. Statement of the Principles of the Roman Catholics. according to the private reafon or judgement of each particular perfon or nation; but, 7. It is an attention and fubmiffion to the voice of the Catholic or univerfal church, established by Chrift for the instruction of all; fpread for that end through all nations, and visibly continued in the fucceffion of paftors and people through all ages. From this church, guided in truth, and secured from error in matters of faith, by the promised assistance of the Holy Ghoft, every one may learn the right fenfe of the Scriptures, and such Christian myfteries and duties as are neceflary to falvation. 8. This church, thus established, thus fpread, thus continued, thus guid ?ed in one uniform faith, and fubordination of government, is that which is termed the Roman-catholic church; "the qualities just mentioned, unity, indeficiency, vifibility, fucceffion, and univerfality, being evidently applicable to her. 9. From the testimony and authority of this church it is that we receive the Scriptures, and believe them to be the word of God: and as the can affuredly tell us what particular book is the word of God, fo can fhe, with the like affurance, tellus alfo the true fenfe and meaning 9 of it in controverted points of faith; the fame fpirit that wrote the Scriptures directing her to understand both them and all matters necessary to Salvation. From thefe grounds it follows. 16. Only truths revealed by Almighty God, and propofed by the church to be believed as fuch, are, and ought to be, esteemed articles of catholic faith. tr. As an obftinate feparation from the unity of the church, in known matters of faith, is herefy; fo a wilful feparation from the visible unity of the fame church, in matters of fubordination and government, is fchifm, 12. The church propofes unto us matters of faith, firft and chiefly by the Holy Scripture, in points plain and intelligible in it, fecondly, by definitions of general councils, in points not fufficiently plain in Scripture; thirdly, by apoftolical traditions derived from Christ and his apottles to all fucceeding ages. (To be continued.) MR. URBAN, ON Jan. 10% N ne s'avise jamais de tout-and, have upon your hands, it is not to be with the multiplicity of affairs you wondered at that you should now and then fuffer your candour to be furprized, as it was remarkably by your admiffion in the Magazine for June of much malignant flander in what is called "Another Review of the Effav on Old Maids”—a book which I perfuade myfelf you have not found time to read (and which I have but just finished), or it would have met in other parts likewife of your valuable publication with a fate more fuitable to its merits. I lament that the Reviewer of it, in the Magazine for April, should not fee that it is entitled to more than literary praise, and that it is highly favourable to morality, in its being well calculated not only tion of good will and good humour in "to promote the circulabodies where they are frequently fuppoled to ftagnate," but to correct the injuftice and cruelty, of the world in its thinking rather contemptuoufly, as it has been wont to do, of a deferving, helpless, and injured portion of human kind. Such is the effect the reading of this Effay has produced in me, and which I should naturally fuppofe it would produce in others; that I fhall ever look to Old Maids with more confideration than I did, and feel to them with more benevolence. To convey thefe moral impreffions, Wit was the abfolutely necessary vehicle, as a wholly ferious Elfay on fuch a fubject would not, I fear, have engaged much attention. The April-Reviewer has upon this performance a different opinion, which, as he appears to be very candid, I only lament, as 1, faid before, and by no means presume to blame. That your angry cui-bono correfpondent, Hymenæus, in the Magazine for October, was guided by opinion in his strictures, I cannot but greatly doubt: but still, as he wifely confines himfelf to general terms in what he fays of " cruelty, violations of decency and benevolence, infults upon celibacy, at which humanity must recoil, &c." and does not fpecify any particular part of the Effay, in which thefe phantoms he has conjured up to combat may be found; I am charitably disposed, aware that we see almoft as differently with the mental eye as with the corpo wanton Phyfician, cure thyfelt," will the impartial bystander exclaim when he reads this exordium; which we exhibit just as we have received it, that our impartiality may not be called in question. There will ever be differences of opinion on literary fubjects. EDIT. real, Vindication of the Effay on Old Maids. real, to hope that even these effufions of the angry boy may be matter of opinion, the freedom of which fhall never find a combatant in me. But, Sir, the cafe is very different in the other review, as it is ftyled, of this Effay in the Magazine for June. What is there faid, cannot be matter of opinion, unless it is to be al lowed that the calling of white black may be matter of opinion; for there the maligner, who pioufly hopes that two thirds of the Effav will meet with the difapprobation and difguft of