right ungodliness, amusements, racing, hunting, gambling, visiting and intriguing-setting out for Newmarket on a Sunday, &c. Would the gentlemen of the turf come the more to church if the Athanasian Creed were struck out, &c.? It is not true that these doctrines " are acknowledged to be ill founded and unscriptural by "every clergyman of learning and candour;" or that "no man of sense and learning can maintain "them." There have been and are many instances both of laity and clergy that hold them to be scriptural, and maintain them as such. The abettors of heresy and infidelity are not the only men of sense in the nation, [in good manners they certainly do not abound.] Dr. Middleton, when he had apostatized, by men of sense meant infidels. [This article was occasioned by a pamphlet styled Hints, &c. ascribed to the D. of G.] AVARICE. 1. A canine appetite inclines persons to take down their food in such quantities, that they vomit it up again like dogs. So Job of the rapacious greedy oppressor: "He hath swallowed down "riches, and he shall vomit them up again." Chap. xx. 15. What is avarice, but such an appetite of the mind? 2. He, who flatters himself that he resolves to employ his fortune well, though he should acquire it ill, ought to take this with him, that such a compensation of evil by good may be allowed after the fact, but is deservedly condemned in that purpose. And it may be observed, that a resolution of this kind, taken beforehand, is seldom carried into act afterwards. Nemo unquam imperium flagitiis quæsitum bonis artibus exercuit.-Tacit. Hist. i. -No one ever exercised with virtue power obtained by crimes. 3. The eagerness with which some men seek after gold would lead one to imagine it had the power to remove all uneasiness, and make its possessors completely happy; as the Spaniards pretended to the Mexicans, that it cured them of a pain at the heart, to which they were subject. 4. Riches will make a man just as happy as the emperor of Siam's white elephant, who is ridden by nobody, lives at his ease, is served in plate, and treated like a monarch. 5. It is worthy of observation, that Perseus, who lost the Macedonian empire, was infamous for his avarice; and Paulus Emilius, his conqueror, so en tirely the reverse, that he ordered all the gold and silver, that was taken, into the public treasury, without seeing it; nor ever was one farthing the richer for his victories, though always generous, of his own, to others. 6. At a time when Persian bribes were very rife at Athens, a porter humorously proposed, that twelve of the poorest citizens should be annually sent ambassadors to the Persian court, to be enriched by the king's presents. Ibid.—Poor men should be made ministers of state in England, for the same purpose. BEARS. THEIR sagacity is very great. The Kamtschadales are obliged to them for what little advancement they have hitherto made, either in the sciences or the polite arts. From them they learned the value of simples for internal use and external application. They acknowledge the bears likewise for their dancing-masters: what they call the bear dance is an exact counterpart of every attitude and gesture peculiar to this animal, through its several functions and this is the foundation and groundwork of all their other dances, and what they value themselves most upon. King, iii. 308, chap. v. : xx. 15. What is avarice, but such an appetite of the mind? 2. He, who flatters himself that he resolves to employ his fortune well, though he should acquire it ill, ought to take this with him, that such a compensation of evil by good may be allowed after the fact, but is deservedly condemned in that purpose. And it may be observed, that a resolution of this kind, taken beforehand, is seldom carried into act afterwards. Nemo unquam imperium flagitiis quæsitum bonis artibus exercuit.-Tacit. Hist. i. -No one ever exercised with virtue power ob tained by crimes. 3. The eagerness with which some men seek after gold would lead one to imagine it had the power to remove all uneasiness, and make its possessors completely happy; as the Spaniards pretended to the Mexicans, that it cured them of a pain at the heart, to which they were subject. 4. Riches will make a man just as happy as the emperor of Siam's white elephant, who is ridden by nobody, lives at his ease, is served in plate, and treated like a monarch. 5. It is worthy of observation, that Perseus, who lost the Macedonian empire, was infamous for his avarice; and Paulus Emilius, his conqueror, so en tirely the reverse, that he ordered all the gold and silver, that was taken, into the public treasury, without seeing it; nor ever was one farthing the richer for his victories, though always generous, of his own, to others. 6. At a time when Persian bribes were very rife at Athens, a porter humorously proposed, that twelve of the poorest citizens should be annually sent ambassadors to the Persian court, to be enriched by the king's presents. Ibid.- -Poor men should be made ministers of state in England, for the same purpose. BEARS. THEIR sagacity is very great. The Kamtschadales are obliged to them for what little advance'ment they have hitherto made, either in the sciences or the polite arts. From them they learned the value of simples for internal use and external application. They acknowledge the bears likewise for their dancing-masters: what they call the bear dance is an exact counterpart of every attitude and gesture peculiar to this animal, through its several functions and this is the foundation and groundwork of all their other dances, and what they value themselves most upon. King, iii. 308, chap. v. |