sand dollars in the libel suit against Cobbett, he gave the money to the poor.*

His religion was inwrought with his love of country. A Christian, he said, could not fail of being a republican. His Inquiry into the Effect of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind places him among the earliest promoters of the Temperance cause.

The amiable activity of Rush was shown in his causing Beattie, the poet, to be elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, and sending him a certificate subscribed by Franklin. This was in 1786. His letter to the poet commences: "The American Revolution, which divided the British empire, made no breach in the republic of letters."t

A pleasing instance of the happy sympathetic turn of Rush is in his short biographies of the Quaker Benezet and the eccentric Benjamin Lay, as well as in his Account of the Life and Character of Christopher Ludwick, "the baker-general of the army of the United States during the Revolutionary war," which he wrote in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, in 1801.

The personal description, in Sanderson's Lives of the Signers, answering to the portrait by Sully, represents him as "above the middle size; of a slender but well proportioned figure. The diameter of his head, from back to front, was uncommonly large. He had a prominent forehead; aquiline nose; highly animated blue eyes, with a chin and mouth expressive and comely; his look was fixed, his aspect thoughtful." John Adams, who met him in Philadelphia, during the Congress of 1774-5, notices his residence upon Water street, and the fine prospect of Delaware River and New Jersey, from his window; and

*The eagerness of Rush led him to carry his theories and notions to excess. Cobbett seized upon some of his weak points for annoyance, and committing his pen to a libel, was muleted by an indignant jury of the good Doctor's townspeople (encouraged by his counsel, Joseph Hopkinson, the author of "Hail Columbia,") in the sum of five thousand dollars, which, with the sacrifices of his property and the incidental damages, he sets down in the Rush-Light at eight thousand. This was his famous rejoinder to the libel suit, and was published at New York, in 1800, in a periodical 12mo. pamphlet, in four numbers, in which he brings all his artillery of squib and detraction against the Doctor. It had a large sale, for the

public relishes witty personality, and Cobbett had a method of always getting readers for his writings. Perhaps the comparison of Rush to Sangrado, in his bleeding practice, supported by parallel passages taken from Gil Blas and the Doctor's writings, and the eulogies by his friends, is the best portion. He soon left for England, when Freneau celebrated his departure with an allusion to his extinguished Rush-light, and the popular charge of his pension from England as a supporter of monarchical ideas in America, and an enemy to free insti

tutions.

Five thousand dollars, we may guess,
Have made his pension something less-
So, Peter left us-in distress.

+ Life of Beattie, by the Rev. Alexander Dyce.

Ludwick was a man of mark, a German, who, after various adventures, as a soldier in the wars of the Austrians against the Turks, and a sailor out of England, reached Philadelphia in 1758. With the proceeds of a small mercantile venture he went to London, and learned the business of a gingerbread baker and confectioner; returning to Philadelphia in 1774 with a stock of gingerbread prints, with which he became famous for his manufacture of that article. He joined the Revolution at its outset, and sacrificed his property in the cause. He assisted the commissariat with his skill as a baker. He died in 1801, in his eightieth year, leaving a considerable property for benevolent uses, mainly for charity schools. In 1831, the newspaper account of him, by Rush, was revised and republished, by direction of the Philadelphia Society for the establishment and support of charity schools, in a thin 18mo.

volume.

Biography of the Signers, iv. 285.

describes his person characteristically-" an ele gant, ingenious body; a sprightly, pretty fellow. He is a republican; he has been much in London; acquainted with Sawbridge, Macaulay, Burgh, and others of that stamp. Dilly sends him books and pamphlets, and Sawbridge and Macaulay correspond with him."*

He married in his thirty-second year, in 1776, the daughter of the Hon. Judge Stockton, by which marriage he had thirteen children.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL EVENTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION UPON THE HUMAN BODY.

There were several circumstances peculiar to the American revolution, which should be mentioned previously to an account of the influence of the events which accompanied it upon the human body.

