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Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee: thou hait appointed his bounds, which he cannot país."-Job, Ch. 14, V. 1, 2, and 5. "Behold thou haft made my days as a hand's breadth, and mine age as nothing before thee."-Pfalm 39, V. 5 "A thousand years, in thy fight, are but as yesterday when it has paffed."Pfalm 90.

All these things have paffed away like a fhadow, or as a poft which hafteth by."

And as a fhip which paffeth over the waves; when it has gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel on the water."

"Or like an arrow fhot at a mark; it parteth the air,which immediately cometh together, fo that a man cannot know where it went."-Wisdom of Solomon, Chap. 5, V. 9, 10, and 12.

Cicero (de Invent.), speaking of time, faith, "It is difficult to give its definition;" and St. Auttin, "I know what time is, if no man afks ine; but when I would explain, I know not what it is." St. Cyprian laments that the world decavs and grows old: in fact, however different the opinion of the fages and inspired writers, whom I have quoted, may be with respect to their definition of time, in this point they all virtually agree, that it is an effence ductile to the imagination; inafinuch as that a space of years may be as eafly conceived as a fpace of minutes, illufive to the grafp, flow to the ardency of hope or expectation, and fwift to the mind in which defpondency or dread predominates: that of all that have paffed, and all that are to come, the prefent moment is the only period which we can, with any propriety,

term our own.

The prefent moment is indeed an aw. ful one; it tandeth as a bridge betwixt two centuries, from which, like the buft of Janus, we, with a mental eye, look backward and forward upon the events that have paffed, and thofe yet in embrio; upon the generations which have, even in the fhort period of our existence, appeared upon the great theatre of the world; and upon thofe that have receded from our fight. We confider how they have fuftained their parts on this extenfive fcene; to what cause it was owing that myriads of them made their exit before they had half finished their courfe; and what effect their virtues or vices, their exertions or indolence, and those of their cotemporaries that still exist, may have

had upon the minds of the rifing generation; what influence their example will have upon posterity?

The Clofe of the Century, to a thinking mind, feems strongly to exhibit a type of the Clofe of Life. We have, through the few or many years that we have existed, suffered our faculties to be occupied in the pursuit of pleasure; or with equal, perhaps ftill ftronger avidity, fuffered them to be abforbed in the purfuit of riches: diffipation and avarice have, perhaps, taken their turns, like day and night. To intemperance, ambition, or intereft, we have, perhaps, devoted the choiceft of our hours, and confidered the one or the other of these predominating propenfities or paffions as the mafter-fpring of our actions: the goal to which our exertions have impelled or directed us. What has been the confequence? Such as might have been expected: we have, perhaps, after a life of ipeculation and toil, hope and difappointment, arrived at this awful period-this bourn which feparates two ages-as we fhall arrive at a period ftill more awful, without properly reflecting upon the past, yet ftill with dread and apprehenfion of the future: with all thofe paffions and propenfities, which have, through our erratic courfe, goaded us on, unrepreffed even by the failure, the fading of thofe evanefcent objects, thofe ignis fatuus's of the mind, which have led our reafon altray and shall (except we attend to the oblervations with which I shall conclude), on the eve of this century, lie down to reft from our labour with all our offences upon our heads, and rife the morning of the next, if God permits us to rife, with recruited fpirits, and an avidity as keen, to return to the chace of thofe delufive objects, which we have ever had in view, but fhall never have in poffeffion.

To recur to the beginning of this fpeculation, and endeavour, from ancient mythology and fcriptural truth, more trongly to enforce thofe moral and pious deductions which it is my with to incul

cate.

It is well known, that among the infinite variety of deities worshipped by the Egyptians, under the forms of different animals, or rather monsters, and which were perhaps venerated by them as types of fome my itery, as hieroglyphicalfymbols containing a meaning, leading through their medium up to the first great Caufe, to which meaning we have unfortunately loft the key, they had one termed Canouphis, whofe emblematical fignification has furvived the lape of

ages,

L

ACCOUNT OF LONDONDERRY.

(WITH A VIEW.

ONDONDERRY is one of the cleanest, beft-built, and most beautitully fituated of any town in Ireland, and, excepting Cork, as conveniently as any for commerce. It is feated on a gentle eminence, of an oval form, and almost a peninsula at the bottom, and in a narrow part of Lough or Lake Foyle, which furrounds, for a quarter of a mile broad, two thirds or more of the eminence, and might easily be brought entirely round the city. Through this Lough it communicates with the fea on the very North of Ireland.

