many instances as fully applicable to the allowed habits of religious families as to those of the unthinking world. This is a portentous phenomenon. It seems to indicate, that enlightened as we are, we are retrograding to the deserted or despised schools of worldly or half christianized philosophers, there to be chastised for our aberrations. It is really mortifying to the feel ings of deep veneration entertained by your correspondent for Dr. Johnson, to find him among the secondaries of the moral school; thinking, as he does, that this great man's writings, taken altogether, impart "ardour to virtue and confidence to truth." But, at the same time, consistency requires me to separate myself from the eulogist of Richardson, and to rejoin his cherished society only when he emerges from the loose element of flattery, and moves with his wonted firmness of step on the high ground of purity and truth. To the extract produced in an earlier paragraph from Johnson, when him self again, let me add what will farther expunge the stain which partially discolours his renown, "These books (novels) are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle; to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life. They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of impressions; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the current of fancy; not informed by experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account. In the romances formerly written, every transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any application to himself; the virtues and crimes were equally beyond his sphere of activity; and he amused himself, with heroes and with traitors, deliverers and persecutors as with beings of another species. But when an adventurer

is levelled with the rest of the world, and acts in such scenes of the universal drama as may be the lot of any other man; young spec. tators fix their eyes upon him with closer attention, and hope, by observing his behaviour and success, to regulate their own practices. If the world be (by novelists) promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account: or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately on mankind as upon a mirror which shews all that presents itself without discrimination. It is not a sufficient vindication of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to observation and experience; for that observation which is called knowledge of the world, will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. Many writers so mingle good and bad qualities in their principal personages, that they are both equally conspicuous: and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to interest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasure, or perhaps regard them with some kindness for being united with so much merit*.”

No dexterity of mine is able to reconcile these golden periods with the adulation offered to the inventor of Lovelace. Most auspiciously the Rambler is an antidote to himself. He may be compared to a plant noxious only in a very small part; an infusion of its flowers being capable of healing the lacerations inflicted by its envenomed thorns.

In a note appended to the Fourth Number of the Rambler, (whence the above is cited,) in Chalmers's edition of Johnson's works, the editor says; that this popularity of two works which appeared excellent paper was occasioned by the about this time, and have been the models of that species of romance now known by the more common name of novel. The Fourth Number was published March 31, 1750; and the Ninety-seventh, containing the eulogy on Richardson, Feb. 19, 1751.

Johnson's description of the superannuated romances may be applied to those still lingering among us, such as the Arabian Nights, and indeed to all fables of oriental construction; and it so happens (he states the true reason), that these heavy stories are discarded by modern novel-readers as un utterably and incurably insipid. They do not come home to their bu siness and bosoms; and if they read Rasselas itself, they sit down to it as to a grave lecture in ethics; and Thalaba is tolerated only because inspired by the muse of Roderic.

To this place I have reserved the mention of the popular productions of Miss Edgeworth and the author of Waverley. The merits and demerits of the first of these writers have been estimated, as I think, with measured correctness, in your volume for 1809, (pp. 781-792.) Of the second it is enough for my hostile pen to say, that powers so great might have developed themselves with effect in the demonstrations of philosophy; when, alas! we find them idly playing in novels. Of the performances of this lady and gentleman it is alleged, that they do not exhibit the defilements of Fielding, the polished wickedness of Lovelace, the witchery of Mrs. Radcliffe, or the voluptuous tender ness and delicacy which "with soft perdition please," in some other writers. On the contrary, they give us a faithful insight into the ways of men; and instead of misleading by feigned characters and incidents, describe such as actually exist. Indeed they do! I fully assent to the allegation; and, if we could gaze on those vivid panoramas of the world without seeing more than will do us good and not evil, and without wishing to come closer to the objects which we have dimly seen in the camera obscura of books; if the world's gaiety, wit, decoration, policy, and plausible courses of stratagem can be surveyed without exciting in the ardent minds of our juniors one impulsive desire

to join the masquerade itself, without kindling a kind of resolution (which they scarcely venture to own even to themselves, while they faintly endeavour to smother the glowing spark by a reverence for conscience), that at a future day they too will play their part in the grand exhibition, no matter whether disappointed or not,-for, after all, some, they are told, succeed and are happy; if such immature speculators can be restrained from practising the arts of real men and women, on a small scale first in the school-rooms and parlours of their petty world at home, and afterwards in the wider range of the family's connections, and in general society; if, in short, there be in human nature an inherent, active power of selecting what may be beneficial from what is, at any rate, a mixed mass;-then, sir, I would urge, that no "Practical Views of Christian Education" may hereafter be published to disturb the safe repose of novel-reading families. Dissolve all the standing committees of the religious world meeting year after year, and espe cially banish your work from the numerous circles in which, with exemplary regularity, it has made its appearance for one hundred and eighty-six months, embracing more than the long succession of fifteen years, in order to reform, and to perpetuate by reformation, the moral constitution of this empire. Let the spiritual legislator retire to the solitude, darkness, and mystic visions of the mountain; while the wanderers of the peopled and more inviting wilderness restore the rites and festive pleasures of Egypt, and amidst their sacrifices cry, These be thy gods, O Israel !"

