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a very civil proper man :-- -But, I am thinking your wife's a very noify woman, and I know your father's an old peevifh fcoundrel; and, tell him, Brien, from me, that, if he does not come to confeffion next Friday, that he'll be excommunicated :And, for your goffip, I'll give him a fine rattling presently, about his goat.-Put him down two-and-two-pence; you'll be better, Brien, before night; this good man will pray for you.- -But, Brien, you must read the feven penitential pfalms thirteen times, for what you have done to your father; and be fure, tell him what I bid you.

The Friar, in the beginning of the oration, faced the wall, and, with all human diligence, was piously turning his beads to two accounts. With one half of them, he was devoutly making interceffion for the fouls of his good fubfcribers; and, with the other, was he diligently keeping count of the fine total of their benefactions; while Benedicite and ten-and-nine-pence came from his lips in rotation.

Notwithstanding the repeated threats of this fecond Cardinal Wolfey, to "expofe them all, if they did not immediately come forward with their donations," they were becoming very flack; and, as I dreaded being taken notice of every moment, as an impertinent obferver, I took advantage of a vociferous roar from the bleffed divine, and ftole foftly from a place where I had been fo highly entertained.

YCK. An Account of the Greenland Fibery. (Continued from p. 365.)

With the fixth of a series of Plates engraved to illuftrate it.

Ho

OWEVER the whale may be wounded, and in whatever mode it endeavours to make its escape, it never fails to rife at fome diftance, when the boats furround it, and finally kill it with their lances. The annexed plate fhews this laft operation on the living animal, and the method of difpofing of it when dead, will be the subject of the next plate.

It may be proper to obferve in this place, that as it requires great ftrength of arm for the harponeer to ftrike the harpoon through the thich fkin of the whale (without which it can have no effect) tho' fifhers have often experienced the infufficiency of the common method. This has led to a late improvement of the whale fishery, by the invention of a blunderbufs or mufquetoon, in which the head of the harpoon is put, and fired off at the animal. The additional force which the inftrument derives from the ftrength of the gunpowder, greatly exceeds that of the

ftouteft man's arm, and never fails to pierce
to the very flefh of the fish. The point of
the iron being barbed, no effort of the whale
can drive it out; and the fisher's now never
lofe what they have one ftruck, as was
frequently the cafe before this invention.
The method of fixing the cord to the har-
poon is alfo changed in confequence of this
capital improvement. Before, it was faften-
ed to a Ring at the upper end of the inftru-
ment, but as that would hinder its being put
into the barrel of the mufquetoon, and the
cord would be in danger of been burnt by
the explosion of the powder, the ring to
which the cord is fastened, is now placed
two feet lower down, on the fhank of the
harpoon.
(To be continued.)

Manners of the Fair Sex.

the education of most women, more attention has been paid to adorn them as women than as accountable and intelligent beings, and more pains taken to load that with fuperfluous ornaments which nature has left finished, than that nobler part, the cultivation of which has been left to the attention of parents, or doomed to everlasting negligence, obfcurity, and ignorance. But let women remember, that dress and finery, when beyond the bounds of difcretion, excite emotion which it were honourable to b conceal, while exalted virtue, joined with fenfe and knowledge, calls forth, from every beholder, awe and respect, the meed of noble minds. The love that these beget is of that nature which alone points to a state of happiness, more permanent than that boyish rapture which makes the present hour a gay or a bufy one, and which is the certain prelude to disappointment and chagrin ! Difappointment from the changeability of the lover, and chagrin to find that mankind cannot be true to one folly at a time. The company of the frivolous and giddy, will ever thus bring ruin along with it, and, in fpite of any glare which may dazzle the youthful eye, virtue will ever be the ornament, and vice the blemish of human life.

Female beauty, when adorned by virtue, draws, as with magnetic force, the notice of every one, and who can behold fuch a fight without feeling his admiration change into the warmth of esteem and friendship? How fhort-lived is the influence of mere beauty? Infipid and spiritless, it attracts obfervation for a moment, but that foon ends when we find no foul to animate, no fenfe to make the hours pafs in profitable and fmooth courfe, and no virtue to command the refpect, the awe of rational friendship.

QUEST

QUEST. Has the World exified from Eternity?

WE

7HATEVER has exifted from eternity, must have exifted of itfelf, not by means of another; for nothing could exift before it from which it could receive its being.

