IT has been queftioned how far that conduct is laudable, that is undertaken from the love of fame. The love of fame of itself is furely no virtuous motive. But it deferves cultivation, in fo far as it is fubfervient to the interefts of morality. The habit of acting virtuoufly, naturally tends to induce virtuous principles, and the benefit to fociety is the fame, whether the action proceeded from the love of reputation, or the pure defire of doing good. As an incentive to goodness, the love of fame is not, I apprehend, discountenanced by our religion. The complete reward of the faints fhall be enjoyed in heaven only. The force of this inferior motive is not, however, overlooked. Hence, we are told that amongst men, "The name of the wicked fhall rot, while the righteous fhall be in everlasting remembrance." By fuch a love of fame, the great and the good in every age have been more or lefs actuated. Nor have they often been afhamed to avow it. Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei vitabit libitinam, is not the vain glorious boast of the Roman lyric poet, but the natural expreffion of a fentiment infeparable from confcious excellence. Far from grudging him the enjoyment of his well earned fame, we readily fubjoin in his own words, "Sume fuperbiam meritis quæfitam." The most enviable diftinction that I know, is, by our merits, to endear ourfelves to the affections of others; and every one will allow that of all "Quique fui memores alios fecere merendo," have justly a diftinguished place affigned by Virgil in the regions of the bleffed.-Æn. vi. 664. the emotions that ever warmed the breast of man, none is more exalted or more pleafing than the reflection, that generations unborn will rife and call them bleffed. THESE obfervations naturally lead us to fpeak of that justice, which hiftory renders to the memory of thofe men whofe actions the records. Ir is the daily complaint of virtue, that vice efcapes with impunity, and fometimes leaves the world in triumph, while worth is left to languifh in obfcurity, and die difregarded. "Reputation," fays Dr Jortin, "accompanies defert as its fhadow; but fometimes the day is overcaft, and the fhadow disappears." The actions of the good are under-rated by their contemporaries; their expectations disappointed; and their beneficent actions afcribed to motives which they inly abhor. Such treatment often fuggefts reflections which even the confciousness of rectitude is fcarcely able to fupport. The fufferings of the good, however, find with pofterity an ample redrefs. The hiftoric, like the poetic muse, will not allow "the man who deferves our praife, to die." † VICE may be for a time concealed under the difguife which it affumes, but the mafk will fooner or later be torn off. And then, when authority can no longer awe, nor fuccefs dazzle the mind, the character will be estimated according to its intrinfic merits. "Cicero was To the hiftorian we may apply the beautiful lines of Jortin, in which he celebrates the power of the poet : Omnes fata trahunt ferius ocius; Jortin's Tracts, Vol. I. 8vo. abandoned by Octavius, and maffacred by Anthony." But read the following fragment of Aurelius Fufcus, and then tell me whether you would choose to be the orator or triumvir! "Quoad humanum genus immobile manferit; quamdiu ufus literis, honor fumma eloquentiæ pretium erit, quamdiu rerum natura, aut fortuna, fteterit, aut memoria duraverit, admirabile pofteris vigebis, et uno profcriptus fæculo, profcribes Antonium omnibus."Whilft the human race fhall continue; whilst learning fhall be cultivated; whilft the highest eminence in eloquence fhall be valued; fo long as the present constitution of nature shall laft, or memory en, dure; you fhall flourish in the admiration of posterity, and, profcrib. ed in one age, you fhall expofe Anthony to the deteftation of every generation. 'Tis thus hiftory does justice to the injured. It may come too late for the individual concerned. But its influence will be acknowledged to be powerful on pofterity. By thus encouraging virtue, and repreffing vice, hiftory will be allowed moft effentially to ferve the cause of morality.* WE fhall conclude this paper with a few obfervations on the ufe of history in religion. VOLTAIRE (Didionaire Historique) laughed at Boffuet's making his difcourse on universal history a handmaid to religion. Voltaire, and men like him, have laughed, and may continue to laugh at fuch a fubject. It is all they can do against it. But whoever values the dignity of his nature, or the best interefts of fociety, will cherish in Precipium annalium munus eft, ne virtutes fileantur; atque pravis dectis fatisque, ex pofteris et infamia metus fit.