1. The revolution interested every inhabitant of the country of both sexes, and of every rank and age that was capable of reflection. An indifferent, or neutral, spectator of the controversy was scarcely to be found in any of the states.

2. The scenes of war and government which it introduced were new to the greatest part of the inhabitants of the United States, and operated with all the force of novelty upon the human mind.

3. The controversy was conceived to be the most important of any that had ever engaged the attention of mankind. It was generally believed, by the friends of the revolution, that the very existence of freedom, upon our globe, was involved in the issue of the contest in favour of the United States.

4. The American revolution included in it the cares of government, as well as the toils and dangers of war. The American mind was, therefore, frequently occupied, at the same time, by the difficult and complicated duties of political and military life.

5. The revolution was conducted by men who had been born free, and whose sense of the blessings of liberty was of course more exquisite than if they had just emerged from a state of slavery.

6. The greatest part of the soldiers in the armies of the United States had family connections and property in the country.

7. The war was carried on by the Americans against a nation, to whom they had long been tied by the numerous obligations of consanguinity, laws, religion, commerce, language, interest, and a mutual sense of national glory. The resentments of the Americans of course rose, as is usual in all disputes, in proportion to the number and force of these ancient bonds of affection and union.

8. A predilection to a limited monarchy, as an essential part of a free and safe government, and an attachment to the reigning king of Great Britain (with a very few exceptions) were universal in every part of the United States.

9. There was at one time a sudden dissolution of civil government in all, and of ecclesiastical establishments in several, of the states.

10. The expenses of the war were supported by means of a paper currency, which was continually depreciating.

From the action of each of these causes, and frequently from their combination in the same persons, effects might reasonably be expected, both upon the mind and body, which have seldom occurred; or if they have, I believe were never fully recorded in any age or country.

It might afford some useful instruction, to point

*Adams's Diary, Works, il. 880, 427.

out the influence of the military and political events of the revolution upon the understandings, passions, and morals of the citizens of the United States; but my business in the present inquiry is only to take notice of the influence of those events upon the human body, through the medium of the mind.

I shall first mention the effects of the military, and, secondly, of the political events of the revolution. The last must be considered in a two-fold view, accordingly as they affected the friends, or the enemies, of the revolution.

I. In treating of the effects of the military events, I shall take notice, first, of the influence of actual war, and, secondly, of the influence of the military

life.

In the beginning of a battle, I have observed thirst to be a very common sensation among both officers and soldiers. It occurred where no exercise, or action of the body, could have excited it.

Many officers have informed me, that after the first onset in a battle they felt a glow of heat, so universal as to be perceptible in both their ears. This was the case, in a particular manner, in the battle of Princeton, on the third of January, in the year 1777, on which day the weather was remarkably cold.

A veteran colonel of a New England regiment, whom I visited at Princeton, and who was wounded in the hand at the battle of Monmouth, on the 28th of June, 1778 (a day in which the mercury stood at 90 of Fahrenheit's thermometer) after describing his situation at the time he received his wound, conclude his story by remarking, "that fighting was hot work on a cold day, but much more so on a warm day." The many instances which appeared after that memorable battle, of soldiers who were found among the slain without any marks of wounds or violence upon their bodies, were probably occasioned by the heat excited in the body, by the emotions of the mind, being added to that of the atmosphere.

Soldiers bore operations of every kind, immedi ately after a battle, with much more fortitude than they did at any time afterwards.

The effects of the military life upon the human body come next to be considered under this head.

In another place I have mentioned three cases of pulmonary consumption being perfectly cured by the diet and hardships of a camp life.

Doctor Blane, in his valuable observations on the diseases incident to seamen, ascribes the extraordinary healthiness of the British fleet in the month of April, 1782, to the effects produced on the spirit of the soldiers and seamen, by the victory obtained over the French fleet on the 12th of that month; and relates, upon the authority of Mr. Ives, an instance, in the war between Great Britain and the combined powers of France and Spain, in 1744, in which the scurvy, as well as other diseases, were checked by the prospect of a naval engagement.

