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ture seems to intimate, when it speaks off new heavens and of vas new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. erated airi a. I have only considered this glorious place with regard to the sight and imagination, though it is highly probable that our other senses may here like wise enjoy otheir highest gratifications. of There is nothing which more ravishes and transports the soul than harmony and we have great reason to believej from the descriptions of this place in holy scripture, that this is one of the entertainments of it. And if the soul of mans can be so wonderfully affected with those strains of music which human art is capable of producing, how much more will it be raised and elevated by those in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! The senses are faculties of the human soul, though they cannot be employed, during this our vital union, without proper instruments in the body; why therefore should we exclude the satisfaction of these faculties, which we find by ex perience are inlets of great pleasure to the soul, from among those entertainments which are to make up our happiness hereafter? Why should we suppose that our hearing and seeing will not be gratified with those objects which are most agreeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in these lower regions of nature; objects, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive? I knew a man in Christ (says St. Paul, speaking of himself) above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth,) such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter. By this is meant, that what he heard was so infinitely different from any thing which he had

heard in this world, that it was impossible to express it in such words as might convey a notion of it to his hearers.

"It is very natural for us to take delight in enquiries concerning any foreign country, where we are some time, or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and useful curiosity, to get what information we can of it, whilst we make use of revelation for our guide. When these everlasting doors shall be opened to us, we may be sure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely transcend our present hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rise infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here entertain ourselves with many other speculations on this subject, from those several hints which we find of it in the holy scriptures; as whether there may not be different mansions and apartments of glory, to beings of different natures; whether, as they excel one another in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifestations, of his presence; whether there are not solemn times and occasions, when all the mul titude of heaven celebrate the presence of their Maker in more extraordinary forms of praise and adoration; as Adam, though he had continued in a state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our divines, have kept holy the Sabbath-day in a more particular manner than any other of the seven, These, and the like speculations, we may very innocently indulge, so long as we make use of them to inspire us with a desire of becoming inhabitants of this delightful place.

"I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the most serious subject that can employ the mind of man, the omnipresence of the Deity; a subject which, if possible, should never depart VOL. III:

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from our meditations. ons. We have considered the Divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells she among his works, as he is present to the mind of man, and as he discovers himself in a more glorious. manner among the regions, of the blessed. Such a consideration should be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and possess our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence. It should be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the consciousness of our own being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philosophy, but ought to sink us into the lowest prostration before him, who is so astonishingly great, wonderful, and holy.

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No 582. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18.

-Tenet insanabile multos,

Scribendi Cacoethes

Juv.

THERE is a certain distemper, which is mentioned neither by Galen nor Hippocrates, nor to be met with in the London Dispensatory. Juvenal, in the motto of my paper, terms it a cacoethes which is a hard word for a disease called in plain English, the itch of writing. This cacoethes is as epidemical as the small-pox, there being very few who are not seized with it some time or other in their lives. There is, however, this difference in these two distempers, that the first, after having indisposed you for a time, never returns again; whereas this I am speaking of, when it is once got into the blood, seldom comes out of it. The British nation is very much afflicted with this malady; and though very many remedies have been applied to persons infected with it, few of them have ever proved suc

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cessful. Some have been cauterised with satires and lampoons, but have received little or no benefit from themothers have had their heads' fastened for an hour together between a cleft board, which is made use of as a cure for the disease when it appears in its greatest malignity. There is indeed one kind of this malady which has beeen sometimes removed, like the biting of a tarantula, with the sound of a musical instrument, which is commonly known by the name of a cat-call. But if you have a patient of this kind under your care, you may assure yourself, there is no other way of recovering him effectually, but by forbidding him the use of pen, ink, and

paper.

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But to drop the allegory before I have tired it out, there is no species of scribblers more offensive, and more, incurable, than your periodical writers, whose works return upon the public on certain days, and at stated times. We have not the con solation in the perusal of these authors, which we find at the reading of all others, namely, that we are sure, if we have but patience, we may come to the end of their labours. I have often admired an humorous saying of Diogenes, who reading a dull author to several of his friends, when every one began to be tired, finding he was almost come to a blank leaf at the end of it, cried, "Courage, lads; I see land." On the contrary, our progress through that kind of writers I am now speaking of, is never at an end: one day makes work for another, we do not know when to promise ourselves rest.

It is a melancholy thing to consider, that the art of printing, which might be the greatest blessing to mankind, should prove detrimental to us, and that it should be made use of to scatter prejudice and ignorance through a people, instead of conveying to them truth and knowledge. Es demi

I was very lately reading a very whimsical treatise, I entitled, "William Ramsey's Vindication of Astro

logy. This profound author, among many mystical passages, has the following one effThe absencé of the sun is not the cause of night, sforasmuch as his light is so great that it may illuminate the earth all over at once as clear as

tenebrificous and day day; but there are

stars, by whose influence night is brought on, and which do ray our darkness and obscurity upon the earth, as the sun does light. "of ni podolding quanto no to yusM

Deconsider writers in the same view this sage astrologer does the heavenly bodies. Some of them are stars that scatter light, aso others ido darkness. I could mention several authors who are tenebrificous stars of the first magnitude, and point out a knot of gentlemen who have been dull in concert, and may be looked upon as a dark constellation. The nation has been a great while benighted with several of these antiluminaries. I suffered them to ray out their darkness as long as I was able to endure it, till at length I came to a resolution of rising upon them, and hope in a little time to drive them quite out of the British hemisphere.

EVERY station of life has duties which are proper ?torit! Those who are determined by choice to any particular kind of business, are indeed more happy than those who are determined by necessity, but both are under an equal obligation of fixing on en$ployments, which may be either useful to themselves, or beneficial to others. No one of the sons of