62, "I think not," fays he, for that · text, None devoted which shall be de• voted of man shall be redeemed, but fhall furely be put to death (e), fpeaks of the cherem, which often in the pentateuch, is applied unto the feven Nations, who for their fins were appointed to utter deftruction by the great God, as when he devoted Jericho (f) and the Amalekites(g) and by men as in fpecial vows (6), or when they were adjudged to death for fin(i). nd to this letter the Hebrews do apply this law faying, whofo hath his judgment decreed by the magiftrates of Ifrael to be killed for his tranf grefion committed; if another eftimate him, or that he estimateth himfelf-he is not bound (to give) any thing, for this is as a dead man; and • there is no valuation or price of the • dead. And of this it is faid (Lev. xxvii. 29.) none devoted shall be redeemed! As if he should fay there is < no redemption for him, he is a dead man. Maimonides in Erach. chap. i. fec. 13. The like expofition is given by Sol. Farchi, Chazuni and others. "But" continues he page 67 on the Ifraelites' vow had not the Canaanites filled up the measure of their iniquities by that time? Had not God devoted them to utter deftruction for their monftrous impieties? Did • not the land pue them out? And were not the Ifraelites appointed to be the inftruments of divine vengeance? It was not then by virtue of their own vow only or chiefly, but in pursuance of a divine command they made this vow."

As the book, from which I have given these extracts,is but little known, I have been the more full in my quotations; which if they thall tend to fatisfy the doubts of the honeft inquirer, or to ward off the jeers and in

validate the objections of the quibbling infidel, on thefe paffages, they will anfwer the defign and compensate the trouble of.

Sir,

Your conftant reader,

ANTI-PROFANUS.

ANECDOTE of a MUSICIAN.

TH

HE flourishing condition of England under the fons of the conqueror was equally favourable to learning and to arts. King Richard, firnamed Coeur de Lion, was one of the firft-rate poets and muficians, of his age. Hiftory informs us, that he had a very fine voice, and that he unbent himself from the military labours by finging fongs, the tunes of which, as well as the words were of his own compofing. Being imprisoned by the duke of Auftria, in his return from the Holy Land, and afterwards delivered up to the Emperor, who confined him to a jail unknown to all the world, he owed both liberty and life to his fongs. The affair is thus related by Fauchet, from an old French Chronicle,written in the reign of Philip Auguftus, about the beginning of the thirteenth century.

"A year had paffed from Richard's departure from the Holy Land, and the English hearing no tidings of that prince began to think of fubftituting a fucceffor in his room. Blondel, mafter of his chapel, had difcovered his fovereign's genius for mufic: for they often compofed in concert. This employment, and the familiarity which it gave rife to, had infpired Blondel with the tendereft fentiments for Richard. Impatient at his abfence, he fet out for the Holy Land in the habit of a pilgrim, and he returned from thence, fearching all the places thro' which the prince might poffibly have paffed, and following

fome chalybeat or vitriolick vapour, of fomewhat equivalent, to produce the whole effect, there being no want of aqueous matter in the clouds: nor is there any doubt, but that among the various effluvia from the earth, there may be copious fupplies of matter for fuch mixtions.

Of the Funeral Ceremonies of the Lapland Mufcovites.

WHE WHEN the perfon has been dead taken frabout four hours, the corpfe is

the bear-fkins on which

it lay, and removed by fix of his moft intimate friends into a coffin, being first wrapped in linen, except his hands and face which are always left bare. In one hand they put a purfe containing fome money to pay the fee of the porter who keeps the gate of Paradife; and in the other a pass, figned by a priest, to be given to St. Peter, as a certificate that the bearer was a good Christian, and ought to be admitted into heaven. And as they fuppofe the journey he is about to take, is a long one, they put into his coffin a cag of brandy, fome dried fifh, and Rain-deer venifon, to ferve him for provifions upon the road. They then light fome fir-tree roots piled up at a convenient diftance from the coffin, weeping and howling all the while, making ftrange geftures, and turning themselves into a thousand ridiculous poftures, and affecting the utmoft forrow for their deceafed friend or relative.