The American army furnished an instance of the effects of victory upon the human mind, which may serve to establish the inferences from the facts related by Doctor Blane. The Philadelphia militia who joined the remains of General Washington's army, in December, 1776, and shared with them a few days afterwards in the capture of a large body of Hessians at Trenton, consisted of 1500 men, most of whom had been accustomed to the habits of a city life. These men slept in tents and barns, and sometimes in the open air, during the usual colds of December and January; and yet there were but two instances of sickness, and only one of death, in that body of men in the course of nearly six weeks, in those winter months. This extraordinary healthi

ness of so great a number of men, under such trying circumstances, can only be ascribed to the vigour infused into the human body by the victory of Trenton having produced insensibility to all the usual remote causes of diseases.

Militia officers and soldiers, who enjoyed good health during a campaign, were often affected by fevers and other diseases, as soon as they returned to their respective homes. I know one instance of a militia captain, who was seized with convulsions the first night he lay on a feather bed, after sleeping several months on a mattress, or upon the ground. These affections of the body appeared to be produced only by the sudden abstraction of that tone in the system, which was excited by a sense of danger, and the other invigorating objects of a military life.

The NOSTALGIA of Doctor Cullen, or the homesickness, was a frequent disease in the American army, more especially among the soldiers of the New England states. But this disease was suspended by the superior action of the mind, under the influence of the principles which governed common soldiers in the American army. Of this

General Gates furnished me with a remarkable instance in 1776, soon after his return from the command of a large body of regular troops and militia at Ticonderoga. From the effects of the nostalgia, and the feebleness of the discipline which was exercised over the militia, desertions were very frequent and numerous in his army, in the latter part of the campaign; and yet during the three weeks in which the general expected every hour an attack to be made upon him by General Burgoyne, there was not a single desertion from his army, which consisted at that time of 10,000 men.

The patience, firmness, and magnanimity, with which the officers and soldiers of the American army endured the complicated evils of hunger, cold and nakedness, can only be ascribed to an insensibility of body produced by an uncommon tone of mind, excited by the love of liberty and their country.

Before I proceed to the second general division of this subject, I shall take notice, that more instances of apoplexies occurred in the city of Philadelphia, in the winter of 1774-5, than had been known in former years. I should have hesitated in recording this fact, had I not found the observation supported by a fact of the same kind, and produced by a nearly similar cause, in the appendix to the practical works of Doctor Baglivi, professor of physic and anatomy at Rome. After a very wet season in the winter of 1694-5, he informs us, that "apoplexies displayed their rage; and perhaps (adds our author) some part of this epidemic illness was owing to the universal grief and domestic care, occasioned by all Europe being engaged in a war. All commerce was disturbed, and all the avenues of peace blocked up, so that the strongest heart could scarcely bear the thoughts of it." The winter of 1774-5 was a period of uncommon anxiety among the citizens of America. Every countenance wore the marks of painful solicitude for the event of a petition to the throne of Britain, which was to determine whether reconciliation, or a civil war, with all its terrible and distressing consequences, were to take place. The apoplectic fit, which deprived the world of the talents and virtues of Peyton Randolph, while he filled the chair of Congress, in 1775, appeared to be occasioned in part by the pressure of the uncertainty of those great events upon his mind. To the name of this illustrious patriot, several others might be added, who were affected by the apoplexy in the same memorable year. At this time a difference of opinion upon the subject of

the contest with Great Britain had scarcely taken place among the citizens of America.

II. The political events of the revolution produced different effects upon the human body, through the medium of the mind, according as they acted upon the friends or enemies of the revolution.

I shall first describe its effects upon the former class of citizens of the United States.

