at an end

rior bleffings he enjoyed from his
religious knowledge, he refelved to
teach her to read; and in due time
accomplished the pleafing talk; af-
fording, by this means, a ftream of
comfort, an inexhauftible fource of
delight, which the confeffed had
made her the happieft of wo-
men. It pleafed the Almighty to
her heart, that, like Lydia,
open
the might attend to the things that
were fpoken; and, with Mary, fit
at her Saviour's feet, and hear his Stanmore Hill, Jan. 1, 1800.
word. She added, that during her
fon's abfence it was her delight to
meditate on the facred volume,

Where fhould they find, (thofe comforts
[friend?
The Scripture yields) or hope to find, a
With pure deligit, and humble love,
they know

That Scripture is the only cure of woe.
That field of promife, how it fings abroad
Its odour o'er the Chriftian's thorny road I
The foul, repofing on affur'd relief,
Feets herself happy amidst all her grief;
Forgets her labour as the toils along,
Weeps tears of joy, and burits into a fong!

whose divine truths had filled her

foul with humble hope-and holy joy, and afforded her that peace which the world can neither give nor take away! and this being conveyed through the medium of a beloved child, added thofe ineffable fenfations, which only a parent's heart can know, to all its other delights.

Such is my little hiftory of the Dundee Boy; had I known it when I patted through that town, I wonld have been more particular. My friend did not inform me whether the mother was allowed any thing from the collection made for the diftreffed, every Sabbath-day in the Church of Scotland; but it is probable the might recive fome afliftance from a charitable fund, to which rich and poor all contribute, with a laudable emulation.

Sint bic etiam fua premia landi. Virg. Æn.
Let merit here obtain its due reward.

Happy, ye poor! who know your Bi

A truth Voltaire, tho' learned, never knew;
And in that charter read, with fparkling

Your title to a treasure in the fkies.

O, happy cottagerst unhappy bard!
His the mere tinfel, yours the rich reward;
He prais d, perhaps, for ages yet to come;
You never heard of half a mile from home.

Where should the living, weeping o'er

The dying, trembling at the awful clofe;
Where the betray'd, forfaken and opprefs'd,
The thoufands whom the world for bids to

reft;

CowPER.

JAMES FORBES.

Mr. URBAN, Bofton, Dec. 6.

MOST fingular change ha

Aving taken place of late in

the religious opinions of fome Jews upon the Continent, an account of it, I think, deferves to be recorded in your long-eftablifhed and ufeful Mifcellany. I have, therefore, collected a few particulars relative to this extraordinary circumftance, from a letter addreffed by fome Jewith elders, to Mr. Provoft Teller, of Berlin, which are at your fervice,

The main point, then, in which thefe elders of the Jews differ from their brethren of former times is, that they believe the ceremonial part of the Mofaic law to be only of temporary duration. And, accordingly, they confider the obfervance of it as no longer obligatory upon them, and openly declare their readinefs to renounce it altogether; the circumstances of the times, and the condition of their nation, being fuch as to juftify, in their opinion, this innovation, fince "the abolition of the ritual law in the prefent ftate of things, we are convinced, they fay, is perfectly agreeable to the fpirit of the mofaic fyftem; and is not only much to be defired for our own cafe and comfort, but alfo highly neceffary to enable us to fulfil the duties of good citizens and members of the community." But it may, be afked, what fhould prevent them, having advanced thus far, from embracing the profeffion of Chriftianity? This, however, is a ftep, which they do not feem difpofed to take at once,

and

Mr. URBAN,

Chapter Coffeehouse, Oct. 18. HAT Ireland is in poffeffion of

THA

ages, every perfon who has tra-
velled in that country muft allow;
yet, with a climate nearly the fame
as England, a more fruitful foil*,
parts as convenient for all the pur-
pofes of commerce, a numerous
people who are acute and ingeni-
oust; yet, with all thofe great and
important advantages, the Irith
nation, almoft fince the reign of
Henry II. have been in the ftate of
civil war, turbulence, and diftrac-
tion. To perfons who are conver-
fant in the hiftory of that coun-
try, from the first connexion with
Britain, or what is called by hifto-
rians the conqueft, effected in the
first inftance by the exertions and
marriage of Richard de Clare, fur-
named Strongbow, Earl of Pem-
broke; it will appear, that the po-

