signs; instead of being regaled with the music of the woods, I might have been alarmed with the sound of the trumpet, and all the thunder of war: instead of being entertained with this beautiful landscape, I might have beheld our houses ransacked, and our villages plundered; I might have beheld our fenced cities encompassed with armies, and our fruitful fields "clothed with desolation;" or have been shocked with the more frightful images of garments rolled in blood," and of a ruffian's blade reeking from a brother's heart. Instead of peace with her cheering olives, sheltering our abodes; instead of justice, with her impartial scale, securing our goods; persecution had brandished her sword, and slavery clanked her chains.

"

Nor are these miseries imaginary only, or the creatures of a groundless panic. There are, in a neighbouring kingdom, who very lately experienced them in all their rigour. And if the malignant spirit of popery had forced itself into our church; if an abjured pretender had cut his way to our throne; we could have no reason to expect a mitigation of their severity on our behalf.-But, supposing the tender mercies of a bigotted usurper to have been somewhat less cruel; where, alas! would have been the encouragement to cultivate our little portion; or what pleasure could arise from an improved spot; if both the one and the other lay, every moment, at the mercy of lawless power? This embittering circumstance would spoil their relish; and, by rendering them a precarious, would render them a joyless acquisition.-In vain might the vine spread her purple clusters; in vain be lavish of her generous juices; if tyranny, like a ravenous harpy, should be always hovering over

See a pamphlet, intitled Popery always the same; which contains a narrative of the persecutions, and severe hardships, lately suffered by the Protestants in the southern parts of France; and closes with a most seasonable,. alarming, and spirited address to the inhabitants of Great Britain. Printed 1746. Price sd.

the bowl, and ready to snatch it from the lip of industry, or to wrest it from the hand of liberty.

Liberty, that dearest of names, and property, that best of charters, give an additional, an inexpressible charm to every delightful object.-See, how the declining sun has beautified the western clouds; has arrayed them in crimson, and skirted them with gold! such a refinement of our domes tic bliss, is property; such an improvement of our public privileges, is liberty.-When the lamp of day shall withdraw his beams, there will still remain the same collection of floating vapours; but O! how changed, how gloomy! The carnationstreaks are faded; the golden edgings are

away; and all the lovely tinges are lost in a leaden-coloured lowering sadness. Such would be the aspect of all these scenes of beauty, and all these abodes of pleasure; if exposed continually to the caprice of arbitrary sway, or held in a state of abject and cringing dependence.

The sun has almost finished his daily race, and hastens to the goal. He descends lower and lower; till his chariot-wheels seem to hover on the utmost verge of the sky. What is somewhat remarkable; the orb of light, upon the point of setting, grows considerably broader: the shadows of objects, just before they become blended in undistinguishable darkness, are exceedingly lengthened-like blessings, little prized, while possessed; but highly esteemed, the very instant they are preparing for their flight; bitterly regretted, when once they are gone, and to be seen no more.

The radiant globe is, now, half immersed beneath the dusky earth: or, as the ancient poets speak, is shooting into the ocean, and sinks into the western sea. And could I view the sea, at this juncture, it would yield a most amusing and curious spectacle. The rays, striking horizontally on the liquid element, give it the appearance of floating glass;

* Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbra. Virg.

or, reflected in many a different direction, form a beautiful multiplicity of colours.-A stranger as he walks along the sandy beach; and lost in pensive attention, listens to the murmurings of the restless flood; is agreeably alarmed by the gay decorations of the surface. With entertainment, and with wonder, he sees the curling waves, here glistening with white, there glowing with purple; in one place, wearing an azure tincture; in another, glancing a cast of undulating green; in the whole, exhibiting a piece of fluid scenery, that may vie with yonder pensile tapestries, though wrought in the loom, and tinged with the dyes of heaven.

