it allows to affirmed and rational appearances; and it applies hope to its own and others benefit, by indulging an expectation, that all that is amifs, will mend; and ills produce good confequences. The common notion of this virtue centers in a contracted beneficence toward the fupport of the poor and needy, and that too, for the moft part, when the bestower has no longer the power of enjoying what he parts with whereas charity, in its nobleft fenfe, requires a return of good offices to the very malice that oppreffes us; for it teaches us, not only to act well, but also to think generously it banishes from the human foul all its forcid affections, all partiality to our own interefts, all attachment to our own opinions, all jealoufies and low fufpicions concerning the defigns, words and actions of those we hear of, or converfe with it is, in fhort, the great refiner and ennobler of the mind: it fwells the heart with pity, friendship, juftice, pardon, opennefs, and magnanimity; and ftifles the inward ftrugglings of felf-preference,revenge,diftruft, pride, avarice, and ignorance. Tho' it is certain, that the influence of charity, even in a fenfe the moft limited, is fweet. and amiable, how wretched would many thousands be, through want of the most common E comforts, if oftentation did not borrow the white robe of charity to difguife her pride of hearts in the appearance of humility; and if the mifer, on the brink of life, did not fill his trembling hands with benefits that blefs the deftitute as effectually as if his will, and not his penitence, had urged him to bestow them! How many want the pity which even an hofpital can give them ?How many return hungry, cold,weary, difappointed and defpairing, to their famished and unfriended children?-What double death would it be to an unhoping, wanting husband, to fee the breaft of a loved wife dried up with killing want; and a dying infant held, in vain, to her infenfible, exhaufted bofom?— It has been remarked, I hope unjuftly, that the charity of women is much narrower than that of men. If this be true, it is an accident owing to fome error in their education; for nature meant it otherwife, and foftened their tender minds to fit them. for impreffions of a mild and pitying quality. In all the fculptures and fine paintings of antiquity, we fee charity reprefented as a fmiling woman, to fhew it is the fex's virtue ; and that sweetness, grace, and bounty, fhould adorn a lady's loveliness. October 12, 1792. For the NEW-YORK MAGAZINE. The CHARACTER of DR. HENRY STUBER. Mr. Stuber was a liberal contributor. The perufal of this hiftory of a young • This communication was intended for the September magazine. young man, who had made fuch rapid advances in literature at fo early a period of his life, and who promised fo fairly to attain a diftinguished eminence in fociety, may infpire others of his age, who are engaged in fimilar purfuits, with a generous emulation. They may, from his example, imbibe a more fervent ardor to profecute their studies with early application: While his untimely death may ferve as a useful admonition to others, not to fuffer their attention to fcience to make too great encroachments on the portion of leifure and amufement which is requifite for the prefervation of their health. To young men in general, but parfieularly to those who have any preienfions to confider themselves as enlightened and well informed, the fate of Dr. Stuber may not be an unaf fecting memento of the uncertainty of life. Like them, he was once furrounded by all the gaities and allurements of juvenile years-like them, his heart beat high in the profpect of honour and of happiness. But arrested in his career by the powerful hand of death, his enchanting fabric of profperity is levelled with the duft, and all the fchemes which his wifdom and virtue had planned for the benefit of mankind and for his own, have vanished away, and "like the baseless fabric of a vifion, left not a wreck behind." "DR. HENRY STUBER was born in this city, of German parents. He was fent at an early age to the University, where his genius, diligence, and amiable temper, foon acquired him the particular notice of thofe, under whofe immediate direction he was placed. After paffing through the common courfe of ftudy, in a much shorter time than ufual, he left the Univerfity at the age of 16 with great reputation. He foon after entered on the study of phyfic; and the zeal with which he pursued it, and the advances he made, gave his friends reafon to form the mot flattering profpects of his future eminence and ufefulness in the profeffion. Thefe well founded expectations of his fuccefs in this purfuit were difappointed, by a refolution which be formed to abandon it. He was led to this ftep, from confidering the difficulty and uncertainty which attend a young man's speedily rifing, in this profeffion, to any confiderable degree of notice and regard, for which he must be indebted, more perhaps than in any other, to the influence of ac cident, or the pumber and intereft of his connections. The bufines of this profeffion being in a great degree domeftic, and removed from public notice, a young man has no immediate opportunity of engaging general attention, and forcing his way into the opinion and esteem of the world. He is condemned to pafs through a long state of probation, and can only arrive at any confiderable degree of eminence, as his repa tation, by long experience, becomes confirmed, and as thofe