and without farther reflection.
Accordingly, they apply to Mr.
Prov. Teller, to inform them what
public confeffion would be required
of them by the confiftory, provided
they were inclined to take refuge
in the Proteftant church. Nay,
fay they, the importance of the
fubject encourages us to put the
queftion to you in ftronger terms;
what articles would you yourself
be willing to fubfcribe, or to de-
clare your affent to, had Providence
placed you in our fituation? To
obtain a folution of this difficulty,
feems to have been the chief de-
fign of their letter to Mr. Prov.
Teller; in which, however, is con-
tained much extraneous matter.
Amongst other things, there are
fome good obfervations on the He-
brew language; as likewife, a
well-written defence of their bre-
thren against the charges of ufury,
fraud, and perfidy, with which they
are generally loaded. I was fur- pulation of that kingdom is com-
prized to find it also afferted, that
the expectation of a Meffiah, and
of their return to the land of their
forefathers, is gradually declining
amongst them, and is esteemed by
the greater part of the Jews in
Holland, France, and Germany,
wholly chimerical and vifionary.
Such is this remarkable letter; to
which, perhaps, may be attributed
the no lefs remarkable fchifm
which has lately taken place in the
Jewith church in Holland. Nor
is it improbable, that many more
Jews, in different parts of the
world, may be induced to follow
its example, to renounce the cere-
monial law, and to feparate from
their brethren. Should this be the
cafe, a way may thus be paved to
the more fpeedy converfion of the
whole body of the Jewish people.
Be this, however, as it may, at leaft,
another will be added to the many
important and extraordinary events,
to which the prefent age has been
witnefs. Yours, &c. W. W.

Artin Young,

pofed of two diftinct parts, the na
tive Irish and the English colony,
fettled there by Henry II. and his
fucceffors, at different periods,
The indifference, if not impolicy,
of England heretofore, to the in-..
ftruction, improvement, and, I must
add, encouragement, of the nay,
tive Irifh, and their attachment
and partiality to the colony through
many reigns, has been the prin-
cipal caufe for fix centuries of
those destructive animofities and
warfare between both parties, that
have paralyfed industry and enter-
prize, rendered property in many
parts of the inland infecure, pre-
vented ftrangers from fettling in
the country, and nearly completed
its ruin. Conciliation, by encou-
raging the natives and the colonifte
to intermix by marriage, was, till
very lately, never thought of, ex-
cept in a few inftances; yet, the
experience of history bears me
out in afferting, that this meafure
alone would ultimately tend, by

+ Lord Auckland.

the priory of Otterton. It was a Coftumale, or ledger-book, of the priory, in the hand-writing of a monk who was fent hither by the abbot of St. Michael de Monte in Normandy, to which Otterton was a cell, before it was annexed to Sion, after its alienation. A fair tranfcript from the original is in Chapple's collection, with explanatory notes, and will greatly affift the antiquary in the hiftory of that, priory, and of its dependencies.

Mr. Lewis, in perufing this Coftumale, was puzzled at the word

MR. CHAPPLE, of fent

explanation of it. The inclofed papers are the refult of that application. Yours, &c. S. BADCOCK.

P. S. My intenfe application to Chapple's papers hath almoft metamorphofed me into an antiquary; and taken me off from theology and the belles lettres. S. B.

was for many years engaged in writing the hiftory of Devonhire. He died, and left the moft unfinished. The papers collected for that purpofe are very curious and ample; but they were confufed and undigested. Sir Robert Palk purchased them of Chapple's daugh ter, and fent them to me with moft Hiberal offers, ifI would undertake the work on Chapple's plan, and publish a complete hiftory of this county. I declined fo arduous an undertaking for many reafons; but offered to arrange and methodize the various articles, and write a catalogue of the MSS. and a gene- cantharis or common glow-worm. ral review of their contents.

I have finished what I undertook and the collection is now a noble deposit for the afliftance of fome future hiftorian. It will be lodged in Sir Robert's library, and any antiquary or curious perfon may have access to it.

intend to publifh a general account of it in the Monthly Review and your Magazine, if I can get Sir Robert's leave; and I think I fball eafily procure it, as he is a friend to both thofe publications.

The paper I now fend * you was found among the correfpondence of Mr. Chapple and the Rev. Mr. Lewis, a very learned clergyman, of Honiton.

