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noisy infant or a chattering wife? And I believe the cafe is very rare, when life becomes fo infupportable as to drive a man from his home, and make him view, with "the jaundiced eye of envy, the whole human race." Let me afk, how many fuch gloomy huf bands have come within the fpeculation of Mr. Mudford?

He next declares against early marriages, and would frighten youth from a licenced confummation of their happiness; he is there most impolitic, for his advice tends to decrease the population of his country, of which he is, no doubt, a friend; befides which, he differs from fome of the firft men who have treated on the fubject, amongst whom are Swift, and Goldfmith, and Franklin.

He obferves that, "For a man to marry his fervant is an infult to the human fecies." Perhaps he does not admit, that a fervant forms a part of that fpecies ; or if so, how can it be disgraced? Since it is but one part elevating another. For, the mafter, whom we will allow (for the fake of Mr. Mudford) to be the nobler being, does not defcend from his own exalted height, but only lifts another to his honours; it is an amiable act, and worthy of a benign foul; and in what fuperior fphere, in the fcale of exiftence, does Mr. Mudford triumph that he fhould prefume to reprobate it?

"Let not the learned," fays he, "marry with the ignorant." Where is his philanthropy? I thought it the propenfity of a good heart to delight in unveiling the cloud of ignorance, and to display to the expanding fenfibility of human nature, the radiance of truth and knowledge?

But where are his powers of ratiocination, when he affirms, with fuch unrivalled modefty, that "It is an undoubted fact, that that man is wife who acts confonantly to his own feelings." The man who deftroys the lovelieft works of heaven-INNOCENCE and VIRTUE, and the man who murders his father, are both

actuated

actuated by their own feelings. Will Mr. Mudford call thofe men wife?-He does not! for, fpite of the erring reafon of his brain, his heart must acknowledge that VIRTUE and WISDOM are the fame. But what that learned axiom has to do with the fubject, I leave for him to explain; the following appears to me equally inexplicable.

"Let a man," fays he, "be banished to perpetual flavery, he will by progreffive approximation to mifery become fo hardened, that the very idea of happiness will be expelled from his mind, and he will cease to think of it as a defirable object.”

He must cease then to be miferable, (let me inform Mr. Mudford) or there must be happiness in his flavery, the object only is changed; wild and extravagant as the hypothefis may appear, he muft aliow the laft, if he admits the first; for a figh in mifery indicates an idea of happiness, of which a man can never think without defiring to poffefs it; and, without comparison, woe would not imprefs us with a figh, nor would joy exhilarate us to a smile.-The man then in banishment must ceafe to be miferable if he ceases to defire happiness.

Mr. Mudford's Effay abounds with a number of other propofitions equally as curious as the above; and I do confefs (let him triumph) that I dare not attack them, they tower fo much above my comprehenfion.

They feem to me "As two grains of wheat hid under two bushels of chaff; we fhall fearch all day before we find them, and when we do, they are not worth the fearch."

WILLIAM TEMPLETON.

SHOWER OF GOSSAMERS.

[From White's Natural Hiftory of Selborne.]

ON September 21, 1741, being intent on field di

verfions, I rofe before day-break; when I came into the inclofures, I found the stubbles and clover

grounds

grounds matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew hung fo plentifully, that the whole face of the country feemed, as it were, covered with two or three fetting nets, drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were fo blinded and hoodwinked, that they could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their fore feet. As the morning advanced the fun became bright and warm, and the day turned out one of those moft lovely ones, which no feafon but the autumn produces; cloudlefs, calm, ferene, and worthy the fouth of France itself.

About nine an appearance, very unusual, began to demand our attention; a fhower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions, and continuing without any interruption till the clofe of day. Thefe webs were not fingle filmy threads, floating in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags; fome near an inch broad and five or fix long. On every fide, as the obferver turned his eyes, might he behold a continual fucceffion of fresh flakes falling into his fight, and twinkling like ftars as they turned their fides towards the fun. Neither before nor after was any fhower obferved; but on this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges fo thick, that a diligent perfon might have gathered baskets full.

THIS

MANNER OF WHIPPING

AMONG

THE ANTIENT JEWS.

HIS punishment was not to exceed forty ftripes, and therefore the whip, with which it was to be inflicted, being made of three thongs, and each blow giving three ftripes; they never laid on any criminal more than thirteen blows. Because thirteen of

thofe

thofe blows made thirty-nine ftripes, and to add another blow, would' have been a tranfgreffion of the law, by adding two ftripes over and above forty.

See Prideaux's Connections,

Part II. Book V.

INTERESTING LETTER,

WRITTEN BY COLUMBUS, THE CELEBRATED

T

DISCOVERER OF AMERICA.

[From Edwards's Hiftory of the West Indies.]

HERE is (fays Mr. Edwards) preferved among the journals of the honourable council in Jamaica, a very old volume in manufcript, confifting of diaries and reports of governors, which relate chiefly to the proceedings of the army, and other tranfactions, in the firft fettlement of the colony. In this book is to be found the tranflation of a letter to the King of Spain, faid to be written by COLUMBUS during his confinement on this fland. As it appears to me to bear marks of authenticity, I thall prefent it to my readers. was written, probably, about eight months after the departure of his meffenger, Diego Mendez, who had attempted to reach Hifpaniola in an Indian canoe. Hearing nothing from him in that interval, COLUMBUS feems to have relinquished every hope of relief, and to have written this letter in an hour of defpondency, not as having any probable means of fending it to Spain; but on the idea that it would be found after his death. It is as follows:

A Letter from CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, in Ja maica, to King Ferdinand.

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Jamaica, 1504.

It

Diego Mendez, and the papers I fent by him, will thew your Highness what rich mines of gold I have difcovered in Veraqua, and how I intended to have

left

left my brother at the river Belin, if the judgments of heaven, and the greatest misfortunes in the world, had not prevented it. However, it is fufficient that your Highnefs, and your fucceffors, will have the glory and advantage of all; and that the full difcovery and fet. tlement are referved for happier perfons than the unfortunate Columbus. If God be fo merciful to me, as to conduct Mendez to Spain, I doubt not but he will convince your Highnefs, and my great Mistress, that this will not only be a Caftile and Leon; but a difcovery of a world of fubjects, lands, and wealth, greater than man's unbounded fancy could ever comprehend, or avarice itself covet; but neither he, this paper, nor the tongue of mortal man, can exprefs the anguish and afflictions of my body and mind, nor the mifery and dangers of my fon, brother, and friends! Already have we been confined ten months in this place, lodged on the open decks of our fhips, that are run on fhore and lafhed together; thofe of my men that were in health, have mutinied under the Porras's of Seville; my friends, that were faithful, are moftly fick and dying; we have confumed the Indians' provifions, to that they abandon us. All, therefore, are like to perish by hunger, and thefe miferies are accompanied with fo many aggravating circumftances, that render me the mot wretched object of misfortune this world fhall ever fee; as if the difpleasure of heaven feconded the envy of Spain, and would punish, as criminal, those undertakings and difcoveries which former ages would have acknowledged as great and meritorious actions! Good heaven, and you holy faints that dwel in it, let the King, Don Ferdinand, and my illuftrious mistress, Donna Ifabella, know that my zeal for their fervice and intereft hath brought me thus low; for it is impoffible to live and have afflictions equal to mine! 1 fee, and with horror apprehend my own, and for my fake, my unfortunate and deferving people's deftruction. Alas! piety and juftice have retired to their habita

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