for a man to cut off his hands for fear he should fteal. There is indeed great refolution in the immediate act of difmembering himself; but when that is once done, he has no longer any merit; for though it is out of his power to fteal, yet he may all his life be a thief in his heart. So when a man has once become a Carthufian, he is obliged to continue fo, whether he chooses it or not. Their filence too is abfurd. We read in the Gofpel of the Apostles being fent to preach, but not to hold their tongues. All feverity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. I faid to the Lady Abbets of a convent, Madam, you are here, not for the love of virtue, but the fear of vice. She faid, she should remember this as long as the lived." It was, perhaps, hard to give her this view of her fituation, when she could not help it; and, indeed, we may wonder at the whole of what he faid on this fubject, because both in his "Rambler" and "Idler," he treats religious aufterities with much folemnity of respect. To a young clergyman in the country, Dr. Johnson gave the following valuable advice, which may be not unufeful, we think, to Divines in general : "You are afraid of falling into fome improprieties in the daily fervice by reading to an audience Your audience that requires no exactnefs. fear, I hope, fecures you from danger. They who contract abfurd habits are fuch as have no fear. It is impoffible to do the fame thing very often, without fome peculiarity of manner; but that manner may be good or bad, and a little care will at leaft preferve it from being bad. to make it good, there muft, I think, be fomething of natural or cafual felicity, which cannot be taught. "Your prefent method of making your fermons feems very judicious. Few frequent preachers can be fuppofed to have fermons more their own than yours will be. Take care to regifter fomewhere or other, the authors from whom your feveral difcourfes are borrowed and do not imagine that you fhall always remember, even what perhaps, you now think it impoffible to forget. My advice, however, is, that you attempt, from time to time, an original fermon; and in the labour of compofition, do not burthen your mind with too much at once; do not exact from yourself at one effort of excogitation, propriety of thought, and elegance of expreffion. Invent firft, and then embellish. The production of fomething, where nothing was before, is an act of greater energy, than the expansion or decoration of the thing produced. Set down diligently diligently your thoughts as they rife in the firft words that occur; and, when you have matter, you will eafily give it form: nor, perhaps, will this method be always neceffary; for by habit, your thoughts and diction will flow together. "The compofition of fermons is not very difficult: the divifions not only help the memory of the hearer, but direct the judgment of the writer; they fupply fources of invention, and keep every part in its proper place. "What I like leaft is your account of manners in your parish; from which I find that it has been long neglected by the parfon. The Dean of Carlifle, when he was a little rector in Northamptonshire, told me, that it might be difcerned whether or no there was a clergyman refident in a parish, by the civil or favage manncr of a people. Such a congregation as yours flands in need of much reformation, and I would not have you think it impoffible to reform them. A very favage parifh was civilized by a decayed gentlewoman, who came among them to teach a petty fchool. My learned, friend Dr. Wheeler of Oxford, when he was a young man, had the care of a neighbouring parifh for fifteen pounds a year; which he was never paid; but he counted it a convenience that it compelled him to make a fermon weckly. One woman he could not bring to the commu nion; and when he reproved or exhorted her, the only anfwered, that he was no fcholar. He was advised to fet fome good woman or man of the parish, a little wiser than herself, to talk to her in a language level to her mind.Such honeft, I may call them holy artifices, must be practifed by every clergyman; for all means must be tried by which fouls may be faved. Talk to your people, however, as much as you can; and you will find, that the more frequently you converfe with them upon religious fubjects, the more willingly they will attend, and the more fubmiffively they will learn. A clergyman's diligence always makes him ve→ nerable." LITERATURE. LITERATURE. TALKING of Hiftory, Johnson faid, « We may know hiftorical facts to be true, as we may know facts in common life to be true. Motives are generally unknown. We cannot truft to the characters we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the perfons; as thofe for inftance by Salluft and Lord Clarendon." "Great abilities (he faid) were not requifite for an hiftorian; for in hiftorical compofition, all the great powers of the human mind are quiefcent. He has facts ready to his hands; fo there is no exercife of invention. Imagination is not required in any high degree; only about as much as is used in the lower kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and colouring will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is neceffary." After remarking that, "There are few writers who have gained any reputation by recording their own actions," he obferved, "We may reduce the Egotifis to four claffes. In the first we have Julius Cæfar; he relates his own tranfactions, but he relates them with peculiar force and dignity, and his narrative is fupported by the greatnefs of his character |