The soul is a principle essentially and unceasingly active; hence it is, that active industry is in perfect accordance with its natural bent, while sloth is at perfect variance with it. But this natural bent of the soul, it is not permitted to follow without resistance; for sloth is a natural inmate of every human breast. The original of sloth is the same as that of every other vice; it is to be ascribed to the depravation and disorder that sin has introduced into the soul. Active and serious industry is disliked, not perhaps from a love for total inactivity, but from a despicable pride-a dread of the pain of application, or an aversion to every thing in the shape of submission and restraint. A course of sober and useful industry, like every other virtue, is not to be maintained without self-denial and sacrifice; and hence, while it is felt to be necessary to our peace of mind, it is also felt to be an evil, which thousands are extremely anxious to avoid. Industry, like all other virtues, may be considered, either as a principle of the mind or a habit of the conduct: as the former, it implies a general preference of active exertion to ease and inactivity; as the latter, it is the diligent prosecution of the various duties of life. When industry is chosen from regard to moral order, and the will of God, it then becomes, in the proper sense, a divine virtue, not indeed one of the most splendid kind, but certainly one of the most useful; for it has the principal share in forming and improving the moral character. It may not be proper to call it the parent of any virtue; but it is the guardian and the nurse of them all for in no case can they thrive, or be brought to maturity, except they are placed under the practical and salutary discipline of industry. God never designed any man to spend his life in a state of voluntary inaction; all have duties to perform; and, that we ought "to do with our might what our hand finds to do," is a truth equally urged by revelation and agreeable to reason. The solemn duties connected with our personal salvation, are incumbent upon all, and present the noblest objects to industry. Intellectual culture, which implies the improvement of our perceptive and reasoning powers, and the acquisition of useful knowledge, is an object towards which the industry of all should be directed. Again : most people, in order to their support, are necessitated to employ the greatest part of their time in some secular calling, and none need be told that without industry, no business can be successfully carried on, and, that nothing is more completely subversive 106.-VOL. IX. of temporal prosperity and present peace, than sloth. 1. In forming a correct idea of an industrious man, we must conceive him to be engaged in some regular, useful, and laudable business. To be employed, is not the same thing as to be industrious; for with whatever energy the sportsman may pursue his hounds and his game, or with whatever diligence and dexterity the beau may perform the duties of the ball-room, we cannot associate industry with these, or any of their kindred absurdities. The object of industry must be in some measure important, and sufficiently valuable to reward, if gained, the toil of pursuit; but after a man has spent a whole night in performing the ridiculous gesticulations of the dance, it will not require an adept in the arithmetic of profit and loss to prove that he has gained nothing. In this respect, it must be confessed, the huntsman has the advantage, for he generally succeeds, by the assistance of the forces which rally round his standard, in killing some little quadruped or another. But an industrious man will generally be quite satisfied with the pleasure which he finds in the steady pursuit of his proper calling; and even his hours of relaxation he will be anxious to employ in a manner consistent with the innocence and gravity which become a man and a Christian. People of independent fortune are apt to attach an idea of servility and disgracefulness to any thing like serious business; and hence numbers of these educate their children in such a manner as to teach them nothing so effectually as to be idle. It is deplorable that men of sense should he so inattentive to the best interests of their children, as not to be aware that to habituate them to sloth is to disqualify them for pure enjoyment, and for every honoura ble pursuit, and to place them within the reach of every temptation. 