F

THE

GENTLEMAN's and LONDON

MAGAZINE,

For AUGUST,

THE BВАТН

1788.

MINUE T.

Ament in this life,-fo is dancing ;-A

S Bowing is very neceffary to prefer- On the prefent Prevalence of Gaming and

man can be fure of no employment under
the State without footing it to fome purpofe;
the poor Curate with a Salary of scarce fifty
pounds per annum muft leave his wife and
nine children to dance attendance after the
Vicar?-the Vicar dances to the mufic of the
Rector or fat Pluritan; -the Pluritan beats
time to the will of the Arch-Deacon ;-the
Arch Deacon to the Reverend Dean, the
Dean, keeps in unifon with the feelings of
his Bifhop; -the Bishop never miffes a ftep
(though it fhould be an anterchoes) in danc-
ing up to the Arch-Prelate-the Prelate pays
the fame obeifance to the Primate, who
(all courteous, though perhaps unwieldy
and not in wind) will take a part in any
dance with the Secretary, from Bob in Joan,
to a cotillion; or from that, to Rowley Pow-
ley; an alamande, a Fricaffee, or the Devil
fick the Minifter:--The Secretary knows
when to dance in and out as well as the beft
tutored of them all, and fo on ❝ continual-

ly-continually and all that" (as my friend
Bays fays) they dance In and Out to each o-
ther, thofe who cut out indeed, are conti-
nually murmuring and growling at fuch
as are lucky enough to keep their places,
whom they call fteady and faunch hacks
whilft the inns call them turbulent unruly
difTatisfied perturbed fons of fedition. In
our annexed plate we have to be fure
only given a long minuet-fuch as is gene-
rally danced at Bath, and other watering
places; however, we can affure our readers
that all kinds of dancing come equally eafy
to fuch as are used to the methods of footing
in, and footing out; for there are nothing
but ins and outs in this tranfitory world:
The Accoucher hands us in, and Death
kicks us out,
[about!
Good lack! good lack! how we are danc'd
Gent. Mag. Aug. 1788.

Suicide.

prevalent in prefent than paft times, HAT there are particular vices more and more pernicious in their effects on the conduct of mankind, than what ancient hiftory teaches, can be denied by none but those univerfal refinement of manners, and forget who extend the applaufe of approbation to a that the progress of civilization no lefs corrupts than harmonizes the difcordant parts of a free people.

and which modern cuftom has in a most aThe particular vices to which I allude, larming degree adopted, are Gaming, and its frequent confequent, Suicide.-The former, to a perfon totally unacquainted with the principal diverfions of the town, would appear to be founded on the most deteftable principles of the human heart; but candour, as well as inclination, induce us to hope, that novices, and cuftom the chain that binds fashion is the powerful magnet that attracts them to a continued refidence on this precipice of deftruction.

The effects of many vices indulged by alone to an individual; in fome cafes advanprivate perfons, are frequently prejudicial for inftance, has removed many a brutal tageous to the community.-Drunkenness, tyrant from the execrations of a righbouring village, or the hatred of his own injured quences the moft extenfive and alarming: family; but gaming is followed by confeill-lick on a fingle night has deprived a notheir dues, and even a wife of her husband: bleman of his patrimony, his tradesmen of hazardous fpeculation in the merchant has caufed bankruptcy in his own houfe, and reduced to beggary, together with himself, the innocent and induftrious link of mercantile connections; laftly, the fure deftruction attendant on the frequenting of brothels,

Ddd

with

with their concomitants ;- -here, youth of both fexes are inevitably led to ruin;-and left for ever after to bewail their wretched lots; the female fex "scorn'd by the women, and pitied by the men"-the male rendered by such courfes poor debilitated feeble creatures, often dying old men at the age of two and thirty."

To enumerate all the evils that may be traced from a frequent commiffion of this vice, would be needlefs; a thinking mind will naturally fupply them: by an unthinking one, the enumeration and the reflections arifing therefrom would be confidered but as impertinent or malicious: be it my endeavour therefore to adduce a few arguments againft Suicide only, which is one evil complained of, and in these days feldom effected by any other caufe.

