a simple and unostentatious process, easy and certain in its operation.

It behoves those, who regret the want of such patronage, to consider how much may be effected by their own exertions within their several parishes, and not to remit in their labour of love, but to put forth all their strength.

With respect to the schools established here, I shall be able, I trust, with your concurrence, to reduce them to their original standard, and have no doubt that their watchword will in future be, (as in the good old days of our fathers) " Fear God and honour the King." I am convinced, that with dispositions like yours, benevolent and candid, and sentiments truly loyal, and virtuous habits formed after those who have gone before you,—you cannot but approve of the stress which I have laid on a due observation of the Sabbath, and an attachment to the Parish-church, and to its ministers, as the very basis of our religious constitution. I am equally convinced, that you will not rest satisfied with mere professions of approbation. Pecuniary aid is the surest evidence of sincerity. In many of you, I doubt not, as opportunity may offer, we shall be furnished with this proof. They who can, I hope, will give bountifully; and they who have little, will impart from that little.

M

Thus encouraged, I shall have pleasure in visiting our infant seminary; and henceforward shall expect the master and mistress to instruct their scholars through the week in the principles of the christian religion, as paramount to all other subjects of instruction-to bring hither those who are committed to their care, at the times both of morning and evening service, and to see that they behave seriously and devoutly in this holy place. Nothing, I trust, will be wanting on my part, in the furtherance of an object which I rate so highly. After the evening-service of this day, I propose to commence the hearing of the children in their catechism, and the explanation of it in such language as may best convey my meaning to untutored minds, and as their answers to my questions may naturally suggest.

With such pious resolutions, and such corresponding exertions, we may look forward with confidence to the rising generation. And, whilst others, in the bitterness of their souls, may exclaim: "We have brought up "children, and they have rebelled against us;" may you welcome the day, when "the Lord shall pour his spirit upon your seed, and his blessing upon your off"spring"*-assured, that "hi › merciful goodness en"dureth for ever and ever upon them that fear Him, "and his righteousness upon children's children !"†

LECTURE ON TASTE

READ AT THE

Royal Cornwall Literary and Philosophical

INSTITUTION,

TOWN-HALL, TRURO;

April 18, 1820.

IT T was not without a considerable degree of reluc tance, that I determined no longer to resist the repeated solicitations of those who had invited me, in the most flattering manner, to take some part in the prolusions of their Literary Institution.

And, whilst I assented to their wishes, I could not but feel it a sacrifice of my own consciousness of insufficiency, to my desire to offer a public testimony of my respect for their talents and their learning.

Not that I would provoke the charge of affectation, by disclaiming all pretensions to a certain rank among writers, whose love of literature may have prompted them to contribute to the elegant amusements of society.

In a country arrived at a high state of civilization, such amusements are of incalculable use:—whilst they assist in relieving the sternness of Science; in softening the severity of systems; in dispelling almost the doubts of scepticism; and lead to the cultivation of that ingenuous disposition, and to the refinement of that sensibility, to which not only "the little moralities" (as they have been called) but the most amiable virtues are attributable. To that high state of civilization, is this country, unquestionably, arrived.

Nor, distant as our situation is from the great commercial mart-from the seat of "manners living as "they rise;"-should we deem ourselves any way inferior even to the metropolis itself, in those arts which "sweeten and embellish life."

In that very remoteness, indeed, we have a feeling of security from such revolutionary projects as in many parts of the British Empire had interrupted every Honourable pursuit, whether public or domestic; and such as the peaceful muses must ever deprecate with horror and antipathy.

This, surely, is a degree of happiness truly enviable. In discovering a sense of the blessing, we may shew the gratitude of liberal minds, without betraying the triumph of competition.

And I know no fairer mode of shewing it, than in such exertions as distinguish the present Institution; which, while they enhance our own immediate comforts, must add to the common stock of innocent enjoyment.^

Of that enjoyment, the pleasures which arise from pursuits strictly philological, are not, perhaps, so generally diffused, as those which result from scientific energies.

The converse of the proposition might seem, at first sight, to approach nearer to the truth. But when we consider, that in Science (in its more general acceptation) persons of various stations, characters, and complexions, are early and late initiated and instructed→→ from the lowest mechanic who reduces his mathematics to practical use, to the astronomer whose patrimony is in the stars and that few in comparison are taught more than the mere rudiments of classical literature (as the learned Professions to which classical literature.is chiefly subservient are, comparatively, but few) we are not to wonder at so slight a relish for the polite arts, as is discoverable even among men of no ordinary attainments.

"The dominions of Literary Taste, then, are not of "ample extent." Yet Literary Taste is not confined to

oets or to Artists.

Many there are, who possessing