondled hoard,
Or spendthrift's prodigal excess, afford,
Sweet as the privilege of healing wo

By virtue suffer'd, combating below!

That privilege was thine! Heaven gave thee means
Tillumine with delight the saddest scenes,
Till thy appearance chas'd the gloom, forlorn
As midnight, and despairing of a morn.
Thou hadst an industry in doing good,
Keen as the peasant's toiling for his food.
Avarice, in thee, was the desire of wealth
By rust unperishable, or by stealth.
And if the genuine worth of gold depend
On application to its noblest end,

Thine had a value, in the scales of Heaven,
Surpassing all that mine or mint had given.
And though God made thee of a nature prone
To distribution boundless, of thy own,
And still, by motives of religious force,
Impell'd thee more to that heroic course!

Yet was thy liberality discreet,

Nice in its choice, and of a tempered heat:
And, though in act unwearied, secret still,
As in some solitude the summer rill
Refreshes, where it winds, the faded green,
And cheers the drooping flowers, unheard, unseen.
Such was thy charity; no sudden start,
After long sleep, of passion in the heart;
But purest principle; and, in its kind,
Of close relation to th' Eternal Mind;
Trac'd easily to its true source above,

To Him, whose works proclaim his nature, Love..
Thy bounties all were Christian: and I make
This record of thee for the Gospel's sake;
That the incredulous themselves may see
How bright it shone, exemplified in thee!

Review of the Eclectic Review.

To the Editors of the Panoplist. In the ECLECTIC REVIEW for January, 1807, you will see some remarks on my COMPENDIOUS DICTIONAYY, which I desire you to insert in the Panoplist, with my reply. I make this request because I am willing my fellow-citizens should understand the opinions of English Gentlemen, concerning that performance; and because I wish my reply to reach the Reviewers, in expectation that they will manifest their candour and love of justice by republishing my remarks. The Review contains some mistakes, which are the effect of misapprehension; some differences of opinion, which may be the effect of

education and habit; and some errors, which proceed probably from a want of minute attention to etymology, that difficult, and to most men, uninteresting branch of philology. But, with the exception of two or three observations, the criticisms manifest liberality of sentiment, and contain a greater portion of praise, shan English Reviewers have generally bestowed on American publications. Of the Compendious Dic tionary the Eclectic Reviewers say; "THE heterogeneous materials of which the English language is composed had scarcely acquired consistence and regularity of form, when the maritime spirit and growing commerce of our nation began to diffuse its speech to the most distant parts of the world. Within two centuries, it

has become prevalent in the West
and the East Indies, and has spread
from Hudson's Bay to Van Diemen's
land. It is possible, that, in the lapse
of ages, every colony formed by Brit-
ons may, like those of North Ameri-
ca, assume independence of the mo-
ther country and if they do so, we
hope that it will be readily acceded to
them. But ENGLISH, however re-
The
bonds of customs and language can-
luctantly, they must remain.
not be broken like those of political
authority. It gives us pleasure to ob-
serve, that, notwithstanding the vio-
lent prejudices against us, which are
absurdly cherished by our fellow-coun-
trymen beyond the Atlantic, they are
wise enough to aim at preserving the
use of our language with correctness
Whether they are
and propriety.
likely to succeed in amending and im-
proving it, the present article affords

us occasion to examine.

Mr. Webster, more than twenty years ago, published "Institutes of the English language." With that work, the present is proposed to

66

complete a system of elementary principles, for the instruction of youth in the English language." After this intimation, our readers will perhaps be surprised to find that the etymolo, gies of words are not included in Mr. W.'s plan. Thcse, indeed, were hardly to be expected in a compend; but then, we should as little have expected that the system could be completed by a compend. The author, nevertheless, founds his orthographical

corrections on the etymology of terms and in a preface of twentythree pages, too minutely printed, he enables us to judge of his qualifica tions for the undertaking.

Since the publication of his former work Mr. W. has laudably applied himself to the study of the AngloSaxon, which he terms "the mother tongue of the English." That our language derives its principal grammatical inflections, and a great proportion of its terms, from the Saxon dialect of the Teutonic language, is certain but it is equally certain, that it retains numerous terms of the ancient British and the Latin tongues, which were spoken by our ancestors long before the Saxons, Jutes, or Angles, ever landed in Britian; and that, since the conquest by these invad. ers, it has undergone great variations in consequence of that by the Norman French. The English language, therefore, may be compared to a family, rather than to an individual. The Lloegrian (or Cornish) dialect of the ancient British tongue, may be considered as its mother; and the Latin, Saxon, and French, as the fathers respectively, of her various offspring. It seem to be from a want of reflection on the composite nature of our language, and a want of attention to those sources which historical truth assigns to it, that the principal mistakes of our etymologists have arisen. While every new author undertakes to correct his predecessors, he falls in consequence of this deficiency, into fresh mistakes. Another fertile occasion of errors, is a supposition that the Saxon is not merely the "mother tongue of the English," but that it is the English tongue itself. Hence modern amenders and improvers labour to annihilate that precision, which our language has acquired from the genius and labour of elegant writers during the last two centuries, and to reduce it to that confusion which prevailed among our barbarous conquerors a thousand years ago.

In proof that these remaks are applicable to Mr. Webster, as well as to other recent dabblers in etymology, we adduce the following paragraphs from the first page of his preface. "Each," says Johnson, denotes, 1st, Either of two. 2. Every one of any number. This sense is rare except

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in poetry." To prove the last remark
to be an error, we need not resort to
and every conversation we hear, de-
the Saxon, for every book we read,
Israel, being twelve men, each one was
monstrates the fact. "The princes of
for the house of his fathers." Numb.
i. 44. This is the true original im-
port of the word; it has no appropri
ate reference to two, more than to ten
thousand. "Thyder man ne mihte
on nyht wicode and elce dæge hæfde
geseglian on anum monthe, gyf man
amberne wind." "Thither a man
could not sail in a month, if he should
have a fair wind." Alfred's Orosius,
watch at night, and each day should
Ch. I. See also page 61, 63, 79, 219.
Lond. 1773. and Sax. Ch. I. By Gib-
inition of Johnson is therefore the on-
son, page 185, 186. The second def-
ly true one; but not well expressed.

used improperly for each; each signi-
"Either," says Lowth, "is often
fies both taken separately, either prop-
erly signifies only the one or the other,
taken disjunctively." In pursuance
of this false rule, he condemns such
passages as this; "they crucified two
others with him, on either side one,
and Jesus in the midst." But the
sense in which the word is here used
in [is] the true primitive one, and
cell wal ther on ægthere hand gefeoll."
still used by the best writers. "My-
hand." Sax. Ch. 134.
"There was great slaughter on either
"Thet egther

hiora on other hawede." "That
either of them might see the other."
p. 133. "Swithe mycel here agther
ode." "A very great army, either
ge land-here ge scip-here of Swathe-
land army, and ship-army from Swe-
den." That is both. p. 153. So far is
Lowth's rule from the truth, that
either, in our primitive writers, was
rarely or never used in a disjunctive

sense.

In reading considerable volhave not found a single instance. Its umes of the best Saxon writings, I disjunctive use is modern; but its original sense is still in use, and perfectly proper.

"There full in view, to either host displayed." Hoole's Tasso, 22, 602. guage of which Lowth condemns, are The passages in Scripture, the lanstrictly correct.

In defence of these two great scholars, whose remains it is now the fashion to insult, we need only to ap

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