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and placed upright on tablets, difpofed ftep above step along the fides of the vault, the head, the arms, and the feet are left naked. A prefervation like this is horrid. The fkin difcoloured, dry, and as if it had been tanned, nay, torn in fome places, is glewed close to the bone. It is eafy to imagine, from the different grimaces of this numerous affemblage of fleshless figures, rendered ftill more frightful by a long beard on the chin, what a hideous fpectacle this muft exhibit; and whoever has feen a Capuchin alive, may form an idea of this fingular REPOSITORY of dead friars,

NATIONAL INSTITUTE

OF

SCIENCES AND ARTS AT PARIS.

TH

HIS eftablishment belongs to the whole nation. 1. Its object is the advancement of the arts and fciences by a courfe of uninterrupted enquiry, and a conftant correfpondence with literary and philofophical focieties in foreign nations; and particularly to mark and record the literary and scientific labours, that have for their object not only the general benefit of mankind, but the glory of the Republic. 2. It is compofed of 144 members, refident in Paris, and an equal number of affociates difperfed throughout the different provinces of the Republic. Its affociates in foreign nations are in number twenty-four, being eight for the three different claffes. 3. The Inftitute is divided into three claffes, and each clafs into different fections; thus

First Clafs.-Sciences, Phyfical and Mathematical, comprehending 1. Mathematics. 2. Mechanical Arts. 3. Aftronomv. 4. Experimental Phyfics. 5. Chymistry. 6. Natural History and Mineralogy. 7. Botany and Vegetation in general. 8. Anatomy and

Zoology.

Zoology. 9. Medicine and Surgery. 10. Rural Economy and the Veterinary Art.

Second Clafs-Moral and Political Sciences, comprehending 1. The Analyfis of Senfations and Ideas. 2. Morals. 3. The Science of the Social Order and Legiflation. 4. Political Economy. 5. Hiftory. 6.. Geography.

Third Clafs.-Literature and the Fine Arts, comprehending, 1. Grammar and Antient Languages. 2. Poetry. 3. Antiquities and Monuments. 4. Painting and Sculpture. 5. Architecture. 6. Mufic and Declamation. The coupling of thefe two laft articles reminds us of thefe beautiful lines:

"The angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he awhile.
Thought him still speaking, ftill food fix'd to hear.

MILTON."

THER

ON MARRIAGE:

BY W. MUDFORD.

HERE is no time of life when mature confideration and cool reflection are fo powerfully demanded, as when a man begins feriously to think of marriage. It is then, and only then, that we stand fo much in need of all our powers of ratiocination. It is then that we ought to look into ourselves, and fee, with an impartial eye, whether or not we are in any refpect fit for the bondage. We fhould weigh in the fcale of confideration our humours, our paffions, our caprices, our exacerbations, and, lastly, our virtue; then obferve which bears the greater weight. If our foibles, how fhould we act then? Should we inconfiderately load them on the weaknesses of another? No. Should we not rather keep them to ourselves, and use our utmoft endeavours to fupprefs them? Moft certainly.

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Another

Another confideration cught to form a part of our reflections previous to marriage. We should queftion ourfelves rigidly. Afk if we are qualified to bear the many petty cares and difficulties which inevitably attend the marriage ftate. Whether we are qualified to endure all the individually trifling demands of attention which are due; but which, following in quick fucceffion, weigh down the fpirits and four the natural gaiety and vivacity of man. Attentions which,.

confidered fingly, appear to demand little or no regard as to the performance of their being in themfelves fo trivial; and then erroneoufly imagining they will naturally come, or at least will be rendered habitual. But it is no fuch thing.