Many persons, of infirm and delicate habits, were restored to perfect health, by the change of place, or occupation, to which the war exposed them. This was the case in a more especial manner with hysterical women, who were much interested in the successful issue of the contest. The same effects of a civil war upon the hysteria, were observed by Doctor Cullen in Scotland, in the years 1745 and 1746. It may perhaps help to extend our ideas of the influence of the passions upon diseases, to add, that when either love, jealousy, grief, or even devotion, wholly engross the female mind, they seldom fail, in like manner, to cure or to suspend hysterical complaints.

An uncommon cheerfulness prevailed everywhere, among the friends of the revolution. Defeats, and even the loss of relations and property, were soon forgotten in the great objects of the war.

The population in the United States was more rapid from births during the war, than it had ever been in the same number of years since the settlement of the country.

I am disposed to ascribe this increase of births chiefly to the quantity and extensive circulation of money, and to the facility of procuring the means of subsistence during the war, which favoured marriages among the labouring part of the people.* But I have sufficient documents to prove, that marriages were more fruitful than in former years, and that a considerable number of unfruitful marriages became fruitful during the war. In 1783, the year of the peace, there were several children born of parents who had lived many years together without

issue.

Mr. Hume informs us, in his History of England, that some old people, upon hearing the news of the restoration of Charles II., died suddenly of joy. There was a time when I doubted the truth of this assertion; but I am now disposed to believe it, from having heard of a similar effect from an agreeable political event, in the course of the American revolution. The door-keeper of Congress, an aged man, died suddenly, immediately after hearing of the capture of Lord Cornwallis's army. His death was universally ascribed to a violent emotion of political joy. This species of joy appears to be one of the strongest emotions that can agitate the human mind.

Perhaps the influence of that ardour in trade and speculation, which seized many of the friends of the revolution, and which was excited by the fallacious nominal amount of the paper money, should rather be considered as a disease, than as a passion. It unhinged the judgment, deposed the moral faculty, and filled the imagination, in many people, with airy and impracticable schemes of wealth and grandeur. Desultory manners, and a peculiar species of extempore conduct, were among its characteristic symptoms. It produced insensibility to cold, hunger, and danger. The trading towns, and in some instances the extremities of the United States, were frequently

Wheat, which was sold before the war for seven shillings and sixpence, was sold for several years during the war for four, and in some places for two and sixpence Pennsylvania currency, per bushel. Beggars of every description disappeared in the year 1776, and were seldom seen till near the close of the war.

visited in a few hours or days by persons affected by this disease; and hence, "to travel with the speed of a speculator," became a common saying in many parts of the country. This species of insanity (if I may be allowed to call it by that name) did not require the confinement of a Bedlam to cure it, like the South-Sea madness described by Doctor Mead. Its remedies were the depreciation of the paper money, and the events of the peace.

The political events of the revolution produced upon its enemies very different effects from those which have been mentioned.

The hypochondriasis of Doctor Cullen occurred, in many instances, in persons of this description. In some of them, the terror and distress of the revolution brought on a true melancholia.* The causes which produced these diseases may be reduced to four heads. 1. The loss of former power or influ ence in government. 2. The destruction of the hierarchy of the English church in America. 3. The change in the habits of diet, and company, and manners, produced by the annihilation of just debts by means of depreciated paper money. And 4. The neglect, insults, and oppression, to which the loyalists were exposed, from individuals, and, in several instances, from the laws of some of the states.

It was observed in South Carolina, that several gentlemen, who had protected their estates by swearing allegiance to the British government, died soon after the evacuation of Charleston by the British army. Their deaths were ascribed to the neglect with which they were treated by their ancient friends, who had adhered to the government of the United States. The disease was called, by the common people, the protection fever.

From the causes which produced this hypochondriasis, I have taken the liberty of distinguishing it by the name of revolutiana.

In some cases, this disease was rendered fatal by exile and confinement; and, in others, by those persons who were afflicted with it seeking relief from spirituous liquors.