Firft, let us confider its expediency: felf. murder I take to be the last extremity which despair can tempt a man, loaded under the heaviest misfortunes, to try as a relief. Now if we inveftigate the ultimate end of thofe goods, the lofs, difappointment, or want of which are efteemed, and actually do conftitute human misfortunes, we fhall difcover, that it fupplies the means of prolonging life, and arifes from the fear of lofing it; all the pallions have been deduced as fubfervient to the grand natural inflinct, felf prefervation. The contradictory and perverfe conduct of that man therefore, must be evident, who flies to that very evil as a remedy, against which the impulfe of fear first directed the whole exertion of his faculties, and which he now confiders as a bleffing merely through the imprudent or wilful perverfion of thofe faculties, though, before, his imagination could form nothing more dreadful than its voluntary approach, and nothing more horrrible than its arri

Epicurus, a philofopher, whofe doctrines have been more miftated or misunderstood than fortuitous circumftances commonly effect, has proved that patience is the best relief under afflictions both mental and corporeal. Indeed the viciffitudes of human affairs are a motive fufficien ly ftrong to in dulge hope and repel defpair: if therefore a recourfe to Suicide is repugnant to the inftinct of nature, (but admitting ex bypotbef that it is not) if even a more certain and worthier remedy may be adopted, can we helitate a moment from the fole dictates of reafon to pronounce it, if not dangerous, at leaft inexpedient? But, with regard to its finfulness, when a Chriftian confiders patience and endurance not as fervile and dependent aceptives, but as neceffary duties; when he looks forward to what his faith promifes, another exiftence and another haBitation, he will believe it not only blameable,

as bold, but fatal, as flying into the prefence of that Deity, whom rashness must offend, and impatience irritate.

He, who can seriously affirm that Suicide is an innocent and effectual relief from worldly mileries, muft either be bereft of common understanding, or (what is much worfe) profels, thofe Atheistical principles, that induce weak minds to imagine that chance folely directs the affairs of this world; for the idea of a fupreme moral governor forcibly impreffes a man with the belief, that all things are under his immediate charge, and nothing can come to pass without his divine agency, or direct command, and affifting influence: moreover, to any poffeffed of this idea, reason will fuggeft a firm opinion, that as all good and evil flow from the fource of Omnipotence, to counteract the effects of either must be an act of prefumptuous rebellion, inconfiftent with gratitude, prudence, and human ability.

To an intelligent obferver, the whole fyftem of the divine administration will ap pear to be founded on the most perfect and cohesive parts; universal profperity could be. caufed only by a fpontaneous fertility of the earth, and would then produce on imperfect beings like ourselves, univerfal torpidity and idlenefs; misfortunes, therefore, which depreis hope, or excite new ardour, like difcords in mufic, concur to the general harmony, and, like interfperfed trees, divert the eye, while they variegate and enrich the profpect.

To enter into a refutation of the arguments urged by modern Free-thinkers in favour of Suicide, would not convey much inftruction or entertainment. It is not the thin cobweb thread of their reafoning, that can overcome reafon, and fhackle the underftanding; the greatest danger must be apprehended from the flow infinuating poison of a Novelift, who in the progrefs of a melancholy tale deadens the vigilance of the mind, and attacks the feelings of fenfibility. The latter, like the fneer of infidelity that unfortunately pervades the writings of a moft ingenious, elegant, and claffical hiftorian, is reforted to, when the more open and avowed endeavours of the former prove futile, and transparent.

And now, fince I am on this fubject, I will take the liberty of condemning a cuftom, prevalent at this day in England, at which humanity is, or ought to be, univerfally shocked; I allude to the barbarity of burying in the public highway the body of a poor drowned wretch with a ftake driven through it, without the last duties of the chriftian religion;-while a broken gambler, whole life perhaps has been one continued exertion of deceit and villainy, if he can

but

A

READING, one afternoon in a retired with regard to his fentiments on your ac