-Tacitus. his own breaft, the hopes of Chriftianity, and endeavour, by every means, to recommend them to o thers The man whofe mind is large enough to comprehend the difcoveries of revelation, and whose approving heart can witness, that he has nothing to fear from the Judge of all, muft read with double relish, the pages of history. In them he finds registered the difpenfations of that Being whom he loves and adores. To him hiftory is a text book for which religion furnifhes the comment. It teaches him to look beyond secondary caufes, to that unfeen Agent who difpofes of all. Actions, which seem dictated folely by human caprice, he fees were ordered by Omniscient Wisdom; and events, which men call contingent, foreseen from eternity. THE ftate of the heathen world, at the appearance of the Meffiah, and the circumftances that prepared the nations for the reception of the gofpel, were owing to no fortuitous concurrence of human affairs. The prefent ftate of the Jews, and the hif tory of the Christian church, are, on any principle of political science, abfolutely inexplicable. But taken in connection with the prophecies of fcripture, they exhibit an uncontrovertible proof, that the Most High, who fees the end from the beginning, ruleth in the kingdom of men. EVENTS, indeed, viewed fingly, and as they fall in fucceffion under obfervation, may fometimes appear difordered. But contemplated along, not only with their immediate effects, but also with their remote confequences, we perceive them working together for fome final good. The hiftory of every age abounds with inftances of this kind. We may take two from the modern hiftory of our own country. Henry C 2 VIII. VIII. of England can only, in his private character, be regarded as a headstrong capricious tyrant. His caprices, however, were under providence, the very means of bringing about the reformation. James II. fuperftitious and overbearing, thought, no doubt, to awe the people into fubmiffion to the fee of Rome. But thofe very measures on which he depended for the fuccefs of his fchemes, banished him from the throne, and fecured to Britain, fuch civil and religious priviliges, as conftitute the happiness of her inhabitants, and excite the admiration of mankind. . THE history of the world, confidered without the light which religion throws on it, would appear a chaos, where crimes and calamities fly in cafual confufion. But, if we take revelation for our guide, we fee the beginnings of a fyftem grand in idea, and benevolent in defign: a fyftem over which goodness and wifdom prefide. We fee the fame power that formed the univerfe, fuperintending the affairs of men. At his nod, kingdoms and empires rife or fall. Without his appointment or permiffion, war does not defolate the earth, nor peftilence depopulate the nations. It is he who fcattereth the men that delight in bloodshed, that binds the people in peace, and exalts the virtuous princes that blefs them. The bloody conqueror is only the rod of his wrath, to punifh men for their tranfgreffions. He forms the inftruments with which he executes his purposes, and employs them according to his pleafure. He arrefts the tyrant in the midst of his career; fets limits to the rage of the enemy, faying, Hitherto fhalt thou come but no farther. SUCH have been the discoveries, which, in many inftances, religion has made. A fimilar explanation might be given of every event, were we permitted to view it in all its bearings and connections. Thefe, in the prefent ftate, however, are concealed from man. And it is from hence, that the ufe of history, in a religious view, becomes confpicuous. From a number of facts which it records, the interference of providence is undeniable. From many circumftances it is no less evident, that he is on the fide of probity and religion. Vice is generally attended with mifery, if not with infamy. Happiness, if not glory, in the natural course of things, encircles virtue. Were this order unbroken, we would conclude, that the fcheme of moral government was in this life complete. But the daily infractions upon this order, convince us, that the plan of providence is at prefent only in its commencement. We fee enough to difcover the general tendency of things. The remaining darkness that refts on the ways of the Al. mighty is intended to imprefs more forcibly on the mind of man the belief of that future world, where righteousness shall be rewarded, and vice panifhed; the propriety of e. very difpenfation unfolded, and the mystery of God for ever finished. Longridge. W. H. For the Scots Magazine. ANECDOTE OF MALLET THE POET. MALLET had dined with a company of Literati, and the bottle paffed pretty freely. Having got into good fpirits, he was taking the whole conversation almoft upon himfelf. A Scotch Gentleman prefent, did not