The termination of the war by the peace in 1783 did not terminate the American revolution. The minds of the citizens of the United States were wholly unprepared for their new situation. The excess of the passion for liberty, inflamed by the successful issue of the war, produced, in many people, opinions and conduct, which could not be removed by reason nor restrained by government. For a while, they threatened to render abortive the goodness of Heaven to the United States, in delivering them from the evils of slavery and war. The extensive influence which these opinions had upon the understandings, passions, and morals of many of the citizens of the United States, constituted a form of insanity, which I shall take the liberty of distinguishing by the name of anarchia.

I hope no offence will be given by the freedom of any of these remarks. An inquirer after philosophical truth should consider the passions of men in the same light that he does the laws of matter or motion. The friends and enemies of the American revolution must have been more, or less, than meu, if they could have sustained the magnitude and rapidity of the events that characterised it, without discovering some marks of human weakness, both in body and mind. Perhaps these weaknesses were permitted, that human nature might receive fresh honours in America, by the contending parties (whe ther produced by the controversies about independence or the national government) mutually forgiving

* Insania partialis sine dyspepsia, of Doctor Cullen

each other, and uniting in plans of general order and happiness.

BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES OF ANTHONY BENEZET.

This excellent man was placed by his friends in early life in a counting-house, but finding commerce opened temptations to a worldly spirit, he left his master, and bound himself as an apprentice to a cooper. Finding this business too laborious for his constitution, he declined it, and devoted himself to school-keeping; in which useful employment he continued during the greatest part of his life.

He possessed uncommon activity and industry in every thing he undertook. He did every thing as if the words of his Saviour were perpetually sounding in his ears, "wist ye not, that I must be about my Father's business?"

He used to say, "the highest act of charity in the world was to bear with the unreasonableness of mankind."

He generally wore plush clothes, and gave as a reason for it, that after he had worn them for two or three years, they made comfortable and decent garments for the poor.

He once informed a young friend, that his memory began to fail him; "bat this," said he, "gives me one great advantage over thee-for thou canst find entertainment in reading a good book only once -but I enjoy that pleasure as often as I read it; for it is always new to me.'

He published several valuable tracts in favour of the emancipation of the blacks, and of the civilizing and christianizing the Indians. He also published a pamphlet against the use of ardent spirits. All these publications were circulated with great industry, and at his own expense, throughout every part of the United States.

He wrote letters to the queen of Grent-Britain, and to the queen of Portugal, to use their influence with their respective courts to abolish the African trade. He accompanied his letter to the queen of Great-Britain with a present of his works. The queen received them with great politeness, and said after reading them "that the author appeared to be a very good man.”

He also wrote a letter to the king of Prussia, in which he endeavoured to convince him of the unlawfulness of war.

During the time the British army was in possession of the city of Philadelphia, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to render the situation of the persons who suffered from captivity as easy as possible. He knew no fear in the presence of his fellow men, however dignified they were by titles or station, and such were the propriety and gentleness of his manners in his intercourse with the gentlemen who commanded the British and German troops, that when he could not obtain the objects of his requests, he never failed to secure their civilities, and frequently their esteem.

So great was his sympathy with every thing that was capable of feeling pain, that he resolved, towards the close of his life, to eat no animal food. Upon coming into his brother's house one day, when his family was dining upon poultry, he was asked by his brother's wife, to sit down and dine with them. "What! (said he) would you have me eat my neighbours?"

This misapplication of a moral feeling was supposed to have brought on such a debility in his stomach and bowels, as produced a disease in those parts of which he finally died.

Few men, since the days of the apostles, ever lived a more disinterested life. And yet, upon his death

bed, he said, he wished to live a little longer, that "he might bring down SELF."

The last time he ever walked across his room, was to take from his desk six dollars, which he gave to a poor widow whom he had long assisted to maintain.

He bequeathed after the death of his widow, a house and lot in which consisted his whole estate, to the support of a school for the education of negro children, which he had founded and taught for several years before his death.

He died in May, 1784, in the 71st year of his age. His funeral was attended by persons of all religious denominations, and by many hundred black people.

