expedition to Scotland, he took fright, and refused to go on board; and his attendants, thinking the matter gone too far, and that they would be affronted for his cowardice, carried him in the nighttime into the fhip, pieds et mains liés. I afked him, if he meant literally. Yes, faid he, literally they tied him, and carried him by main force. What think you now of this hero and conqueror? Both Lord Marechal and Helvetius agree, that with all this ftrange character, he was no bigot, but rather had learned from the philofophers at Paris to affect a contempt of all religion. You must know that both these perfons thought they were afcribing to him an excellent quality. Indeed both of them ufed to laugh at me for my narrow way of thinking in thofe particulars. However, my dear Sir John, I hope you will do me the juftice to acquit me. I doubt not but thefe circumftances will appear curious to Lord Hardwicke, to whom you will pleafe to prefent my refpects. 1 furpofe his Lordship will think this unaccountable mixture of temerity and timidity in the fame characer not a little fingular. I am yours very fincerely, Mr. URBAN, DAVID HUME. Norwich, May 1. IN a a conversation among fome perfons who are fond of philofophical disquifitions, it was debated, Whether man, unaffifted and uninformed by the fociety of his own fpecies, would arrive at a higher degree of understanding than the brutes? The Works of Lord Monboddo (whose investigations of this fubject are very ingenious, although not always confiftent,) were quoted, in order to decide the question in the negative. This gave rite to a more close examination of his fentiments upon the fubject, and likewife led to a comparifon between what he advances upon it, in his "Origin of Language" and "Ancient Metaphyfics." In his "Origin of Language," vol. I. p. 147, he appeals to the judgement of his readers, whether, fo immersed as the mind is in matter, without the affiftance of language, or thofe reciprocal aids which, in retined fociety, we borrow from each other, there be any difference between us and other animals. He maintains, that, from the force of their memory and perceptions, they have, like our felves, a notion of famenets, 'likenefs, and diversity, in the objects of fenfe; and they recognife the fpecies in the individual as our children do." All which indicates," he fays, "that there is no natural difference betwixt our minds and theirs; and that the fuperio rity we have over them is adventitious, and from acquired habit." His Lordfhip here feems to infinuate an equality between them and us; and that our prefent fuperiority over them is as much the effect of chance as any thing else. If this be his meaning, I must widely differ from him. I cannot fuppofe that the capacity of any animal is equal to our own. Much greater changes and improvements must have taken place to warrant the truth of fuch an assertion. Every animal under our notice feems to have arrived at the fummit of that perfection which was the original defign of Nature; but man, if in a totally uncultivated ftate, is extremely imperfect, and feems to rife in the fcale of excellence proportionably with the degree of inftruction beftowed upon him. Witnefs the difparity between any two men of equal capacities; one of whom enjoys all the advantages of a liberal education, the other has few opportunities of enlarging and improving his ideas. Then let us obferve the ftate of a clown, who, from his infancy, has been totally confined to labour: from fuch an one defcend to the lowest scale of intellectual deficiency, to thofe beings of our own fpecies (feveral of whom Hiftory mentions) who have been deprived from their infancy of all intercourse with human kind. They are always fpoken of as incapable of flying to thofe resources which Nature, more kind to other animals, has inftinctively pointed out to them for their immediate good and prefervation. The various characters and appearances which men affume from the different examples fet before them, afford the ftrongest proof what mere children of education we are;how difficult, fometimes, it is for us, from the imitative quality fo peculiar to our nature, to be divefted of the most abfurd prejudices; and, without the guidance of Example and Precept, even to difcover the exercise of the mental faculties. Not to mention the difficulty of bringing to maturity the latent feeds of Genius in individuals, there is frequently the