the public, has incautiously fpecified particular parts of it on which to fpit flanders, which I truft your impartiality will permit me to contradict, when you are convinced, by taking the book in your hand, for I do not afk you to credit my affertions, that they are flanders, and ought to be contradicted. I have been inclined to think that these flanders might arife from envy, if it be true that the Effayift is the perfon pointed out by this Reviewer; but with which I do not concern myself, for when I meet with a good book I am little folicitous about the life and miracles of the author; though from the great beauty of the compofition I fhould fuppofe it very likely that he is, and, if fc, it must be owned that he is indeed a great object of envy. Inftead of wondering with fome perfons that he has lately been fo much abused in certain mercenary publications, when I confider that authors are a fingular community who individually endea vour at its ruin, and how many of his inferiors urit fulgore fuo; I rather won der that they ever let one of thefe publications appear without fomething to his degradation. He deferves to be exiled like Ariftides. Far diftant be the day when he fhall be univerfally beloved! But I may perhaps be mistaken in the motive to which I attribute thefe flanders, and they may poffibly arife from the theer malignity of fome faulty female, unjustly offended in finding her likeness among& the counterfeit prefentments of different numbers of the fifter hood, which are admirably drawn in this Elfay, but in light fhades as well as dark, and with the best intentions, as eloquent letfons to teach them how they may avoid contempt, and conciliate efteem and love. If this be the cafe, and this lady be a writer *; let me remind her, from a great authority, that "The Mufes fhould be 27 ladies of chaste, and fair, and ingenuous behaviour;, and that when they are otherwife, they are Furies." But whatever may have been the motive, of which I fhall fay no more, it must plainly have been of fo tormenting a kind, that the perfon who could be led by it to fuch fhameful violations of truth, “abunds dat pœnarum etiamfi nemo ulcifcatur." In the ftory of Kunaza, it is faid by this other Reviewer, that "the power of affecting the human heart is used to the worft purpofe, and that the whole story and its tendency is profligate and profane." Directly contrary to this profligate and profane aflerion, you will find, Sir, that the flory is to fhew that a woman could withfland every kind of the moft powerful temptation; and that even when," as the pine bendeth beneath the paffing wind, the reafon of Kunaza was bowed down by the fudden guft of defire, her virtuous fpirit arofe with new vigour, as the tree arifeth from a tranfient preffure, and points directly to the heaven by whofe influence it profpers;" and that when all power of even fupernatural temptation had been exerted, and violence was offered, the virtue, which, like the tree, profpers by the influence of heaven, was miraculously preferved by its inter pofition. I confine myfelf to a fimple expofition of facts, Sir, and add no exclamatory fentences to raise your indignation. What follows this flander is almolt too filly to merit notice, where, what you will find to be very innocent jocularity, about old maids being free from mifanthropy, and the old Romans being perfectly able to manage their wives, is reprehended by the Reviewer as fatirical, and befitting an enemy rather than a friend, to be sneering no lefs at marriage than celibacy, and most difingenuously and falfely conftrued as recommendatory of proffitution. Then the Reviewer shudders at the narration of Thecla and St. Paul, as the Eflayift it is faid infinuates an intrigue," which we (the Reviewer being pregnant, 1 fuppofe, and the babe participating her religious horror) dare not purfue to reprobate." If you, Sir, or any other honeft man in the world can find a fingle fyllable which has fuch a tendency in this narration, any more than in that of Paula and St. Jerom, prefently after adverted to, where, instead of the words " another * Our lively correfpondent begins with an If, and proceeds on the grounds of his own affumption, taking it for granted that his conjecture is proof positive. But let us whisper to him that even He is not infallible. EDIT. and 28 Vinditation of the Effay on Old Maids. and another intrigue," another and another flander, fhould be placed-I will give you my mother for a maid. Sir, Inftead of treating fuch a fubject lightly, had there been the minuteft fhadow of a foundation for the accufation, I too fhould have participated of the religious horror; but the total abfence of any fuch foundation unmasks such a ridicus Jous malignity as cannot but excite my Jaughter. if you can find room for it, this oration, whence too a fufficient judgement may be formed of our veracity as to the other articles; this oration, which he favs muft be condemned whenever it is read, and which I fay fo must be applauded whenever it is read, that, notwithstanding you have many very ingenious corres fpondents, I believe every reader who loves laughing, and has not before feen it in the