K lows the changes of the moft variable climate in the world; a frofty morning puts him from his hunting, and he is in London before night; a thaw meets him in town, and again he scampers into the country: He has a horse to run at Epfom, another at Salisbury, and a third at York, and he must be on the spot to back every one of them; he has a stud at Newmarket, a mistress in London, a shooting-box in Norfolk, and a pack of fox-hounds in the New Foreft: For one wheel that real business puts in motion, pleasure, whim, ennui turn one hundred Sickness, which confines all the reft of the world, fends him upon his travels; one doctor plunges him into the fea at Brighthelmstone, a second steeps him in warm water at Buxton; and a third fends him to Bath; for the gentlemen of the learned faculty, whether they help us into life, or help us out of it, make us pay toll at each gate; and if at any time their art keeps us alive, the fine we must pay to their ingenuity makes the renewal in fome cafes too hard a bargain for a poor man to profit by. In all other countries upon earth a man is contented to be well and pay nothing for being fo, but in England even health is an expenfive article, as we are for ever contriving how to be a little better, and phyficians are too confcientious to take a fee and do nothing for it. If there is any thing like ridicule in this, it is against the patient and not against the phyfician I would wish to point it; it is in England that the profeffion is truly dignified, and if it is here accompanied with greater emoluments, it is proportionably practised with fuperior learning; if life is more valuable in a land of freedom than in a land of flavery, why should it not be paid for according to its value? In defpotic states, where men's lives are in fact the property of the prince, all fubjects fhould in justice be cured or killed at his proper charge; but where a man's houfe is his castle, his health is his own concern. As to the other learned profeffion of the law, to its honour be it spoken, there is that charming perplexity about it, that we can ruin one another and ourfelves with the greatest certainty and facility. It is fo fu perior to all other sciences, that it can turn demonftration into doubt, truth into contradiction, make improbability put matter of fact out of countenance, and hang up a point for twenty years, which common fenfe would decide in as many minutes. It is the glorious privilege of the freemen of England to make their own laws, and they have made fo many, that they can neither count them up nor comprehend them. The parliament of England is without comparison the most voluminous author in the world; and there is fuch a happy ambiguity in its works, that its ftudents have as much to fay on the wrong fide of every queftion as upon the right: In all cafes of difcuffion it is one man's business to puzzle, and another's to explain, and though victory be ever so certain, it is agreed between the parties to make a long battle: There must be an extraordinary faculty of expreffion in the law, when the only parts. clearly understood are those which it has not committed to writing. I fhall fay very little in this place upon the facred profeffion of divinity: It is to be lamented 04 lamented that the church of England is not provided with a proper competency for all who are engaged in performing it's functions; but I cannot clofe with their opinion, who are for ftripping its dignities, and equalizing thofe fplendid benefices, which are at once the glory and the fupport of its eítablishment. Levellers and reformers will always have the popular cry on their fide, and I have good reason to know with what inveteracy a man is perfecuted for an opinion which oppofes it; and yet it is hard to give credit to the fincerity and difintereftedness of him who courts popularity, and deny it to the man who facrifices his repose, and ftands the brunt of abufe in defence of what he believes to be the truth. And now having fallen upon the mention of Popularity, I fhall take leave to addrefs that divinity with a few lines picked up from an obfcure author, which, though below poetry, are not quite profe, and on that account pretty nearly fuited to the level of their fubject. "O Popularity, thou giddy thing! "What grace or profit doft thou bring? "Thou "Thou art not honefty, thou art not fame; "Thou art no patriot, but the veriest cheat "That ever traffick'd in deceit ; "A ftate empiric, bellowing loud "Freedom and phrenzy to the mobbing crowd; "And what car'ft thou, if thou canst raise "Illuminations and huzzas, "Tho' half the city funk in one bright blaze? "A patriot! no; for thou doft hold in hate "The very peace and welfare of the state; "When anarchy affaults the fovereign's throne, "Then is the day, the night thine own; "Then is thy triumph, when the foe "Levels fome dark insidious blow, "Or ftrong rebellion lays thy country low. "Thou canst affect humility to hide "Some deep device of monftrous pride; "Confcience and charity pretend "For compaffing fome private end; "And in a canting conventicle note "Long fcripture paffages canft quote, "When perfecution rankles in thy throat. "Thou haft no fenfe of nature at thy heart, "No ear for fcience, and no eye for art, |