publick, when men have a fair opportunity of promoting their own ends by acting in oppofition to it? Nothing from without can poffibly prevent them; for, being by fuppofition out of the reach of human difcovery, they are in no fear of the magistrate's fword. Neither is there any thing from within capable of holding them in. For what fignifies confcience, if men live under no apprehenfions of an infinitely knowing and omnipotent being, and of thofe rewards and punishments which in this life or another are to be appor→ tioned to fuch as by their conduct have merited one or the other. Urging in anfwer to this the facredness of oaths would be of little weight: because all oaths presuppose the belief of a God and his government of the world: remove but once this perfuafion, and the obligations immediately tease and are at an end. SIR, [To be continued. ] To the S T UDEN T. R S every good-natured man must feel a pleafure at feeing an exertion of humanity, I could not read the scheme you have communicated to the publick for raising a fund for the maintenance of the widows and children of the inferiour clergy, without a fenfible fatisfaction. The diftress to which these unhappy widows and orphans are frequently reduced, calls aloud for pity, and for a speedy redrefs. 'Tis an affecting fight, to fee the children of our minifters, who, if their parents have not been able to give them a genteel, have ge nerally had a fober and religious education, 'tis an affecting fight, I fay, to fee them turned out helplefs into the world; thrown among the loweft of the people, and oblig'd for the reft of their lives to converfe with none but uncultivated minds, and fuddenly to mingle with thofe who are rather fitted to corrupt than to improve their virtue. My My concern for thefe poos helplefs objects, as well as for their wretched mothers, was the cher day greatly heighten'd by reading a pamphlet, which fell accidentally into my hands. In this is inferted a fhort hiftory of the diftreffes of a poor clergyman and his unhappy children; which I have the greater reason to believe to be true, as fome other events of the like nature have fallen within my own notice. The pamphlet I am speaking of is called, An epiftle to the Bishop of London, occafioned by his lordship's letter to the clergy and inhabitants of London and Westminster, by a foreigner. This ftranger has with great spirit and delicacy pointed out many of the abuses that have escaped the notice of our countrymen, and some of them not without success, since he has caufed them to be removed. But as this pamphlet is not fo well known as it deferves, and will probably be read by few of your readers, let me intreat you, to give this paffage a place in the STUDENT a request that I should not have made, did I not think it might contribute to awaken the humanity of the nation, and to forward the excellent fcheme of PHILANTHROPOS. "About three years ago," fays our author, " a poor "clergyman in the north of England, being flattered by a "promise of preferment, raised all the money he could "fcrape together, by felling his goods, and by borrowing "to the value of about five pounds, which was the utmost "extent of his credit; and with ten guineas in his pocket, a larger fum than he had ever before had in his own pof❝feffion, fet out for London, bringing with him two daugh"ters, which was the whole of his family. On his coming to town he waited on his pretended patron almost every "day, who conftantly put him off with fresh excuses, and fresh promises; which, at laft, when it was too late, he "found were only made to deceive him; fince he accidentily difcovered that the living which he had been for a month together folliciting, had been given away before his arrival in town, to a perfon who had two better livings "before. Dd 2 "before. His disappointment, his shame and vexation, to"gether with the difmal profpect that lay before him, at "finding that his little ftock was almost spent, and the idea of the diftrefs to which his poor daughters would speedily ❝be reduced, were too heavy to be fupported; nor could all his piety and virtue, for which he had been so justly esteemed, prevent his finking under the dreadful idea of "the total ruin of himself and his children. He was feiz'd with a fever, and wanting the neceffary affiftance that "his illness required, he languished in mifery and at last "died, leaving his daughters poor, miserable, and friendless. "In this wretched fituation, one of them was taken no¬ "tice of by her father's patron, to whom, in his fickness, "fhe had in vain applied for relief, and who now attempted "to feduce her virtue: the refifted while fhe had bread to σε eat, but being unable to get employment, her hunger be came too ftrong to be refifted; it over-power'd the effects "of her pious education, and conftrained her