ments, sortable to the greatest births and educations. For some man, whom God hath blessed with power and authority in his country, with fair livings and large revenues, with a numerous family of servants, retainers, and tenants, and the like, it may be a sufficient calling, and enough to take up his whole time, even to keep hospitality, and to order and overlook his family, and to dispose of his lands and rents, and to make peace and preserve love and neighbourhood among them that live near or under him. He that doth but this as he ought to do, or is otherwise industrious for the common good, must be acknowledged a worthy member of the commonwealth, and his course of life, a calling (although perhaps not so toilsome, yet) in suo genere as necessary and profitable, as that of the husbandman, merchant, lawyer, minister, or any other.

"But for our meer, or parcel-gallants, who live in no settled course of life, but spend half the day in sleeping, half the night in gaming, and the rest of their time in other pleasures and vanities, to as little purpose as they can devise, as if they were born for nothing else but to eat and drink, and snort and sport; who are spruce and trim as the lillies, (Solomon in all his royalty was not clothed like one of these;) yet they neither sow, nor reap, nor carry into the barn; they neither labour, nor spin, nor do any thing else for the good of human society; let them blush, there is not the poorest contemptible creature that crieth oysters and kitchenstuff in the streets, but deserveth his bread better than they, and his course of life is of better esteem with God, and every sober wise man, than theirs. A horse that is neither good for the way, nor the cart, nor the race, nor the wars, nor any other service; let him be of never so good a breed, never so well marked and shaped, yet he is but a jade; his master setteth no store by him, thinketh his meat ill-bestowed upon him; every man will say better knock him on the head than keep

him; his skin, though not much worth, is yet better worth than the whole beast besides.

"Consider this, you that are of noble or generous birth. Look unto the rock whence you were hewn, and to the pit whence you were digged. Search your pedigrees; collect the scattered monuments and histories of your ancestors, and observe by what steps your worthy progenitors raised their houses to the height of gentry, or nobility. Scarce shall you find a man of them that gave any accession, or brought any noted eminency to his house, but either serving in the camp, or sweating at the bar, or waiting at Court, or adventuring on the seas, or trucking in his shop, or some other way industriously bestirring himself in some settled calling and course of life. You usurp their arms, if you inherit not their virtues; and those ensigns of honour and gentry, which they by industry atchieved, sit no otherwise upon your shoulders, than as rich trappings upon asses' backs, which serve but to

render the poor beast more ridiculous. If you by brutish sensuality, and spending your time in swinish luxury, stain the colours and embase the metals of those badges of your gentry and nobility, which you claim by descent; think, when we worship or honour you, we do but flout you; and know the titles we in courtesy give you, we bestow upon their memory, whose degenerate offspring you are, and whose arms you unworthily bear; and they do no more belong to you, than the reverence the good man did to Isis, belonged to the ass that carried her image."-Sanderson. Fourteen Sermons. 248.

Nunneries.-p. 305.

"We are apt," says Mr. Barrow, in his Remarks on Madeira (Voyage to Cochin-china) "to attach a lively interest to young females who are thus so cruelly, as we suppose, separated for ever from all society, except that of each other: but it is extremely doubtful if they possess those exalted sentiments, nice feelings and sound understandings, which prevail among females of those countries where they are allowed to enjoy unrestrained freedom."-True. But can it be doubted whether they possess natural feelings? the question is not concerning nice ones. Nunneries are useful as Bedlams, which crazy women choose for themselves; but they are not Bedlams; they are Prisons; and it is not necessary that women should possess exalted sentiments, for them to be very miserable in confinement.

Books from New England.-p. 335.

Two of these are of some importance in the history of Quakerism, and of great rarity in the Bibliotheca Quakeriana. It is a pleasing example of the literary intercourse subsisting between New England and the Mother Country, that these books should have been procured by one man of letters in Massachusetts for the use of another at the foot of Skiddaw. I am obliged for them to my friend Professor Ticknor-one of those persons who were more especially in my mind when I spoke in the Introduction (p. 3.) of American travellers in England.