greateft application and a fortunate train of fingular events neceflary, in or der to produce a complete display of them. Hence our fuperiority to other animals appears to rife in proportion t the the degree of care and pains taken to obtain it. How then is this fuperiority, that appears to have arifen from exterior helps and fuccours, confiftent with his Lordship's very high ideas of Scripture? In the one cafe he confiders man as having had immediate communication with the Deity, who converted with him by word of mouth, and gave to every animal and every plant its particular name: in the other cafe he views man as a favage, living for ages like other animals; acquiring improve ments by the floweft fteps; first having recourfe to motions and founds, by way of vehicles of thought; then proceed ing to articulation and language. How then is this adventitious fuperiority of ours, which he treats of in his "Origin of Language," confiftent with his fentiments in his "Ancient Metaphyfics," in which he maintains, that if man had been intended for no other purpofe than the brutes were, that degree of intellect, which is peculiar to them, would have been fufficient for him? But he adds, Man, by Nature, was deftined for a nobier purpose." This apparent con tradiction of terms must arife from his Lordship viewing the matter in a different light, when he wrote his "Ancient Metaphyfics," to what he did when he wrote his "Origin of Language;" for our fuperiority could not have been adventitious if there muft be, as he fays, in his opinion (Anc. Metaphyf. vol. I. p. 133), a difference specific, and not in degree only, between our minds and thofe of other animals. Our author's contradictory affertions appear to me to have arifen from his not having laid fufficient ftrefs, during the courfe of his two treatifes, on the meaning of the word Capability; a term of fuch importance, and fo expreffive of the highest part of our nature, that it is far above the reach of Imagination to conceive the distance to which it may carry our future difcoveries. Perhaps even at prefent, knowledge is in its infancy; and why should we not infer, from a review of improvements that have already taken place, an accumulation of them tranfcendently higher in future? With refpect, therefore, to the nature of man, our own experience, the ftate of whole tribes of men, for many generations, compared with other ani mals before civilization was introduced, the actual progrefs we are now making in arts and friences, wherein our anceftors, perhaps, thought themfeives qually expert-all, or any fuch ex MR. TWISS hath omitted, in his Farrago Libelli upon Chefs, the following paffage in the Opus Arithmeticum of Dr. Wallis: "One Seffa, an Indian, having firft found out the game at Cheffe, and thewed it to his prince Shehram; the king, who was highly pleafed with it, bid him ask what he would for the reward of his invention; whereupon he asked, that, for the first little fquare of the chefs-board he might have one grain of wheat given him; fer the fecond, 2; and fo on, doubling continually according to the number of fquares in the chefs-board, which was 64. And when the king, who intended to give a noble reward, was much dif pleafed that he had asked so trifling a one, Seffa declared that he would be contented with this fmall one. So this reward he had fixed upon was ordered to be given him: but the king was quickly aftonished, when he found that this would rife to fo vaft a quantity, that the whole earth itself could not furnish out fo much wheat." Mr. T. hath alfo omitted a curious ftory of the confequences of a game at chefs between a Fitzwarin and King John, at Whittington caftle, in Shropthre, related in Leland's Collectanea; which, for the peculiar quaintnefs and narvete with which it is told, well deferves to be tranfcribed into your Magazine; but I have not the book at hand. Pafchius relates (which I do not find in Mr. Twifs's compilation) that Louis IX. of France, and our James 1. prohi bited the ufe of this game because it fatigues the mind. De Nov-antiquis, p. 760. The fame author gives us the following veifes, which defcribe neatly enough the manner of placing the pieces at this game, and are not to be met with in the publication alluded to: in medio Rex eft, prope quem Regina lo catur; His Jaculator opem præftat utrinque fuam: Hinc Hinc auratus Eques fequitur, poft Turriger alas Occupat, et Miles cuique ftat ante