had been enemies when living. What then remains, but that we revive the memory of such relations now, in order to quicken our benevolence? that we are all country-men, is a consideration that is more commonly inculcated, and limits our benevolence to a smaller number also. That we are contemporaries, and persons whom future history shall unite, who, great part of us, however imperceptibly, receive and confer reciprocal benefits; this, with every other circumstance that tends to heighten our philanthropy, should be brought to mind as much as possible, during our abode upon earth. Hereafter it may be just, and requisite, to comprehend all ages of mankind.

THE best notion we can conceive of God, may be, that he is to the creation what the soul is to the body.: Deus est quodcunque vides, ubicunque moveris.

WHAT is man, while we reflect upon a Deity, whose very words are works; and all whose works are wonders!

PRAYER is not used to inform, for God is omni

scient :

scient not to move compassion, for God is without passions not to show our gratitude, for God knows our hearts.—May not a man, that has true notions, be a pious man though he be silent?

To honour God, is to conceive right notions of him, says some ancient that I have forgot.

I KNOW not how Mr. Pope's assertion is consistent with the scheme of a particular Providence :

The Almighty cause

Acts not by partial, but by general laws.

WHAT one understands by a general Providence, is that attention of the Almighty to the works of his creation, by which they pursue their original course, without deviating into such eccentric motions as must immediately tend to the destruction of it. Thus, a philosopher is enabled to foretell eclipses with precision; and a stone thrown upward drops uniformly to the ground. Thus an injury awakes resentment; and a good office endears to us our benefactor. And it seems no unworthy idea of Omnipotence, perhaps, to suppose he at first constituted a system, that stood

in no need either of his counteracting or suspending the first laws of motion.

BUT, after all, the mind remains; and we can shew it to be either impossible, or improbable, that God directs the will? Now whether the divine Being occasions a ruin to fall miraculously, or in direct opposition to the ordinary laws of nature, upon the head of Chartres-or whether he inclines Chartres to go near a wall whose centre of gravity is unsupported, makes no material difference.

ON

I

ON TASTE.

BELIEVE that, generally speaking, persons

eminent in one branch of taste, have the

principles of the rest; and to try this, I have

often solicited a stranger to hum a tune, and have seldom failed of success. This, however, does not extend to talents beyond the sphere of taste; and Handel was evidently wrong, when he fancied himself born to command a troop of horse.

MANKIND, in general, may be divided into persons of understanding and persons of genius; each of which will admit of many subordinate degrees. By persons of understanding, I mean persons of sound judgment; formed for mathematical deductions and clear argumentation. By persons of genius, I would characterize those in whom true and genuine fancy predominates; and this whether assisted or not by cultivation.

I HAVE thought that genius and judgment may, in

some

some respects, be represented by a liquid and a solid. The former is, generally speaking, remarkable for its sensibility, but then loses its impression soon: the latter is less susceptible of impression but retains it longer.

DIVIDING the world into a hundred parts, I am apt to believe the calculation might be thus adjusted.

Persons of a wild uncultivated taste

Persons of original taște, improved by art

40

15

15

THERE is hardly anything so uncommon, as a true native taste improved by education.

THE object of taste is corporeal beauty; for though there is manifestly a τò πρéñov; a pulchrum, an honestum, and decorum, in moral actions; and although a man of taste that is not virtuous commits a greater violence upon his sentiments than any other person; yet, in the ordinary course of speaking, a person