European Magazine Guy's Hospital, Southwark. Published by J.Asperne, at the Bible, Crown & Constitution, Cornhill1 Nov 1803. Engraved by Rawla of London, to go up with the tide to "The late good-natured owner of The former part of this statement is perfectly correct. Mr. Cambridge did, for many years, not only allow fuch an indulgence, but took much pleafure in witneffing the gratification it afforded. The change of manners, however, that has taken place of late years, was no where more ftrongly exemplified than in the behaviour of the dinner parties frequenting thefe meadows. The lawn before the house continually exhibited fcenes of riot and diforder, whilst the more retired parts of the garden and grounds, which were invaded without feruple, in open defiance of the proprietor and his fervants, became the haunt of the groffeft licentioufnefs and indecency. Still the fame benevolence of heart which firft inclined Mr. Cambridge to grant the indulgence, made him defirous to continue it, if poffible, to all fuch as appeared to merit that distinction; but, after repeated attempts, this partial preference was found to occafion much additional trouble, and to give greater offence to the public than a general denial. He therefore found himself reluctantly compelled, a few years before his death, to fecure the tranquillity which was effential to his comfort at the clofing period of a long life, by placing notices on the banks of the river to announce to the parties intending to land and dine, that fuch permiffion was no longer granted. The fame boards, which we e placed then by my father, now remain; but no additional ones have been put up fince his death. I am Sir, Your obedient humble fervant, Twickenham Meadows, DESCRIPTION OF GUY'S HOSPITAL, IN SOUTHWARK. THIS noble building is fituated at a fmall distance from the foot of Lon don Bridge. A pair of hand fome iron gates open into a fquare, in the centre of which is a tatue in brafs of the founder, dreffed in his Livery gown, and well executed by Scheemakers: it was placed there in 1734, and bears the following infcription on the front of the pedestal: "THOMAS GUY, SOLE FOUNDER OF THIS HOSPITAL IN HIS LIFE-TIME. A. D. MDCCXXI." On the west fide of the pedestal is reprefented, in baffo relievo, the para ble of the good Samaritan; on the fouth fide is Mr. Guy's arms; and on that fide of the pedeltal facing the ealt, is our Saviour healing the impotent man. The fuperstructure of this hofpital has three floors befides the garrets; and the fime conftruction runs through the whole building, which is fo extenfive as to contain twelve wards, in which are four hundred and thirty-five beds. The whole has a plainnefs that becomes the nature of the inftitution; and at the fame time a regularity that does fome honour to the builder, the whole being difpofed for the mutual accommodation of the fick, and of those who attend them. A few years ago the Governors of this excellent charity placed in the chapel, at the expense of 1000l., a noble monument of the founder, defigned by the late ingenious Mr. Bacon, bearing the following infcription: "Underneath are depofited the remains of Thomas Gov, a citizen of London, member of parliament, and the fole founder of this hofital in his life time. " It 2 "It is peculiar to this beneficent man to have perfevered during a long courfe of profperous industry, in pouring forth to the wants of others, all that he had earned by labour or withheld from felf-indulgence. Warm with philanthropy, and exalted by charity, his mind expanded to thofe noble affections which grow but too rarely from the most elevated purfuits. After adminiftering with extenfive bounty to the claims of confanguinity, he eftab. lifhed this afylum for that tage of languor and difeafe to which the charities of others had not reached; he provided a retreat for hopeless infanity, and rivalled the endowments of Kings. "He died the 27th of December 1724, "in the 80th year of his age." We shall conclude this brief account of the hofpital with a biographical ketch of its founder. THOMAS GUY, Efq. fon of Thomas -Guy, a lighterman and coal-dealer, in Fair-treet, Horleydown, was born in the north-eaft corner houfe of Pritchaid's Alley, (two doors eaft of St. John's Church-yard) in the faid ftreet. The father, dying young, left a widow and three children, the eldest of whom (the fubject of this article) was then but eight years of age. His mother returned to Tamworth in Staffordshire, the place of her nativity, where the foon after mar. ried. She took care, however, to have her children carefully educated; and at a proper age put her fon Thomas apprentice for eight years to John Clarke, a Bookfeller and Binder in the porch of Mercers' Hall, Cheapfide, September 3, 1660. He was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company, October 7, 1668, and, on the 6th of October 1673, received into the Livery of the faid Company. Mr. Guy began trade for himself, with a flock of about 200l. in the houfe that forms the angle between Cornhill and Lombard-ftreet. The English bibles being at that time very badly printed, Mr. Guy engaged, with others, in a fcheme for printing them in Holland, and importing them; but this being put a stop to, he contracted with the univerfity of Oxford for their privilege of printing them, and carried on a great bible trade for many years to confiderable advantage The bulk of his fortune, however, was acquired by purchafing feamen's tickets during