in the mean time, and the grandees, who have employed thefe poor innocent victims to fhoot bullets at each others heads, remain quietly at home, and amuse themselves, in the intervals of balls, hunting fchemes and pleasures of every fpecies, with reading at the fire-fide, and over a cup of chocolate, the dispatches from the army, and the news in the Extraordinary Gazette. Old Horace very truly obferves, that whatever mad frolicks enter into the heads of kings, it is the common people, that is, the honeft artizan, and the induftrious tribes in the middle ranks, unoffended and unoffending, who chiefly fuffer in the evil confequences. If the king of Pruffia were not at the head of fome of the best troops in the univerfe, he would be judged more worthy of being tried, caft and condemned at the Old Bailey, than any fhedder of blood who ever died by a halter. But he is a king; but he is a hero those names fascinate us, and we enrol the butcher of mankind among their benefactors.

When one confiders the dreadful circumstances that attend even victories, one cannot help being a little fhocked at the exultation which they occafion. I have often thought it would be a laughable fcene, if there were not a little too much of the melancholy in it, when a circle of eager politicians have met to congratulate each other on a piece of good news just arrived. Every eye fparkles with delight; every voice is raised in announcing the happy event. And what is the caufe of all this joy? and for what are our windows illuminated, bonfires kindled, bells rung, and feafts celebrated? We have had a fuccefsful engagement. We have left a thousand of the enemy dead on the field of battle, and only nine hundred of our countrymen. Charming news! it was a glorious battle! But before you give a loose to your raptures, pause a while; and confider, that to every one of these nineteen hundred, life was no lefs fweet than it is to you; that to the far greater part of them there probably were wives, fathers, mothers, fons, daughters, fifters, brothers, and friends, all of whom are at this moment bewailing that event which occafions your foolish and brutal triumph.

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The whole time of a war ought to be time of general mourning, a mourning in the heart, a mourning much more fincere than on the death of one of those princes whofe accurfed ambition is often the fole cause of war. Indeed, that a whole people fhould tamely fubmit to the evils of war, because it is the will of a few vain, felfish, ignorant, though exalted, individuals, is an unaccountable phænomenon. But they are led away by falfe glory, by their paffions, by their vices. They reflect not; and, indeed, if they did reflect, and oppofe, what would avail the oppofition of unarmed myriads to the mandate of a government fupported by a ftanding army? Many of the European nations are entirely military; war is their trade; and when they have no employment at home, or near it, they blush not to let themfelves out to fhed any blood, in any caufe of the best paymafter. Ye beafts of the foreft, no longer allow that inan is your fuperior, while there is found on the face of the earth fuch degeneracy!

Morality and religion forbid war in its motives, conduct, and confequences; but to rulers and potentates morality and religion ufually appear as the inventions of politicians to facilitate fubordination. The principal objects of crowned heads, and their minions, are the extenfion of empire, the augmentation of a revenue, or the annihilation of their fubjects liberty. Their reftraints in the purfuit of these objects are not those of morality and religion; but folely reafons of ftate, and political caution. Plaufible words are used, but they are only ufed to hide the deformity of the real principles. Wherever a war is deemed defirable in an interefted view, a fpecious pretext never yet remained unfound. Morality is as little confidered in the beginning, as in the profecution of war. The moft folemn treaties and engagements are violated by the governing part of the nation, with no more fcruple than oaths and bonds are broken by a cheat and a villain in the walks of private life. Does the difference of rank and fituation make any difference in the atrocity of crimes? If any, it renders a thoufand times more criminal than that of a thief, the villainy of them, who, by violating every facred obligation between nation and nation,

give rife to miferies and mischiefs most dreadful in their nature; and to which no human power can fay, thus far fhall ye proceed and no farther. Are not the natural and moral evils of life fufficient, but they must be rendered more acute, more numerous, and more embittered by artificial means? My heart bleeds over those complicated fcenes of woe, for which no epithet can be found fufficiently defcriptive. Language fails in labouring to exprefs the horrors of war amid private families, who are fo unfortunate as to be fituated on↑ the feat of it.

But war has always been permitted by Providence. It is, indeed, true; but it has been only permitted as the fcourge of mankind. Let a spirit and activity be exerted in regulating the morals of a nation, equal to that with which war, and all its apparatus, are attended to, and mankind will no longer be fcourged, neither will it be neceffary to evacuate an empire of its members, for none will be fuperfluous. Let us, according to the advice of a pious Divine of the prefent age, think lefs of our fleets and armies, and more of our faith and practice. While we are warriors, with all our pretenfions to civilization, we are favages.