This noife being over, and their extravagant gefticulations at an end, they march round the body feveral times in proceffion, afking the dead perfon, why he died? if he was angry with his wife? whether he wanted for any thing? if he was either hungry or thirfty? if he had loft his game in hunting, or had had ill-luck in fishing? and whether he had not his clothes to his mind? after this they fet up another hideous howl, acting like fo many mad-men. One of the priests, who affifts at this folemnity, every now-and-then fprinkles fome

holy water upon the corpfe, and the mourners do the fame.

As they have an extraordinary veneration for St. Nicholas, they always place the image of that Saint near the body of the dead, instead of a crucifix. This image is dreffed up in the habit of a pilgrim, having on a long robe, with a broad girdle about his middle, and a ftaff in his hand.

THOUGHTS ON INDUSTRY.

THE Jews have a faying among

them, that " He does not bring his fon up to fome business, makes him a thief."-Idlenefs they look on as the ground of all evil, whether public or private, for the mind of man will be employed, and rather than do nothing, it will work mifchief. The Parthians,

were

A

fuch enemies to idlenefs, that they did not fuffer their children to eat till they had fweated at their exercises; and Scipio, furnamed Nafica, fearing peace fhould introduce this bare into the common-wealth of Rome, faid, that he looked upon the Romans (after the deftruction of Carthage) to be in greater danger than ever they had yet been, for they had no enemies. Idlenefs he esteemed a more terrible enemy to the ftate than Carthage had been, though that common-wealth had reduced the Romans to the greateft extremity.

There are fome who actually profess idleness, who boaft they do nothing, and thank their stars they have nothing to do, and whose whole existence cannot be called any other than a mere nothing; who wake each morn but to enable them to fleep at night; whofe whole study is only indulgence; who live in a ftate of ftupidity, and who, when they cease to breathe, cannot be faid to die, as they never could have been faid to have lived.

There are numbers contaminated with this vice, yet think themselves entirely free from it; he who spends his whole time in his stable, and on the

courfe

cards or a dice-box in his hand-he too that flies to a bottle or a ftrumpet, to kill thought or prevent time's lying heavy on his hands; and thofe ladies that pafs their day in talking, or when that flags, divert their time in impertinent vifits to fhop-keepers, afking a thoufand queftions, and tumbling over their goods without even a thought of buying any, thefe may well be ranked among the idle. He that neglects his duty and real employment, naturally endeavours to fill his mind with fomething that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himfelf in his own favour.

Solon introduced a fevere law into his common-wealth againft idleness, and the Areopagites (Judges in criminal cafes) were very vigilant in enquiring into the life and manners of every particular fubject, and in seeing this law put in execution, as may be feen by the following story:

There were at Athens two poor young, men, Mendemus and Afclepiades, who were greatly addicted to the study of philofophy: they had no vifible means of fupport, yet kept up their flefh and colour, looked hale, well, and in good cafe. The judges had information given them of the retired life of these two, and of their having neither any thing to live on, nor apparently doing any thing to maintain them; confequently, as they could not live without fuftenance, they must have fome clandeftine means of fubfifting: on this information, the young men were fummoned before the judges, and ordered to anfwer to the charge; one of the accufed faying, little credit was given to what a man could urge in his own defence, it being natural to believe, every criminal will either deny or extenuate the crime he is charged with, and as the teftimony of a difinterested perfon was not liable to fufpicion, he defired a certain baker, whom he named, might

Had we thefe judges among us, how many cheats and fharpers, who live by defrauding the unwary public, would be obliged to lay afide the name of gentlemen, and work for their livelihood in an honeft manner! and how many fine ladies and gentlemen, whose whole time, is taken up with doing of nothing, would be condemned to fome fevere penance, which would perhaps awake them to a fenfe of their being created as reafonable beings? how happy for us would it be if there were laws against idlenefs, and which fhould oblige every man to give an account of his time, and be anfwerable for his way of life?

Seneca fays we all complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with.

Our lives are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or elfe in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, yet acting as if there would be no end to them. We wish away whole years, and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty waftes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thofe feveral little fettlements,or imaginary points of reft which feem difperfed up and down.

Every member of fociety is under a tacit obligation to contribute to the general good; he is unjust if he does not, and ought to be looked on as a burtherfome member; and as he will do nothing for the public, ought to receive no protection from it.

On