furrender. Who fhall dare to take from a French citoyenne her rights, without her confent? She cannot conftitute her claim to the proud diftinction by any legal act of marriage, fhe would become a filia terra, if you do not permit her to ascertain her rights by refidence. Give her to Hoppé, he carries her off, and the belongs to the world-Give her to La Lange, and she is more-the belongs to France." The jury gravely took time to make up their minds on the important question-and all Paris is in an agony of suspense on their judgment ! MADAME ELIZABETH. In the attack on the Palais Royale, August the 10th, as they were dragging away the king, fome wretches cried aloud: "Where is the queen? We will have her head!" The Princess Elizabeth, who would not quit her brother during his danger, turning towards the affaffins, and baring her breaft with undaunted dignity, faid to them firmly: "Here, I am your queen:" but the attendants about her preffed forward, crying: "No, no, 'tis Madame Elizabeth."- "Gentlemen," said the princefs," you ought not to have undeceived them: is it not better that I fhould perish than my fifter?" B CONTENTMENT. From labour health, from health contentment springs. MR. EDITOR, BEATTIE. EFORE I enter into the confideration of Contentment, it may be deemed neceffary I should fhew caufe, Firft, Why I addrefs you at all, and Secondly, Why I felect a fubject which most philofophers, and every founder of a fect among them, have exhaufted their learning and ingenuity in pointing out to their followers. Firft, fir, your intention being to amufe, to inftru&t, and to render better the hearts of your readers, no means appears to me fo well calculated to attain those than the " Effay;" and it is with the hope of aiding your laudable intention, I am induced at this moment to refume the pleafing task of inftruction from experience, and, if poffible of entertainment. For the fecond caufe-Every Grecian or Roman who has promulgated to the world new theories and doctrines, or maintained thofe of others, has uniformly profeffed that he fought the happiness of mankind, and, confequently, taught the art of contentment as its precurfor, or its indifpenfible companion. But the researches of thefe men, though they undoubtedly abound with qualities we shall ever revere in them as authors, and friends of the human race, are written in languages feldom opened for the purpose of cafual inftruction, and lefs feldom with a defire of ameliorating the heart, than with the hope of fettling fome contefted dogma. Their thoughts lie fcattered through a multitude of pages: they knew little about compreffing into a "Pocket Volume," the knowledge of an age; but performed even their works of fancy, by what my father told me was termed in the wars of King Wil liam, a circumvendibus. I do not pretend to new model the fayings of Sophocles, or the morals of Epictetus, nor to advise again the advice of Plato; I am a plain man, Mr. Editor, defirous to ferve the world with the experience of fixty years, and only request you not to expect from me aught on this subject which those three gentlemen may not already have written. Contentment is paffive happiness-happiness refined is pleasure and beyond that lies the land of diffipation, defert, drear, and dangerous. It is allowed on all hands, that pleasure, like fire, deftroys its own fource; that when the relifh for this is fled, happiness is journeying from the breaft. To enjoy either, we must poffefs contentment. How to arrive at contentment is, therefore, therefore, the greatest lesson which can be taught to mankind; its attainment would likewife be the greateft bleffing conferred upon us; and every step which is made towards this end, is undoubtedly an approach towards the moft defirable thing in nature. Thus, fir, you may perceive I appreciate highly, and I hope you' will think juftly too, of my fubject. That habit of the mind which renders us uneafy with the smaller ills of life, is directly oppofed to my acceptation of contentment. The one exposes the foul to be ruffled on flight and trivial, the other preserves it calm on the most momentous occafions. The man driven away in the hurricane of the first, is unfit for the good and humane exercise of his faculties; he who is amenable to the laws of the latter, is proof against every finifter accident to which we are liable. This has a countenance unruffled, eyes clear, head erect: that is decompofed, eyes funk, wavering, abafhed. This fpeaks deliberate and smooth; that vociferates incoherencies, or preferves a frightful filence. Idleness is the fruitful fource of difcontent. The