1 EDITION 1815.

EDITION 1817.

world.'

J. S.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

Darlaston, near Birmingham.

THE heavily afflicted state of my parish induces me earnestly to solicit a fuller statement of our dis. tresses than that inserted in your last Number but one. Many cir. cumstances combine to render our sufferings peculiarly severe. Our population, consisting chiefly of gun-lock filers, nailers, and miners, exceeds five thousand. The parish contains only eight hundred acres of land; and our poor's-rates (now most oppressive) have been accustomed to be paid by all who did not receive parochial relief.

During the last eleven months, from the stagnation of trade, hundreds, once in comfortable circumstances, have been reduced to the deepest poverty; nor could any efforts of industry secure them even necessary food. For thirtythree weeks the bounty of the Lon don Association, a county fund, and distant private benevolence, have maintained one hundred and fifty heads of families on the roads at one shilling per day; but from the entire failure of these funds this plan has now terminated, and great numbers are thus necessarily added to those previously requiring parochial assistance. Since the 14th of last August, soup and bread have been distributed to nearly seven

hundred individuals four times a week, and clothing has been sold at half price to those who could raise the means of obtaining it. Excepting the food thus furnished, our poor have subsisted almost exclusively upon barley meal, not separated from the bran, lest its quantity should thereby be diminished. Numbers once in respectable stations have had their dwellings stripped of their little all, for rent or levies; and our work-house presents such a scene of wretchedness, that even hunger itself recoils from entering it.

Our chief earthly expectation of relief is founded upon the hope of the revival of American commerce: British factors some period must but from the glutted warehouses of yet elapse before our mechanics can be supplied with work. It is for this period relief is solicited; and I feel little doubt but that if these particulars be made publicly known, many, like their Divine Master, will feel compassion for the five thousand ready to perish*.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. A SPIRIT of active benevolence, encouraged and supported by an enlightened government, having. lately succeeded in spreading through Ireland various plans for the charitable education of the children of the poor, it becomes a. matter of much moment to ascer-. tain whether those plans be in reality formed upon the best principles, and executed to the greatest advantage ;-whether this great. engine of national education be erected with the skill, and guided with the ability, requisite to render it efficient to the production of all the good which ought to

be the result of such powerful combinations.

With respect to the female children educated in our charitable seminaries, to whom it is intended to confine the following observations, I have no doubt of the fact that, comparatively, very few in deed have hitherto been found to reward with success, the expense, the time, and the exertions, which have been bestowed upon them. To what causes shall we attribute this disappointment? To answer so important a question, the following hints are suggested, for the consideration of those who are interested in such humane undertakings, and who possess talents and leisure to investigate a subject, involving the present, and the everlasting welfare of so large a portion of the community. If in the enunciation, or the proof of my positions, I should chance to differ from your own opinions, or those of your readers, I still trust that you will not object to the fair and candid discussion of a topic of such high importance; especially as I shall be ready to listen in return to any counter-remarks which your able correspondents may please to make upon the subject.

It appears, then, to the writer of this paper, that there are five prominent causes of the failure of which we complain.

I

t

Thirdly; the stimulus of praise,

and the excitement of emulation, perhaps too generallyemployed in all systems of female instruction in the present day, and which are injurious to the children of the rich, are ruinous to the children of the poor.

Fourthly; even in institutions to which the first and second objections may not be applicable in their full force, much moral evil is sustained, by the early and complete separation of the child from its parents.

Fifthly; religious knowledge is either not attempted to be communicated, or (though certainly with many laudable exceptions) is communicated in a very defective manner.

In many of our plans for the education of the female poor, we seem to forget the plain maxim, that the means must be adapted to the end. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" The first object to be pursued is, to prepare the dispositions which we have undertaken to direct, and the hearts which we are pledged to guide, to discharge the duties of Christian women in the lowest rank of life. We ought to remember, that it is out of this rank that we receive these children; and that it is into this rank they are to be returned. We ought to remember that, as women, their station is subordinate; as poor women, it is doubly so. Upon these points the language of St. Paul is, "I will, that wo men adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety. Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. Young women teach to be sober, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their husbands, to love their husbands, to love their children. Servants, be subject to your masters, with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward; obedient to please them well in all things, not answering again." Now, when we consider what description of husbands, and what description of masters, it must fall to the lot of the greater part of