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other hand, all that induces to the toleration of it, is, to the contrary extent, a good. On this principle alone, Penitentiary Houses deserve our praise, as they tend to diminish various pains (if we may say so) of supererogation, inflicted by the legislator on a class of human beings, without any motive that is prudent, or any end that is attainable. It is Impossible, indeed, by laws to prevent prostitution; and if punishment is for the prevention of crimes, and not for the purposes of vengeance, it is absurd to punish it. But if we tolerate this evil as proceeding from necessary and overruling causes in the moral constitution of man, it surely becomes us to extend our compassion to those who fall beneath it. This is the language both of reason and of nature. There appears to be no medium between toleration and humanity to those whom we tolerate; our suffering wretches to exist in society, and our relieving the miseries to which, partly by our act, they have been exposed. Or if the calculating mind can discover a line of difference, it is such as charity must shudder at drawing. But in reality, the alms we extend to the beggar, and to which we believe there is no one that will object, proceed on the belief, that as he exists by the fated condition of our nature, and by our countenance, we ought not to deny him the means of subsistence.

If, indeed, we consider prostitution as, in a great degree, proceeding from the very weakness which, by promoting the exertions of individuals, embraces and amplifies the circle of public interest, we might perhaps be tempted to think, that as the motives that lead to the practice of it are not the most pernicious, so compassion to those misled by them is not an offence the most fatal to society. Few, very few of those, we are tempted to believe, from a survey of Mr. Colquhoun's computation, who have at present abandoned themselves to the town, have done so through any other motives than those of ambition. The desire of bettering our condition in the world, is the grand key-stone on which the fabric of huma

happiness is raised; and he surely knows little of men and of morals, who, declaiming against this principle, would openly or indirectly punish it. If it occasionally produces partial evil to individuals, it is certainly just and fair that they should suffer from the injuries they have brought on themselves, and they ever will suffer from the effects that imprudence sooner or later induces. More than this would be unjust; more than this would be inhuman! If from the misfortunes they have suffered, any are led to a sense of the errors that caused them, it surely would be illogical (to say nothing of its cruelty) to tell them, "Because you have been imprudent, we will drive you from the bosom of society; we will punish you with the utmost rigour of our power." On the contrary, what consequences could, in the instance before us, possibly result from the opposite conduct, but the lesson to the world, that the crime of prostitution is attended with such calamitous effects, that those who are guilty of it, rejoice at being restored, even by the charity of strangers, to their former situation? Such Magdalens are surely the best able to point out to others the pains they have suffered, and the miseries they have endured; and of demonstrating to them the folly of quitting the paths of virtue and of quiet, for the precipices of vice and sorrow!

Nor need we fear that, in giving the reins to our benevolence in this instance, we shall injure society; as a life of prostitution is so contrary to the apparent interests of individuals, that no prudent female who has the power of avoiding it, will submit to it; no prudent mother will hold it out as a source of emolument to her children. If the vain among the lower classes are tempted to embrace it, through the hope of ameliorating their condition, the very same principle will teach those in higher stations to avoid it. Passion may, indeed, rule a few; but prudence will constantly sway the multitude.

The contamination, however, that is suffered from the in

tercourse with a penitent sinner, it is to be hoped, is not so great as is dreaded by Mr. Hale; or Christianity is useless, and the Gospel a dead letter. But we are much inclined to think that, great as it might be, the patience that endures is more to be praised, than the pride that forbids it. The morality of the present day, however, appears to be of a gloomy aspect the religion is somewhat more terrific. "Oh! the dignity of that Being, who has an everlasting hell to be the representation of his grandeur; there he rides in magnificent though gloomy state, and marches over a world of damned heads, with most uncommiserating disregard and disdain." Reynold's Enquiry, ques. 39, p. 303, quoted in Mr. Evans's pamphlet.

But it is to be wished that philosophers, however they may delight themselves with diabolizing the pure and incomprehensible nature of Omnipotence, would abstain from introducing in their tenets the spirit of malice against his creatures. They may be eloquent in the pulpit; they may even be orthodox to the generality of their hearers; but beyond the magic of their circle they had best be silent. Not that we blame the darkness or the mystery of their learning, for of these they are the best judges; but we wonder that they should think themselves qualified by these alone, "to shed day" on subjects that require other habits of thought and other faculties. "No man," says the great Berkeley, "in virtue of being conversant with such obscure analytics, should imagine his rational faculties to be more improved than those of other men, which have been exercised in a different manner, and on different subjects; much less erect himself into a judge, and an oracle, concerning matters that have no sort of connexion with, or dependence on, those symbols or signs, in the management whereof he is conversant and expert."

It is curious, and, we will add, instructive, to listen to these philosophers when they become legislators, and desire to

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reform and to better the people. Mr. Hale (whom we by no means accuse of belonging to this sect) sets out in his plan of reform by assuring us, that were parish-officers less negligent in the duties of their station, we might expect to see fewer women abandoned to the town: thus, in effecting a reform, he supposes that a reform has already taken place, and mathematically demonstrates to us, the grand and important truth, that some members of society would be better, if others were not worse. But the ɛos año μexans the personage who is to untie every doubt and overcome every difficulty, is, with him, and with all reformists of his school, a justice of the peace. This great officer in all plans of reformation, is always to perform a difficult but important office in the animal œconomy of society-no less than that of supplying the hot water that cures all ills. We mention this as highly to the honour of the reformists, as it proves them to possess that which is always a characteristic of genius, we mean, simplicity of invention; it shews them likewise to be great admirers of our present laws, and consequently great patriots. But it is worth their while, seriously, solemnly, and deliberately, to consider, whether, on the whole, after an accurate and minute view of the subject in all its bearings, it would be beneficial to the public to add to the natural abstruseness of Burn's Justice. By reason, indeed, according to Hooker, man attaineth to the knowledge of things that are and are not sensible; so that probably, in time, these addenda to Burn might be perfectly intelligible: but then, according to the same author, had Adam continued in his first estate, this had been the way of life unto him, and all his posterity.

We conclude these observations, which we fear have been tedious to the reader, with the observation of a good man and great divine, with whose works we wish that all dissenters, of every class and denomination, would make themselves con

versant.

"Yea, I am persuaded, that of them, with whom in this

cause we strive, there are whose betters amongst men would be hardly found, if they did not live amongst men, but in some wilderness by themselves." Hooker, b. 1.

-1 vol. royal

THE COLUMBIAD, A POEM. BY JOEL BARLOW 8vo. 342 pages of verse, 74 of notes, 33 of introduction, and an index. Phillips, London. 1809.

THERE is more injury to be dreaded from overlooking the errors of a bad book, than from depreciating the merits of a good one. The undeserved success of a feeble or affected writer, continues to have a baneful influence on the world of literature, long after the temporary tumult of popular applause has subsided into silence. It may be doubted, therefore, whether the critic, who should treat the spurious offspring of a perverted taste, or a prurient imagination, with a weak and mistaken tenderness, would not be guilty of greater injustice to the interests of literature, than he whose veneration for established excellence should lead him to receive the first attempts of a meritorious writer with a degree of sceptical frigidity, that his friends and admirers might hastily ascribe to the influence of dishonourable passions.

Whatever the phalanx of unsuccessful writers may be willing to assert, of the malignity and injustice of modern criticism, a very slight review of the literary history of the last century must convince the disinterested part of our readers, that the majority of the periodical journals are rather to be condemned for undeserved indulgence than for undue severity. Of the innumerable productions which have received the rapturous plaudits of contemporary critics, how few have descended to posterity; or passed from the last generation to the present, with a character in any degree elevated above that

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