While I am transported by fancy to the shores of the ocean, the great luminary is sunk beneath the horizon, and totally disappears. The whole face of the ground is overspread with shades; or, with what one of the finest painters of nature calls, a dun obscurity. Only a few very superior eminences are tipt with streaming silver. The tops of groves, and lofty towers, catch the last smiles of day; are still irradiated by the departing beams.-But, O! how transient is the distinction! how momentary the gift! Like all the blessings which mortals enjoy below, it is gone, almost as soon as granted. See! how languishingly it trembles on the leafy spire; and glimmers, with a dying faintness, on the mountain's brow. The little vivacity that remains, decays every moment. It can no longer hold its station. While I speak, it expires; and resigns the world to the gradual approaches of night,

-Now Twilight grey

Has in her sober liv'ry all things cladt.

Every object, a little while ago, glared with

See this remarkable appearance delicately described, and wrought into a comparison, which, in my opinion, is one of the most just, beautiful, and noble pieces of ima gery, to be found in modern poetry; Night Thoughts, No. 11. + Milt. Par. Lost, b. iv. 1. 598.

light; but, now, all appears under a more qualified lustre. The animals harmonize with the insensible creation; and what was gay in those, as well as glittering in this, gives place to an universal gravity. In the meadows, all was jocund and sportive: but now the gamesome lambs are grown weary of their frolics; and the tired shepherd has imposed silence on his pipe. In the branches, all was sprightliness and song: but now the lively green is wrapt in the descending glooms; and no tuneful airs are heard, only the plaintive stockdove, cooing mournfully through the grove.Should I now, be vain and trifling, the heavens and the earth would rebuke my unseasonable levity! Therefore be these moments devoted to thoughts sedate as the closing day, solemn as the face of things. And, indeed, however my social hours are enlivened with innocent pleasantry, let every evening, in her sable habit, toll the bell to serious consideration. Nothing can be more proper for a person who walks on the borders of eternity, and is hasting continually to his final audit; nothing more proper than daily to slip away from the circle of amusements, and frequently to relinquish the hurry of business, in order to consider and adjust" the things that belong to his peace."

Since the sun is departed, from whence can it proceed, that I am not involved in pitchy darkness? Whence these remainders of diminished brightness? which, though scarcely forming a refulgence, soften and soothe the horrors of night. I see not the shining ruler, yet am cheered with a real, though faint communication of his splendor.-Does he remember us in his progress through other climes? Does he send a detachment of his rays to escort us during his personal absence, or to cover (if I may use the military term) our re treat from the scene of action? Has he bequeathed us a dividend of his beams, sufficient to render our circumstances easy, and our situation agreeable,

till sleep pours its soft oppression on the organs of sense; till sleep suspends all the operations of our hands, and entirely supersedes any farther occasion for the light?

No: it is ill-judged and unreasonable to ascribe this beneficent conduct to the sun. Not unto him, not unto him, but unto his Almighty Maker, we are obliged for this pleasing attendant, this valuable legacy. The gracious Author of our being has so disposed the collection of circumambient air, as to make it productive of this fine and wonderful effect. The sunbeams, falling on the higher parts of the aërial fluid, instead of passing on in strait lines, are bent inwards, and conducted to our sight. Their natural course is overruled, and they are bidden to wheel about, on purpose to favour us with a welcome and salutary visit.-By which means, the blessing of light and the season of business are considerably prolonged: and, what is a very endearing circumstance, prolonged most considerably, when the vehement heats of summer incline the student to postpone his walk till the temperate evening prevails, when the important labours of the harvest call the husbandman abroad before the day is fully risen.

After all the ardors of the sultry day, how reviving is this coolness!-This gives new verdare to the fading plants, new vivacity to the withering flowers, and a more exquisite fragrance to their mingled scents.-By this the air also receives a new force, and is qualified to exert itself with greater activity; qualified to brace our limbs, to heave our lungs, and co-operate with a brisker impulse in perpetuating the circulation of our blood. This I might call the grand alembic of nature, which distils her most sovereign cordial, the refreshing dews. Incessant heat would rob us of their beneficial agency, and oblige them to evaporate in imperceptible exhalations. Turbulent winds, or even the gentler motions of Aurora's