Mr. Lewis had been reading an autient MS. in vellum, written in 1260, and originally belonged to

See this paper in vol. LVI. p. 553.

I

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 14. SHOULD be greatly wanting in gratitude towards A. X. (vol. LXX. p. 816;) if I did not in return, for the handfome compliments he has paid me, give the information defired, concerning the

I have perufed Thomfon too often, and too attentively, not to have obferved the trifling lapfe in his enchanting pen noticed by A.-K.; and never could account for it in any other manner than by fuppofing that the divine poet expreffed himfelf in the manner quoted, 'becaufe Dr. Hill afferts the male glow-worm to have wings; yet I apprehend, that, like the cricket, lady-cow, and many other infects, the glow-worm makes very little ufe of its wings; for I never faw it in any fituation more elevated than the fummit of a barley-ear or a ftunted furze-buth. As A. X. has done, I have in general found them on banks under hedges, and fometimes in the interftices of rugged clm-roots, and the foundations of buildings. I obferve it to be common for feveral years together

to

glow-worm lying on a bank under a tree, and in the fhade. The moon behind the tree flings light on the tranfaction, without diminifhing the brilliancy of the worm; and Grignion, the engraver, has done ftrict justice to the truth and tafte of the defign. For farther particulars concerning the cantharis, I muft refer A. X. to the "Hiftory of Animals," compofed by Dr. Hill, who has enumerated and defcribed twelve kinds of them. I alfo take the liberty of referring Stella (p. 1045,) to the fame work, as I have a fufpicion, that the infects obferved by her were the cicindela volens, or flying glow-worins, which are alfo treated of by Mr. Waller, in Phil. Traní. No. clxvii. p. 841..

to elapfe, without any being feen; and then a year occurs, when, in the month of Auguft, the earth is almost as thickly fpangled with them as the cope of heaven is with ftars. I have heard people fay, that they abound moft in dry feafons; but I do not think that wet is inimical to them, becaufe I have feen them fhining as bright in rainy nights as in fine ones; and I faw many in the wet fummer of 1792, but could not difcover one in the extreme hot fummer of laft year. The last I faw was in Auguft 1797, when I was returning home late in the evening through a very heavy rain, which did not affect the fplendour of the worm in the leaft. The luminous appearance of the cantharis has caufed it to attract the notice of Now I am treating on luminous most of our rural poets; and all of infects. I will trefpafs farther on them, except Thomfon, have con- your Magazine, Mr. Urban, to fidered it as a crawling reptile, in- mention an incident that may ferve habitant of the herbage on the to guide curious perfons in their earth. The third of the fimply-ele refearches for them. As I was gant fables written by More, for the walking, a few fummers ago, on a Female Sex;" (and which I with fea-beach, I faw fome peafants, the young ladies of the prefent day (for the purpofe of making tences would attend to,) is intitutled, to fome neighbouring inclotures, "The Nightingale and Glow- where hedge-wood would not stand worm;" and in it the author makes the fea-air,) gathering up the weeds the fongfter, previous to devouring that had been recently Aung up by the boafting infe&t, addrefs it thus: an high fea. Obferving many to"Deluded fool, with pride elate, lerable fpecimens of marine plants Know 'tis thy beauty brings thy fate: among thefe weeds, I made a boy Lefs dazzling, long thou might't have lain overturn a bufhel-batket full of Unheeded on the velvet plain; them in the garden belonging to Pride, foon or late, degraded mourns, my lodging, that 1 might examine And beauty wrecks whom the adorns." them at my leifure. Being engaged from home all the afternoon, I thought no more of my weeds till I paffed through the garden after it was quite dark, when I was furprized to fee them fludded with innumerable vivid fparks. To difcover the caufe of this beautiful phænomena, I kicked the weeds about with my foot, and perceived that by fo doing I flung an hoft of minute lucid animals into as much confufion as a neft of ants is in when difturbed. It was only from this activity of the fparklers that I judged them to be infects,

In

compofing and illuftrating this fable, the order of Nature has been clofely obferved, both by the author and the draughtfman. The nightingale is almoft the only bird that could have been chofen with propriety to be the punither of the reptile's vanity; as (except the wood-lark) it is the only one-awake in thofe hours when the glowworms are vifibly luminous, and it is one that feeds on infects.

In the plate illuftrative of the fable, Hayman, the draughtfinan, has very judiciously delineated the

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for