pedes. The ftory of Al Amin, p. 24, may be paralleled by one told by Seneca, de Tranquil. Animi, cap. 14, of one Canius Julius, who, being fummoned to execution, defired the centurion to bear witness that he had one man more upon the board than his adverfary. I doubt, however, whether the ludus latrunculo rum was the fame with our chefs; for the author of the Carmen in Pifonem feems rather to fpeak of fomething like drafts, as he does not take notice of any variation between the moves of the feveral pieces. of those things which are done of them in fecret.' But if fo; if it be an evil thing to let corrupt communication proceed out of the mouth; what fhall be faid to palliate the diffufing of it in characters that may last long after the pablishers may be gone to receive the recompence for dress done in the body? And be it remembered, if we are found tranfgref fors at the bar of Divine Juftice, it will be of plained to us here. laws which have been fully known and exAnd all the paltry gains of these things be put in the balance with the folid comforts that will arife to fuch as at the clofe of life have this reflection, that, Not one immoral, one corrupted thought, One word, which dying they might wish to blot, have they published, to ftand forth as a bandwriting upon the wall against them. "Accept this memento (as it is offered) in good-will, from a heart interefed in the caufe of virtue. AMICUS," The following paffage from Thucy dides, I. 28, may, with great propriety, be fubjoined to the excellent paper of Dr. Franklin's, re printed in vol. LVII. P. 590 : Αει προς εν βολευομένοις τῆς 1ναντίες παρασκευαζεσθαι δεί, και ουκ εξ εκεινων ως αμαρτησομένων έχειν τας ελπίδας, ΑΦΟonfcndour Perspiven to which is not unlike that of Cicero de Off. I. 23:"Ingenii magni eft præcipere cogitatione futura, et aliquanto ante conftituere quid accidere pollit in utramque partem; et quid agendum fit cum quid evenerit, nec committere, ut aliquando dicendum fit non putaram." Mr. URBAN, Hampshire, Jan. 2. ΤΗ HE following letter having been lately fent to the editor of one of the London news-papers; it is tranfcribed for the Gentleman's Magazine, in hopes it may be the more extensively useful. A CONSTANT CUSTOMER. "IT is not without furprize, and with real forrow, that I lately obferved in the - an advertisement, of what I have no doubt is a licentious and obfcene publica tion. I never faw it: but the intimations thrown out by the advertisements were, I fuppofe, thought fufficient to attract the eye of lewdness, and awaken the curiofity of youth. It is indeed furprifing and forrowful, that, in an age profeting the fublime revelation of the Gospel, we should thus openly fpread corruption and indecency, when the virtue of the Greek and Roman ftates would probably have prohibited and abhorred it. What care did they take (in the purer ages of thofe ftates) to prevent their youth from being corrupted and enervated by vice! And fhall this be our condemnation, that the greater tight of divine purity is unveiled to us, but that men yet chufe a darkness worse than heathen, vainly hoping to cover themselves from the confequences of fuch perversion? "Hear the decency of language which Christianity inspired upon obfcene and deteftable fubjects: It is a fhame even to speak · Mr. URBAN, April 14 CCORDING to the of much confequence to the emblematical This gentleman's diflike does not proftained glafs defcribed vol. LVII. 849. ceed, I hope, from the application; at which no fincere, friend to our national interefts would be difpleafed. It was never brought forward as an objeĉ of great merit or confequence; the princi. Pal motive is fufficiently pointed out at the beginning of the introduction. He feems to poffefs a partial knowledge in and many fubjects of the kind may puf the fpeculative line of coloured glass; fibly have paffed through his hands by the intervention of his friend Sam Pa terfon. As an admirer of the art, it would be efteemed a favour if P. Q would inform me if Mr. P. be still liv ing, and where. His trade, it may be prefumed, did not advance his fortune; which is no wonder, for many fuch collectors of curiofities are to be met with on the Continent, whofe expectations have been disppointed. Now as P. Q. has brought on the fubje&t, it is natural to imagine him a connoiffeur, of which he has given a degree of proof, in faying that the piece in queftion is the work of a Flemith artist. It is very