The city of Derry is far from being what fome have called it, a place or even a city of modern erection, fince it has been a Bishop's See near fix hundred years. It was in the laft long rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, that the Lord Deputy Mountjoy faw the importance of making fettlements and garrisons on the fide of Lough Foyle, which was often, though without fuccefs, attempted, till it was at length effected by Sir Henry Dockra, at the very beginning of the feventeenth century, who built a fort at Culmore, and put an English garrifon into Derry. Upon the Earls of Tyronne and Tyrconnel breaking out into rebellion, and retiring into Spain, fome of their accomplices furprised Derry, A. D. 1606, of which Sir George Powlet was Governor, murdered him with all the garrifon, and committed many other cruel and deteftable actions. Upon the fuppreffing of this infurrection, upwards of half a million of acres, plantation meature, in fix contiguous counties, were forfeited to the Crown; and feveral projects were formed to enable King James the First to fettle them. Amongst others, near two hundred and ten thousand acres were granted to the city of London, and the great companies, in confequence of an agreement figned with the Crown, January 28, 1609, by which they undertook to plant thele lands, and to build and fortify Colerain and Derry. Thefe pre. parations fo alarmed the Irifh, that, to keep them in awe, and to put Ulfter immediately into a fafe condition, the hereditary order of Knighthood, called BARONETS, was devifed, who purchased their refpective patents by the payment of a large fum, to fupport troops, and to defray other expences incident to the

See Frontispiece.)

civilizing this part of Ireland. Hence thefe knights bear in their coats of arms, either in a canton or in an efcutcheon, the armorial enfign of the province of ULSTER, viz. argent, a hand finifter, coupied at the wrist, extended in pale gules.

The grant of this tract of country to the citizens of London, was quickly attended with fome difputes, on pretence that they had not fulfilled their agreement; but thefe being pacified, and the place found exceedingly commodious in point of fituation, being a peninfula, having a river or lake rather on three fides, and the fourth easily fortified, they began to build and ftrengthen it with much dili gence; and a new charter being fent over to the Corporation, and a gilt fword to the Mayor, in 1615, this city_affumed the name of LONDONDERRY. Dr. John Tanner was then Bifhop, and the first buried in the new Cathedral. In fucceeding times, as the value of their grant more clearly appeared, new complaints were raifed against the Managers for the city of London, and the Companies, which produced feveral royal commiffions of inquiry in it and the fucceeding reign, particularly one to Sir Thomas Philips, whofe report thereon is extant, (See Harris's Hibernica). At length,

on a fuit commenced in the Star Chamber, judgment was given, in 1636, against the Londoners, and their eftates there-upon fequestered. In 1637, Sir Thomas Fotherlay and Sir Ralph Whitfield were impowered by the Crown to let leases of thefe lands. In 1640, the Parliament by their refolutions declared all thefe proceedings illegal, null and void. The City, however, did not recover possession till 1655, and held it, as all property was then held, in a very precarious manner, But foon after the Restoration 1662, his Majefty King Charles the Second granted a new charter, under which this noble colony quickly began to raise its head again, and has ever fince most profper outly proceeded.

This fmall city is neat and beautiful, built for the moft part of free ftone, with a large church, fpacious market place, and a beautiful tone quay, to which come up veffels of confiderable burthen. It is famous for having refifted the collected ftrength of the Irish in

the

the year 1649, when the whole kingdom was in their hands, this city and Dublin only excepted, and both befieged; as well as for the noble defence it made at the Revolution, for one hundred and five days, under the fevereft famine, against a numerous army. It is in all respects wonderfully well feated in re gard to the adjacent counties, for com. manding an inland trade, which has increafed amazingly fince the establishment throughout the County, now one of the moft flourishing and populous in Ireland, of the Linen Manufactory. It

alfo enjoys a moft advantageous fishery, and ftands exceedingly well for carrying on a very extenfive foreign commerce with New England and the northern provinces of America, and, when it receives the advantages to be derived from an Union with Great Britain, will become wealthy, civilized, and happy, under the protection of a firm and benevolent Government, capable of affifting the wants and directing the induftry and refources of the Country into their destined channels.

IN PRAISE OF GARRETS.

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with Garrets for healthfulness: here the air is clearer and fresher, more fubject to winds, and of courfe lefs liable to any offenfive vapours than below. As Health is the best friend to Study, let all hard Students hither afcend: here, free from noife and hurry, they may enjoy their fouls, either making their court to the Mules, who love that their Admirers fhould approach them alone and in filence; or peruling the labours of the Learned, to which thought and retirement are abfolutely neceflary. When men began to grow numerous in cities, when trade thereby increased and noife of course, wife men always chofe to get out of the way into Garrets. There have the greateft Authors lived, there refigned their breath. There lived the ingenious Galileo, when he firit tried his philofophical Glaffes. By being in Garrets much converfant, Boyle and Newton happily formed and fuccefsfully perfected the modern Philofophy. There, and there only, could they use their Telescopes to advantage.

