tive of quitting the ftates of his majefty, or of being hanged. He preferred the former. FREDERIC, KING OF PRUSSIA. VOLTAIRE tells us in his age of Lewis the XV. that Frederic in 1740, fet out for Silefia at the head of 30,000 men. It was proposed to adorn his standard with the motto PRO DEO ET PATRIA-For God and my Country; but he erafed the name of GOD, faying, "That it was improper to introduce the name of the Deity in the quarrels of men, and that he was going to war for a province and not for RELIGION!" TALL REGIMENT. In his reviews of this tall regiment, Frederic was frequently attended by foreign minifters. When the ambaffadors from France, Spain, and England were prefent, he asked them whether an equal number of his countrymen would engage with thefe gigantic foldiers! The ambaffadors of France and Spain anfwered the queftion in the negative, whilft the English ambaffador, with a spirit characteristic of his nation, replied, "I cannot, Sir," faid he, "take upon me to affert that an equal number of my countrymen would beat them, but this I think I may venture to affirm, thatHALF the number would try!!" THE SAILOR'S PETITION. The Captain of one of the British frigates, a man of undaunted bravery, had a natural antipathy to a cat. A Sailor, who for fome misconduct had been ordered a flogging, faved his hide by presenting to his Cap tain the following petition: By your honour's command, A culprit I ftand, An example to all the fhip's crew. A Cat A Cat, I am told, In abhorrence you hold→ If a Cat with one tail Makes your ftout heart to fail, O fave me from one that has nine! CROMWELL AND THE DEVIL. DR. THOMAS NETTLETON, of Halifax, one of the instructors of profeffor Sanderson in the mathematics, being one day in company with several gentlemen one of them was laying great ftrefs upon Dean Eckard's account of Cromwell's felling himself to the Devil before the battle of Worcester, affirming that the bargain was intended for 21 years, but that the Devil had put a trick upon Oliver, by tranfpofing the figures, and fo leffening the term nine years; and then turning hastily to the doctor, asked him what could be the Devil's motive for fo doing? The doctor, without hefitation replied, "He fuppofed he was in a hurry for the reftoration." IGNORANCE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE BEFORE THE REFORMATION. DR. JOHN FAVOUR, Vicar of Halifax, tells a ftory (as an inftance of the ignorance which prevailed amongst the people at large, when the Scriptures were kept from them) of a woman who, when he heard the account of the fufferings and death of Chrift read in English, wept bitterly, and tenderly compaffionated fo great an outrage done to the Son of God; but after fome paufe, and recollection of her fpirits, fhe asked, where this was done? and when it was answered, many thousand miles off, at Jerufalem, and about 1500 years ago. "Then," fays fhe, if it was fo far off, and fo long ago, by the grace of God it may prove a lie." And with this thought the comforted herself. WALKING. WALKING. I CAN conceive, fays Rouffeau, of but one way of travelling pleasanter than on horfeback; and that is going on foot. You fet out at your own time; you ftop when you pleafe; you take as much or as little exercife as you choose; you view all the country; you turn to the right or to the left; you examine every thing which strikes you; you ftop at every point of view. Do I fee a river; I coaft along it. Do I approach a hanging wood; I walk under its fhade. A grotto; I enter it. A quarry; I examine its ftrata. Wherever I perceive any thing which invites me I ftop. The moment my curiofity is fatisfied I depart, without waiting for horfes or poftillions. I am not curious about picking out beaten paths, or convenient ways, but I tread wherever a man may pafs; I fee whatever man can fee; and being dependent on no one but myself, I enjoy the most perfe&t liberty which man can poffefs. What I moft regret, refpecting those particulars of my life which I do not remember, is, my not having kept a journal of my travels. Never did I think, exift, live, or was myself, if I may fo exprefs it, fo much as in thofe journies I have made alone, and on foot. Walking has fomething in it which animates and enlivens my ideas. I can fcarcely think when I ftand ftill. My body muft ftir in order to ftir my mind. The view of the country, the fucceffion of agreeable fights, a good air, a good appetite, and good health, I get by walking. The freedom of inns, the distance of thofe objects which force me to fee subjection, of every thing which reminds me of my condition; the whole gives a loose to my foul, gives me more boldness of thought, and feeins to carry me into the immensity of beings: fo that I combine them, choose them, and appropriate them to my will, without fear or restraint. I imperiously difpofe of all nature. My heart, wan VOL. VII. M dering dering from object to object, unites, and becomes the fame with thofe which engage it. It is compaffed about by delightful images, and grows intoxicated with delicious fenfations. If to determine them, I divert myfelf by painting them in my mind, what vigorous touches, what refplendent colouring, what energy of expreffion do I not give them ! In another place he fays, "I made a dinner, fuch as thofe only who travel on foot were ever acquainted with. I travelled on foot in my beft days only, and always with delight." He alfo informs us that he was fo fond of walking, that he was extremely defirous of making the tour of Europe on foot, in company with Diderot, and another literary friend. They agreed to undertake fuch a journey; but the project never took effect. An English clergyman thus expreffes himself upon this fubject. "He who travels on foot has an opportunity of wandering from hill to hill, from ftream to ftream, and from one rich valley to another; of dwelling on lovely landfcapes and delicious fcenes; and of feeing numberlefs objects and numberless places, which are inacceffible to the horfeman, and never were seen by any one whirled through the country in the state prifon of a coach. For thefe, and many other reasons, I choose to make use of my own legs, and prefer the wholefome exercife of walking to all the modes of conveyance which effeminacy and luxury can invent." FRIENDSHIP. WE are often led to the choice of friends, by a fimilarity of tafte or of manners; and fuch friendship is increased by mutual fervices, or by the pleasure reciprocally taken in each other's converfation. But there can be no folid friendship of which virtue is not the bafis. There may be occafional confederacies and affociations of the wicked and the profligate; but goodness of heart is an indifpenfable requifite in the formation of a-fincere and genuine friendship. In In forming friendships we fhould remember, that in all human beings there is imperfection. If our friends, therefore, do upon the whole poffefs amiable qualities, and have a real attachment to us, it is not wife, or reafonable to break with them for fmall caufes. "He," fays bifhop Taylor, "that is angry with every little fault, breaks the bones of friend ihip." If we mean that friendship fhould be lafting, there must be fome degree of mutual candour and indulgence. He who expects that his friend, though wife and virtuous, fhould never be in the wrong, must be disappointed, and he who has the vanity to fuppofe that himself is always right, has that in him which is inconfiftent with a durable, virtuous friendship. SIEGE OF LONDONDERRY, IN IRELAND, JULY 1689. [From Leland's Hiftory of Ireland.] AMONG the refolute and active northerns whe took arms against Tyrconnel, and his mafter James the Second, was GEORGE WALKER, a clergyman of a Yorkshire family, and rector of a parish in the county of Tyrone. The danger and turbulence of the time, when the affiftance of every man became neceflary, called him forth in the defence of law, liberty, and religion; and in a cause the most glorious that a citizen can efpoufe, he was zealous and indefatigable. He raised a regiment, and commanded it. He flew from poft to poft, conferred with the leaders, and animated the people, who were the more convinced of their danger when a man of his peaceable profeffion appeared in arms. As the enemy grew more formidable by the arrival of James, he felt an increafing ardour. He haftened to Derry; he informed Lundy of the approach of this king, reminded him of his former declarations, entreated M 2 |