Effay, will think it the choicest morfel with which you have prefented him for many a month. So fure do I feem of gaining my cause, that I am tempted to tell you, Sir, that you owe it to yourself in fome degree to put us tó this trial; for that whilft it feems only to be complying with the dictates of im partiality, you will thereby exprefs a kind of worthy refentment, which even your mild nature may be allowed to feel, for the furprize upon your candour. Yours, &c. MISERINNYS. All that is neceffary to be premfed to this oration, is, that a fet of good-humoured friends and neighbours are debating whether a widow or an old maid be the most eligible for a wife, when, after feveral fpeeches have been made in favour of the former, one of the company rifes up and fays, "Mr. Prefident, I need go no further-indeed it would be tire fome to wade through the whole heap of ftuff deftitutn of both fenfe and truth, were there not one article on which this modeft Reviewer has expreffed herfelf; for fince weighing this other and other intrigue, I am now perfectly perfuaded that this other review can have proceeded only from a female pen; with ftill more acrimonious and more immodeft departure, if it were poffible, from the facred bounds of truth. The oration in the laft volume, the fays, “too well deferves the fevereft cenfure that affronted modefty can utter, and is too grojsly indelicate to be purfued by criticism, but muft be condemned whenever it is read." I folemnly declare, Sir, and I think I can fee as far into a mill-flone as another, that I do not find an idea in this oration, nor throughout the book, but what might be hung with the icicles on Dian's tem, "THOUGH I was aware that a very ple without danger of drawing them to formidable majority of speakers would ap a melting mood. Dian defend us! what a Delia Dainty have we here! Why, that I engage on the unpopular fide of pear against me, it is yer with confidence Sir, furely there is nothing immodest in the prefent queftion;' a question upon which the idea of " a withered pear!" and the prejudices, the paffions. and the practice there is not a worse word in the book, of mankind, are in direct oppofition to the and that too quoted from anothey! cleareft dictates of reaton and of justice! But you will judge for yourself, and Yes! Sir, I will be fo bold as to affirm, that will find, I doubt not, in this oration, if the conduct and the opinions of men were not any affront to modelty, but neat under the steady guidance of equity, this and clean, and good of the fort; reafon- queftion could not remain doubtful, for a fining, cloquence, and wit, with a circum-gle minute, in the mind of any man; it muft ftance which, though acknowledged to be be decided, without a moment's hefitarion, in favour of that injured, that derided befarcical, is the moft richly ludicrous that can be imagined. But till the thing willing, the involuntary Old Maid, whofe adbe but between ourselves; and your readers (if you vouchfafe to print my letter) who have not happened to read the Effay, bewildered between the pofitive affertions of this other Reviewer, and my positive contradictions of them, may be at a lofs to determine which of us is utterly loft to all fense of thame and of moral obligation; for that there is a jury between us must be evident to the court. per I beg therefore, Sir, that you would put us to the trial that ought to cowerone of us with confuuco, by lubjoining, 4 decifion depend on any prior fentiments, vocate I profefs myfelf: nor would fuch a which the arbiter might form to the difere. dir, or to the glory, of wedlock; for, wnether we confider marriage as a burthen or as an enjoyment, it is equally unjust that any female should twice foffer that burthen, or be twice indulged in that enjoyment, while another, at the fame period of life, is kept an urter franger to the cares or to the delights of an important office, which the is fupport. This petition is, I truft, fo evident, equally ready to affume, and equally able to the fupreme court of judicature, and bring that, if I could convert this allembly into Oration on a delicate Queftion, from Effay on Old Maids. to its bar both the Widow and the Old Maid, as rival claimants of the nuptial coronet, on the mere principles of right, I am perfuaded the integrity of this audience would foon terminate the conteft, and ratify the title of my client by an unanimous decree. But, alas! in this point there is no tribunal on earth, to which the difconfolate Old Maiden can fuccessfully apply for fubftantial juftice. The clamour of prejudice is against her, and ber pretenfions are derided, while cuftom and commodity, "That fmooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling com ""modity," are fuch active and profperous agents for her antagonist, the Widow, that the, this infi dious antagonist ! is admitted, perhaps, three, four, or even five times to the recent altar of, Hymen, while my unfortunate client, the neglected Old Maid, however withfully the may look towards the portal, is no: allowed to find even a temporary thelter within a portico of the temple.