to forget the "admonitions of a dying father, and to yield to the infam"ous propofals that had been offered her. Her fituation 66 was changed, when, by forfeiting her virtue, the fupport“ed her fifter till fhe was able to get into fervice: but, "wretched as her circumftances were, they were to be still "worfe; fhe had not been a twelvemonth in this fituation, "before fhe was difcarded for a new mistress, and caft "upon the town," The plainnefs and fimplicity with which this story is told, added to the diftrefs in which I have known fome of the widows and children of clergymen involved, are to me a confirmation of its truth. And here I cannot help observing, that the profpect of a support for his daughters after his deceafe might poffibly have given this poor man fpirits to struggle with his diftemper, to overcome it, and even at last to furmount all his difficulties, as it would fufficiently have enabled his more unhappy children to have triumphed over temptation, fhame and guilt. But as the cafe now ftands, to what க. what evils are not the daughters of our poorer clergy expofed! How dreadful, that the children of thofe very men, who have spent their whole lives in the cause of virtue, should, when they are dead, be overpowered by the strongest of all the appetites, and be constrained either to die or to be wicked! How few young minds would here have the courage to make a proper choice, and to prefer eternal happiness to a life of guilt! Poverty is frequently attended with a complication of distress, and in no inftance is it likely to be more fatal, than when fuffered by the children of the clergy, who during the life of their father are treated by the parish in which they live, with that respect which is always due to his character, let his circumstances in life be ever fo mean, How then can they be supposed capable of enduring every thing, of supporting the lofs of his life, and providing for their own? The genteeler their education has been, the more unable they will be to grapple with difficulties, to which they must be immediately expofed; and the cafe is exactly the fame with the unhappy widow. It is frequently difficult, and fometimes impoffible, for them to support themselves by their needle. Every body will fee that the daughters are unfit for the drudgery of fervants, and the mother, who may have been educated with delicacy, is altogether incapable of getting her bread by washing and fcouring. There is something so incongruous in the idea of fo dreadful a degradation, that the bare mention of it feems to give a fhock to humanity, and fo confound all our natural ideas of order, decency, and propriety of character. But after all, I cannot help thinking, that the worthy PHILANTHROPOs, greatly as I approve of his scheme in general, is a little wrong in his calculations: for I can hardly imagine, that one day's pay of all the clergy in England will be fufficient to anfwer the demands of the numerous miferable, who would have an undoubted claim to this bounty. However, I am perfuaded that, were this scheme but once to take place, the generofity of the wealthy part of the clergy clergy would render any alteration needlefs, fince a large and open heart would never be fatisfied with fo poor a pittance; but on fo laudable an occafion would, if needful, give even more than a hundredth part of his yearly income. I am, Sir, yours, &c. PHILO. MEMNON, an APOLOGUE. EMNON one day took it into his head to become M perfectly wife; an extravagancy, which has fome times infatuated men of no fhallow intellects. His foliloquy on this momentous point was as follows. To be very wife, and confequently very happy, requires no more than to get rid of our paffions, which every one knows to be a moft eafy matter. Firft, I'll never love any woman; for upon feeing an inchanting beauty, I'll immediately fay to myself, thofe cheeks will one day be wrinkled, thofe eyes lofe their luftre, thofe round breafts be flabby, and thofe fine curling locks give way to baldness; now, viewing her with the fame eyes, which I should in that mortifying change, will fecure my heart from being distracted with her beauty. Secondly, I'll be temperate, and ftoutly withftand all the allurements of delicious fare, and the feducements of epicurean companions. 'Tis but bearing in my mind the confequences of excefs, as a difordered ftomach, a confused brain, and the lofs of reafon, health, and time; then my appetite will be under the check of neceffity, my health permanent, my faculties fprightly, my paffions tranquil, and my ideas refined: all this is attainable with fo little difficulty, that to attain it has no claim to merit, As for an income, faid MEMNON, my defires are limited, and my whole fortune lodged with the Receiver General of the finances of Nineveh. I have wherewithal to live indepen dently, |