The World can never make a fufficient acknowledgment to Garrets, for the many valuable Hiftorians they have produced. Such was the inftructing Robinson Crufoe, equally esteemed for his truth and morals. Such were the learned Authors of Tom Thumb, of Thomas Hickathrift, of Jack the Giant-killer, &c. There dwelt the famous Politicians, infallible Projectors, and fagacious Underftrappers of the State. Naturally do men look up thither to find the Authors of thofe vaftly

weekly amuse and divert Curious and the Idle: and indeed where elfe fhould they look for them but in Garrets ? which are the livelieft emblems of Parnaffus, being high and difficult of access, and abounding with learned men. For fince that comical devil, Fortune, refolved to make all Poets and Wits poor; to their great happiness they have been banished by the confent of all men into Garrets ; for there they pay the leaft rent, and there they are delivered from their mortal enemy, the Dun, whose aspect, threatening justice, there they cease to fear.

The Roman Satyrift tells us, that Gar. rets were in great repute among his countrymen all the time of the Commonwealth. But when pride and luxury and the contempt of the Gods came in with the Emperors, then the Grandees left their Garrets, and let them out to the poor people; intimating hereby to us, that it was natural for them to leave their Garrets, when they became proud, luxurious, and irreligious.

As to our Society, I believe it is owing to our good affection to Garrets, that fo many of us have fhone in the world, fome in the learned, fome in the religious. Without a man raises his body above his fellow-creatures, it seldom happens that he can raife his mind. Lofty Garrets give us fublime thoughts; for this reafon the Grubean Sages have exalted their Society in point of fame above all Societies, which will endure while we have the wife dom to live in Garrets, which will be as long as we are a Society.

THE

A

THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.

BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ

(Written in December 1799.)

Quod faturatur Anais.

MONG the many ancient mythological fables that have defcended to us, there is none that, at the prefent period, is calculated to take a stronger hold, or to ftamp a more lasting impreffion upon the human mind: there is none that is more interefting to our feelings than that folemn idea, fraught with moral inftruction, which their Sages meant to convey under the allegorical reprefentatation of Kore-Chronos; or, as we term him, Time devouring his Children. The Poet (for this idea is certainly poetical) intended, by this sublime fiction, ingeniously and elegantly to difplay the great Father of Ages feeding upon the elapfing centuries, which he confidered as his offspring; and, although he fwallowed them in fucceffion, till continuing, with an appetite ungratified, voraciously to devour them as they arrived at maturity. The ancient fculptors have borrowed and embodied the fame mental image, in order the more forcibly to convey to their unlettered countrymen a moral leflon in the statues which they formed upon it.

This idea was by the Grecians derived from the Egyptians, who, as will hereafter be fhewn, had deified the fubject; and who were, among the heathens, the first obfervers of the progrefs of time, which, although not very accurately, they deduced from the courfe of the Sun, the revolutions of the Planets, whofe inAuence they confidered as pervading while they environed the world, and difpenfing light, heat, motion, and nutriment to all exittence.

To folemnize, and stamp this useful impreffion upon the public mind, the Romans clothed the fymbol of it with the form of Janus, whom they reprefented with two faces, the one retrofpectively, and the other prospectively, viewing the paft and future, glancing from year to year, from century to century, and with steady eyes pervading the events of ages and nations; the confequences that had refulted, or might be expected from them; the good and evil actions of mankind, their probable influence upon particular individuals or fociety in general. VOL. XXXVII. JAN. 1800.

}

To enter into a difquifition of the ori ginal nature and computation of time, the latter of which is known to have been different in every nation of antiquity, would here be equally abftrufe and ufe lefs. In the Mofaical account of the Creation, its priftine formation is ftrongly and fufficiently marked. The day, the week, are there distinguished; from which ample fources, a steady current has flowed through months, years, ages, centuries, epochs, and milleniums, down to the prefent moment.

But although it is unneceffary to pur fue the fubject through the divifions, fubdivifions, branches, and ramifications of time, it will, for the moral purpose of this work, be proper to state the opinion of the ancient fages and philofophers refpecting its fymbolical or real property, as, from their opinions, contrasted with thofe far more juft and beautiful allufions which the holy fcriptures fupply, ideas may arife, and deductions will follow, useful at all feasons, but particularly fo at this awful and eventful period.