Queen Anne's wars, and by South Sea Stock in the memorable year 1720. In the year 1707 he built and furnifhed three wards on the north fide of the outer court of St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, and gave 100l. to it annually for eleven years preceding the erection of his own hofpital; and fome time before his death erected the ftately iron gate, with the large houses on each fide, at the expence of about 3000l. Mr. Guy was 76 years of age when he formed the defign of building the hofpital contiguous to that of St. Thomas, which bears his name; and lived to fee it roofed in; dying Dec. 27, 1724. The expense of erecting this vait pile was 18,793l. 168. id. and he left 219,4991. os. 4d., to endow it; a much larger fum than had ever been dedicated by any one man to charitable ufes in this kingdom. Mr. Guy was Member in feveral Parliaments for the Borough of Tamworth in Staffordshire, the place of his mother's birth; to which town he was a generous benefactor; for early in life he not only contributed toward the relief of private families in distress, but erected an alms-houfe, with a library, for the reception of fourteen poor men and women; to whom he allowed a penfion during his life, and at his death bequeathed the annual fum of 1251. towards their future fupport, and for putting out children apprentices, &c. To many of his relations he gave, while living, a fettled allowance of iol. or 20l. a year; and to others money to advance them in the world. At his death, he left to his poor aged relations the firm of 870l. a year, during their life; and among his younger relations, who were very numerous, and his executors, he left the fum of 75,5891. He left the Governors of Christ's hofpital a perpetual annuity of 400l. for taking in four children annually, at the nomination of the Governors; and bequeathed 1000l. for difcharging poor prifoners within the city of London, and the counties of Middlefex and Surry, who could be releafed for the fum of 51.; by which fum, and the good management of his executors, there ere above 600 perfons fet at liberty from the feveral prifons within the bills of mortality. THE THE EVIDENCE OF RELATION BETWEEN OUR PRESENT WITH REFERENCES TO DR. PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY. THE world must ever be indebted to the Author of "Natural Theology," for that excellent work, which, after having gratified the mind on many important points, with molt extraordinary ability, yet leaves it unfatisfied, and indeed uninformed, with regard to one of great moment; viz. the relation between our prefent life and that ftate which is to fucceed it; or (to form a queftion of the matter), whether the consciousness incident to our prefent exiftence will continue unimpaired in the future? or, whether the confcioufnefs that fhall be incident to our future state, will arise (by an original conftitution) upon an abfolute oblivion of the paft? It must be evident, that all that can be drawn with regard to the fubject, must be from the analogy and neceffity of things. We can have no direct evidence, in one point of view, becaufe there is no immediate and decifive relation established between the two ftates; at leaft none evident to our fenfes. What, then, we have in the way of illustration or elucidation, must come from the conftitution and circumstances of our prefent existence. Our prefent exiftence itfelf is evidently relative; fince, without it, each moment of time would be independent, as it were, in itself; and, confequently, were there not connexion by relation, each moment of our lives would be a new and an entire existence. We fhould be ftrangers to ourselves; and the thoughts of our evening cares would be loft and dead to the memory of our morning purfuits. It is by the relation between good and evil that we are enabled to judge of our actions. In fact, it is relation in all things, that marks out their feveral and feparate qualities; for were they independent of one another, or if fome only were independent, we fhould be dead to the qualities of fuch fo unrelatively fituated; because, by one quality it is that we are enabled to judge of another. Thus with regard to tafte; it is by relation that the bitter points out the fweet; that the acid establishes the alkali; that the acrid leads us to the mild, Thus alfo it is VOL, XLIV. OCT. 1803. with regard to fight, to hearing, or with regard, in hort, to all nature. Relation is the prevailing monitor of distinctions; or otherwife the eye would be dead to the properties of light and hade; the ear dull to the variations of found; our touch infenfible to variety, whether we grasped a ball of fire or a ball of ice; whether we preffed a flint or a feather. Our fense would be equally ftupid to gravitation as to levity; equally ignorant in appreciating the power of attraction as incapable of fhewing the relative bear ance of the repulfive principle. It is by the relation which bodies bear to each other, whether hard or foft, folid or aeriform, that we are made fenfible to all the varied ftates of exiftence in nature. Without this relation we thould not be able to discern the varieties prefented by the elements, In fact, without relation, nature would be a blank, because no difcrimination of things could poffibly exift. When we apply this relation to our own immediate nature, or to the human mind more particularly, we find it bear equally as ftrong as when connected with our perceptions of external existence. In