in keeping by the member for our Borough in Parliament.

In this manner, we fee that all thofe marriages, in which there is intereft on one fide and disobedience on the other, are not likely to promise a long harveft of delights. If our fortune hunting gentlemen would but fpeak out, the young lady, inftead of a lover, would often find a freaking rogue, that only wanted the lady's purfe, and not her heart. For my own part, I never faw any thing but defign and falfehood in every one of them; and my blood has boiled in my veins, when I faw a young fellow of twenty kneeling at the feet of a twenty thoufand pounder, profeffing his paffion, while he was taking aim at her money. I do not deny but there may be love in a Scotch marriage, but it is generally all on one fide.

Of all the fincere admirers I ever knew, a man of my acquaintance, who however did not run away with his miftrefs to Scotland, was the moft fo. An old exciseman of our town, who, as you may guess, was not very rich, had a daughter, who, as you fhall fee, was not very handfome. It was the opinion of every body, that this young woman would not foon be married, as fhe wanted two main articles, beauty and fortune. But for all this a very well-looking man, that happened to be travelling those parts, came and afked the excifeman for his daughter in marriage. The excifeman, willing to deal openly by him, asked if he had seen the girl; "for," fays he, he is humpbacked." Very "well," cried the ftranger," that will do for me." Aye," fays the excifeman, "but my daughter is as brown as a berry." "So much the better,' cried the ftranger; "fuch fkins wear well." "But "fhe is bandy legg'd," fays the exciseman." "No "matter," cries the other; " her petticoats will hide

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❝ that

that defect.". "But then the is very poor, and 66 wants an eye. "Your defcription delights me,' cries the ftranger: "I have been looking out for one of her make; for I keep an exhibition of wild beafts, and intend to fhow her off for a Chimpanzee."

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MANKIND have ever been prone to expatiate in the praise of human nature. The dignity of man is a fubject, that has always been the favourite theme of humanity; they have declaimed with that oftentation, which ufually accompanies fuch as are fure of having a partial audience; they have obtained victories, becaufe there were none to oppofe. Yet from all I have ever read or feen, men appear more apt to err by having too high, than by having too defpicable, an opinion of their nature; and by attempting to exalt their original place in the creation, deprefs their real value in fociety.

The moft ignorant nations have always been found to think most highly of themselves. The Deity has ever been thought peculiarly concerned in their glory and prefervation; to have fought their battles, and infpired their teachers: their wizards are faid to be familiar with heaven; and every hero has a guard of angels as well as men to attend him. When the Portuguese first came among the wretched inhabitants of the coaft of Africa, these favage nations readily allowed the ftrangers more fkill in navigation and war; yet ftill confidered them at beft but as ufeful fervants, brought to their coaft, by their guarVOL. IV. Нн

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dian Serpent, to fupply them with luxuries they could have lived without. Though they could grant the Portuguese more riches, they could never allow them to have fuch a king as their Tottimondelem, who wore a bracelet of fhells round his neck, and whofe legs were covered with ivory.

In this manner examine a favage in the hiftory of his country and predeceffors; you ever find his warriors able to conquer armies, and his fages acquainted with more than poffible knowledge: human nature is to him an unknown country: he thinks it capable of great things, because he is ignorant of its boundaries; whatever can be conceived to be done he allows to be poffible, and whatever is poffible he conjectures must have been done. He never meafures the actions and powers of others by what himfelf is able to perform, nor makes a proper eftimate of the greatness of his fellows, by bringing it to the ftandard of his own capacity. He is fatisfied to be one of a country where mighty things have been ; and imagines the fancied power of others reflects a luftre on himself. Thus by degrees he lofes the idea of his own infignificance in a confufed notion of the extraordinary powers of humanity, and is willing to grant extraordinary gifts to every pretender, becaufe unacquainted with their claims.

This is the reafon, why demi-gods and heroes have ever been erected in times or countries of ignorance and barbarity they addreffed a people, who had high opinions of human nature, because they were ignorant how far it could extend; they addreffed a people, who were willing to allow that men fhould be gods, because they were yet imperfectly acquainted with God and with man. Thefe impoftors knew, that all men are naturally fond of feeing fomething very great made from the little materials of humanity; that ignorant nations are not more proud

of

of building a tower to reach heaven, or a pyramid to laft for ages, than of raising up a demi-god of their own country and creation. The fame pride, that erects a coloffus or a pyramid, inftals a god or an hero but though the adoring favage can raife his coloffus to the clouds, he can exalt the hero not one inch above the ftandard of humanity; incapable therefore of exalting the idol, he debafes himself, and falls proftrate before him.

When man has thus acquired an erroneous idea of the dignity of his fpecies, he and the gods become perfectly intimate; men are but angels, angels are but men, nay but fervants that ftand in waiting to execute human commands. The Perfians, for inftance, thus addrefs their prophet Haly: "I falute "thee, glorious Creator, of whom the fun is but the "fhadow. Mafter-piece of the lord of human creatures, great ftar of juftice and religion, the fea is "not rich and liberal, but by the gifts of thy mu"nificent hands. The angel treasurer of heaven

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reaps his harveft in the fertile gardens of the purity "of thy nature. The primum mobile would never "dart the ball of the fun through the trunk of heaven, were it not to ferve the morning out of the

extreme love she has for thee. The angel Gabriel, "meffenger of truth, every day kiffes the groundfel "of thy gate. Were there a place more exalted "than the most high throne of God, I would affirm "it to be thy place, O mafter of the faithful! Ga"briel, with all his art and knowledge, is but a mere "scholar to thee." Thus, my friend, men think proper to treat angels; but if indeed there be fuch an order of beings, with what a degree of fatirical contempt muft they liften to the fongs of little mortals thus flattering each other! thus to fee creatures, wifer indeed than the monkey, and more active than the oyfter, claiming to themselves a maftery of hea

ven! minims, the tenants of an atom, thus arrogating a partnership in the creation of univerfal nature! furely heaven is kind that launches no thunder at thofe guilty heads but it is kind, and regards their follies with pity, nor will deftroy creatures, that it loved into being.

But whatever fuccefs this practice of making demigods might have been attended with in barbarous nations, I do not know that any man became a god in a country where the inhabitants were refined. Such countries generally have too close an inspection into human weakness, to think it invested with celeftial power. They fometimes indeed admit the gods of ftrangers, or of their ancestors, who had their existence in times of obfcurity; their weakness being forgotten, while nothing but their power and their miracles were remembered. The Chinefe, for inftance, never had a god of their own country; the idols, which the vulgar worship at this day, were brought from the barbarous nations around them. The Roman Emperors, who pretended to divinity, were generally taught by a poignard that they were mortal; and Alexander, though he paffed among barbarous countries for a real god, could never perfuade his polite countrymen into a fimilitude of thinking. The Lacedæmonians fhrewdly complied with his commands by the following farcaftic edict: Εἰ Αλέξανδρος βέλεται είναι Θεός, Θεός έςω.