2. An industrious man must feel an attachment to his calling, otherwise he cannot be happy, and will seldom be successful. Children sometimes manifest an early predilection for a particular business; this, though often arising out of a mere fanciful association of ideas, is not always to be disregarded, because it may sometimes be founded on a certain suitableness of genius and talent, and is then an indication of Providence. Nevertheless, custom will generally wear away the most disagreeable repugnance. A man may have some reason to believe that his employment is not suited to his talents and disposition; but if prudence will not sanction a change, he would be a fool to retain an unavailing dis 3 м satisfaction. If he be a Christian, he will feel it his duty to be content, and to make the best of his situation, which, as it is assigned him by Providence, he wisely considers it upon the whole the best for him. He does not forget that there is far more real respectability in fulfilling the duties of a humble station with skill and integrity, than in exposing diminutive talents on a lofty pedestal, since "pigmies are pigmies still, though perch'd on alps." The reader may perhaps call to mind the story of Epaminondas, as somewhat illustrative of this part of the subject. This illustrious Theban having by the splendour of his talents awakened the envy of his citizens, they contrived to have him placed in a situation, the duties of which were of an humbling description: their design was to make him contemptible; but they were disappointed, they had forgotten that vice is the only thing that can tarnish reputation, Epaminondas transferred his popularity to his situation, and by the active and cheerful manner in which he performed its functions, he not only exalted his own character, but, from that time, the place itself was raised to a nominal importance it never possessed before. 3. A thorough knowledge of one's business or profession, though a distinct thing from industry, is, nevertheless, necessary to exhibit it to advantage. Where there is no skill in the principles and practice of an art, there can be no neatness and despatch in the performance. The greatest muscular energy, unremittingly exerted, will accomplish little, or little to the purpose, if not guided by wisdom. The astonishing skill of the Syracusan mechanic was of more avail to him than the strength and agility of a thousand lions. A man who is master of his profession, will proceed with ease and rapidity, because he is never at a loss in what manner to proceed, or what to do next. Perceiving every succeeding link of his plan, he has not to retrace his steps, and undo to-day what he did yesterday. - 4. But to complete the character under consideration, we must attribute to him practical and vigorous application. What his hands find to do, he must do with his might. "Always in haste, but never in a hurry," should be the constant motto of the industrious. I make no reference whatever to what is called a bustling man, or to one who grasps at more than his physical powers are able to accomplish; no, the one that I am describing proceeds in a more silent and temperate, but not in a less effectual manner: he is content to do one thing at once; and would rather do one thing well, than many things indifferently. In a word, an industrious person never if possible defers until to-morrow, what ought to be done to-day, but endeavours to do every thing at the time and in the manner it ought to be done. But the principal design of this paper is, to point out the inseparable connexion of industry with our welfare and happiness. And first, it has a direct tendency to promote our happiness. A state of total inactivity is so repugnant to the nature of the soul, that nothing but the power of habit can render it tolerable. No person is more to be pitied than the man over whom sloth has obtained the ascendancy-none perhaps enjoy a smaller share of happiness. From all the noblest pleasures he is wholly cut off; for exertion is the only price at which these can be purchased. Fettered by sloth, he is tormented by the sight of advantages which the industrious are enjoying, but which are placed beyond his own reach; and destitute of employment, he is punished, by the dreary reflections of his own vacant mind. Hence it is, that most of those who dislike serious business, are equally averse to absolute inactivity, to escape the misery of which, they have recourse to those mischievous and unprofitable pursuits that are termed amusements. But, alas! in doing this, they make no advances towards happiness. Stronger joys they may realize; but they are obliged to feel deeper disappointments, and more intolerable vexations. They may pass a greater portion of their time without the pain of self-reflection; but their hours of solitude will be more insupportable for the more conscience is re sisted and insulted, the deadlier is her sting, --and the more severe her accusations when she does obtain the ascendancy. In short, the effect of worldly amusements and carnal pleasures, when resorted to for happiness, is like the effect of some powerful drug, which, though it has a counteracting influence with respect to a specific disease, is injurious to the system in general; and while it retards the progress of a particular malady, hastens an universal decay. But he who employs his time in the sober, diligent, and conscientious discharge of the serious duties of his calling, feels a serenity and satisfaction, to which the sons of sloth and dissipation are alike strangers, a satisfaction as lasting as it is innocent and real; for while