Every thing, therefore, that has exifted from eternity, must be felf-exiftent. On the other hand, whatever is felf-exiftent, muft have existed from eternity.

For if it has not, there must have been a time when it began to be; and, if there was a time when it began to be, then fomething without itself gave it beginning; for, if fomething without itself did not give it beginning, then fomething within muft have given it, and one part muft have éxifted in confequence of another, which, in a felf-exiftent being, is impoffible.-I fay impoffible.

For whatever is felf exiftent cannot be divided into parts, or, which is the fame thing, is not divifible; for if it was, then it behoved every part to be felf-exiftent; and, as every thing that is divifible may be divided ad infinitum, we fhould then have an infinite number of felf-exiflent beings, which is equally impoffible.

For if any thing exifts of itself, there can be nothing else to controul its existence; or, what is the fame thing, it mit be fuperior to every thing elfe, and, confequently, omnipotent; feeing a fuperiority to every thing elfe, is all we can mean by omnipotence.

But there cannot be two omnipotent beings, becaufe either they would agree in every refpect, and, confequently, be one and the fame, which is abfurd; or, they would differ, and then each would oppofe and annihilate the powers of each, which is inconfiftent with omnipotence.

There is, therefore, only one felf-exiftent being, and that being has been demonftrated to be omnipotent, eternal, indivisible, and, tonfequently, immaterial.

The vifible world, however, is material and divifible: it is, therefore, not self exiftent, and, confequently, has not exifted from

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without a collection of the requifite component parts.

Should it be faid, that hefe are not properly new exiflences, but only changes and modifications of matter-I afk, from whence do thefe changes arife? from themfelves, or from another?

Does that particular modification of matter, the body of a man, exift by his own will, or his own command? Does it not rather begin to be, continue to be, and ccafe to be, not only without his will, but means of which he is ignorant, which are at once external to him and independent of him?

If then man cannot produce even this change or modification with respect to his own body, much lefs can he produce or create the materials of which it is formed.

But if man can do neither of these, much lefs can the other parts of the univerfe, in as much as he is fuperior to all the other parts, at least to all that we are acquainted with, and

"What can we reafon, but from what we know?"

But if all the parts of the universe are thus changed and produced independent of themfelves, the fame must be true of the whole.

Ergo-The univerfe is not self-exiftent, but the effect of fome external cause; and, as every effe neceffarily exifts pofterior to its caufe, it follows that it cannot have exifted from eternity.

Again-Whatever is felf-exiftent, must alfo be independent of all other things for the continuance of its exiftence.

But every thing in the univerfe is dependent on fomething without itself for the continuance of its existence-Thus, for example: the inhabitants of the earth depend on it for a supply of nourishment, as well as upon the other elements, for things effential to life; and they cease to exift, at leaft in a certain form, as foon as thefe are denied. The earth itself depends on the other planets for the place it holds in the univerfe; and the whole fyftem is held together by an attractive power, which operates from without on every part of it, which is unknown to it, and independent of it.

If then the fyftem of the univerfe is not independent with refpect to the continuancè` of its form and place, much lefs will it be fo with refpect to the continuance of its exifience; and, if it is not independent with refpect to the continuance of its exiftence, much lefs will it be fo with refpect to exiflence itfelf; and, if it is not independent with refpect to exiflence-itself, it cannot be felf-exiftent; and, if it is not felf-exiflent, it fol lows from what was demonfirated above, that it cannot have exifted from eternity.

An Account of the present Increase of bad

Women.

age be worfe

WHETHER the prefens a queftion that

has been often agitated with confiderable zeal the determination of it by either party, has never been attended with much conviction to the other. It does not appear to me, that it can admit of a pofitive or negative decifion, without explanations and reftrictions, but when these fhall be given, I believe the difficulty of the queftion will vanish.

"Is (fays the Querift) the prefent age worse than any former one?"-Here we must first determine, what is meant by the word worfe. If a man thinks that the happiness of an age confifts in its being an age of luxury, he may determine the queftion without any murmur against the age in which he lives; but, if he be of opinion that luxury is an enemy to happiness, he cannot hesitate in determining that the approaches we are making in the former, muft foon deprive us of the latter.