true; and I fhall freely own that it was purchased by me in Flanders, where I procured many others of the fort, which are now in my poffeffion. What could be collected at home were, in general, imper That this ingenious and worthy, though unfortunate, man is living, our correfpondent will be glad to hear. See p. 338. EDIT. fect, fect, or ill defigned; and therefore the Mr. URBAN, May 4. Mr. URBAN, The Welt end of the ifland of Jerfey; May 2. T. Ouen's (not St. Owen's) Bay is at and that ifland, being open to the mouth of the British channel, is expofed to the violence of the Wefterly winds, and rage of the fea, quite uninterrupted by any other land than the great continent of America. That end of the island is now, however, bounded by a high and fteep bluff, or cliff; but, I apprehend, it was not always in that ftate, but that the fea has made large incroachments thereon, and confequently devoured many acres of lower land, and swallow ed up the trees now to be found in the ocean, and for many yards under the I BELIEVE I may venture to inform fandy defert you mention; for there is your correfpondent B--s-Cl. that Bradshaw's remains were not buried in Wigan church. The Bradfhaugl. family, late in that neighbourhood, once fpelt their name Bradfhaw; but I have always heard them mentioned as a loyal family; and I do not believe any of them would have eftçemed it an honour to have claimed relationship to the Lord Prefident. I should imagine the stairs leading to their gallery were originally as at prefent. Under them, in the family chançel, lie the remains of Sir William Bradshaw, knt. and Mabel his wife, of remarkable memory, with a monument erected to them. Any of your readers, by referring to the Baronetage, will learn fomething of the penance of Mabel, and the romantic (though true) occurrences that occafioned it. There have been variety of accounts relative to the burial-place of the Lord Prefident, which, however, is certainly not in Wigan church. Mr. URBAN, BENEDICT. Margate, May. in Windmill ftreet, is faid to have oc. cafioned much fpeculation." Now, Sir, any of your medical readers may find, in Bonetus's Practical Anatomy, book IV. fect. xi. obf. 7, a full and an accurate defcription (from Cattierus, obf. 17) of the diffe&tion of an affaflin, executed for murder in the year 1630, whofe vifcera were all reverfed, the apex of the heart pointing to the right, and its bafis to the left fide of the thorax, and the liver occupying, in the abdomen, the place of the ftomach and Spleen, &c. ROB. ED. HUNTER. not only the finest foil in the island, but many houfes, as well as trees, are bu ried under that defert fand, the chimnies of fome of which I have feen. No wonder, therefore, that large trees have been found lying where they originally grew, as mentioned in your News of last month. Why thofe winds, which cover this fertile, and once most beautiful, part of the island, with fand in these latter ages, efcaped fo many preceding ones, must be explained by wifer heads than mine; but it is probable the land's end of England extended farther than it does at prefent, or that the islands of Scilly were, in former days, one fingle ifland of much greater magnitude, and confequently protected the Jerfey island from thofe ravages and devaftations it is now feen under. In a ftrong Wefterly wind at this day, high as the cliff is difperfed over the adjacent country, now is, though much of the loose fand yet more is fupplied even from the mar gin of the fea. Nor is it poffible to stand upon that defcent and face a florm, the drift of the fands is fo cutting and fefurface of the fands, as to expofe fome vere, and, confequently, fo changes the times the chimnies of houses, which are covered at others. The island of Jersey would afford an Antiquary much matter of attention; there are, I believe, feveral Druidical monuments † to be explored there. Yours,' &c. Mr. URBAN, THE Epifcopalians of Scotland had, May 3. of their armoury, offenfive and defenI hoped, configned the whole charge Perhaps the islands of Scilly have been cut off from the main land. + See vol. LVII. p. 700. EDIT. ous Revolution, it would be wholly fu perfluous for me to enter on its defence againft fo fhameless a calumniator. On the allegation, that the Epifcopalians of Scotland are favourable to kingly power, I beg leave to obferve, that, however partial they may have been to the arbitrary proceedings of the Stuart line, no