the ideas of the weak, luxurious, and indolent minds of fome fashionable ladies, that many spend their lives in a perpetual state of imaginary convalefcence. There is fomething so indelicate in being hale, hearty, and ftout, like a rofy milkmaid, that a very fine and very high-bred lady is almoft ready to faint at the idea. From exceffive indulgence, fhe becomes at laft in reality what fhe at firft only fancied herself, a perpetual invalid. By a juft retribution, fhe is really punished with that wretchednefs, of which she ungratefully and unreasonably complained in the midst of health, eafe, and opulence.

One might afk all the fifterhood and fraternity of rich and healthy murmurers: Have you compared your fituation and circumftances with that of thofe of your fellow-creatures who are condemned to labour in the gold mines of Peru? Have you compared your fituation with that of thofe in your own country, who have hardly ever feen the fun, but live confined in tin mines, lead mines, ftone quarries, and coal pits? Before you call yourself wretched take a furvey of the gaols, in which unfortunate and honeft debtors are doomed to pine for life; walk through the wards of an hofpital; think of the galley-flave, the dayJabourer; nay, the common fervant in your own

house;

houfe; think of your poor neighbour at the next door; and if there were not danger of its being called unpolite and methodistical, I would add, think of Him, who, for your fakes, sweated, as it were, drops of blood on Calvary.

It is indeed, a duty to confider the evils of those who are placed beneath us; for the chief purpose of Chriflianity is, to alleviate the miferies of that part of mankind, whom, indeed, the world defpifes; but whom, He who made them, pities, like as a father pitieth his own children. Their miferies are not fanciful, their complaints are not exaggerated. The clergy, when they are called upon to vifit the fick, or to baptize new-born infants, are often fpectators of fuch scenes, as would cure the difcontented of every malady. The following reprefentation is but too real, and may be paralleled in many of its circumstances, in almost every parish throughout the kingdoin.

The Minister of a country village was called upon to baptize an infant just born. The cottage was fituated on a lonely common, and as it was in the midst of the winter, and the floods were out, it was abfolutely neceffary to wade through the lower room to a ladder, which ferved instead of stairs. The chamber (and it was the only one)

was

was fo low, that you could not ftand upright in it; there was one window which admitted air as freely as light, for the rags which had been ftuffed into the broken panes were now taken out to contribute to the covering of the infant. In a dark corner of the room ftood a fmall bedstead without furniture, and on it lay the dead mother, who had juft expired in labour for want of affiftance. The father was fitting on a little ftool by the fire-place, though there was no fire, and endeavouring to keep the infant warm in his bofom. Five of the feven children half naked, were afking their father for a piece of bread, while a fine boy, of about three years old, was standing by his mother at the bedfide, and crying, as he was wont to do, "Take me, take me, mammy." "Mammy is asleep," faid one of his fifters, with two tears standing on her cheeks; "Mammy is afleep, Johnny, go play with the baby on daddy's knee." The father took him up on his knee; and his grief, which had hitherto kept him dumb, and in a state of temporary infenfibility, burst out in a torrent of tears, and relieved his heart, which feemed ready to break, "Don't cry, pray don't cry," faid the eldest boy, "the nurfe is coming up stairs with a two-penny loaf in her hand, and mammy will wake prefently, and I will carry her the largest piece." Upon this, an old woman,

crooked

1

crooked with age, and clothed in tatters, came hobbling on her little ftick into the room, and, after heaving a groan, calmly fat down, dreffed the child in its rags; then divided the loaf as far as it would go, and informed the poor man that the churchwardens, to whom he had gone, would fend fome relief, as foon as they had difpatched a naughty baggage to her own parifh, who had delivered herself of twins in the efquire's hovel. Relief indeed was fent, and a little contribution afterwards raifed by the interpofition of the Minifter. If he had not feen the cafe, it would have paffed on as a common affair, and as a thing of course.

Minifters and medical practitioners are often witneffes to fcenes even more wretched than this; where, to poverty, cold, nakednefs, and death, are added, the languors of lingering and loathfome difeafes, and the torments of excruciating pain. A feeling heart among the rich and the great, who are at the fame time querulous without caufe, would learn a leffon in many a garret of Broad St. Giles's or Shoreditch, more efficacious than all the lectures of the moral or divine philofopher.

I cannot help mentioning and applauding a mode of charity of late much encouraged in this metropolis,

metropolis, which is indeed diftinguished above all others for the wisdom and variety of its eleemofynary institutions. Difpenfaries are established for the poor, and patients vifited at their own habitation by physicians of allowed skill and diftinguished characters. I will only take the liberty to exprefs a wifh, that fome regulations may be made to prevent this noble defign from being perverted, like many others, to purposes of private interest.

A CURIOUS ANECDOTE,

RELATING TO

WEBB, A NOTED WALKER.

THIS man was remarkable for vigour, both of mind and body, and lived wholly upon water for his drink, and chiefly upon vegetables for his fuftenance. He was one day recom, mending his regimen to one of his friends who loved wine, and urged him, with great earnestnefs, to quit a courfe of luxury, by which his health and his intellects would equally be deftroyed. The gentleman appeared convinced, and told him, "that he would conform to his counsel, and that he could not change his course

of