But then it went fo foon away And leave my little girl behind And fo did I; the day was come And when the could not feem'd to say, My little infant now is gone; I No No ruffian rude fhall ever ftain I make no doubt, on heavenly ground; To fing the lov'd redeemer's praife. It was a beautiful flower. It was committed to my care; and I watched over it with the tenderest affection; but I loved it, perhaps, too well, and it was taken from me in mercy. This is nothing, certainly, to the reader; but the question which involves the moral, is of fome import; has not the Christian decidedly the advantage over the Infidel, all things confidered even here ? W. A. SIR TO THE EDITOR. HE writings of the late Mr. Jones of Nayland will long endear Conftitution, in Church and State. They breathe fuch a fpirit of piety to God, and fuch benevolence to man, that they will continue to be read and admired, as long as piety, loyalty, and learning shall be revered and cultivated by Christians. In order, Mr. Editor, that your readers may have an opportunity of admiring, and you, at the fame time, of perpetuating in your valuable page, the letter, written by this great and good man, on the death of his wife, which but fhortly preceded his own, I take leave to transmit to you a copy of fuch letter, as taken from the Gentleman's Magazine, to the Editors of whom it was communicated by the worthy Dr. Glaffe. It will be an ornament to your Publication, for a more admirable compofition of the kind scarcely ever came from the pen of its author. If its piety and elegance shall afford but half the pleasure to you and your readers that they have to the writer of this, I fhall be happy in thinking, that I have been at all inftru mental in further communicating it to the public, through the medium of a publication, which its author highly approved, and which every good man must approve, becaufe undertaken and hitherto carried on, in defence and fupport of the Chriftian religion, of civil government, of the British Conftitation, of found learning, and of every thing that is valuable to the beft interefts of human kind. That its effects may be commenfurate with the intentions of its Editors, is the fervent prayer of, Your hearty well-wisher, Lincoln's Inn, April 1800. S. W. P. MY FRIEND, MY DEAR FRIEND, THOUG Feb. 10. 'HOUGH I am in a very low and forrowful ftate, from the preffure of a troublesome memory upon a broken heart, I am not infenfible to the expreffions of your kind confolatory letter; for which I heartily thank you, and pray that the effect of it may remain with me. The profpect which has been before me for several weeks paft, has kept my mind (too weak and foft upon all tender occafions),under continual, and, as I feared, infupportable agitation; till, after a painful ftruggle, no relief could be found, but by bowing my head with filent fubmiffion to the will of God; which came to pafs but a few days before the fatal ftroke. I have found it pleasant in time paft to do the work of God, to demonftrate his wisdom, and to defend his truth, to the hazard of my quiet and my reputation; but, O my dear friend! I never knew till now, what it was to fuffer the will of God; although my life had never been long free from trials and troubles. Neither was I fenfible of the evil of Adam's tranfgreffions till it took effect upon the life of my bleffed companion, of whom neither I nor the world was worthy, If I could judge of this cafe as an indifferent perfon, I fhould fee great reafon to give thanks and glory to God for his mercies. We hal every preparatory comfort; and death at last came in fuch a form, as to feem difarmed of his fting. A Chriftian clergyman of this neighbourhood, who is my good friend, administered the communion to her in her bed-chamber, while fhe was well enough to kneel by the fide of him; and he d clared to me afterwards, that he was charmed and edified by the fight; for, that the peace of Heaven was vifible in her countenance. I faw the fame; and would have given my life if that look could have been taken and preferved; it would have been a ferm n to the end of the world. On the last evening fhe fate with me in the parlour, where I am now writing; and I read the leff ns of the day to her as ufual, in the first of which there was this remarkable paffage-" and the time drew nigh hat I muft die." Of this I felt the effects, but made no remarks. On her laft morning we expected her below stairs; but, at eleven o'clock, as I was going out to church to join with the 'congregation in praying for her, an alarming drowsiness had seized upon her, and the feemed as a perfon literally falling afleep; till, at the point of noon, it appeared that the was gone; but the article of her dying could not be diftinguifhed, it was more like a tranflation. I have reafon to remember with great thankfulness, that her life was preferved a year longer than I expected; in confequence of which I had the bleffing of her attendance to help and comfort me under a tedious illness of the laft Summer, under which I fhould probably have funk if he had been taken away fooner. It fo pleafed God, that when he grew worfe, I became better, and able to attend her with all the zeal the tendereft affection could infpire. But how different were our fervices, the, though with the weakness of a woman, and in her feventy-fifth year, had the for titude of a man, I mean a Chriftian-And all her conversation tended to leffon the evils of .ife, while it infpired hope and patience under them. The fupport which the adininiftered, was of fuch a fort, as might have been expected from n angel; while I, when my turn came, was too much overwhelined with the affliction of a weak mortal. My lofs comprehends every thin that was most valuable to me upon earth. I have