had pretty well compofed himself, burft out again into tears upon hearing that name to which he had been fo long difufed, and upon receiving this inftance of an unparalleled fidelity from one who he thought had feveral years fince given herfelf up to the poffeffion of another. Amidft the interruptions of his forrow, feeing his penitent overwhelmed with grief, he was only able to bid her from time to time be comforted-to tell her that her fins were forgiven her-that her guilt was not fo great as the apprehended-that the fhould not fuffer herself to be afflicted above meafure. After which he recovered himself enough to give her the abfolution in form; directing her at the fame time to repair to him again the next day, that he might encourage her in the pious refolutions he had taken, and give her fuitable exhortations for her behaviour in it. Conftantia retired, and the next morning renewed her applications. Theodofius having manned his foul with proper thoughts and reflections, exerted himself on this occafion in the beft manner he could to animate his penitent in the courfe of life fhe was entered upon, and wear out of her mind thofe groundlefs fears and apprehenfions which had taken poffeffion of it; concluding, with a promise to her, that he would from time to time continue his admonitions when the fhould have taken upon her the holy veil. The rules of our refpective orders,' fays he, will not permit that I fhould fee you, but you may affure yourself not only of having a place in my prayers, but of receiving fuch frequent inftructions as I can convey to you by letters. Go on chearfully in the glorious courfe you have undertaken, and you will quickly find fuch a peace and fatisfaction in your mind, which it is not in the power of the world to give."

Conftantia's heart was fo elevated with the difcourfe of Father Francis, that the very next day fhe entered upon her vow. As foon as the folemnities of her reception were over, the retired, as it is ufual, with the abbefs into her own apartment.

The abbefs had been informed the night before of all that had paffed beween her noviciate and Father Francis: from whom the now delivered to her the following letter:

AS the firft-fruits of thofe joys and

confolations which you may expect from the life you are now engaged in, I must acquaint you that Theodofius, whofe death fits fo heavy upon your thoughts, is ftill alive; and that the father, to whom you have confeffed yourfelf, was once that Theodofius whom you fo much lament. The love which we have had for one another will make us more happy in it's difappointment than it could have done in it's fuccefs. Providence has difpofed of us for our advantage, though not according to our withes. Confider your Theodofius ftill as dead, but affure yourself of one who will not ceafe to pray for you in Father FRANCIS.

Conftantia faw that the hand-writing agreed with the contents of the letter: and upon reflecting on the voice of the perfon, the behaviour, and above all the extreme forrow of the father during her confeffion, the difcovered Theodofius in every particular. After having wept with tears of joy It is enough,' fays the, Theodofius is ftill in being: I shall live with comfort and die in peace.'

The letters which the father fent her afterwards are yet extant in the nunnery where the refided; and are often read to the young religious, in order to infpire then with good refolutions and fenti3 ments of virtue. It fo happened, that after Conftantia had lived about ten years in the cloifter, a violent fever broke out in the place, which swept away great multitudes, and among others Theodo. fius. Upon his death-bed he fent his benediction in a very moving manner to Conttantia, who at that time was herfelf fo far gone in the fame fatal dif temper, that the lay delirious. Upon the interval which generally precedes death in fickneffes of this nature, the abbefs, finding that the phyficians had given her over, told her that Theodofius was just gone before her, and that he had fent her his benediction in his laft moments. Conftantia received it with pleafure: And now," fays the, ' if I do not ask any thing improper, let me be buried by Theodofius. My vow reaches no farther than the grave. What I ask is, I hope, no violation of it.'-She died foon after, and was in terred according to her request.

Their tombs are still to be seen, with a fhort

HOR. ARS POET. V.

CREECH.

Our

whofe bufinefs it is to watch over our laws, our liberties and commerce, certain men might be fet apart as fuperintendants of our language, to hinder any words of a foreign coin from paffing among us; and in particular to prohibit any French phrafes from becoming current in this kingdom, when those of our own ftamp are altogether as valuable. The prefent war has fo adulterated our tongue with strange words, that it would be impoffible for one of our great grand fathers to know what his pofterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern news-paper. Our warriors are very induftrious in propagating the French language, at the fame time that they are fo gloriously fuccefsful in beating down their power. foldiers are men of strong heads for action, and perform fuch feats as they. are not able to exprefs. They want words in their own tongue to tell us what it is they atchieve, and therefore fend us over accounts of their perform ances in a jargon of phrafes which they learn among their conquered enemies. They ought however to be provided with fecretaries, and affifted by our foreign minifters, to tell their story for them in plain Englith, and to let us know in our mother-tongue what it is our brave countrymen are about. The French would indeed be in the right to publifh the news of the prefent war in English phrafes, and make their campaigns unintelligible. Their people might flatter theinfelves that things are not fo bad as they really are, were they thus palliated with foreign terms and thrown into fhades and obfcurity: but the English cannot be too clear in their

raised their country to a higher pitch of glory than it ever yet arrived at, and which will be ftill the more admired the better they are explained.