relish this; and wishing to ftop him, he addressed Mallet by name, and pronounced the word tollatur. Mal let was fo ftruck, that he was filent all the evening. Mallet was once Janitor of the High School of this city : the word tollatur is given by the Mafter to the Janitor, when a boy is to be flogged, who inftantly takes up the boy upon his back. Mallet did not expect that this part of his hiftory was known to any of the company. For the Scots Magazine. THE diverfity of conditions in which mankind are placed, with refpect to many natural and adventitious circumstances, has a neceffary tendency to separate the fpecies into moral claffes, diftinguished from each other by a correfponding variety of character. Among the more obvious causes of these diftinctions, may be ranked thofe defects of conformation, which destroy the symme. try of the perfon and countenance, and render them objects of furprise and difguft to the beholder. Deformity is a circumftance of too much importance to the individual in whom it exifts, not to have a powerful influence in determining the bent of his difpofition; hence, a common character may be eafily traced in those who agree in this unhappy peculiarity. What that character is, in the opinion of the world, need hardly be mentioned ; nor can it be diffembled that a degree of malevolence is univerfally esteemed its principal feature. I have always thought however, that there is a want of humanity in the unqualified language often made ufe of on this fubject by writers, who while they are only folicitous about giving point to their remarks, forget that they are wounding the feelings of a numerous and most fenfitive clafs of their readers. Lord Bacon in particular, has expreffed himfelt on the moral character of the deformed, with a feverity that might almoft be called unfeeling, and which experience is very far from juftifying. Still it mufl be acknowledged that there is fome foundation in truth for this univerfal opinion, for a leaning towards mifanthropy is undoubtedly the natural effect of remarkable inferiority in any particular to the common standard of the fpecies. THE feelings that muft arife in the mind of a deformed perfon, on comparing himself with others of the fame rank and age, may be eafily imagined. He will neceffarily be indignant at finding himfelf thus difgraced by the hand of nature, and for want of a direct object on which to fix his refentment, he will be apt to transfer a part of it to mankind in general, who, he thinks, can never look upon him but with averfion. If endowed with an ar dent character, he will burn to fignalife himself beyond his more favoured cotemporaries, and to efface the recollection of his natural disadvantage by the luftre of his acquired merit. He will therefore be ambitious; but his ambition will not De of the philanthropic kind; it will prompt him rather to make himself feared than beloved, as the chief pleafure which he propofes to himfelf in the exercife of power, is to punifh mankind for their fuppofed contempt, by enforcing their homage and mortifying their pride. Obfcure feelings of this kind will occafionally enter even the best regulated minds, however carefully they may be repreffed and difcouraged; but in tempers of a bold and un principled caft, they will be expli- I that am curtailed of this fair proportion, WITH these fentiments here expreffed, every man of a form like Richard's, cannot help feeling fomething like a momentary fympathy; nor is it poffible for him to be poffeffed with the fame complete derent spectator of the drama. teftation of the tyrant as an indiffe THIS tendency to malignity, every man who thinks will confider as by far the most serious evil attending of fymptoms of it in his own breast, deformity; and if he is confcious he will labour to overcome them, with an energy of refolution proportioned to the comprehenfion of his views, and the ftrength of his moral feelings. Befides the common motives, he has an interest pe culiar to himfelf in avoiding the culiar to himself in avoiding the him it would fall with an accumu difpleasure of mankind, because on lated weight. It may be remarked, that owing to the folitary refraints impofed by civilized manners, the natural fentiments of the fpecies difplayed in their full extent. with refpect to deformity are feldom fometimes obferve them very strongWe lefs accuftomed than their fuperiors, y expreffed by the vulgar, who are to difguife their emotions, or to rePrefs them by confiderations of propriety. Senfible of the injuftice of treating an involuntary misfortune as a crime, mankind endeavour as much as poffible to rectify their fentiments, when the object of them is in other refpects agreeable. But when malice and deformity are uni ted |