his active habits accord with the innate activity of the soul, his pleasure is unimbittered by any criminating reflections: if he is pious, he enjoys the high satisfaction of knowing that in thus employing his time, he is doing the will of God. But industry has an indirect influence in promoting our happiness. This it dees, first, because it is the surest and most legitimate road to temporal prosperity. If riches sometimes descend into the lap of the slothful, it is not because they are slothful; and if honest industry has often to struggle with poverty, it only proves that industry may be overwhelmed by calamitous circumstances; these are exceptions to a general rule, and permitted by infinite wisdom, for purposes supremely just and good. But when industry, such as we have described, is favoured with the ordinary assistance of Divine providence, it never fails to procure for its possessor a comfortable maintenance, and not unfrequently raises him eventually to honourable independence. The world has often been astonished by the effects of persevering industry, when its energies have been directed towards the improvement of the mind and the acquisition of knowledge. In thousands of cases it has wrought its way to literary eminence, and even proved itself a more valuable talent than genius itself. Lastly, industry is friendly to human happiness, because it is friendly to piety. An industrious man may be irreligious, but a slothful man must be so. If a person have not the self-command and the resolution to perform the ordinary duties of life, he will be utterly inadequate to the more arduous duties of religion. The unwearied watchfulness, the incessant prayer, the vigorous self-denial, and the diligent use of the various means of grace, will be intolerable in the very contemplation. In a word, piety is incompatible with slothful habits, for if a man be slothful in business, it is impossible for him to be fervent in spirit. Our wily adversary always makes the most furious and successful attack when he finds us trifling, or on forbidden ground; but a man who conscientiously employs his time, may look up with confidence to God, who has promised that "when the enemy shall come in as a flood, his Spirit shall lift up a standard against him." W. R. have all forgotten the behaviour of the ancestors of this favourite of his, when they formerly occupied those important stations: because we no longer see the blood, the rubbish and dirt, wherewith they defiled the royal apartments. I am not, sir, without my fears, that this Protestant is a Papist in disguise; and the question is not, whether I, or any other man, have taken the useless pains to refute all the sophistry with which he would fain persuade us that black is white; but simply, "Are men holding popish principles justly and safely admissible to legislate for and govern protestant subjects in a protestant country?" Your correspondent, I presume, needs not be told, that they are not eligible to any such honour and power, upon the best and safest principles that can form the basis of human government. He knows, or ought to know, that the Papists are governed by their priests,* the priests by the bishops, and the bishops by the pope and cardinals; that the consecration oath of the Romish bishops necessarily involves the destruction of all protestant establishments in church and state, where that is practicable; and the utmost possible exertion for its accomplishment, even where it is impracticable; that in the estimation of every Papist, who is true to his cause, the interests of his church are paramount to every other; that to this, every other interest must bow, and that "the end will sanctify the means" of its attainment, be they what they may. The loyalty of a Papist, therefore, to a protestant government, when a fair opportunity offers of overthrowing that government, is high-treason against Popery; and consequently, the test of its sincerity cannot be anticipated with. out painful suspicions. But, sir, your correspondent, if really a Protestant, like many other advocates of the same cause, ignorant of the true principles of Popery, and thrown off his guard by the specious professions of Papists, says, "that it is most ungenerous (in me) to strictures on the cATHOLIC CLAIMS" identify the respectable Catholic laity of MR. EDITOR. DEFENDED. SIR,-Your zealous correspondent, who, at the conclusion of an article, col. 641, signs himself "A Protestant," having conceived a strange attachment to the cause of Popery, seems to wish for it a seat at his majesty's table, one at the council-board, in both houses of parliament, and on each of the judges' benches at Westminsterhall, in the courts, (if not a lodging for it in the royal bed.) He seems to think we the united kingdom, with the system of Popery, or with the court or church of Rome!" Yes, sir, just as ungenerous as it is to identify the respectable body of genuine Christians in England, with the system of "Mr. O'Connell declares, that he neither speaks nor moves, but at the beck of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy; and that under that guidance and authority, he does things, at which, if acting upon his own private judgment, he should shudder with horror."