Leaving virtue and vice out of the queftion, another fet of difputants on this queftion confider only our progrefs in arts and fciences, and, of course, muft give the preference to this age. A man of genius, when about to improve that genius, has the pleafing reflection, that he is provided with the learning of many centuries that have gone before him. Homer had few fuch helps-a man who compares his fituation to that of Homer, finds that he has the affiftance of just two thousand years more than the Grecian bard had; and thefe two thousand contain more learning, wifdom, and improve ments, than all the ages which preceded. The inventions of ufeful arts are what militate ftrongly in favour of the wifdom of this age. Within the last five hundred years fuch inventions have increafed moft rapidly. The difcovery of printing is certainly the moft memorable æra in the hiftory of art; and, with all its abuses, the greatest bleffing man can enjoy. But it was not only necellary to make the fituation of man comfortable while in this world, it was alio requifite to invent a method of difiniffing him out of it in a fpeedy manner, and this has taken place in the invention of gunpowder. Politicians and warriors are very induftrious to circulate an opinion, that gunpowder faves many lives, and that fince the invention of it, many thousand lives have been faved to their country, which fortnerly ufed to be wantonly lavished; but I think there are circumftances which render this opinion extremely doubt ful. This is not the place to mention all thefe--I only beg leave to mention one. It is true, that before the invention of gunpowder, it was common after battles to have as many lying dead on the field, as we are now able to fend to it living; but permit me to

afk one queftion-Had the very first engagement in America been attended with the death of ten thoufand on one fide, and as have continued till now? And would this many more on the other, would the war

country have been reduced to the miferable and degraded ftate in which we find it? Would its treafury have been exhausted-its beft armies facrificed to the inclemency of fituation and feafon? In a word, do not we always find conceffions and advances toward peace to follow after the greatest darings, and the most bloody engagements?-This obfervation affects not the queftion of difpute with America, more than any other nation. I only leave it to military gentlemen to determine, whether death in the field be not preferable to the camp difeafes, to the plague, to fevers, to difgrace and captivity?

But to return to the original confiderati→ on of badnefs or goodness of this world-I think the queftion may be determined thus.

Having the wifdom and experience of all former ages, having their learning and their' improvements, we may be a wifer age than any which has preceded. But as luxury and vice extend themselves in a manner the most alluring, and with a speed almost incredible, our understandings are impaired, our lives are fhortened, we are effeminate in habits of idlenefs and luxury, and we are not able to ufe the means which our predeceffors have put into our hands. A few there always will be diftinguifhed for communicative parts, but the number of fuch is fo greatly dif proportioned to the number of the idle, and of thofe who are infenfe to the value of fuch men, that genius must often be cribbed and confined, and the fairest flowers often be left to blufh unfeen. The farther difcuffi-. on of this question I leave at prefent, and will conclude the paper with a few obferva-> tions on one fpecies of increafing luxury,' which can elcape no eye, however inattentive. I mean the increased number of unhappy women. Some years ago they were fuppofed to amount to fixty thousand, which I think fairly implies, that there had been juft fixty thoufand unfeeling villains who reduced thefe poor women to the hardships of proftitution. The caufe of this increafe, in as far as it immediately concerns the state of religion, lies within the province of the divine.' A few external caufes which contribute de ferve notice.

Firft. Education -Nine cafes of ten, where we can procure the hiftory of thele unhappy girls, we shall find them the daugh ters of clergymen, or gentlemen, whofe fortunes leave their family on the death of the male parent-that they have been educated in the expenfive drefs and manners of ladies of fuperior rank, and that of course they imbibed the habits and fentiments of a fta

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tion to which they could never attain-that they were put apprentice to milliners, where their vanity was farther excited by the continual view of ornament-and that their beauty had recommended them to the attention of fome rich profligate, with whom feduction was one of the pleafures of lifeSuch a mode of education I believe many recollect instances of.