For my part, by that time a fiege is carried on two or three days, I am altogether loft and bewildered in it, and meet with fo many inexplicable difficulties, that I fcarce know which fide has the better of it, until I am informed by the Tower-guns that the place is furrendered. I do indeed make fome allowances for this part of the war, fortifications having been foreign inventions, and upon that account abounding in foreign terms. But when we have won battles which may be defcribed in our own language, why are our papers filled with fo many unintelligible exploits, and the French obliged to lend us a part of their tongue before we can know how they are conquered? They must be made acceffary to their own difgrace, as the Britons were formerly fo artificially wrought in the curtain of the Roman theatre, that they feemed to draw it up in order to give the spectators an opportunity of feeing their own defeat celebrated upon the ftage: for fo Mr. Dryden has translated that verfe in Virgil.

Purpurea intexti tollunt aulæa Britanni.

GEORG. III. v. 25 Which interwoven Britons feem to raise, And shew the triumph that their shame difplays.

The hiftories of all our former wars are tranfmitted to us in our vernacular idiom, to use the phrafe of a great modern critic. I do not find in any of the chronicles, that Edward the Third ever reconnoitered our enemy, though he

aften

often difcovered the pofture of the French, and as often vanquished them in battle. The Black Prince paffed many a river without the help of pontoons, and filled a ditch with faggots as fuccefsfully as the generals of our times do it with fafcines. Our commanders lofe half their praise, and our people half their joy, by means of thofe hard words and dark expreflions in which our newspapers do fo much abound. I have feen many a prudent citizen, after having read every article, enquire of his next neighbour what news the mail had brought.

I remember in that remarkable year when our country was delivered from the greatest fears and apprehenfions, and raised to the greatest height of gladness it had ever felt fince it was a nation, I mean the year of Blenheim, I had the copy of a letter fent me out of the country, which was written from a young gentleman in the army to his father, a man of a good eftate and plain fenfe: as the letter was very modifhly chequered with this modern military eloquence, I hall prefent my reader with a copy of it.

SIR,

UPON the junction of the French

and Bavarian armies, they took poft behind a great morafs which they thought impracticable. Our general the next day fent a party of horfe to reconnoitre them from a little hauteur, at about a quarter of an hour's distance from the army, who returned again to the camp unobferved through feveral defiles, in one of which they met with a party of French that had been marauding, and made them all prifoners at difcretion. The day after a drum arrived at our camp, with a meffage which he would communicate to none but the general; he was followed by a trumpet, who they fay behaved himself very faucily, with a meffage from the Duke of Bavaria. The next morning our army being divided into two corps, made a movement towards the enemy: you will hear in the public prints how we treated them, with the other circumftances of

that glorious day. I had the good fortune to be in that regiment that puthed the Gens d'Armes. Several French battalions, whom they fay were a corps de referve, made a fhew of refiftance; but it only proved a gafconade, for upon our preparing to fill up a little foffé, in order to attack them, they beat the chamade, and fent us carte blanche. Their commandant, with a great many other general officers, and troops without number, are made prisoners of war, and will, I believe, give you a visit in England, the cartel not being yet settled. Not queftioning but these particulars will be very welcome to you, I congra tulate you upon them, and am your moft dutiful fon, &c.

The father of the young gentleman upon the perufal of the letter found it contained great news, but could not guefs what it was. He immediately

communicated it to the curate of the parish, who, upon the reading of it, being vexed to fee any thing he could not understand, fell into a kind of paffion, and told him, that his fon had fent him a letter that was neither fish, flefh, nor good red-herring. I wish,' fays he, the captain may be compos

mentis, he talks of a faucy trumpet, and a drum that carries meffages; then who is this carte blanche? He muft either banter us or he is out of his fenfes. The father, who always looked upon the curate as a learned man, began to fret inwardly at his fon's ufage, and producing a letter which he had written to him about three pofts before -You fee here,' fays he, when he

writes for money he knows how to 'fpeak intelligibly enough; there is no man in England can exprefs himself clearer, when he wants a new furniture for his horfe.' In fhort, the old man was fo puzzled upon the point, that it might have fared ill with his fon, had he not feen all the prints about three days after filled with the fame terms of art, and that Charles only writ like other men.

L

No CLXVI.

A

OVID, MET. L. xv. v. 871.

RISTOTLE tells us that the world is a copy or tranfcript of thofe ideas which are in the mind of the firft Being; and that thofe ideas, which are in the mind of man, are a transcript of the world: to this we may add, that words are the transcript of those ideas, which are in the mind of man, and that writing or printing are the transcript of words.