The man who confiders himself attentively, will quickly obferve that he is born with a spirit of fuperiority and an ardent defire of liberty; he will obferve that things which scarce excite notice in a woman, are to him fetters of the most impregnable nature. Thus when married, unused to be controuled, he cannot at firft fubmit to the yoke; he cannot tacitly obey the apparent impofition-he endeavours to harmonize it to his feelings, but cannot. It becomes then ftill more infupportable, and at length utterly impoffible; at that inftant he feels he would be a man ;-at that instant he feels there is nothing on earth fo defirable as liberty— but his is bartered. He reflects it cannot be regained, and fits down determined to quarrel with the world, and view, with the jaundiced eye of envy, those pleafures in which he cannot participate.

Such too often is the bitter refult of indifcreet and early marriages. By indifcreet marriages, I would be understood alliances where there is too great a disparity of age, where tempers are not fimilar, or where purfuits are diametrically oppofite. For what in nature can be more ridiculous and abfurd, than for a man in the prime of youth to marry a woman of fifty; or a man of placid manners a woman of a volatile temper;

or

or a man of genius his own illiterate maid-fervant ? It is madness in the extreme, and an infult to the human fpecies.

Thus far I have confidered marriage as an evil, under peculiar circumftances, I fhall now make a few obfervations relative to the fubject, and conclude my effay with an enumeration of the happy circumftances which attend a well premeditated and equitable union.

It is an undoubted fact, that that man is wife who can act confonant to his own feelings. From thence then is obviously deducible, that a marriage founded on difinterested motives, and every way congenial to the pure dictates of either heart, muft prove a fource of lafting and uninterrupted happinefs; I mean as far as relates to the mere marriage itself. It is of the highest importance, generally fpeaking, that a man fhould be made acquainted with the motives which may actuate the woman. It would be the means of obviating the miferies attendant on deceptions of that nature.

The cohabitation of the two fexes, conftitute part of the duty we owe to the Almighty. We were formed for each other, and, feparated, our existence would become miferable. How unfociable a being would man be, were he deprived, for a certain period, of all intercourfe with woman? Defire to please-to captivateto enjoy, would in him become extinct. In the midft of his fpecies he would be alone, the evening would be as the morning, the morning as the evening-all to him dark, gloomy, and void of hope; he would retire to reft, to fleep his cares away, and wish to fleep for ever; he would wake but to imbibe a ftill ftronger hatred to life. These pofitions are equally applicable to the fe

male fex.

The human mind has certain perceptions which, if fuffered to remain idle, would become callous. They muft be exercised, not left to inactivity. Condemn a man to perpetual flavery in the deferts of Arabia; let him not have the most diftant hope of renovation,

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and

and by progreffive approximation to mifery, he will at length become fo hardened, that the very idea of happinefs will be banished from his mind, and he will ceafe to look upon it as a defirable object. Thus with a man debarred the intercourfe with woman, he would in time learn to fupprefs every finer feeling, fentiment, and fenfation, which inclined towards them; and establith in his breast one only paffion, a final and determined hatred of his fpecies. I fhall take a future opportunity to expatiate more largely on this fubject; for the prefent I fhall regard the nature of my effay.

Marriage may certainly be confidered as a lottery of good and evil; but, at the fame time, it must be allowed, that the poffeffion of either the one or the other, depends almost entirely on the reafoning faculties of the principal agent in it. As I have before obferved, let every thing bear, as far as poffible, a fimilarity. Let not parfimony be wedded to profufenefs-the young to the adult-urbanity to petulancy-nor learning to ignorance; for any one of thefe difproportionate unions muft almost inevitably terminate in tauntings, revileings, and mifery. Would men allow themselves a little fober reflection ere they marry, they would then have no caufe to repent it afterwards. I fhall conclude the prefent effay with fome few remarks on the foregoing affumption.

It not in the power of man to look into the book of fate. We, therefore, can but fpeculatively provide for future happiness. In that, then, our reafon ought to be the grand criterion by which we ought to act.

We decifively affix to a man who meets a danger he might avoid, the appellation of a fool, dolt, or even coward, in fome inftances. What then can we call that man who voluntarily drags upon himself an irremediable evil; an evil which nor time nor circumstance can feldom cure? What but madness! and that too in the

extreme.

He

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