loft the manager, whofe vigilant attention to my worldly affairs, and expert method o ordering my famil, preferved my mind at liberty to purfue my studies without lofs o time, or distraction of thought; I have loft my Almoner, who knew and underfood the wants of the poor better than I did and was always ready to fupply them to the eft of our ability. I have loft my councellor, who generally knew what was beft to be done in different cafes, and to whom I always found it of fome advantage to fubmit my compofitions, and whofe mind being little difturbed with paffions, was always inclined to peaceable and Christian measures; I have loft my example, who always obferved a ftrict method of daily devotion, from which nothing could divert her, and whofe patience under every kind of trial feemed invincible. She was bleffed with the rare gift of an equal chearful temper; and preferved it under a long courfe of ill health, I may fay for forty years; to have reached her age, would to her have been impoffible, without that quiet humble fpirit, which never admitted of murmuring and complaining, either in herself or others; and patient quiet fufferers were the favourite objects of her private Charities. It might be of ufe to fome good people to know, that fhe had formed her mind after the rules of the excellent Bishop Taylor, in his Holy living and dying; an author of whom fhe was a great admirer in common with her dear friend Bishop Horne. I have loft my companion, whofe converfation was fufficient of itself, if the world was abfent-to the furprize of fome of my neighbours, who remarked how much of our time we spent in folitude, and wondered what we could find to converfe about. But her mind. was fo well furnished, and her objects fo well felected, that there were few great fubjects in which we had not a common intereft. I have loft my best friend, who, regardless of herself, fiudied my eafe and advantage in every thing, Thefe things may be fmall to others, but they are great to me; and though they are gone as a vifion of the night, the memory of them will always be upon my mind, during the remainder of my journey, which I must now travel alone. Nevertheless, if the word of God be my companion, and his Holy Spirit my guide, I need not be folitary-till I fhall once more join my departed Saint, never more to be separated; which God grant in his good time, according to his word and promife, in our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. From your faithful and afflicted, W. J. Dr. 0% Dr. ROBISON'S Proofs of a Confpiracy, &c. UR readers have already seen that this excellent work of the learned Profeffor has rouzed the indignation and called forth the attacks of foine of the leading Philofophifts of Germany. On this fubject fome farther remarks will be found in the correspondence between Mr. Walker and a Profeffor Boettiger, inferted in the Appendix to the Sixth Volume of our Review. To the able defence of Dr. Robifon, by the former, we have little to add; the Doctor's character ftands too high, both in the literary and the moral world, to require a fingle comment from us. But we have derived confiderable fatisfaction from the perufal of a letter from a Pruffian Officer to Dr. Robifon, and of another from the King of Pruffia to that Officer, who has recently tranflated the work in queftion into German, and prefented a copy of it to his Sovereign. It will, perhaps, be a mat. ter of furprife to most of our readers to find that fo much care has been taken to fupprefs this work in Germany; a circumftance which must be confidered by every impartial perfon, as a ftrong prefumptive proof of its authenticity; and as a certain proof of the impreffion which it has made on the minds of the Illuminati. While we are on this topic, we cannot refrain from laying before our readers an anecdote which has lately been communicated to us, and which perfectly correfponds with the Chevalier Von Hamelberg's account. Gofchen, a bookfeller at Leipzig, it is faid, had engaged a perfon to make a hafty tranflation of Profeffor Robifon's book, and nearly a dozen sheets had been printed, when an Englishman, who spoke German, with all the purity and fluency of a native, came to his house, and telling him, that he had himself already tranflated the work and that it would appear within a week, perfuaded Gofchen, to fell him his edition, for a handfome price, which was immediately paid. By this means, Gofchen's Tranflation was fuppreffed, and the other never appeared. The fame thing, we have been affured, occurred at Berlin.! If our readers should alfo be furprifed at the approbation bestowed on Dr. Robifon's Work by the King of Pruffia, their surprise will, at leaft, be mingled with pleasure. We truft that his Pruffian Majefty will now be induced to inveftigate the nature, tendency, and extent of thefe Jacobinical affociations, which threaten to fubvert every throne, and to deftroy all legitimate authority. For our part, we haften to pay a tribute of justice, by declaring that the informa tion which we have recently received, refpecting the principles of his Majefty, and the motives of his public conduct, has produced a material change in our opinion of him; and, though we must still deplore the effect of that conduct, and ftill queftion its wisdom and its policy, we cannot but acknowledge the strength of the provocation by which we now underftand it to have been influenced. It will not, we apprehend, be denied that the King of Pruffia is, at leaft, as competent to judge of the authenticity and merits of Dr. Robifon's work, as any of the German Literati and Philofophifts, either on the Continent or in England; nor will his Majesty's impartiality on the fubject, we conceive, be called in question. We ftrenuoufly recommend 13 |