Secondly. Another clafs of women will tell you, that their minds were far from neglected, and that befides the virtuous example of virtuous parents, they were trained to habits of reading, and that thofe habits grew up with them-that, however, they were dupes to the designing villainy, and false promises of fome young men, perhaps their equal in rank, who afterwards left them to lament their credulity, and fubmit to the neceffities of proftitution, in order to procure that bread which rigid friends no fonger allowed them.-But when we come to enquire into the manner in which their minds were cultivated, and what books were their favourites, we find that they employed their reading hours entirely on novels---a fpecies of reading which has done more mifchief to the female fex, than any other circumftance in their lot. A continual perufal even of the beft of them is attended with effects that might make a thinking parent tremble, and that fome of the fair fex fhould have been the authors of many of the moft trifling of fuch publications, is to me aftonishing. The fentimental ftile, as it is called, is the fashionable one at prefent, and this confifts in gilding over the most pernicious vices with the genteel names of sensibility and fine feelings. Sterne led the way by his

of friendship they believe to be the effufion of fincerity; that true efteem is confiftent with fycophancy or meannefs, or the fincerity of friendship with the blandishments of flattery. Defigning men, when bent on the ruin of female modefty, have used many of these books as powerful aids to their intentions, and feldom without fuccefs.-Such writings gradually take off the blush of innocence, and lay the foundation of a diffolutenefs of mind that ends in ruin. Every inclination for writings addreffed to the judg ment is eradicated, and even the employments of life are often facrificed to this unwarrantable indulgence.-Hiftory and every branch of learning becomes tirefome and infipid-and they who fit down with a view to mend the heart, frequently rife with a heart corrupted, an understanding weakened, and a judgment fcarcely capable to mark the bounds betwixt crime and folly, betwixt guilt and levity.

Triftram Shandy; and fince his time, novels, of the profligate kind, have become fo material an article in our libraries, that we are enabled from experience to speak with equal precifion and forrow on their confequences. The most obvious error refulting from them is, a misconception of the world and of man. The reader imagines that the world defcrib-, ed in them is the fame with that in which he lives; that men are either gods or devils; and that women are angels, with all the foftnefs and fallibility of mortals. The indulgence of many a destructive paffion is winked at, nay recommended, provided the author has abilities to furnish the language of fentiment, and fophiftry to cover its enormity. The feelings, as they are called, are eftablished as the fupreme directors of human action; and reafon and understanding are ridiculed, as the unfriendly inhabitants of our breafts. Hence readers, whofe youth and inexperience render them incapable of judging for themselves, take their example in real life from that in fiction-and their principles and their laws, from the code of romance and paffion. Every empty tender

To thefe writings I do not hesitate to impute a great part of that mifery which appears among the fair fex. It is no breach of charity to do fo, because it is the natural effect of profligate writings on the mind. It remains, however, with parents and guardians to prevent the entrance of fuch books into their families and feminaries, and to inftil fuch principles as may render the mind fuperior to that effeminacy which leads to profligacy, and that falfe tafte which has ftamped genius on the effufions of a profligate imagination.

To the Editor of the Hibernian Magazine.

SIR,

A Conftant reader, and a great admirer of your Magazine, wishes fome of your correfpondents, perfectly acquainted with Holy Writ, would inform us, who was Jepthah's wife. We read, he offers his daughter to the Lord, agreeable to a rafh vow he had made, but we don't find how he had this daughter, whether by a wife, or an harlot. We are told Jepthah was the fon of an harlot, that he went out to battle, and, on account of his fuccefs, promifes a facrifice to Jehovah. Should also be glad to know how old fhe was, when offered, and why the mourned her virginity, as every facrifice that was offered to the Lord, was to be without fpot or blemish, a firstling of the year; I fhould alfo be glad to know, why it is called a rash vow, for could any thing be too good for the author and giver of every good thing? Another queftion I should be glad to have answered, why the virgins go every year to mourn this woman's virginity? Jofephus may be more explicit than the Bible, but I have neither time nor opportunity, to explore fo voluminous an hiftory. If your correfpondents can folve thefe queftions, I have given them an opportunity of fhowing they are wiser than MYSELF.

The political Hiftory of Europe, for the Year

IT

1782.

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(Continued from page 368.)

T was all further attempts to reduce the colonies to obedience by force, that parliament was defired to reprobate. The general conduct of the war against Spain, Holland, and France, united with America, was still left where the conftitution had placed it, in the hands of the King, and it was only defigned to convey to the crown the opinion that houfe entertained of the fatal effects of continuing to profecute the American contest, as one of the primary objects of the

war.