man, who reafons from facts to confequences, will admit that the limit five, to their apologift, Mr. Gleig: the bolts he fulminated against the Eftablishment of his country, firft in your Mifcellany, and afterwards in a pamphlet of no less than one hundred and threefcore pages, infcribed to the English Bench of Bifbops, might furely have fufficed; but, in troth, no fuch thing: a writer, whom it would be uncandid in me to fuppofe initiated into the high Catholic fchool of your correfpondent Mr. Beed monarchy established in thefe realms, rington, as he comes forward without even the femblance of a fignature, now enters the lifts, and combats valiantly, not merely for that gewgaw, a mitre, but for thofe more folid objects of a Churchman's idolatry," the lands of the Crown." After the indulgence you have given to my former ftrictures on this fpecies of Diffenters, whofe bold, and at the fame time futile, pretenfions cannot be read by any orthodox member of the religion of Great Britain, as by law established, without the utmost difguft, I will not fuffer the letter in p. 319-321 of your laft Magazine to pafs unnoticed. The writer begins with fpeaking of the Scotifh Epifcopalians as having been under a ftate of compulfion, in 1688, to give up their Religion together with their King, The remainder of his letter is, in great measure, filled with compliments to them on having retained the former, but reprefents them as ready to abandon the latter, provided Govern ment will make it worth their while. Thefe gentlemen have, by their own account, been one hundred years in prevailing on themselves to take the Oaths of Allegiance; they do not yet take them, but give us to understand, in the broadest terms, that, when they do, they fhall require to be made equal, if not fuperior, to the Prefbyterian eftablifhment, who have borne the heat and burthen of the day, approving their loyalty to the illuftrious Naflau, and his fucceffers. Had the labourers in Scripture, who came in at the eleventh hour of the day, clamourously demanded, from the Lord of the vineyard, the wages due to thofe who obeyed his fun mons at the firft hour, it is highly probable they would have received from him a fevere reprimand instead of a gratuity. As to the character of King William, the great deliverer of thele realms from popery and defpotifm, I trust that, at a time when this united ifland is preparing to celebrate the jubilee of the glori 5 or the interests of the House of Brunf wick, can gain any additional ftability by purchafing the leaders of that fe&t at the high terms on which they are thus exposing themfe.ves to public fate. If a grateful fenfe of the benefits which have been continued down to them from the period of King James's daftardly abdication, be included by any rational Divine in his Chapter of Accidents, then will I allow it to be afferted, that the Prefbyterians of Scotland, whofe minifters are in the fame breath acknowledg ed to be men of learning and fober man ners, are loyal by accident only. But if it appears that they have, as a body, flood faithful to their King and Conftitution, both in 1715 and 1745, the fuppofition, that if they had not had an eftablishment to fecure, they would have raifed "not two, but two and twenty rebellions," has no fpecies of induction to fupport it, but ftands amply confuted by the behaviour of the English Prefbyterians, who remained loyal in thofe evil times, though labouring under various and heavy difabilities. The diftinction stated between the Nonjuring Epifcopalians and thofe called Qualified Clergy makes greatly in favour of the Jatter: ordained by English Bishops, and not by a fet of men whofe very pretenfions to that rank, equally unfubftantiated by the Law or the Gospel, are a grofs infult on the understandings of mankind, they are only in the neceffary fituation of all diffenters from national ettablishments, dependent principally on the approbation of their auditors. Nor is there any thing in this circumftance which need fo much to gall the high spirit of your correfpondent; you, Mr. Urban, could have informed him that, in moft great towns of England, efpecially in the cities of London and Westminster, there are many valuable benefices, occupied by gentlemen of the Eliablished Church, which derive their chief, if not their whole, fupport from voluntary fubfcriptions. Thefe alone, unaccompanied by grants "of crown or wafle lands," have frequently |