who occupy the heights of the profeffion, from which it is almost impossible to diflodge them, gradually retire from their pofts. As Dr.Stuber's circumftances were very moderate, he did not think this purfuit well calculated to answer them. He therefore relinquished it, after he had obtained a degree in the profeffion, and qualified himself ta practife with credit and fuccefs; and immediately entered on the study of the law. This he cultivated in the intervals of leifure, from an attendance on one of the public offices of the United States; a place which had been procured, in order to fatisfy the more immediate exigencies of his fituation, by the recommendation of fome respectable characters, whole constant patronage and friendship were were highly advantageous to him, at the fame time that they afforded the highest evidences of his merit. In the purfuit of the laft mentioned object, he was maturely arrefted, before he had an opportunity of reaping the fruit of thofe talents with which nature had endowed him, and of a youth spent in the ardent and fuccefsful purfuit of ufeful and elegant literature. Few men, at fo early an age, have acquired fuch an extent and variety of learning, or difplayed fo much ftrength and maturity of judgment. He was acquainted with the outlines and leading principles of almoft every science. Medicine is, perhaps, one of the moft general and univerfal of the whole circle of sciences, and embraces, in all its different branches, the greatest number of objects, and the moft extenfive variety of learning. The cultivation of this fcience had introduced him to an acquaintance with all thofe that border upon, or are connected with it. But, befides this, he had turned his attention to many branches of knowledge, which are not fo immediately dependent on this profeffion. The most important and interefting periods of history were familiar to him. The cultivation of the fcience of politics and government, together with a natural freedom and elevation of mind, had impreffed him with the warmeft zeal for liberty and republicanifin. He had beftowed more than common attention on the confideration of the properties of the mind, its powers and operations, and the nature and origin of our ideas. Of the German language, which is fo ufeful in many parts of our ftate, he had obtained a correct and claffical knowledge, and was well verfed in the polite literature of that, country. He had an intimate acquaintance with the Latin and Greek tongues, which he acquired, under the direction of Dr. Kunze, who was at that time a profeffor in the Univerfity, with great facility, and in a manner very different from that in which they are commonly taught. Inftead of being long confined to the unprofitable task, of committing to memory all the rules of grammar, which are repeated by boys, without their comprehending the ufe or application of them, he was immediately taught to read the language, and thus obtained a more speedy knowledge of its rules of conftruction, and had them more strongly impreffed upon his mind, from meeting with continual examples of their application. To this mode of teaching he attributed the facility with which he made himself mafter of thofe languages; and he thought that, if adopted in common ufe, it would very much diminish the weight of the most frequent objection to the study of them-that a great portion of time is wafted in it, which might be much more beneficially employed. This reform in the prefent mode of education, is recommended by him, in a series of letters which he pub. lifhed, on the fubject of the ancient languages, and which contain one of the most able and liberal defences of them, that has yet appeared. The knowledge he poffeffed of his own language was not inferior to that which he had acquired of others: He was a correct and elegant English fcholar, had a tafte for the belles lettres, and was well acquainted with the force and beauties of language. He wrote with uncommon facility, and in an eafy, concife, forcible file. His pen was often employed in the fervice, and for the gratifica tion *Thele letters of Dr. Stuber avere published in the New York Magazine, for the months of May, June, July, Auguft, September, October, and November, 1790. tion of his fellow citizens, and generally to promote fome humane or ufeful defign. This publication is in. debted to him for many interefting communications, and more particularly for the greater part of the life of that eminently ufeful man, Doctor Franklin, which appeared in the Afy lum, not long after his death. In this performance he displays his zeal for the honour of the deceased, and the credit of our country, by the induftry with which he expofes the attempts of fome European writers to rob our illuftrious fellow citizen of the reputation of fome of thofe difcoveries, to which he proves him to have an undoubted claim. But though he had derived much fron the learning and labours of others, he owed no lefs to his own, research and observation, and to the ftrength of his own mind. Though acquainted with the principles of different fystems, he was far from being wedded to any, or blindly adopting it, without reafon and investigation. His difcriminating mind felected thofe parts only that could abide the teft of cool examination; for his imagination, though warm, was fufficiently under the restraint of reason, to prevent him from being carried away by plaufible or ingenious the ories. He was less than most men under the