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ambition and love of power that have been ascribed to them, growing with their years, how much more accumulated would have been their crimes, and how much more distressing would have been the history of the nations which were conquered and enslaved by them! The same Alexander, who at thirty years of age, only de, manded divine homage from his captives, would probably at seventy have exacted human sacrifices to satisfy his assumed divinity; and the same Nero, who, when a young man only fiddled at the sight of the houses of Rome in a blaze, had he lived to be old, would probably have danced at the sight of all the inhabitants of that city perishing in its general conflagration. But I will not rely upon mere supposition to evince the pernicious influence which universal longevity has upon morals. The inhabitants of the antediluvian world exhibited a memorable instance of it. Their wickedness is characterized by the sacred historian in the following words. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence." Gen. vi. 6 & 11. The extent of the wickedness among the antediluvians may easily be conceived from the two following circumstances.

1. The small number of those persons who had escaped the general depravity of morals which had overspread the world, being eight only; and that at a time when the world was probably more populous than it has ever been since.

2. The abortive issue of the means that God employed to reform them. Noah preached to them several hundred years, and probably during that long period, travelled over a great portion of the world, and yet not a single person was converted, or saved from destruction by his ministry, except the members of his own family.

It was from a review of this wickedness, by the supreme Being, that life was shortened, as if in mercy to present a similar accumulation of it in any future age of the world. "And the Lord said, my breath shall not always remain in these men because they are flesh, yet shall their days be one hundred and twenty years.' ."* For the same reason they were afterwards re

This translation of the verse is copied from the LXX. whose version is justified by all the circumstances of the case. The Creator had breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, (Gen. ii. 7.) and a continuance in life was promised him during his continuance in innocence; but upon his transgression he became mortal; and upon an increase of wickedness, human life was proportionably shortened. It was for this reason (Gen. VOL. II.

duced to seventy, or a few more years, as is obvious from the 10th verse of the 90th psalm.

4. The mass of vice is not only lessened by the small proportion of the human race who live to be old, but the mass of virtue is greatly increased thereby. The death of persons who have filled up the measure of their days, and who descend to the grave in a good old age, seldom excites a serious reflection; but every death that occurs in early or middle life, has a tendency to damp the ardor of worldly pursuits, to weaken the influence of some sinful passion, and to produce some degrees of reverence for that religion which opens prospects of life and happiness beyond the grave.

5. If vice, as we are taught to believe, will be punished according to its degrees in a future state of existence, how much greater would be the mass of misery hereafter, if the whole human race lived to be old, and with increasing habits of wickedness, than it will be in the present contracted duration of human life? It is therefore no less an act of mercy, than of justice, that the "wicked live not out half their days."

6. If old age were universal, how difficult and severe would be the conflicts of virtue! To be exposed to the malignant passions of bad men, or, what is often worse, to contend with our own evil propensities for seventy or eighty years, would render the warfare of good men much more perilous, and their future happiness much more precarious, than it is at present. How few persons who live to be old, escape the idolatrous passion of covetousness? Were old age universal, this passion would probably exclude one half of them from the kingdom of heaven.

7. Did all men live to be old, it would render knowledge stationary. Few men alter their opinions, or admit new truths, after they are forty years of age. None of the contemporary physicians of Dr. Harvey, who had passed that age, admitted his discovery of the circulation of the blood. Now, considering that nearly all discoveries in science are made by men under forty, and considering the predominating influence and authority which accompany the hostility of old men to new truths, discoveries made by young men could never acquire belief, or an establishment in the

vi. 13.) that God determined to destroy the old world; and this occasioned the above declaration: the punctuality with which it was verified deserves particular notice; for Noah was employed 120 years in building the ark; and at the expiration of that time the flood came, and destroyed "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land." Gen. vii. 22.

world. They owe both to the small number of philosophers who live to be seventy or eighty years of age.

8. Were longevity universal, with all the deformity from wrinkles, baldness, and the loss of teeth and complexion, that are usually connected with it, what a gloomy and offensive picture would the assemblies of our fellow-creatures exhibit? In the present small proportion of old people to the young and middle aged, they seem like shades in painting, or like a few decayed trees near a highly cultivated garden, filled with blooming and fragrant flowers, to exhibit the charms of youth and beauty to greater advantage. From an assembly composed exclusively of old men and women we should turn our eyes with pain and disgust.

If the causes of premature deaths which have been assigned, be correct, instead of complaining of them, it becomes us, in the present state of the cultivation, population, government, religion, morals, and knowledge in the world, to consider them as subjects for praise and thanksgiving to the wise and benevolent Governor of the universe.

