"But must I not, my reverend Guide, believe?' "If thou art call'd, thou needest nought beside: "The Sigh, the Tear, as caught from Man to Man; "They wept and they rejoic'd, and there was I, "Hard as a Flint, and as the Desert dry: * In a periodical work for the month of June last, the preceding dialogue is pronounced to be a most abominable caricature, if meant to be applied to Calvinists in general, and greatly distorted, if designed for an individual: now the author in his preface has declared, that he takes not upon him the censure of any sect or society for their opinions; and the lines themselves evidently point to an individual, whose sentiments they very fairly represent, without any distortion whatsoever. In a pamphlet intitled "A Cordial for a Sin-despairing Soul," originally written by a teacher of religion, and lately re-published by another teacher of greater notoriety, the reader is informed that after he "Alas! for me, no more the times of Peace "Are mine on Earth-in Death my Pains may cease. "Foes to my Soul! ye young Seducers, know, "What serious Ills from your Amusements flow; "Opinions, you with so much ease profess, "O'erwhelm the Simple and their Minds oppress: "Let such be happy, nor with Reasons strong, "That make them wretched, prove their Notions wrong; "Let them proceed in that they deem the way, "Fast when they will, and at their pleasure pray:" "Yes, I have Pity for my Brethren's Lot, "And so had Dives, but it help'd him not: "And is it thus?-I'm full of Doubts:-Adieu! 66 Perhaps his Reverence is mistaken too." had full assurance of his Salvation, the Spirit entered particularly into the subject with him; and, among many other matters of like nature, assured him that "his sins were fully and freely "forgiven, as if they had never been committed; not for any act "done by him, whether believing in Christ, or repenting of "sin; nor yet for the sorrows and miseries he endured, nor for "any service he should be called upon in his militant state, but "for His own Name and for his glory's sake," &c.* And the whole drift and tenour of the book is to the same purpose, viz. the uselessness of all religious duties, such as prayer, contrition, fasting, and good works: he shows the evil done by reading such books as the Whole Duty of Man, and the Practice of Piety; and complains heavily of his relation, an Irish bishop, who wanted him to join with the household in family prayer; in fact, the whole work inculcates that sort of Quietism which this dialogue alludes to, and that without any recommendation of attendance on the teachers of the Gospel, but rather holding forth encouragement to the supineness of man's nature; by the information that he in vain looks for acceptance by the employment of his talents, and that his hopes of glory are rather extinguished than raised by any application to the means of Grace. * Cordial, &c. page 87. LETTER XXII. THE POOR OF THE BOROUGH. PETER GRIMES. Was a sordid soul, Such as does murder for a meed: Scott. Marmion. Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd, came to my tent, and every one did threat Shakspeare. Rich. III. The time hath been, That when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, Macbeth LETTER XXII. PETER GRIMES. - A The Father of Peter a Fisherman. - Peter's early Conduct.-His Grief for the Old Man.-He takes an Apprentice. — The Boy's Suffering and Fate. second Boy: how he died.-Peter acquitted.—A third Apprentice. A Voyage by Sea: the Boy does not return.- Evil Report on Peter: he is tried and threatened.-Lives alone.-His Melancholy and incipient Madness.-Is observed and visited.-He escapes and is taken; is lodged in a Parish-House; Women attend and watch him.-He speaks in a Delirium: grows more collected.-His Account of his Feelings and visionary Terrors previous to his Death. OLD Peter Grimes made Fishing his Employ, Yes! then he wept, and to his Mind there came How he had oft the good Old Man revil'd, This is the Life itself,' the Boy replied; "Thy Mother left me in a happy Time, ་ "Thou kill'dst not her-Heav'n spares the double "Crime." On an Inn-settle, in his maudlin Grief, This he revolv'd, and drank for his Relief. Now liv'd the Youth in freedom, but debarr'd With greedy eye he look'd on all he saw, |