-Kendal's Letters on the State of Ireland. 1826. Preface to vol. i. p. 38. This is a tolerably "respectable" sacritice of conscience, honour, and integrity, at the shrine of priestly domination. Christianity; or with the court of heaven, from whence that system emanated; and with the true church of Christ upon earth! For as sure as all genuine Christians are vitally united to Christ and his church, so surely are all true Papists spiritually united to the pope and the church of Rome! But who hath done this? Your kind correspondent says it was I! Let him read the popish catechism, and then he will soon see where the foundation of this identity lies. But your correspondent adds, "we are bound to consider him (the Papist) politically innocent, till proved otherwise, and entitled to the common rights and privileges of a Briton." What! must we have a civil war, and a protestant massacre every year, to satisfy this gentleman of popish disaffection to a protestant government? Has be never taken the trouble to read the horrible records of 1641, 1688, and 1798, in Ireland; those fine specimens of popish loyalty exhibited to an admiring | world, when the fairest opportunities occurred of putting it to the proper test? Does he not know that almost every Papist engaged in the rebellion of 1798, took especial care to prove his loyalty by, and on, the oath of allegiance, before the magistrates at the quarter sessions, before he carried his pike into the field of battle, to tear out the bowels of his majesty's soldiers? He knows not, or pretends not to know, that immutability is an unalienable attribute of popery; and semper eadem, the boast of her advocate Plowden, is, above all others, the motto which best suits the perpetuity of her crimes. Sir, "Messrs. Sheil, O'Connell, &c." are the proper representatives of the Papists of Ireland; whose sentiments they echo in all their imflammatory harangues. Let your correspondent, if he thinks otherwise, produce a single instance of the popish body charging these gentlemen with even intemperance of language, and much less with a misrepresentation of their sentiments. He can do no such thing; because the very reverse is the fact. The faction is applauded over the whole kingdom; and secretly supported by the "Catholic Rent;" instituted by this same party, for this very purpose. But these are the men who, according to your correspondent, "have suffered so much wrong and injustice at our hands!" Again: "Equally harsh and irrelevant is it for us to determine a priori what will or will not satisfy the Catholics." Sir, it is not I that have determined this; it is themselves. Dr. Doyle, titular bishop of Kildare, one of their profoundest oracles, in a published manifesto, declared, two years ago, that "Emancipation would not now satisfy them;" and then, after using some most inflammatory and threatening language, he modestly lays claim to one half of the church revenue; and demands admission, at least as copartners, for himself and fellow clergymen of the popish hierarchy, into the bosom of the established church! Your correspondent, sir, recommends me, upon your own authority, to "abstain from merging the religious in the political bearings of the question." This I would gladly do, if it were possible fairly to discuss the question on political grounds alone; but I believe this is impossible. It is the peculiarity of the religion of popery that renders its subjects ineligible to legis. late for Protestants, and to fill offices of importance in a protestant country. That religion erects an authority, which it vests in a foreign power; which, in both a political and religious point of view, is represented as paramount to every other autho rity upon earth. To this the most implicit obedience is demanded; and in its exercise, it is well known that popes have often absolved the subjects of heretical monarchs from their allegiance. The immutability of Popery perpetuates this power in that church, and hence the allegiance of Papists to a protestant government cannot but appear exceedingly problematical. Your correspondent asserts, that "there is only one ground upon which the claims of Papists can be rationally opposed, and that is, danger to the peace and liberties of the commonwealth :" and he complains that I have "not adduced the shadow of an argument to prove or shew the probability of any such thing." Now, sing this may be very true, because dealing in the substance of arguments, I have no occasion for their shadows; and certainly, if Popery be, as its professors assert, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," there is as much danger of the destruction of "the protes tant ascendancy in church and state" in Great Britain, by the influx of Popery at present, as there was when James the Second, and his popish posterity, were ejected from the throne, on