As the Supreme Being has expreffed, and as it were printed his ideas in the creation, men exprefs their ideas in books, which by this great invention of thefe latter ages may laft as long as the fun and moon, and perifh only in the general wreck of nature. Thus Cowley in his Poem on the Resurrection, mentioning the deftruction of the univerfe, has thofe admirable lines

Now all the wide extended sky,
And all th' harmonious worlds on high,
And Virgil's facred work shall die.

There is no other method of fixing thofe thoughts which arife and difappear in the mind of man, and transmitting them to the last periods of time; no other method of giving a permanency to our ideas, and preferving the knowledge of any particular perfon, when his body is mixed with the common mass of matter, and his foul retired into the world of fpirits. Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the pofterity of those who are yet unborn.

All other arts of perpetuating our ideas continue but a fhort time: ftatues can laft but a few thousands of years, edifices fewer, and colours ftill fewer than edifices. Michael Angelo, Fontana, and Raphael, will hereafter be what Phidias, Vitruvius, and Apelles are at prefent; the names of great ftatuaries, architects, and painters, whofe works are loft. The feveral arts are expreffed in mouldering materials: na

WELSTED.

ture finks under them, and is not able to fupport the ideas which are imprest upon it.

The circumftance which gives authors an advantage above all these great mafters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather can make copies of their works, to what number they pleafe, which fhall be as valuable as the originals themselves. This gives a great author fomething like a profpect of eternity, but at the fame time deprives him of those other advantages which artifts meet with. The artift finds greater returns in profit, as the author in fame. What an inestimable price would a Virgil or a Homer, a Cicero or an Ariftotle bear, were their works like a statue, a building, or a picture, or to be confined only in one place, and made the property of a fingle perfon?

If writings are thus durable, and may pafs from age to age throughout the whole courfe of time, how careful should an author be of committing any thing to print that may corrupt posterity, and poifon the minds of men with vice and error? Writers of great talents, who employ their parts in propagating immorality, and feasoning vicious fentiments with wit and humour, are to be looked upon as the pefts of fociety, and the enemies of mankind: they leave books behind them, as it is faid of those who die in diftempers which breed an ill-will towards their own fpecies, to scatter infection and destroy their pofterity. They act the counterparts of a Confucius or a Socrates; and feem to have been fent into the world to deprave human nature, and fink it into the condition of brutality.

I have seen some Roman Catholic authors, who tell us that vicious writers continue in purgatory fo long as the influence of their writings continues upor pofterity For purgatory,' fay they, is nothing else but a cleanfing us of 2 S

our fins, which cannot be faid to be done away, fo long as they continue to operate and corrupt mankind. The vicious author,' fay they, fins after death, and fo long as he continues to fin, fo long must he expect to be punithed.' Though the Roman Catholic notion of purgatory be indeed very ridiculous, one cannot but think that if the foul after death has any knowledge of what paffes in this world, that of an immoral writer would receive much more regret from the fenfe of corrupting, than fatisfaction from the thought of pleafing his furviving admirers.

To take off from the feverity of this fpeculation, I fhall conclude this paper with a story of an atheistical author, who at a time when he lay dangerously fick, and had defired the affiftance of a neighbouring curate, confefied to him with great contrition, that nothing fat more heavy at his heart than the fenfe of his having feduced the age by his writings, and that their evil inflecnce was likely to continue even after his death. The curate upon farther examination finding the penitent in the utmost agonies of defpair, and being himfelf a man of learning, told him, that he hoped his cafe was not fo defperate as he apprehended, fince he found that he was fo very fenfible of his fault, and fo fincerely repented of it. The penitent ftill urged the evil tendency of his book to fubvert all religion, and the little ground of hope there could be for one whofe writings would continue to do mifchief when his body

was laid in afhes. The curate, finding no other way to comfort him, told him, that he did well in being afflicted for the evil defign with which he published his book; but that he ought to be very thankful that there was no danger of it's doing any hurt: that his caule was fo very bad, and his arguments fo weak, that he did not apprehend any ill effects of it: in fhort, that he might reft fatisfied his book could do no more mischief after his death, than it had done whilft he was living. To which he added, for his farther fatisfaction, that he did not believe any besides his particular friends and acquaintance had ever been at the

pains of reading it, or that any body after his death would ever inquire after it. The dying man had still so much the frailty of an author in him, as to be cut to the heart with these confolations; and without anfwering the good man, afked his friends about him, with a peevifinefs that is natural to a fick perfon, where they had picked up fuch a blockhead? And whether they thought him a proper person to attend one in his condition? The curate finding that the author did not expect to be dealt with as a real and fincere penitent, but as a penitent of importance, after a fhort admonition withdrew; not questioning but he should be again fent for if the fickness grew defperate. The author however recovered, and has fince written two or three other tracts with the same spirit, and very luckily for his poor foul with the fame fuccefs.

C

N' CLXVII.