As to the effect which the measure propofed would have in accelerating or retarding an honourable accommodation, it was argued, that the particular fituation in which the colonifts food, made it necessary for them to avoid, in common prudence, the danger of exciting the jealousy of their allies, by making to Great Britain the first overtures of reconciliation. That the first advances towards it must therefore be made by us; and that nothing would fo effectually engage America to meet us, as freeing her from ali apprehenfions for her own fecurity.

With respect to the affurances given by miniAters, which appeared to have fo much weight with several members of the house, it was asked to what they amounted, even if they could be depended on, such as they were?-It had been said, that the mode of the war was to be totally changed; that it was not to be conducted on the fame plan and on the fame fcale as be- fore.

A war then it was obvious there was ftill to be; and General Burgoyne faid he was ready, as a profeffional man, to join iffue with thofe, on the oppofite fide of the houfe, on this single point, whether the language of the minifters, coupled with their avowed intention of keeping New-York and other polts on the continent of America, did not evince an obftinate adherence in the king's councils to offenfive war. The great, if not the only purpose, of keeping places of arms upon an enemy's coaft, and efpecially upon a continent, muft, he faid, be for offenfive operations. But even if the confequence thould not be granted, the maintenance of posts upon any other principle would prove, not only a moft improvident and prepofterous mode of war, but equally ruinous with the prefent.

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At two o'clock in the morning, the house divided on the question for the order of the day, when there appearing ayes, 220; noes, 1794 the original question was confequently loft.

The number of those who had ufually fapported the minifter, but who voted against him on the present occafion, were fuppofed to have amounted nearly to twenty. Though this defection was not in itself of fufficient magnitude to he attended with any immediate bad effect to the existence of administration, yet other Symptoms appeared, which feemed to threaten it with the most fatal confequences. The total want of union and concert in the cabinet, the great diverfury of opinion which prevailed amongit the Geni. Mag. Auguft, 1785.

fervants of the crown, and which they were no longer able to conceal, occafioned, amongst all defcriptions of people, a very juft and universal alarm. Those who had hitherto acted with government from a coincidence of opinion, either found themselves at a lofs where to fix in the general wreck of principle, or chofe rather to risk a change of fyftem, than expofe the country to the inevitable rain which must have followed the divided and fluctuating state of its councils. Others, who looked only at the fortune of minifters, forefaw with great quicknefs the weaknefs thefe divifions would neceffarily occafion, and the dangerous advantage this would give to active and powerful opponents. But what seems to have principally contributed to destroy that implicit confidence, which the house had been in the habit for fo long a courfe of years of repofing in the minifter, was the doubtful and undecided manner in which he was, perhaps, under the neceffity of expreffing himself, upon the important queftions now under difcuffion. The minds of men being by this means, as it were, fet afloat, every one was in fome fort obliged to think for himself: and the great advantage attending ftrong and decided meafures was loft, which impofe on the fenfe of mankind, and of ten gain fupport and applause without examina tion.

It was also remarked in this debate, that the members who, though joined to the great body of the Whigs, were fuppofed to act more im mediately in concurrence with the Earl of Shelburne, expressed themselves upon the fubject of the continuance of the war in Âmerica with great caution and referve. The queftion of Independ ence having alfo unavoidably risen in the courfe of the day, Mr. Dunning declared it to be his opinion, that the perfon, who should propose an avowal of it in favour of America, would be guilty of a crime little fhort of high treafon.

The late hour, to which the debate on the twelfth had been protracted, made it neceffary to defer proceeding on the bufinefs of the aring eftimates till the following Friday, Dec. 14th when the fubje&t of the American war underwent, for the fourth time fince the ginning of the feffion, a long and vehement dif cuffion. The arguments, that had been made use of on former occafions, were again chiefly recurred to; the infecurity and infufficiency of the affurances given by minifters were urged, nor without a mixture of perfonal afperity and invective, on the ground of former delufions, of notorious difunion in the councils, and contra dictory language amongst the members of adminiftration: on the fide of the latter, the debate was but weakly fupported; and the first lord of the treasury, though called on, in a manner not lefs unusual than unbecoming to the dignity of government, by members poffeffing high offices under the crown, to ftate the differences which fubfifted in the cabinet to the houfe, contented himself with repeating his former declara tions.

A divifion again took place on a notion that the chairman fhould quit the chair, and report a progrefs, which was negatived by 166 to 84; after which the feveral motions made by the fe cretary at war were carried without debate. Hhh

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