it was really a wonder that the whole body did not rise as one man and abandon the place as a space of ground designed by heaven for an Aceldama, doomed to be destroyed from the face of the earth, and those found in it to perish with it. In the first place, a blazing star or comet appeared for several months before the plague, as there did, the year after, another before the fire; the old women, and the phlegmatic hypochondriac of the other sex, whom I could call old women too, remarked, though not till both those judgments were over, that these two comets passed directly over the city, and so very near to the houses, that it was plain they imported some thing peculiar to the city alone.

That the comet before the pestilence was of a faint, dull, languid colour, and its motion very solemn, heavy, and slow; but that the comet before the fire was bright and sparkling, or, as others said, flaming, and its motions swift and furious; and that accordingly one foretold a heavy judgment, slow but severe, terrible and frightful, as was the plague; but the other foretold a stroke, sudden, swift, and fiery, as was the conflagration. Nay, so particular some people were, that as they looked upon that comet preceding the fire, they fancied they saw it pass swiftly with their eyes, but even they heard it; that it made a rushing mighty noise, fierce and terrible, though at a distance, and but just perceivable.

The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased by the error of the times, in which I think the people were more addicted to prophecies and astrological conjectures, dreams, etc., than ever they were before or since; whether this was originally raised by the people who got money by it, that is, by printing predictions and prognostications, I know not; but certain it is, books frighted them terribly, such as Lily's Almanack, Gadbury's Astrological Predictions, and the like; also several pretended religious books, one entitled Come out of her my People, another Fair Warning, and many such, all of which foretold directly or covertly the ruin of the city; nay, some were so enthusiastically bold as to run about the

city with their oral predictions, pretending they were sent to preach, and one in particular, who, like Jonah in Nineveh, cried in the streets, "Yet forty days and London shall be destroyed, "I will not be positive whether he said "yet forty days," or "yet a few days." Another ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his waist, crying day and night, like the man that Jesus mentioned, who cried, "Woe to Jerusalem," before the destruction of that city, so this poor naked creature cried, "Oh, the great and dreadful God," and said no more, but repeated these words continually with a voice and countenance full of horror, a swift pace, and nobody could ever find him to stop or rest, or take any sustenance, at least that ever I could hear of.

JOSEPH BUTLER.

JOSEPH BUTLER was oorn A.D. 1692, educated for the church, and rose by successive steps to the possession of the see of Durham, in which he died in 1752. His works are the Analogy of Religion to the Course of Nature, and a volume of sermons unfolding his system of morals, as based upon the supremacy of conscience.

CONSCIENCE.

BUT there is a superior principle of reflection or conscience in every man which distinguishes between the internal principles of his heart as well as his external actions; which passes judgment upon himself and them, pronounces some to be just, right, and good, others to be evil, wrong, unjust; which, without being consulted, magisterially exerts itself, and approves or condemns him the doer of them accordingly; and which, if not forcibly stopped, naturally, and of course goes on to anticipate a higher and more effectual sentence which shall hereafter second and affirm its own. It is by this faculty, natural to man, that he is a moral agent, that he

is a law to himself; by this faculty, not to be considered merely as a principle in his heart which is to have some influence as well as others, but as a faculty in kind and in nature supreme over all others, and which bears its own credentials of being so.

Man may act according to that principle or inclination, which for the present happens to be strongest, and yet act in a way disproportionate to and violating his real proper nature. Suppose a brute creature, by any bait, to be allured into a snare by which he is destroyed, he followed the bent of his nature leading him to gratify his appetite; there is an entire correspondence between his whole nature and such an action; such action therefore is natural. But suppose a man, foreseeing the danger of certain ruin, should rush into it for the sake of a present gratification, he, in this instance, would follow his strongest desire as did the brute creature; but there would be as manifest a disproportion between the nature of a man and such an action, as between the meanest work and the skill of the greatest master in art; which disproportion arises not from considering the action singly or by its consequences, but from comparison of it with the nature of the agent.

Passion or appetite implies a direct simple tendency toward such and such objects without distinction of the means by which they are to be obtained. Consequently, it will often happen there will be a desire of particular objects in cases where they cannot be obtained without manifest injury to others. Reflection or conscience comes in, and disapproves the pursuit of them in these circumstances; but the desire remains: which is to be obeyed, appetite or reflection? would not this question be intelligibly and fully answered by saying, that the principle of reflection or conscience, compared with the various appetites, passions, and affections in men, is manifestly superior and chief, without regard to strength. how often soever the latter happen to prevail, it is mere usurpation; the former remains in nature and in kind superior, and every instance of the prevalence of

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the latter is a breaking in upon and violation of the constitution of man.

All this is no more than the distinction which everybody is acquainted with, between mere power and authority, only instead of being intended to express the difference between what is possible and what is lawful in civil government, here it it is shown applicable to the several principles in the mind of man. Thus, that principle by which we survey and approve or disapprove our own heart, temper, actions, is not only to be considered as what in its turn must have some influence, which may be said of every passion, and of the lowest appetites, but likewise as being superior, insomuch that you cannot form a notion of it without taking in judgment, direction, superintendency. This is a constituent part of the idea of the faculty itself, and to preside and govern from the very economy and constitution of man belongs to it. Had it strength, as it has right; had it power, as it has manifest authority, it would absolutely govern the world.

HENRY FIELDING.

HENRY FIELDING (A.D. 1707-1754) was bred to the bar, and acted as a justice in Westminster. Besides nearly twenty dramatic pieces, of no lasting merit, he left the novels of Tom Jones Joseph Andrews, Amelia, etc.

JONATHAN WILD.

JONATHAN WILD had every qualification necessary to form a great man; as his most powerful and predominant passion was ambition, so nature had, with consummate propriety, adapted all his faculties to the attaining those glorious ends to which this passion directed him. He was extremely ingenious in inventing designs, artful in contriving the means to accomplish his purposes, and resolute in executing them; for as the most exquisite cunning and most undaunted boldness qualified him for

any undertaking, so was he not restrained by any of those weaknesses which disappoint the views of mean and vulgar souls, and which are comprehended in one general term of honesty, which is a corruption of honosity, a word derived from what the Greeks call an ass. He was entirely free from those low vices of modesty and good nature, which, as he said, implied a total negation of human greatness, and were the only qualities which absolutely rendered a man incapable of making a figure in the world.

His lust was inferior only to his ambition; but as for what simple people call love, he knew not what it was. His avarice was immense; but it was of the rapacious not of the tenacious kind; his rapaciousness, indeed, was so violent that nothing ever contented him but the whole; for however considerable the share which his coadjutors allowed him of a booty, he was restless in inventing means to make himself master of the smallest pittance reserved by them. He said laws were made for the use of prigs only, and to secure their property; they were therefore never more perverted than when their edge was turned against them; but that this generally happened through want of sufficient dexterity.

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The character which he most valued himself, and which he principally honoured in others, was hypocrisy. His opinion was, that no one could carry priggism very far without it; for which reason, he said, there was little greatness to be expected in a man who acknowledged his vices, but always much to be hoped from him who fessed great virtues; wherefore, though he would shun the person guilty of a good action, yet he was never deterred by a good character, which was more commonly the effect of professions than of actions; for which reason he was himself very liberal of professions, and had as much virtue and goodness on his mouth as a saint; never in the least scrupling to swear by his honour, even to those who knew him the best; nay, though he held good nature and modesty in the highest contempt, he constantly practised the affectation of both, and recom