Colonel Jn, who had served in the American army during the late war, in returning from the funeral, pronounced an eulogium upon him. It consisted only of the following words: "I would rather," said he, "be Anthony Benezet in that coffin, than George Washington with all his fame." July 15, 1788.

BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTE OF BENJAMIN LAY.

There was a time when the name of this celebrated Christian philosopher was familiar to every man, woman, and to nearly every child, in Pennsylvania. His size, which was not much above four feet, his dress, which was always the same, consisting of light-coloured plain clothes, a white hat, and halfboots;-his milk-white beard, which hung upon his breast; and, above all, his peculiar principles and conduct, rendered him to many, an object of admiration, and to all, the subject of conversation.

He was born in England, and spent the early part of his life at sen. His first settlement was in Barbadoes, as a inerchant, where he was soon convinced of the iniquity of the slave trade. He bore an open testimony against it, in all companies, by which means he rendered himself so unpopular, that he left the island in disgust, and settled in the then province of Pennsylvania. He fixed his home at Abington, ten miles from Philadelphia, from whence he made frequent excursions to the city, and to different parts of the country.

At the time of his arrival in Pennsylvania, he found many of his brethren, the people called Quakers, had fallen so far from their original principles, as to keep negro slaves. He remonstrated with them, both publicly and privately, against the practice; but, frequently with so much indiscreet zeal, as to give great offence. He often disturbed their public meetings, by interrupting or opposing their preachers, for which he was once carried out of a meeting-house, by two or three friends. Upon this occasion he submitted with patience to what he considered a species of persecution. He lay down at the door of the meeting-house, in a shower of rain, till divine worship was ended; nor could he be prevailed upon to rise, till the whole congregation had stepped over him in their way to their respective homes.

To show his indignation against the practice of slave-keeping, he once carried a bladder filled with blood into a meeting; and, in the presence of the whole congregation, thrust a sword, which he had concealed under his coat, into the bladder, exclaiming, at the same time, "Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellowcreatures." The terror of this extravagant and unexpected act, produced swoonings in several of the women of the congregation.

He once went into the house of a friend in Philadelphia, and found him seated at breakfast, with his family around him. Being asked by him to sit down and breakfast with them, he said, "Dost thou keep

slaves in thy house?" Upon being answered in the affirmative, he said, "Then I will not partake with thee, of the fruits of thy unrighteousness."

He took great pains to convince a farmer and his wife, in Chester county, of the iniquity of keeping negro slaves, but to no purpose. They not only kept their slaves, but defended the practice. One day he went into their house, and after a short discourse with them upon the wickedness, and particularly the inhumanity of separating children from their parents, which was involved in the slave trade, he seized the only child of the family, (a little girl about three years old) and pretended to run away with her. The child cried bitterly, "I will be good -I will be good," and the parents showed signs of being alarmed. Upon observing this scene, Mr. Lay said, very emphatically, "You see and feel now a little of the distress you occasion every day, by the inhuman practice of slave-keeping."

This singular philosopher did not limit his pious testimony against vice, to slave-keeping alone. He was opposed to every species of extravagance. Upon the introduction of tea, as an article of diet, into Pennsylvania, his wife bought a small quantity of it, with a set of cups and saucers, and brought them home with her. Mr. Lay took them from her, brought them back again to the city, and from the balcony of the court-house scattered the tea, and broke the cups and saucers, in the presence of many hundred spectators, delivering, at the same time, a striking lecture upon the folly of preferring that foreign herb, with its expensive appurtenances, to the simple and wholesome diet of our country.

He possessed a good deal of wit, and was quick at repartee. A citizen of Philadelphia, who knew his peculiarities, once met him in a crowd, at a funeral, in Germantown. Being desirous of entering into a conversation with him that should divert the company, the citizen accosted him, with the most respectful ceremony, and declared himself to be "his most humble servant." Art thou my servant?" said Mr. Lay; "Yes, I am!" said the citizen. "Then,” said Mr. Lay, (holding up his foot towards him,) "clean this shoe." This unexpected reply turned the laugh upon the citizen. Being desirous of recovering himself in the opinion of the company, he asked him to instruct him in the way to heaven.