NC. CI. ON THE EFFECTS OF INTEMPERATE STUDY ON THE HEALTH, AND ON THE DUTY OF PAYING REGARD TO THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.

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HERE is in general but little danger left good qualities and habits fhould be carried to excess. The moralift may, for the most part, recommend every laudable and useful practice, without prefcribing any boundaries to proficiency. The probability is, that men will ftop on this fide, and not that they will go beyond the line of duty. But yet it is certain, that there are fome ingenuous fpirits, who, actuated by a generous emulation, advance in the purfuit of a favourite ex

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cellence with fo immoderate an ardour, and affiduity of application, as at once fruftrates their purpose and injures their abilities.

As I have then, on many occafions, recommended a clofe attention to ftudy, I think myfelf obliged, by motives of humanity, to fuggeft a few cautions which may prevent the evils of an intemperate application. I should, indeed, greatly lament, that any thing I have advanced in recommending to youth the cultivation of the mind, fhould lead them to neglect or injure that body on which the vigour of the mind greatly depends, and which, if it is difordered, often renders all other means of happiness and improvement ineffectual.

I am, indeed, the more inclined to enter on this fubject, as I have feen very melancholy inftances of nervous diseases entirely occafioned by intemperance in study, and its neceffary concomitant, want of air and exercise. It is one circumftance peculiarly unhappy in thefe most unhappy of all difeafes, that they feldom admit of cure, and therefore great and early vigilance fhould be exerted in their prevention.

A great ftudent ought to be particularly attentive in the regulation of his diet. We learn from the writings of phyficians, that the labour of the brain draws off thofe fpirits which are neceffary to promote digeftion. The leaft and the lighteft food under which we can poffibly be eafy, according to the advice, of the celebrated Cheney, is particularly proper for the student. Such a diet will not only render the fpirits cheerful, and invigorate all the faculties of the mind, but enable us to enjoy health with but a small share of exercise.

Exercife, however, is to be taken on every opportunity. But a folitary walk or ride, merely for the fake of exercife, and with no other object to ftimulate our progrefs, as it is of all amufements the dulleft, fo it is found rather hurtful than advantageous. The mind ftill meditates in folitude, and the body at the fame time labours; fo that both are exhausted at once, and the student returns to his clofet fatigued, dejected, and difappointed. Some little amufement muft therefore be contrived, or some business engaged in, which may operate

operate as a loadstone in attracting us, without being fenfible of our own efforts, from our libraries, up the mountain and along the foreft, where health, with all her thoufand joys, delights to fix her abode. A few cheerful companions in our walks will render them abundantly more healthful; for, according to the antient adage, they will ferve inftead of a carriage, or, in other words, prevent the fenfation of fatigue.

Dejection of fpirits is a certain confequence of intemperate study; but dejection of fpirits, long continued, cannot confift with health. After a morning spent in a closer application than common, it will often be right to devote the reft of the day to good company, and innocent pleasures. Mufic is one of thofe pleafures, and the most delightful foother of the wearied mind. The heart dances at the found of the lyre; fresh fpirits animate the veins; the clouds of dejection are diffipated, and the foul fhines out once more like the fun after a mift, in the blue expanfe of æther.

Nocturnal ftudies, too long and too closely continued, feldom fail to injure the eyes, and together with them, the whole nervous fyftem. They who are impelled by neceffity to work by night and by day, must indeed fubmit with patience to their deftiny; but that he who is mafter of his time, fhould chain himself down to a more exhaufting toil than the labour of the galley-flave, is a fpecies of folly approaching to infanity. And, indeed, I know of nothing more likely to produce madnefs than intemperate ftudy, with want of exercife, want of air, and want of fleep. It will, after all, be but a poor comfort, to have gone through a whole library, and to have loft our eyes and our fenfes in the course of the laborious progrefs.

Every man of fense will make use of all the known methods of fecuring his health, were it merely on felfifh motives, and for the fake of preferving his faculties and prolonging his life. But, omitting all felfish regards, I cannot help thinking, that an attention to the prefervation of health is an important duty. I do not recollect that it has often been recommended as a duty. But fince our health is greatly in our own power; fince we all enter into the world to engage in

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