purpose to preserve the constitution from the influence of those principles. Your correspondent, sir, is very indig nant at my saying "that government ought not to grant the Roman Catholic claims from a motive of fear;" and by way of strengthening his cause, has added to my assertion, "whether it be right or wrong;" and with this appendage to my position, he exclaims, "So frivolous a pre text will impose upon no one!" Sir, this is his own "pretext," and not mine! I well know, and have always maintained, that it would be most egregiously wrong, upon every principle of sound policy, and justice to the protestant part of the community, in trust for whose benefit, the government holds its authority; and whose rights that government is sworn to maintain. Meantime our impartial laws protect the civil rights of Papists, in common with those of their protestant subjects. Your correspondent, indeed, disavows any supposed alteration or amelioration in the genius or disposition of Popery, as the ground on which he would advocate its admission into the bosom of our constitution. No; he disdains any such ground of admission for his clients; he would bring them in, with all the virtues which shone forth so conspicuously under the gentle sway of the pious Mary, and her worthy associates, Bonner and Gardiner, upon the principle of "the common right of all British subjects;" though it is well known that Mr. O'Connell, the unresisting tool of the priesthood, some time since insinuated "that there were 80,000 Catholics in London, whose united exertions could soon set that city in a blaze." › This gentleman, in the warmth of his affection, would clasp the serpent to his bosom, regardless of its mortal sting and poisonous fangs, until it seizes upon his vitals and putrifies his blood! He would inoculate the British constitution with the virus of Popery, and turn into ridicule its own declarations of everlasting immutability! He is not, however, the first whom the consummate hypocrisy of Popery has deceived; but, thank God, we have no such dupe on the British throne! Our gracious ·king knows well what he is doing, and our constitution is in safe hands. The monarch and the nation are both under the protection of Heaven; and while that is the case, I will confidently predict the downfall of Popery in England. Sir, your correspondent erroneously charges me with forgetfulness, when I say that " our religious and constitutional liberties are an inheritance received from our ancestors, who, amidst the flames of Smithfield, or with their swords in their hands, rescued those privileges from the Romanists."-I ask, sir, is not this literally the fact!-Every one acquainted with the history of the reigns of Mary I. and James II., knows it to be so. Every such person knows, that the last mentioned monarch would have bartered every fragment of the British constitution, for the thraldom of popish priestcraft, if Providence and Protestantism had not combined to hurl him from a throne which he disgraced; and to drive him from a kingdom he was totally unworthy to govern. Does your correspondent wish to see the same mad experiment tried once more? No sophistry, sir, can ever associate Popery with Protestantism; and no art of man can ever amalgamate them into a mass of uniform peace and tranquillity, till Protestantism loses its divine character, and sinks into the same putrid accumulation of moral corruption, degradation, and infamy, that characterizes the religion of the church of Rome! without this, a political association is as impossible as a community of religious principles. I am, sir, yours very truly, London, July 24, 1827. A REPLY TO A FRAGMENT ON FEMALE (Published in the Imperial Magazine for 1. LET the case be fairly stated. Whether Women ministered in holy things in the primitive church when invited, or only when under the immediate influence of the Spirit, whether they did this veiled or unveiled,-whether they did this to their own sex only, or to mixed companies of men and women,-whether there were many of these women or only a few,—I am not about to contend. My argument is, that God did in the primitive church, and does to this day, occasionally call, qualify, and commission his handmaids, or daughters, to prophesy, (that is, preach,) in his name. 2. I believe the ordinary call of God to the ministry is to men, and the extraordinary call to females. But in this extraordinary call I do not consider any female strictly and fully called to the pastoral office, or to be the regular pastor of the church of Christ; but I do believe that the Lord calls some females to be fellow. labourers with the pastors or helpers, or, as we should call them, local preachers, and I think we should help or encourage those women who thus help us in the gospel. The great apostle St. Paul did so, and he wished others to encourage them too. 3. From the pages of history we learn that Women have moved in the most exalted spheres, and achieved the most astonishing exploits. They have worn the crown of royalty, occupied the bench |