66 Dost thou

indeed wish to be taught?" said Mr. Lay. "I do!" said the citizen. "Then," said Mr. Lay," do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God."

He wrote a small treatise upon negro-slavery, which he brought to Dr. Franklin to be printed. Upon looking over it, the Doctor told him that it was not paged, and that there appeared to be no order or arrangement in it. "It is no matter," said Mr. Lay, "print any part thou pleasest first." This book contained many pious sentiments, and strong expressions against negro slavery; but even the address and skill of Dr. Franklin were not sufficient to connect its different parts together so as to render it an agreeable or useful work. This book is in the library of the city of Philadelphia.

Mr. Lay was extremely attentive to young people. He took great pleasure in visiting schools, where he often preached to the youth. He frequently carried a basket of religious books with him, and distributed them as prizes among the scholars.

He was fond of reading. In the print of him, which is to be seen in many houses in Philadelphia, he is represented with "Tryon on Happiness" in his hand, a book which he valued very much, and which he frequently carried with him in his excursions from home.

He was kind and charitable to the poor, but had no compassion for beggars. He used to say, "there

was no man or woman, who was able to go abroad to beg, that was not able to earn four pence a day, and this sum, he said, was enough to keep any person above want or dependence in this country."

He was a severe enemy to idleness, insomuch that when he could not employ himself out of doors, or when he was tired of reading, he used to spend his time in spinning. His common sitting-room was hung with skeins of thread, spun entirely by himself. All his clothes were of his own manufactory.

He was extremely temperate in his diet, living chiefly upon vegetables. Turnips boiled, and afterwards roasted, were his favourite dinner. His drink was pure water. From a desire of imitating our Saviour in every thing he once attempted to fast for forty days. This experiment, it is said, had nearly cost him his life. He was obliged to desist from it long before the forty days were expired; but the fasting, it was said, so much debilitated his body as to accelerate his death. He lived above eighty years, and died in his own house in Abington, about thirty years ago.

In reviewing the history of this extraordinary man, we cannot help absolving him of his weaknesses, when we contemplate his many active virtues. He was the pioneer of that war, which has since been carried on so successfully against the commerce and slavery of the negroes. Perhaps the turbulence and severity of his temper were necessary to rouse the torpor of the human mind, at the period in which he lived, to this interesting subject. The meekness and gentleness of Anthony Benezet, who completed what Mr. Lay began, would probably have been as insufficient for the work performed by Mr. Lay, as the humble piety of De Renty, or of Thomas A'Kempis, would have been to have accomplished the works of the zealous Luther, or the intrepid Knox, in the sixteenth century.

The success of Mr. Lay, in sowing the seeds of a principle which bids fair to produce a revolution in morals, commerce, and government, in the new and in the old world, should teach the benefactors of mankind not to despair, if they do not see the fruits of their benevolent propositions, or undertakings, during their lives. No one seed of truth or virtue ever perished. Wherever it may be sowed, or even scattered, it will preserve and carry with it the principle of life. Some of these seeds produce their fruits in a short time, but the most valuable of them, like the venerable oak, are centuries in growing; but they are unlike the pride of the forest, as well as all other vegetable productions, in being incapable of a decay. They exist and bloom for ever. February 10th, 1790.

COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY.

In the division of the Presbyterian Church, connected with the Whitefield revival or agitation, which occurred in America in 1741, the future education of the clergy became a matter of important consideration; and New Jersey belonging to the Synod of New York in the separation from the Synod of Philadelphia, it was determined to establish a seat of learning in the former state. The religious education of the new Church party had been more effectively than ostentatiously provided for at the school established by the Rev. William Tennent at Neshaminy, known as the Log College, which had sent forth from its humble doorway several eminent divines and preachers. The decline of this seminary with the age

Its history has been written by Dr. Archibald Alexander. William Tennent, Sen'r, was a native of Ireland and belonged