tion. There are critics, who, to gratify their cynical feelings, will inarl at every juvenile effay, which is not in all refpects conftructed by the rules of Longinus, and confign to oblivion all periodical publications, whofe every page does not glow with the infpirations of a prophet, and is not impreffed with the feal of immortality. Confider, ye fpeakers with many tongues, ye pharifaical fages, with whom wifdom will doubtlefs die, that without good nature you are nothing. Remember that the world in which we live, though fmall compared with the immenfe univerfe, was not created in an initant of time, notwithstanding its Former was omnipotent. Lift up gently the heads of your inferiours, inftead of covering their faces with the blufhes of thame.

Others there are, who perpetúally and prefumptuously obtrude their raw and filly opinions on the public, and affume the office of critics without either knowledge, judgment, or wit. We fometimes hear mere boys and fmatterers in fcience condemn an effay or a poem, not a fingle line of which they are able to produce or to equal; boldly pronounce upon works which they cannot comprehend; and attempt with rafh hands to deftroy what it coft the labour of wifdom to create.

From this clafs, however, little is to be feared. The confequence they acquire by rant and defamation is extremely fugitive, and must vanish before the light of reafon and argument, as mift is difperfed before the beams of the fun. It is not from the empty head nor

ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ACTION IN A VIRTUOUS AGENT.

......BUT inftinctive benevolence is no principle of virtue, nor are any actions flowing merely from it virtuous. As far as this influences, fo far fomething elfe than reaion and goodness influence, and fo much, I think, is to be fubtracted from the moral worth of any action or character. This obfervation agrees perfectly with the common fentiments and determinations of mankind. Wherever the influence of mere natural temper or inclination appears, and a particular conduct is known to arife from hence, we may, it is true, love the perfon, as we commonly do the inferiour creatures when they difcover mildness and tractableness of dif

pofition; but no regard to him as a virtuous agent will arife within us. A foft and filly man, let him be ever fo complying, liberal, and good-tempered, never ftands fo high in our esteem; becaufe we always apprehend him to be what he is, not fo much from any influence of reafon and moral good, as from a happy instinct and bent of nature born with him: And in the fame manner, the tenderness of parents for their offspring, a fond mother's expofing her life to fave her child, and all actions proceeding from the nearer attachments of nature, appear to have as much lefs moral value, as they are derived more from natural inftinct, and lefs attended with reflection on their reasonableness and fitnefs. As long as this reflection is wanting, it is, in a moral account, indifferent whether the action proceeds from kind affection or any other affection. But it must not be forgot, that fuch reflection will, in general, accompany friendly and benevolent actions, and cannot but have fome concern in producing them. Approbation is infeparable from the view of them, and fome ideas of right and wrong are prefent always with all men, and must more or lefs influence all they do. We have an unavoidable confcioufnefs of rectitude in relieving mifery, in promoting happiness, and in every office of love and good-will to others. It is this confecrates kindnefs and humanity, and exalts them into virtues. Actions proceeding from univerfal, calm, and difpaffionate benevolence, are by all eleemed more virtuous and amiable than Vol. I. No. 10. Kkk

actions producing equal or greater moments of good, directed to thofe to whom nature has more particularly linked us, and arifing from kind determinations in our minds which are more confined and urgent. The reafon is, that in the former cafe the operations of inftinct have lefs effect and are lefs fenfible, and the attention to what is morally good and right is more explicit and prevalent. Were we prompted to acts of univerfal benevolence in the fame manner that parents are to the care of their children, we fhould not conceive of them as more virtuous. Thefe facts cannot be ex-. plained confiftently with the notion that virtue confifts in acting from kind affections, which cannot be derived from intelligence, and are incapable, in their immediate exercife, of being attended with any influence from it. why then should not the virtue be greateft where the kind impulfe is ftrongeft? Why fhould it, on the contrary, in fuch a cafe, be leaft of all, and entirely vanish when all ufe of reafon is precluded, and nothing but the force of inftinct appears? Why, in particular, fhould refifting our ftrongeft inftincts, and following fteadily in contradiction to them the determinations of cool unbiaffed reafon, be confidered as the higheft virtue? Probably thofe, who plead for this opinion, would give it up, and acknowledge. what is now afferted, could they be convinced that benevolence is effatial to intelligence and not merely an implanted principle or infind.--Price on Morals. c. 8.

For

blefs and make it the feed of a nation. I fhall have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid at firft. No more now but dear love in the truth. W. PENN.

ift Mo. 5th, 1681.

did, and aggravating every thing difagreeable to them in his conduct, with a view to render him odious. In this too many good men gave them countenance. At length, things were driven to fuch a pafs, that the ftudents deferted the college, and the Dr. on March 15, 1675, refigned his prefidentfhip. The ill ufage he met with made fo deep an im

WHETHER this man were a native of Great Britain, or of New-england, we have not immediately the means of afcertaining. Probably he was born in the former. By the catalogue of Harvard College it appears that he received a bachelor's degree at that feminary in 1650. "Having finished his education there," fays the Nonconformist's Memorial," he came into England, where he preached the gofpel in various places, and received from the univerfity of Cambridge the degree of M. D. Being invited to the paftoral charge of the South church, at Bofton, he returned to New-england, having first married a virtuous daughter of Lord Lifle. Soon after his arrival an invitation to prefide over the college at Cambridge fuperfeded the former. He was a truly worthy man, confidered as a fcholar or as a chriftian; and was generally esteemed as fuch, till, by fome unaccountable means, he fell under the difpleafure of certain perfons of figure in the neighbourhood; when the young men in the college took advantage of it to ruin his reputation, as far as they were able; canvaffing whatever he faid or

grief threw him into a confumption, whereof he died the winter following, Nov. 28, at Boston. In his time, new edifices were erected in this college, for which a contribution was made through the colony, which amounted to 18951. 25. 9d. He was fucceeded by Mr. Urian Oakes."

III. PATRICK HENRY,

Late governour of Virginia, was among the early and eloquent advocates of the American

Revolution.

He was perhaps one of the best speakers and writers the country has produced; poffeffed of an ardent love of liberty and of mankind; and

made meritorious exertions in their caufe. The following letter from his pen, fhows him to have felt ftrongly for an unfortunate race of beings in America, whilft his conduct, in one particular, proves that he was hardly fo good as his principles.

Hanover, Jan. 18, 1773. "Dear Sir,

I TAKE this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of An