as men are now-a-days hired to act upon the stage; and these were called gladiators, a term that grew to as great ignominy among the Romans as thief, or cutter, is amongst us. I suppose I need not take any pains to prove the unlawfulness, nay, the sottishness of such duellings, where men sold their lives for a crown or an angel; and by a preposterous way of labouring earned wages, not to get their living, but to procure their death. It argued also, by the way, a strange savageness in the Roman temper, that men, women and children should come with such eagerness to, and enjoy themselves with such delight, at those barbarous spectacles, in which their chiefest diversion and recreation was to behold these duellers kill one another upon the stage. From which custom, as vile as it was, both on their parts that beheld, and on theirs that fought, most learned men are of opinion that the use of duels, now so frequent, had its infamous original.

Sermons, vol. x. ser. 7.

VII.

Though all the works of God, even the most common, and such as every day meet our senses in the ordinary course of nature, carry in them a grandeur and magnificence great enough to entertain the observation of the most curious, and to raise the admiration of the most knowing; yet it has still been the method of Divine Providence to point out extraordinary events and passages with some peculiar characters of remark; such as may alarm the minds, and engage the eyes of the world, in a more exact observance of, and attention to, the hand of God in such great changes. And very observable it is, that the alteration of states and kingdoms, the rise and dissolution of governments, the birth and death of persons eminent in their generations, have for the most part been signalised with some unusual phenomena of nature; sometimes in the earth, sometimes in the sea, and sometimes in

the heavens themselves: God thereby shewing that the great affairs of the world proceed not without his own particular notice; and therefore certainly ought much more to challenge ours. And of this method of Providence, as the reason on God's part cannot but be most wise, so on man's (the more is our just shame), it is no less than necessary for that natural proneness in most men to irreligion, seems to gather strength from nothing more than from an observation of the constant uninterrupted course of nature, from which some are but too ready to think, whatsoever they speak, that nature is its own God, because they never see it controlled; that things always were, and always will be, as now they are; and, in a word, that the world is unchangeable, when they do not see it changed. God therefore is sometimes pleased to interpose with a high hand, and to vary the usual course of nature, thereby to convince mankind that this great fabric is not an automaton, so as to move itself, nor yet unaccountable, so as to acknowledge no superior law; but that it acts, or is rather acted by that eternal Spirit, and governed by that almighty and all-wise Artificer, that can order, govern, transpose, and, if occasion requires, take asunder the parts of it, as in His infinite wisdom He shall judge fit. Sermons, vol. xi. ser. 4.

ON the first of the days appointed, (for a bull-feast commonly lasts three,) all the gentry of the place, or near adjacent, resort to the Plaza in their most gaudy apparel, every one vying in making the most glorious appearance. Those in the lower ranks provide themselves with spears, or

a great many small darts in their hands, which they fail not to cast or dart, whenever the bull, by his nearness, gives them an opportunity. So that the poor creature may be said to fight, not only with the tauriro, (or bull-hunter, a person always hired for that purpose,) but with the whole multitude in the lower class at least. All being seated, the uppermost door is opened first; and, as soon as ever the bull perceives the light, out he comes, snuffing up the air, and staring about him, as if in admiration of his attendants; and with his tail cocked up, he spurns the ground with his fore feet, as if he intended a challenge to his yet unappearing antagonist. Then, at a door appointed for that purpose, enters the tauriro, all in white, holding a cloak in one hand, and a sharp two-edged sword in the other. The bull no sooner sets his eyes upon him, but, wildly staring, he moves gently towards him; then gradually mends his pace, till he is come within about the space of twenty yards of the tauriro; when, with a sort of spring, he makes at him with all his might. The tauriro, knowing by frequent experience, that it behoves him to be watchful, slips aside just when the bull is at him; when casting his cloak over his horns, at the same moment he gives him a slash or two, always aiming at the neck, where there is one particular place, which if he hit, he knows he shall easily bring him to the ground. I myself observed the truth of this experiment made upon one of the bulls, who received no more than one cut, which, happening upon the fatal spot, so stunned him, that he remained perfectly stupid, the blood flowing out from the wound, till, after a violent trembling, he dropped down stone dead.

Memoirs of Captain Carleton.

II.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject.

*

*

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station was calculated for all kind of virtues, and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through life, and comfortably out of it; not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head; not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things-but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning, by every day's experience, to know it more sensibly. Robinson Crusoe.

BISHOP ATTERBURY. JONATHAN SWIFT.

67

BISHOP ATTERBURY. 1662-1731.

Now the sensual man is, of all men living, the most improper for enquiries after Truth, and the least at leisure for it. He is never sedate and cool; and therefore not able to fix his attention to a point, and go through with it. He is never disinterested and impartial; and therefore not capable of deliberating freely. He is already under the dominion and power of his own lusts; and perhaps likes to be so, and is very unwilling to shake off his chains. Now such a man, so qualified, is, no doubt, a very incompetent judge of Divine Truth, and very unfit to consider the pleas that are brought for it. His search into these things is like to be with no great evenness and fairness! How can it, when he comes with strong wishes, that he may find it all a mistake? Indeed, when a man allows himself in all sorts of impurities, and is determined to go on in them; and yet finds himself under the troublesome restraint of principles, and the dread of Religion, which hangs continually over him; the only way for him to pursue his enjoyments and yet be easy, is to set his face directly against the doctrines of Religion, that give him any check or disturbance, and resolve to get rid of them as soon as

he can.

Sermons, v.

JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745.

"MY LORDS,

I.

"A pernicious opinion has for some time prevailed, not only at Rome, but among our neighbouring nations, that a man who has money enough, although he be ever so guilty cannot be condemned in this place. But, however industriously this opinion be spread to cast an odium on the senate