-Can this, Sir, be called equity? Is it not injuftice? Is it not barbarity? But I may be told, that in the common occurrences of life, in a tranfaction fuch as marriage, peculiarly subject to fancy and caprice, we must not expect, we must not require men to observe the nicer dictates of strict equity, and a fpeculative rule of right-Be it fo!-I will not, therefore, on this important question, appeal folely to the confciences of men; I will appeal to their interefs. I will prove to them, that he who marries an Old Maid, has a much greater chance of being invariably beloved by his wife, or, in other woids, of being happy in wedlock, than he has, who rafhly throws himself into the open arms of a Widow.Sir. I flatter myself, it will require no long chain of arguments to establish and fortify, on the most folid ground, this momentous pofition. I trust that I fhall be able to accomplish it, merely by reminding this audience of a propenfity in the human mind, which cannot be called in question; I mean the propenfity to exalt in our eftimation those poffeffions of which we are deprived, and to fink the value of what is actually in our hands. Sir, the first part of this propenfity is fo general, and it operates with fuch amazing force on the character to whom I wish to apply it, that I remember the admirable Fielding, with a moit happy coincidence of humour and of truth, calls the death of an hutband an infallible recipe to recover the loft atfections of a wife.' "Let me, Sir, entreat this assembly to retain in their thoughts the propenfity I have mentioned, and then to contemplate with me the feelings of the late Widow towards her fecond or third husband, and the feelings of the quondam Old Maid, now joyfully united to her first and only love.Sir, the affection of the re-married Widow is a poc. ket telescope; the directs the magnifying end 29 of it towards her good man in the grave, and it enlarges to a marvellous degree all the mental and all the perfonal endowments of the dear departed. She then turns the in verted glass to his diminishing fucceffor, and, whatever his proportion of excellence may be, the poor lucklefs living mortal foon dwindles in her fight to a comparative pigmy. But, Sir, this is not the cafe with our quondam Old Maid. No! Sir-her affection is a portable microscope, which magnifies in a ftupendous manner all the attractive merits and powers of pleafing, however inconfiderable they may be, in the favourite creature upon whom the gazes. Like an inexperienced but a paffionate naturalift, the continues to furvey the new and fole object of her contemplation, not only with unremitted affiduity, with increafing amazement and delight. He fills her eye; he occupies her mind; he engroffes her heart. "But it may be faid in reply, If the man who marries an Old Maid has this fuperior chance of being uniformly beloved hy his wife, fince it is certainly the with of every man who marries to be fo, how happens it that men decide to preposterously against themselves, and perpetually prefer the Widow to the Old Maid? Is not this conflant preference a very strong argument in favour of the character so preferred? Does it not prove, that the Widow has acquired the art, or the power, of conferring more happiness on her fecond husband than the Old Maid is able to bestow upon her firft? for can we fuppofe that men, inftructed by the experience of ages, would continue to act in conftant oppofition to their own domestic happiness, in the most important article of human life? Alas! Sir, I fear there are more articles than one, in which we inconfiderate mortals may be frequently observed to ac against experience, against our reason, and againft our felicity. That the Widow is conftantly preferred to the Old Maid, I most readily admit; nay, I complain of it as an inveterate grievance; but I truft, Sir, that I can account for this unreasonable preference, without adding a fingle grain to the weight, or rather to the empty fcale, of the Widow. "I believe, Sir, a very Gimple metaphor will illuftrate the whole affair on both fides. The Widow is an experienced and a skilful angler, who has acquired patience to wait for the favourable miuute, and rapidity to frike in the very initant when the tith has fairly rifen to the book. By this double excellence her fuccefs is enfured. But alas! Sir, the Old Maid is an angler, whom fruitlefs expectation bas rendered both impatient and unskilful: the is thrown into trepidation by the first appearance of a nibble, and by making a too hasty movement at that critical juncture, the too often renders her bait,, however (weet it may be, an object of terror, instead of allurement, to what the wishes to catch. 