Pythagoras, in his definition of time, is far more extenfive than intelligible. He faith, "that it is the sphere of the utmost heavens," Plato, "that it is the moveable image of eternity." Arif totle, lefs fublime, but not more clear in his idea, "that it hath no existence but in the understanding." The Romans always facrificed to Saturn bare beaded, because, they faid that time was the fa ther of truth; but in thefe definitions of, and allufions to, the nature and properties of time, the facred writers have, as has been obferved, foared as far beyond the heathen philosophers, as they have in every other difquifition and ohfervation that has been brought into comparifon with them; and, as the following beautiful paffages exemplify, turned their enquiries to the subject, in a manner peculiar to themselves, to the purposes of religious and moral-inftruction:

"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble: he cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down he Aleeth alto as a fhadow, and continueth not.

C

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"Seeing

"Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee: thou halt appointed his bounds, which he cannot país."-Job, Ch. 14, V. 1, 2, and 5. "Behold thou hal made my days as a hand's breadth, and mine age as nothing before thee."-Pfalm 39, V. 5. "A theufand years, in thy fight, are but as yesterday when it has paffed." Pfalm 90.

All these things have paffed away like a fhadow, or as a poft which hafteth by."

"And as a fhip which paffeth over the waves; when it has gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel on the water.'

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Or like an arrow fhot at a mark; it parteth the air,which immediately cometh together, fo that a man cannot know where it went."-Widom of Solomon, Chap. 5, V. 9, 10, and 12.

Cicero (de Invent.), speaking of time, faith, "It is difficult to give its definition;" and St. Auttin, I know what time is, if no man afks ine; but when I would explain, I know not what it is." St. Cyprian laments that the world decavs and grows old: in fact, however different the opinion of the fages and infpired writers, whom I have quoted, may be with refpect to their definition of time, in this point they all virtually agree, that it is an effence ductile to the imagination; inafinuch as that a space of years may be as eafily conceived as a fpace of minutes, illufive to the grafp, flow to the ardency of hope or expectation, and fwift to the mind in which defpondency or dread predominates: that of all that have paffed, and all that are to come, the prefent moment is the only period which we can, with any propriety,

term our own.

The prefent moment is indeed an aw ful one; it tandeth as a bridge betwixt two centuries, from which, like the buft of Janus, we, with a mental eye, look backward and forward upon the events that have paffed, and those yet in embrio; upon the generations which have, even in the fhort period of our exiftence, appeared upon the great theatre of the world; and upon thofe that have receded from our fight. We confider how they have fuftained their parts on this extenfive icene; to what caufe it was owing that myriads of them made their exit before they had half finished their courfe; and what effect their virtues or vices, their exertions or indolence, and thofe of their temporaries that ftill exist, may have

had upon the minds of the rifing generation; what influence their example will have upon pofterity?

The Clofe of the Century, to a think ing mind, feems strongly to exhibit a type of the Clofe of Life. We have, through the few or many years that we have exifted, fuffered our faculties to be occupied in the purfuit of pleasure; or with equal, perhaps ftill ftronger avidity, fuffered them to be abforbed in the purfuit of riches: diffipation and avarice have, perhaps, taken their turns, like day and night. To intemperance, ambition, or intereft, we have, perhaps, devoted the choiceft of our hours, and con. fidered the one or the other of thefe predominating propenfities or paffions as the mafter-fpring of our actions: the goal to which our exertions have impelled or directed us. What has been the confequence? Such as might have been expected: we have, perhaps, after a life of ipeculation and toil, hope and difappointment, arrived at this awful period-this bourn which separates two ages-as we fhall arrive at a period still more awful, without properly reflecting upon the past, yet ftill with dread and apprehenfion of the future: with all thoie paffions and propenfities, which have, through our erratic courfe, goaded us on, unrepreffed even by the failure, the fading of thofe evanefcent objects, thofe ignis fatuus's of the mind, which have led our reafon altray and shall (except we attend to the oblervations with which I fhall conclude), on the eve of this century, lie down to reft from our labour with all our offences upon our heads, and rife the morning of the next, if God permits us to rife, with recruited fpirits, and an avidity as keen, to return to the chace of thofe delufive objects, which we have ever had in view, but thall never have in poffeffion.

:

To recur to the beginning of this fpeculation, and endeavour, from ancient mythology and fcriptural truth, more ftrongly to enforce thofe moral and pious deductions which it is my with to incul

cate.

It is well known, that among the infinite variety of deities worthipped by the Egyptians, under the forms of different animals, or rather monsters, and which were perhaps venerated by them as types of fome mystery, as hieroglyphicalfymbols containing a meaning, leading through their medium up to the firft great Caufe, to which meaning we have unfortunately loft the key, they had one termed Canouphis, whofe emblematical fignification has furvived the lapte of

ages,

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