awe and influence of great names. Books, however justly eminent the authors of them, he regarded not as authorities, as the measure of our opinions, or as the articles of our be lief; but rather as affording the ma terials of thought and enquiry, and laying the foundation, on which we are to build the fuperftructure of our own fyftems and opinions. His ideas were, accordingly, on many fubjects, entirely original. He had deviated from the commonly received track of opinion, and opened to himself, what he thought a nearer and more direct road to truth. Had he lived, his inquifitive and penetrating genius might have rendered him an ufeful pioneer in the caufe of truth; exploring her thro paths, where minds lefs bold and original, would not have adventured. Poffeffing thefe talents and qualifications, which were fo well calculated to render him a great ornament and most useful member of fociety, and endued with a difpofition, which was not only a fecurity against their abufe, but enfured the uniform application of them to promote the moif valuable purposes,his premature death before he had attained his twentyfourth year, deferves to be regretted as a public lofs. To the circle of his friends and acquaintance, this lofs is particularly fenfible. To these he had highly recommended and endeared himself by the mild nefs and cheerfulness of his temper, the fenfibility and humanity of his difpofition, the unaffuming modesty of his manners, and his interested and animated converfation, which was always liberal and rational, and free from malice or perfonal fatire. * The Univerfal Asylum, and Columbian Magazine. Authentic Narrative of the Sufferings of Dr. WILLIAM STAHL. (Continued from page 557, and concluded.) HE Phyfician found me bor. Tdering can tourenity, and could fcarcely feel any motion in ny effect of a fever, and ordered me to be let blood five days running. I only wifhed to put a period to my wretched exiftence, and when the furgeon furgeon was gone, I untied the bandage, and let the blood run out of the vein till it filled a cup which held at leaft eighteen ounces, up to the brim. I continued to refufe all kind of fuftenance, and was within two inches of the grave, when the alcade entered the dungeon with a priest, who could not be less than near feventy years of age. This man, truly reverend, found I was a foreigner, and spoke to me in my own language, affuring me that he would ufe his best endeavours to procure me my liberty, but that I could not expect it before the next auto da fe. He exhorted me to have patience, and to make a grateful offering to the Almighty of all my fufferings. The exhortations and confolations of this old man were fo moving and fpirited, as to regenerate in me the defire of life, and I promised him to follow his falutary advice. When the father was gone, the alcade brought me cordials and exquifite victuals to recruit the strength which had been evacuated with my blood; and to foften my melancholy, he put a black man with me, who was accused of being a magician, and remained with me five whole months. The converfation which I had with this victim of clerical defpotifm, confoled me, and I foon recovered entirely from my late diforder. When the guards faw my health re-established, they tore from me my companion of wretchedness, which privation replunged me inftantly in my former defperate and miferable condition. The abfence of my fellow fufferer made me ftill more furious; I mangled my face and my bofom, and fought every means to take away my life. In my delirium I took one of the pieces of gold which I had fecreted, and rubbed it against an earthen pot till it came fharp and pointed on both fides; I used it as a lancet, to open one of the arteries of my arm; I took VOL. III. No. 11. every precaution, and forced it in as deep as poffible; I could not, however, accomplish my defign, and inftead of the arteries, I opened the veins which are above them. As reafon had quite forfook me, and my mind was bent upon deftruc tion, I opened the veins of both arms, and let the blood run out till I fainted, fell down, and weltered in it. But the ways of providence are truly admirable! Whilst the last sparks of life were on the point of leaving my mortal frame, the guards came in to conduct me to the audience. Terrified at the condition in which they found me, they called the alcade, dreffed and tied up my wounds, and ufed every method to bring me to my fenfes. The inquifitor was made acquainted with the fhocking state in which the guards had found me, and as foon as I was able to open my eyes on thofe that furrounded me, I was carried by four men to the audience, and ftretched in full length on the floor, as my weakness would neither permit me to ftand or fit. The inquifitor reprimanded me in the fevereft manner; ordered the guards to carry me from his prefence, and to hinder me from tearing the dreing from my wounds; he ordered them likewife to handcuff me. The commands of the tyrant were inftantly executed. I was not only handcuffed, but an iron spring was put round me in fuch a manner, as prevented the fmalleft motion of my arms. Thefe rigorous proceedings, far from having the leaft good effect, only riveted the shaft of despair ftill deeper in my brain. I threw myfelf on the ground, dafhed my head upon the ftones, and made every effort to extinguish the torch of life. The byftanders foon found that feverity would not avail, and that it would be beft to try gentle means. D They |