account only it were to be wifhed terms of accommodation could be propoled; but while they continue to fet fo little value on the enemy, I despair of fo favourable a termination.

In this ftate of matters, and with the profpect of another year before us, it becomes the duty of every perfon, to whom Time is an enemy, to confider by what means he is to be affailed, and what preparations may be required for the approaching feafon. Of thefe I hear of very few, and I fear there is a Jangour and want of vigour prevailing in every department. It is no doubt my bulinefs, as a Projector, to apply my fkill to all extraordinary emergencies; but, as I have not the honour to belong to the clafs of whom I am fpeaking, I do not fympathize fo tenderly with them as to feel any remarkable ftimulus on the occafion: indeed, it has never been known that any Pro jector belonged to this clafs. Our fock of time is like all our other ftocks, fcarcely fufficient for our neceflities, and we must hufband the little we have with great care, inftead of flattering ourfelves that we are burthened with a furplus; I fhall, however, propofe that the parties of whom I have been fpeaking fhould affemble in fome fpacious hall or room, and take into confideration the wants of the approaching feafon, and how they are to be provided for, what additional abfurdities may be introduced, and what farther infults may be offered with impunity to the religion or laws of the land; and, although I feldom defcend fo low as to frame an advertisement, yet, perhaps, the following may afford an outline, and it is very much at their fervice.

The CONSUMERS of TIME are defired to meet at the Racket Tavern, ou the day of -to take into confideration the prefent gloomy ftate of their affairs, and provide for the exigencies of the fix months following."

When I obferved that few fchemes have yet been announced to fill up the miferable vacancies of time and thought for the feafon, I ought to have mentioned, that, according to the information of the newfpapers, a new theatre is to be built, and fupported by fubfeription, on which all the performers, male and female, are to be children under a certain age. This, as far as it goes, looks well, as it has in fo

It

many inftances been found, that children's play is highly attractive. will alfo have another powerful recommendation, by affording a more eafy, because a more early way, of training up young females in the way that many of the fubfcribers will with them to go, and from which, when they are old, there is not much chance that they will depart.

But, if we except this equally rational and philanthropic plan, I am afraid that the clafs of perfons, who complain of the length of time, are entering upon another year very fcantily provided with the means of existence, or of living with any degree of comfort. Should they, therefore, decline the propofal I have made, to affemble together and endeavour to do fomething for themfelves, which, I allow, is at all times particularly difficult and irk fome, I would fain hope that fome charitable and well-difpofed perfons may take their unhappy cafe into confideration, and invent fome means of furnishing them with fuch a quantity of frivolities and frolics as may make life bearable. We have an admirable fociety for bettering the condition of the poor; but I cannot help thinking, that the condition of the rich is fully as deplorable. Difficulties, indeed, would naturally prefent themfelves in obftruction to the wifeft plan humanity might propofe; and one of the chief of thefe difficulties is, the wonderful conceit of thefe objets. This is well defcribed in an old book, which being fearce among them, and the paflage not very long, I will tranfcribe. “Thou fayeft, I am rich, and increated with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweft not that thou art wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked."-Surely, fuch objects, wherever difficulties be in the way, deferve the pity and active benevolence of a nation, fo dignified by its many publick and private charitable eftablishiments; and I am happy to obferve, that fome means of relief have been very firongly recommended of late years, both from the pulpit and the prefs; and I fhall be yet more happy, if the addition of my feeble telimony can in any degree corroborate the fact, fo often repeated and fo feldom remembered, that a lover of amufement is the moft foolish, and an idle perfon the moft miferable of all human beings.

Mr.

Jan. 2.

Mr. URBAN,
HE late Mr. Unwin, of Stock,

THE

has been held out by fome as me thodifically inclined. But if it be true that he had the happy faculty of reforming the parish profligate to a proverb, does it not become every incumbent to enquire by what means he effected this public benefit? Your correfpondent Amicus (vol. LVII. p. 4) declares that, "among his many acquaintance of refpectable Clergymen of the Eliablishment, he never found Mr. U.'s equal both for exertion and fuccefs. He held weekly religious meetings at his own houfe; gave fervent exhortations to poor people from the pulpit; familiar catechetical lectures to their children; affectionate vifits to

their families; vigilant attention to their temporal interefts: liberally fupplied their wants, of which he kindly impelled the approach, or prevented the preffure inflexibly oppofed the oppreflion of the powerful, and exerted hinfelf to curb the libertinifm of the poor. The fweetnefs of his addrefs, and, above all, the thining example of his life, both in the world and in his family, formed altogether fo ftrong an argument for virtue and religion, as only a very few of the moft abandoned of his people could refiti. Accordingly, the parish of Stock is now an example of public decency to the neighbourhood; the congregation in few country villages are fo numerous, and in none that I have ever heard of fo orderly and devout. Where there is a general external reformation there must be fome genuine piety.”

We fee here, Mr. Urban, that the reformation of the people muft begin

with the minifter. But are there no

villages at the fame difiance from London, or the other great cities of the kingdom, that fland in need of reformation, or have received it--by the calin and gradual mode of perfeverance and affiduity; for nothing is to be done in a hurry, in a paffion, or in a pet? Human reformation, like human ingequity, is progreffive. Teaching is not inftantaneons, nor knowledge to be beat into the brains, or reflection into the heart. We all know that a dance cannot be made bright by the rod, nor a-bad man made a good one in an inftant. If any parish prieft expects all the charms of language or delivery to work converfion, he will find hinifelf miferably mistaken; and if he leaves

the effect of his difcourfe to chance, without farther co-operation, he nay as well leave the fermion on the defk, or his gown on the pulpit door. If he upbraids the people with their profigacy, he hardens them in it, and they will never come to hear him. If he vifits them only when fent for, or catechifes only quarterly in public, he might pafs for the merett formalift, and the hearts of his parishioners be alienated from him inftead of being attached to him. But, while I define what he should be, how much muft every true Chriftian lament that every minifter is not. CHRISTIANUS.

AN American traveller over part of

the Continent of Europe, as Minifter Plenipotentiary from the United. States to the Court of Berlin, and he the eldeft fon of the late Prefident Adams, muft have viewed with different eyes from travellers of our own country a puppet-thew exhibition of the Pallion of our Lord.

"The greatest curiofities of Bunzlau are two mechanical geniufes by the name of Jacob and of Hiittig, a carpenter and a weaver, who are next door neighbours to each other. The firft has made a machine, in which, by the means of certain clock-work, a number of puppets, about fix inches high, are made to move upon a kind of ftage, fo as to reprefent, in feveral fucceffive fcenes, the paffion of Jefus Chrift. The first exhibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apostles are fleeping at a distance. In the laft he is fhewn dead in the fepulchre, guarded by two Roman foldiers. The of Judas, the examination of Jefus before intervening fcenes reprefent the treachery Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews concerning him, the denial of Peter, the fcourging, and the crucifixion. It is all accompanied by a mournful dirge of mufick; and the maker, by way of explanation, repeats te paffages of Scripture which relate the events he has undertaken to fhew. I ne er faw a ftronger proof of the ftrength of the impreffion of objects, which are brought immediately home to the fenfes. I have heard and read more than one eloquent fermon upon the paffion; but I confefs, none of their most laboured efforts at the

pathetic ever touched my heart with one half the force of this puppet-fhow. The traitor's kifs, the blow ftruck by the high prieft's fervant, the fcourging, the nailing to the crofs, the fpunge of vinegar, every indignity offered, and every