4

the ear round about, as if there had been a thousand iron chariots beating upon the stones. And if you opened your eye to the opening of the street where the fire was come, you might fee, in some places, whole ftreets at once in flames, that issued forth as if they had been so many great forges from the opposite windows, which folding together, were united in one great flame throughout the whole street; and then you may fee the houses tumble, tumble, tumble, from one end of the ftreet to the other, with a great crash, leaving the foundations open to the view of the heavens" The fire, mocking every effort for its extinction, seemed, indeed, fiery devastation

ine

cealed, and the most flourishing portion of one heap of fmoaking ruins,

Thus, at the final conflagration, shall the WORLD itself be destroyed. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: the earth also, and the works that are therein hall be burned up. Nor will the victims have time to fpeculate whence the conflagration hath arisen. Not to the malignity of party, or to the carelessness of indi viduals, shall this catastrophe be ascribed. For in the just vengeance of Almighty God will it originate, and - be deemed a righteous, though awful punishment for the manifold offences of its inhabitants †.

"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The folemn temples, the great GLOBE itself,
And all which it inherit, shall DISSOLVE,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vifion,
Leave not a wreck behind!"

But from the destruction of this lower ORB the righteous have nothing to fear. For them (fuch is the cheering assurance of revelation) the Divine Being hath pre

* Peter ii. 3. 10.

+ See Burnet's Theory of the Earth.

pared

pared a nobler habitation. Into regions of unfullied purity and of permanent bliss shall they enter. Happy period! Illustrious era! These seats of felicity arethe new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

M

MENTAL BEAUTY.

(Concluded from page 62.)

ENTAL acquirements are inexhaustible happiness. To a want of these is owing that liftless langour, that peevish infipidity which fo often pervades the clofing years of life.

A man, whose mind is stored with knowledge, flies not from himself in search of undiscoverable happiness; he has that within him which defies the ravages of time; his foul is still young. The bright energies of the mind, foaring far beyond the narrow limits of terreftrial fight, rove unconfined through the vast system of nature; the planetary world presents its varied beauties to the piercing sense, and the extended universe itself is open to inspection. On the other hand, the man whose whole life has been spent in the acquisition of riches which he cannot enjoy, labours under the last years of existence, and flies in vain to auxiliary aids: Impotent are all his efforts, for nothing can charm the foul unadorned with mental beauty. To him the lazy hours drag heavily on; and all the beauties of creation appear as fable spots floating in a wide-extended Vacuum: Nature has never been studied in her native dress, and all her charms, when presented to him, lose their attractive influence,

A contraction of ideas confines the grovelling foul, or fuffers it to ramble only among the wilds of folly. The sports of childhood, when compared to the amusements of ignorant old age, are feats of manly prowess; and

the

the prattling of a lifping infant, fuperior to the ideotifm of years. In whatever sphere of life we move, mental beauties will ever charm the eye of sense, and the emanations of knowledge ever enliven the focial

hour.

The tender buds of genius, carefully cultured in the dawn, will in the meridian of life, bloom in full expanfion; but if neglected then, they will wither and decay, and a fterile stalk alone remaining, will re proach the folly of inattention.

The tranfient charms of external beauty, may for a time enchant the youthful lover; the maiden may gaze with rapture on the manly form, but nothing short of intrinfic merit can prove the existence of continued love. Mental worth alone, can support its poffeffor against the attacks of fate or fortune; and afford him a permanent delight, when the paffions are impotent and disgusting:

CARLOS,

LETTER FROM A SEARCHER:

MR. EDITOR,

W

HEN I addressed you on the Phyfiogriony of Pens, I did not mean to trifle either with you or your readers. Indeed the gentleman who has taken up the fubject in continuation, and, as he says, in illuftration of my remarks, feems to give me the credit of feriousness: he only thinks, that I have been defective in my attempts. To that gentleman's intention, perhaps, "the public are as much indebted" as to the original propofer of the inquiry; but I trust I may be permitted to say, what I shall afterwards endeavour to prove, that they are not equally indebted to the manner in which your late correfpondent has thought fit to execute his intention.

"There is fcarcely an individual of any observation

or

1

or experience in the world, who can deny the truth of phyfiognomy." Consequently Mr. Rees does not deny it. But, fays he-" Shenstone professed only to decypher in the hand-writing of a person the inflexions of his mind: nor do I think that we can purfue this science any farther." Now mark, fir, I entreat you, the after conceffion of Mr. Rees. "All that we can judge," fays he, " of the face, from the writings of a person, is his countenance." Has the countenance any thing to do with the face? You will pardon this question, Mr. Editor, for, if I may believe Mr. Rees, who I take to be "an individual of observation and experience in the world," I have hitherto laboured under a most dismal mistake. In my phyfiognominical researches, which have not been made without confiderable pains and attention, both to written documents and living characters, I have always understood, that the countenance composed a part of the face. And in this, I am compelled to own, even in the language of my commentator, that, according to him, I have "confounded two principles, or rather two distinct sciences, and thus made several parts of my enquiry appear inconfiftent and fallacious."

"In reading the productions of an author, the generality of mankind are seldom led to form a proper eftimate of his mental beauties. The reason appears to me to be, the mistaken idea which they entertain of writers, and of their particular province, latitude, and power." I here suppose, Mr. Editor, in common with your correfpondent Mr. Rees, that the man who is ignorant of his subject, cannot form a proper estimate of it. This I take to be the meaning of the present writer; and it is, perhaps, one of the most indifputable positions he has advanced. After this we are told, at least in effect, that an author who is devoid of fenfibility, cannot awaken it in the breast of his readers. I aim also disposed to grant this.

But your correfpondent's gravity was put to a severe trial, when he perused the examples adduced by

the

t

the gentleman to illustrate his subject." Had the writer of this passage been converfant with a poem, entitled "The BAVIAD," or had he not been totally unacquainted with the contemporary literature of his country, he would have known that I had little merit in adducing what most people knew. If he will turn to that publication, which may be ferviceable in other respects, he will no longer be aftonished at the examples I have so strangely brought forward. On these accounts it should feem, the reader's judgment had been mif led, in conceiving mental elegance to be allied only to corporeal beauty." Perhaps, fir, in perusing the latter sentence, you do not perceive the full force of "only:" -a most dexterous evafion. Corrupted, and most miferably corrupted, must be the taste of that man, while his judgment must be on a par with his taste, who can conceive that mental elegance, or worth, is allied only to corporeal beauty.

"He has," says Mr. R. to the author of The PLAINTIFF, No. II. " in one place, introduced Cleopatra as a woman possessed of no great personal charms, and immediately after he introduces Des Carte's admiration of Newton; thus confounding beauty of perfon and superiority of mind." May I be allowed to say, as I know fomething of The Plaintiff, No. II. that its author has done no such thing. On the contrary, that he has, in the manner in which impartiality requires, merely instanced Cleopatra, and Mary Queen of Scots, as examples that militate against his theory, and which he next proceeds to controvert by another train of reafoning and example. If there be any confufion in the business, Mr. Rees, who seems very fond of the word " confound," has gone very far, indeed, to confufe and confound his readers.

" When reading the works of Newton, we imagine to ourselves a countenance ferene, elevated, mild, and at the same time majestic. The Essays of Locke bring to our view a countenance more grave, fixed, and profound