While we thus do homage to the divine wisdom and goodness, let us look forward to the time when the improvements in the physical, moral, and political condition of the world, predicted in the Old Testament, shall render the early and distressing separation of parents and children, and of husbands and wives, wholly unnecessary; when the physical and moral sources of those appaparent evils shall be removed by the combined influence of philosophy and religion, and when old age shall be the only outlet of human life. The following verses, taken from the 65th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, justify a belief in an order of things, such as has been mentioned: "There shall be no more thence an infant of days," [or an infant that has lived but a few days] "nor an old man that hath not filled his days, for the child shall die an hundred years old. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat, for as the days of a tree, are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."

ON CRUELTY TO BRUTES.

NOTHING is more common nor more disgusting to humanity, than the accounts of wagers laid on forced and violent exertions of horses and other animals. Let the following instance, taken

from a newspaper a few months since, stand for an example. "Some brutes, in human shape, at Harlowbush fair, engaged a poney, about twelve hands high, to run a hundred miles in twelve hours. The little animal went sixty miles in six hours, but at the eightieth mile, it broke its heart, and fell down dead."

The many cruel practices exercised towards animals intended for food, ought not to pass unnoticed. The unfeeling barbarities of butchers and drovers, in their treatment of different kinds of beasts designed for slaughter, are dreadful to be conceived. The flaying of eels alive, when a single blow, properly given, will instantly kill them, is a well known instance of deliberate cruelty. Much needless torture is practised in depriving shell-fish of life, as oysters, crabs, and lobsters. That exquisite refinement of epicurism and barbarity, the crimping of fish alive, cannot be reprobated in too strong language. Many other cases might be mentioned, and if every reader would try to make a catalogue of all the instances of unnecessary and wanton cruelty in killing animals for the purposes of food, which he recollects to have seen or heard of, it will probably tend much to excite his indignation and soften his heart.

The inhuman methods which are necessarily employed in order to teach various beasts and birds to perform unnatural and strange feats of sagacity and agility, by way of public exhibition, ought to weigh with every man of feeling, sufficiently to prevent his encouragement of any such useless and unwarrantable sights. This is, surely, one of the most wanton abuses of our dominion over the animal race. The same may be said of every mutilation of the ears and tails of horses, under the absurd and indefensible plea of improving their outward appearance.

Too much cannot be said on this subject to all those, whether parents or instructors, who have the care of children. They should watch them very narrowly to prevent their treating insects, birds, or any other animal, with the smallest degree of inhumanity. They should be taught from the first to make the feelings of the creatures their own; and every possible means should be employed to interest their earliest affections, in the cause of tenderness and mercy, on scriptural grounds. To boys, in particular, that fundamental source of future cruelty of temper, the robbing birds of their nests for amusement, should be represented in its true and hateful colours. It was very emphatically said by a writer of the last century but one; "The cruel parent that would encourage his childe to deprive a poor birde of her young brood, right well deserveth to have his own nest robbed, and to become childless." For many

other instances of cruelty to animals, judiciously selected and feelingly commented upon, the reader may consult Young's Essay on Humanity.

In order to place the sin of wilful cruelty to animals, and the baneful tendency of an attachment to cruel sports and diversions, in an impressive and solemn point of view, I will conclude with the relation of a circumstance which took place on April 4, 1789. It has already appeared several times in print, and I find, upon actual inquiry, that it is indisputably true. It may serve instead of whole volumes written against cockfighting, and all other such unjustifiable and inhuman practices. "A. Esq. was a young man of large fortune, and in the splendour of his carriages and horses, equalled by few country gentlemen. His table was marked for hospitality, and his behaviour was courteous and polished. But Mr. A. had a strong partiality for the diversion of cock-fighting; and had a favourite cock upon which he had won many profitable matches. The last bet he laid upon his bird he lost; which so enraged him, that he had the wretched animal tied to a spit, and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of the tortured bird were so affecting, that some gentlemen wh were present attempted to interfere; which so exasperated Mr. A. that he seized a bar of iron, and with the most furious anger declared, that he would kill the first man that interposed to save the cock: but, in the midst of his passionate exclamations and threats, most awful to relate, he fell down dead upon the spot!"

"Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth.” O! then, "let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like unto his." Ps. lviii. Numb. xxiii.

Ch. Ob.

MR. EDITOR,

HOLY RESOLUTIONS.

I SUBMIT to your examination, for publication in your useful magazine, the following paper, which was drawn up by a man of distinguished piety, and which may be productive of very salutary effects on some of your readers. Should the plan proposed not be exactly suited to all states and conditions of men, as, from their great variety, it can hardly be expected, still it may suggest to all strong motives for self-examination, and induce many to look more carefully into their own hearts, to discover their unworthiness, and their infinite need of an advocate with the Father.

I am, &c.

E.

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