mind unoccupied by any good or proper exercife, wanders about the wide expanfe of imaginary ills, pictures to itfelf dangers, and diftrefs, and treachery, and want, and monsters without name. Horrors like these, never invade the active mind. Difcontent, imbibed amidst plenty, is longer in continuance, and more baneful in its effects, than that which arifes from actual want: because the poor man magnifies into a ray of hope every ignitical fpark which enlightens his cot; while the other, already funk in the fuperfluities of a lordly manfion, can never define those ideal wants which had no beginning, nor can have any end but in himself. Indeed, fo mighty has been the cry againft idleness, that the great and the good of every age and nation, have joined in pointing her out as the most dreaded enemy of mankind. The wife prohibit her entrance into their affemblies. Phyficians profcribe her as the foe foe to health. Legiflators enact ftatutes against her. Nor fame, nor peace, alight on her refidence. If fuch is the univerfal fentiment refpecting idleness, that concerning employment is not lefs understood. Let the mind be continually fixed on fome occupation. Let the man who hath least to do in the bufy world of any, contrive fome innocent diverfion, if not ufeful occupation, which may employ fome of those qualities that diftinguish him from the brute animal, and he will have little caufe for difcontent. If he have a tafte for the refinements of the understanding,-inexhauftible mines of pleasure difcover themselves in the ftandard writers of this country; in fome of thefe will be found a balm for moft human afflictions. To thofe who can feel no pleasure in books, we cannot deny those harmless foibles which banish the vis inertia, and keep their little intellects in action. Among the latter, I have been oftentimes aftonished at the infignificance of their pursuits; and while fuch may be allowed to continue the practice of these minor evils, we fhould annex to each, degrees of cenfure proportioned to its enormity. TheContented man" is not, in every cafe, he who has accomplished the means of lafting content. Poffibly, the price of his quietifm is too dear to continue; and he purchases prefent eafe for future pain. Too many there are, who barter fair patrimonies to fport a hobby-horfe, or for the acquifition of a bauble; the poffeffion of which does indeed render them content, but the germ of mifery is thereby fet. They will roll in a chariot, though arrested ere they alight;-cornetcies must be purchased to gratify younger fons with a red coat; ambition they more than expiate on the plains of Germany, in the wilds of America, or under the poisonous breezes of the torrid zone. You must have often remarked the ftate of fplendid poverty in which many a good kind of family exift, (as the phrafe is) to live at all comfortably." in order In God's name, name, where were those people born, who cannot be content without a footman in lace-four month's refidence at Brighton-and a service of plate? To attain thefe glittering objects, they will, literally, want food; or the chief performer in this farce will entail hereditary starvation on an helpless fucceffion of ill-formed mortals. How much real contentment is loft in this wretched purfuit! Had their defires been within the bounds of moderation, what a fund of enjoyment would have charmed away the unavoidable ills of life! How happy at laft the exit of the father of such a family! How much more comfortable the exiftence of his progeny ! Riches are here confidered as the chief article in the fcale, because they are by moft made the goal of happinels. But they frequently prove the cause of durable torments in the poffeffion, as they have been of discontent and unhappiness in the acquifition. A too ardent purfuit of the alluring drofs, expofes us to the infinuations of chicanery in our dealings, if not of dishonesty and confequent fhame. A fituation under which we will venture to affert, no man can feel content. One might pursue the obftructions to contentment into infinity, and deduce them from every poffible cafe; I might continue this enquiry until tired of the bufinefs of a pioneer. But, by this time, you must be convinced, as I have been fome years, that rational employment, and moderating our expectations, is the furest way to contentment. January 1, 1797. CHA. N. DOBOICK. OBSERVATIONS AND STRICTURES ON THE CHARACTERS OF SHYLOCK AND SHEVA. IN Na company where I lately spent the evening, the conversation happening to turn upon the characters of nations, and more particularly on the Jewish, the VOL. I E following |