I subjoin the titles of these books, as characteristic in their kind.

George Fox digged out of his Burrowes. Or an offer of Disputation on fourteen Proposals made this last summer,

1672, (so called) unto G. Fox, then present on Rode Island in New England, by R(oger) W(illiams.) As also how, G. Fox slily departing, the Disputation went on, being managed three days at Newport on Rode Island, and one day at Providence, between John Stubs, John Burnet, (Burnyeat) and William Edmundson, on the one part, and R. W. on the other. In which many quotations out of G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes Book in folio are alledged, with an appendix of some scores of G. F., his simple lame answers to his opposites in that Book, quoted and replyed to. By R. W. of Providence in N. E.-Boston. Printed by John Foster, 1676. Small 4to.

A New England Fire Brand quenched, being an Answer unto a Slanderous Book entituled George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, &c. Printed at Boston in the year 1676, by Roger Williams of Providence in New England. Which he dedicateth to the King with desires that, if the Most High please, Old and New England may flourish when the Pope and Mahomet, Rome and Constantinople are in their ashes. Of a Dispute upon 14 of his Proposals held and debated betwixt him, the said Roger Williams on the one part, and John Stubs, William Edmundson, and John Burnyeat on the other, at Providence and Newport in Rode Island in the year 1672. In which his cavils are refuted, and his Reflections reproved. In two parts. As also an Answer to R. W.'s appendix, &c. with a Postscript confuting his blasphemous assertions, viz. of the Blood of Christ that was shed, its being corruptible and corrupted; and that Salvation was by a man that was corruptible, &c. Whereunto is added a Catalogue of his Railery, Lies, scorn, and blasphemies: and his Temporizing Spirit made manifest. Also the Letters of W. Coddington of Rode Island, and R. Scot of Providence in New England concerning R. W. And lastly some Testimonies of Ancient and Modern Authors concerning the light, scriptures, Rule, and the Soul of Man. By George Fox and John Burnyeat. Printed in the year

1679.

Enjoyment of Books. p. 343.

There is a beautiful passage in Machiavelli's Letters, describing the delight which he enjoyed in his studies. After a lively picture of his daily occupations in the country, he says, Venuta la sera mi ritorno a casa, ed entro in mio Scrittojo; ed in sull' uscio mi spoglio quella veste contadina, piena di fango e di loto, e mi metto panni reali e curiali, e rivestito condecentemente entro nelle antiche corti degli antichi uomini, dove da loro ricevuto amorevolmente mi pasco di quel cibo che solum è mio, e che io nacqui per lui; dove io non mi vergogno parlare con loro, e domandare della ragione delle loro azioni; e quelli per loro umanità mi rispondono; e non sento per quattro ore di tempo alcuna noja. Sdimentico ogni affanno, non temo la povertà, non mi sbigottisce la morte; tutto mi trasferisco in loro. E perchè Dante dice "che non fu scienza senza ritener lo inteso," io ho notato quello di che per la loro conversazione ho fatto capitale, e composto un opuscolo de Principatibus, dove io mi profondo quanto io posso nelle cogitazioni di questo subietto, disputando che cosa è principato, di quali spezie sono, come e' si acquistano, come e' si mantengono, perchè e' si perdono; e si vi piacque mai alcun mio ghiribizzo, questo non vi dovrebbe dispiacere; e ad un principe, e massime ad un principe nuovo, dovrebbe essere accetto-Opere di Machiavelli. 1813. Vol. viii. p. 96.

Erasmus writes upon the same subject, with as much truth and feeling as Machiavelli; but there is less life in the letter, more of the author, and less of the man.

"Quid verum faciam rogas? Amicis operam do, horum consuetudine gratissimâ memet oblecto. Quos tu tandem amicos mihi jactitas, inquis, homuncio levissime? An quisquam te visum aut auditum velit? Equidem non diffiteor fortunatorum amicos esse plurimos: at nec pauperibus desunt amici et quidem isti