30 Oration in a delicate Question, from Effay on Old Maids. catch. Though my allufion may found a little coarfely, let me entreat you, Sir, not to imagine that I mean to exprefs any degree of difrefpc&t to my honeft and worthy client, the unprofperous Old Maid. Allow me, Sir, to remind you, that ingenuous and unhackneyed fpirits, though actively inclined, are often reduced to do nothing, by their too eager defire to do well; and this is frequently the cafe of the good and delicate Old Maid, in her laudable project of fecuring a husband: fo that even when she is herself she cause of her own failure in this worthy purpose, the deferves not our cenfure but our companion. Yes! Sir, the partizans of the Widow may fmile, if they please, at my afsertion; but I fcruple not to affirm, that the folitary, neglected Old Maid is more truly entitled to pity, that soft harbinger of love, than the weeping Widow herself. Much bas been faid, and, I confefs, with great eloquence, on the Widow's attractive forrow. It is, indeed, attractive; and fo attractive, that it frequently recalled to my imagination the moan of the hyena, that artful, deftructive, and infatiable creature, who is faid by the ancient naturalifts to lure into het den, by a treacherous cry of diftrefs, the unwary traveller whom the intends to devour. This infiduous behaviour of the hyæna is a queftionable fact, that no one, perhaps, can fully prove or refute; but all perfons of any experience in the world have feen inftances of men, who have been alJured into the fnare of the Widow, and have lamented, when it was too late to retreat, that they fell the victims of their own generous, but mifplaced compaffion. "The habit of changing is very apt to produce a paffion for novelty; and the wife, who has buried one or two hufbands, on a flight difagreement with her fecond or third, will foon with him to fleep in peace with his departed predeceffor, from her hope of being more lucky in her next adventure. You may remember, Sir, that our old poet Chaucer, that admirable and exact painter of life and manners! has very happily marked this prevalent difpofition of the re-married Widow, in the long prologue which he aigns to his Wife of Bath. That good lads glor es in having already buried four husbands, and expreffes a perfect readiness, whenever Heaven may give her the opportunity, to engage with a fixth. Let it not be faid, that this character is a mere phantom, creared by the lively imagination of a fatyr.cal and facetious poet ! No! Sir, this venerable, though Sportive old bard, copied nature moft faithfully: and, as a proof that he did fo in the the prefent cafe, I will mention a more mar vellous example of this paffion in the re-marrying Widow for an unlimited fucceffion of novelties. Sir, the example I mean, is recorded in an ecclefiaftical writer of great authority, whofe name I cannot this moment recollect; but I remember he men tions it as a fact, which happened at Rome, and to which he was himself an eye-witness *. This fact, Sir, was the marriage of a widow to her twenty-second busband. The man also had buried eventy wives; and all the eyes of Rome were fixed on this fingular pair, as on a couple of gladiators, anxious to fee which would conduct the other to the grave. If I can remember right, the woman, after all her funeral triumphs, was the victim in this wonderful conflict: but the ftory, however it might terminate, fufficiently proves the pathon for novelty, which 1 have afcribed to the Widow. Now, Sir, if the fecond or third husband of a Widow may have frequent caufe to imagine, that his lady's transferrable affections are veering toward his probable fucceffor, he cannot furely be fo happy, or fecure, as the man who has more wifely united himself to a worthy Old Maid. She, good foul! remembering how long the waited for her first husband, inftead of haftily looking forward to a fecond, will direct all her attention to cherish and preferve the dear creature, whom the at last acquired after tedious expectation. Her good man has no rival to fear, either among the living or the dead; and may fecurely enjoy the delightful prerogative of believing himself the abfolute mafter of his wife's affections. I entreat you, Sir, to obferve how very different the cafe is with the inconfiderate man, who rathly marries a Widow 1 He has not only to apprehend that the changeable tenderness of his lady may take a fudden turn towards his probable fucceffor, but, if her thoughts' are too faithful, and too virtuous, to wander towards the living, even then, Sir, after all his endeavours to take full poffeffion of her heart, though he may delude himself with the vain idea of being its fole proprietor, he will frequently find, that he has only entered into partnership with a ghoft. Yes! Sir, though my opponents may treat the expreffion as ludicrous, I will maintain that it is *This anecdote is contained in one of Sr. Jerom's epiftles addreffed to a Widow, whole name was Agerochia. Rem dicturus fum incredibilem, fed multorum tefiimoniis appron tam. Ante annos plurimos, quum in chartis ecclefiafticis juvarem Damasum, Romae urbis epiicopum, & Orientis atque Occidentis fynodicis confultationibus refponderem, vidi duo inter fe paria, viliffimorum e plebe hominum compareta, unum qui viginti fepiliffet uxores, alteram quæ vicefimum fecundum habuiffet maritum, extremo fibi, ut ipfi putabant, matrimonio copulatos. Summa omnium expectatio, virorum pariter ac feminarum, poft tantas rudes, quis quem prius efferret: vicit maritus, & totius urbis populo confluente, coronatus, & palmam tenens, adoreamque per fingulos fibi acclamantes, uxoris multinubæ feretrum præcedebar. Epift. Sancti Hieron. ad Ageruchiam de Monegamia. literally |