the application, however, not equally mechanical, in this point of view, that fuch relation, for example, with regard to external exiftence, was neceflary as a medium of intelligence for converse, connected with our prefent ftate. But the relation of our minds with regard to good and evil affections, and their nature altogether, is by no means to be viewed as merely neceffary for our prefent itate, but, on the contrary, as intimately connected with our future one. Nothing affords a ftronger argument in its way, than the mechanifin of na ture. Of this we have ample proof in the "Theology," but a mechanical intent is loft beyond the limits of circumfcribed accommodation. The conveniencies of the body, and the attri butes of the mind, are points widely different. The mechanifm of the hand proves the wifdom and goodness of the Defigner, yet ftill the purposes of its creation are evidently circumfcribed as a medium of local accommodation on this fide the grave; but the fpirit which animates it to noble deeds knows no bounds, neither is it circumfcribed by any reafon of neceflity; nor is there any reafon whatever to imagine, that the mind itfelf, as a being, will ever undergo a total change of its existence, but merely an enlargement of its fphere of action. The changes it has to pats are thofe of improvement only. New worlds will enlarge and perfect its mode of thinking; and its joys will increafe in proportion as new fields open to the dolights of contemplative adoration. The idea of time-ferving qualities of the mind appears to be incompatible with its being. To ule a familiar comparifon, as well might that man be called a time ferving being to the city or place where he is confined by the neceffity of circumftance, although he means to quit that city or place for another of greater advantage, whenever an opportunity hall offer. Now although a man be confined by circumftance to a place, no one can fay that he is more particularly calculated for that place (because he is in it) than any other; on the contrary, the place may not be half fo convenient as another would be, though circumstances oblige him to put up with its want of accommodation. If there is any time-ferving in the queftion, it is with the place, and not with the man-and thus it is with our prefent ftate. The world is a time-ferv ing place, calculated for our ftay till we pafs to a better. In its power of comprehenfion and refearch, the mind but too often feels the narrow limits granted to it by the circumstances of this life; indeed fo much fo, that they would appear to ferve as a temporary barrier to check the enterprize of thought penetrating too far into the expanfe of its existence. And here it is to be more lamented, that the Reverend Author of the "Theology" did not particularly treat on this head, viz. the relation of our 'prefent fate by connexion to the future; as in the chapter "On the Goodness of the Deity" it would rather appear, that qualities of the mind, fuch as affection, &c. were appropriate only in particular for this life, fince death is mentioned as '66 feparation;" and then with regard to our affections, it is obferved in the fame chapter, "It is better we should poffefs affections, the fources of fo many virtues and fo many joys, although they be expofed to the incidents of life, as well as to the interruptions of mortality, than, by the want of them, be reduced to a state of felfifhnefs, apathy, and quietifm." This certainly implies a degree of compromife with this life as diftin&t from any other,. And here alfo, it may be remarked, was a fair opportunity for the Author to have gratified his readers on the prefent head. It must be matter of regret to every one, that fo interesting an enquiry was not purfued by abilities fo abundantly compe tent, by eloquence at once fo fplendid and convincing. If our affections concern our prefent life in a very material degree, it would appear ftrikingly forcible that they mult have influence hereafter. It is impoffi ble for a being of this world rationally to think of a future ftate independently of the prefent. If fo, confequently thofe affections fo intimate with his nature, and which the circumftance of death only could interrupt, muit influence whatever ftate he may hereafter fill. The pofition can eafily be illuftrated. It is clear that relation bears with every circumftance of this life. It mult, alfo, be as clear, that all we can fpeculate upon, or know, of a future ftate must be drawn from conclufions on our prefent one. It is true a man may fancy ten thoufand, or ten times ten thousand, foible ftates, and all differing from his own. Such varieties of existence may be, and a man may poflibly imagine them; but he cannot apply them to himself; becaufe it is impoffible for any being to conceive a future ftate of himfelf, unconnected with his own prefent and immediate existence. How is it, when he has pafied through the clafs of being of this world, that a man is to be made fenfible of his existence, but by relation? a relation as intimate in fpirit with his paffed ftate as that which connects the first and last day of a month; if not, be is dead eternally: for what advantage is it to him, if, upon a mere general fcale of animation, what quickened him goes to animate another?a being as unconnected with himfelf as the butterfly is with the crufty thell it leaves when buriting into life. fuch relation, it is not prefumed to With regard to the precife mode of fuggeft 3 |