"In grief we know the worst of what we feel, "When cruel slight or killing scorn assails them. "Was Nero penitent when Rome was burnt? "No: but had Nero been a petty villain, Subject to laws and liable to fear, "Nero perchance had been a penitent. "He comes:-This paper makes him all my own." "This giant sin, whose bulk so lately scar'd me, "Why, what a progress have I made in guilt! "Draw thy dun curtain round, oh, night! black night! "Inspirer and concealer of foul crimes! "Thou wizard night! who conjur'st up dark thoughts; "What in broad day he wou'd not dare to think. Oh, night! thou hid'st the dagger's point from men, "But cans't thou screen the assassin from himself? "Shut out the eye of heaven? extinguish conscience? "Or heal the wounds of honour? Oh, no, no, no!" “One crime makes many needful: this day's sin "Blots out a life of virtue." From the Inflexible Captive. "Let honour be the spring of all our actions, "Not interest, fathers. Let no selfish views "Preach safety at the price of truth and justice." "In laurels or in chains 29 "'Tis the same principle; the same fix'd soul, "I have no need of oracles, my son; "Honour's the oracle of honest men." "We live on honour-'tis our food, our life, I have almost always disliked novels and all imagined characters, and no work affords greater instruction than real history and actual biography. The dialogue of comedy gives me some pleasure, but real dialogue more. That between Mrs. More and Mrs. Yearsley, being true, much gratified me; and I clearly perceive that Mrs. Yearsley, unless it be a little defect in the art of grammar, was by far the superior woman. That she is in dignity of mind is evident; that she is so in integrity admits of no question. No poem of H. More's exhibits so much genius, or of the true poetical spirit, as Mrs. Yearsley's Soliloquy and Sensibility. The one is an original genius; the other, Mrs. More, has acquired abilities, by much application and study. Let the poem of each on Sensibility be compared. . Having finished what I had to say on Mrs. More, as a poet, I will now conclude, by quoting the superior judgment of my relation, Peter Pindar, Esq. one of the first critics of the day, to confirm and justify the opinion I have uniformly given of her merits. "Miss Hannah may be aptly term'd a hen, "Who sits on pheasant's eggs, to kindness prone, "Lo, for the laurel prize Miss Hannah starts! "Left is Miss Hannah far, yes, far behind. "Miss Hannah's heels are greasy, let me say; "Miss Hannah's heels are very stiff indeed: "Her form is rather fitted for the dray, "Than on NEWMARKET turf to shew a speed." VOL. IV. IN the History of Mr. FANTOM she endeavours to ridicule and render philosophy contemptible. She does not give him a uniform bad character; she allows him some excellencies, but these excellencies she makes vices. Narrowness of mind, ignorance, bigotry, priestcraft, public good, the love of mankind, and, strange to tell, benevolence, are all equally vices. She describes Fantom as "desirous of seeing himself at the "head of a society of his own formation and proselytism; the supreme object of a philosopher's "ambition!" This character is well illustrated, indeed, in her own conduct of Sunday-schools. Whatever Fantom began with, he was sure in his conversation to end with a " pert squib at the bi"ble, a vapid jest on the clergy, the miseries of "superstition, and the blessings of philosophy." Whatever mischief false notions of political philosophy may have done, the lamentable effects of superstition in all ages of the world have been grievously felt; and the direful effects of Mrs, More's late proceedings at Blagdon and elsewhere, her underhand and subtle means to propagate and maintain a non-descript system of fa natical mysticism, are a proof that this story was written with some view. I will not do her the injustice to say that she appears to have no regard for religion. On the contrary, she makes great professions; but her religion, if in reality she has any, is far from rational; it is not the religion of the bible. She is a woman of understanding and knowledge; and, therefore, there is room to suspect, that, on account of her subtle, pragmatical character, religion in her is craft and cunning, otherwise, with her information, her religion would appear more rational, and therefore more scriptural. Under the character of Trueman, she has a quarrel with NATURE, which he personified. But is not God personified in the scriptures and in our daily speech? Although his necessary existence excludes all relation to one place more than another, and that he is equally present every where, still that and every other attribute, except his moral, are altogether incomprehensible to us; and our personification of nature, or of God, is because our faculties are too imperfect and finite to conceive or reason concerning the Supreme Being. From our daily and constant observation, and the latest improvements in natural knowledge, we are convinced that the energy and power constantly and regularly exerted in every part of the universe, is necessary for the support and cohesion of the parts of matter, and that this energy, this law of matter, this law of the universe, this law of nature, is God, in the heavens above, and in the earth |