MORAL REFLECTIONS; SUGGESTED BY A VIEW OF LONDON FROM OFF THE MONUMENT. BY JOHN EVANS, A. M. "On LONDON's column pointing at the skies."-POPE. TOW wonderful are the works of nature! how exquifite the productions of art! From this elevated station, both nature and art prefs on my imagination with an accumulated grandeur. Sufpended aloft between heaven and earth; the mind is filled with the moft awful fenfations. Above me, the firmament is ftretched to an astonishing extent; circumfcribed on all fides by the boundaries of an ample horizon.-Below me, I behold the habitations of men huddled together in one vaft undistinguished heap, with here and there the folemn temple lifting its turrets to the sky. The mul titude of ftately veffels alfo, with their lofty masts and complicated cordage, richly fraught from foreign lands, ftrike my eye "Where wanders the hoary Thames along GRAY. This is the METROPOLÍs of the BRITISH EMPIRE, containing within her capacious bofom near a million of inhabitants. And fhall this extenfive view yield no ufeful inftruction? Can no moral leffons be gathered from this majestic fpectacle ? 1. Contemplating this horizon with its extraordinary appendages, I am ftruck with the grandeur of the Di vine Being. Thefe are thy works Almighty Father! It is generally agreed that extent, power, or force, enters into the nature nature and forms a conftituent part of the fublime *. How fublime then is that portion of the earth I now behold, including within its circumference the metropolis and its numerous inhabitants! But how much more fublime must be that GREAT BEING who created and sustains univerfal nature! Flagrant would be the injuftice, did we estimate the perfections of the Deity only from a part of his works; especially fuch a diminutive part as can be at once taken in by human vifion. From the fpecimen now prefented me, I extend my thoughts to the extremity of the ifland-to the fartheft corners of Europe-to the remoteft regions of the globe. Nor do the works of God here terminate. Το other worlds I lift my aftonished eye. Their distances, dimenfions, and revolutions, almoft over-power the weakness and fcantinefs of the human intellect. Syf tems upon fyftems crowd the immenfity of fpace. How can I refrain from admiring 46 all this goodly apparatus That rides round the glowing axle-tree of heaven?" Immeasurable is the power, unfathomable the wisdom and unbounded the goodnefs which the Supreme Being hath difplayed in these his works. Reverence and gratitude are due to him who hath thus diffufed over fo wide a furface, the felicity of his intelligent and dependent creatures. 2. Let me next contemplate the energy of the Divine Being, exerted in the prefervation of the metropolis, and of the fucceffive generations of its inhabitants. What changes hath this city undergone fince its foundation was laid by the ancient Britons. Moft probably not a fingle ftone in any one of the buildings remains, which was placed there by the original architect. The dreadful fires which have at different times broken * See Burke on the Beautiful and Sublime.-Alfo Dr. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric. forth forth, fhew, in a measure, the truth of the preceding obfervations. But it is not to the external variation of the buildings I would direct my attention. The inhabitants of the metropolis are in a perpetual fluctuation. Man is born to die. The tomb is ever infatiable for its prey. Can I then contemplate yonder vaft affemblage of human beings, without being impreffed by a confideration of their tranfitorinefs? So great is their prefent number, that it nearly equals the inhabitants of the whole ifland, at the period of its invafion by Julius Cæfar. In this crowded city, therefore, how many are inceffantly paffing into an eternal world! Yet their removal from fociety is felt only by their own immediate connections; and even by them foon forgotten. Such is the replenishing energy of the Almighty, that others are ever ready to ftep into their places, and to fill up their vacated stations. When the plague in the last century, fwept away near one hundred thousand citizens, yet, when the difcafe difappeared, the metropolis foon became as crowded as ever. No chaẩm is known in the general state of human affairs. From the monarch to the peafant their abfence is fpeedily fupplied. Thus do the fons of men tread the continued circle of life and death, till the whole human race shall have passed into eternity! 3. Let me admire that powerful love of fociety which thus brings mankind together, and by which they are formed into communities. Philofophers have amufed themselves in investigating the nature of man. They pronounce him to be a compound being, defigned alternately for folitude and for fociety. The focial principle, however, is a tie by which man is indiffolubly linked to man. Like other gregarious animals, particularly the harmless fheep, men love to affociate together for mutual defence and mutual *See Henry's Hiftory of Great Britain, vol. i.-Quarto edition. pleasure. pleasure. Hence the village-the town-the city, has been gradually formed and peopled. This congregated ftate of human kind, has afforded much curious fpeculation to the philofopher and the statesman. The advantages and difadvantages of affociating together are numerous. But the former abundantly overbalance the latter. Rouleau may declare that cities are tombs for the living, yet it is in cities that encouragement is given to trade, to commerce, and to letters. There, the human faculties are called forth and invigorated. Society, indeed, is a ftate evidently defigned for us by the Divine Being. We are furnished with powers and principles, which can in no other ftate receive their due gratification. And as action as well as contemplation belongs to man, in this metropolis is an ample fphere for its operation. Here meet together the potentate and the ftatefman-the merchant and the tradefman-the mifer and the prodigal, with all the endlefs variety of human characters and human conditions. The focial principle, like the law of gravitation, concentrates them into one huge and unwieldly mafs. Into the metropolis of the British empire individuals pour, not merely from every corner of the land, but also from every region of the globe. There, their wifdom and their folly, their virtues and their vices, are promifcuoufly difplayed. It however behoves us to be exceedingly careful, left our affociation be made the means of generating vice and corruption. How frequently, alas! is this the cafe. But woe be to the man, who, either overlooking or perverting the gracious intention for which his Maker endowed him with the focial principle, transforms the bleffing into a curfe. May unwary youth, who often take a pride in vitiating each other, dwell on this truth. How many of them, indulging themselves in habits of diffipation, expiate their crimes on a fcaffold, or preffed down with loathfome difeafes, fink into an untimely grave! 4. Viewing VOL. II. Ꮮ 4. Viewing the metropolis, and recollecting its numerous inhabitants, I feel the neceffity and propriety of the restraints imposed on fociety by a well-ordered legif. lation. Government in general is abfolutely neceffary. It is interwoven into the very texture of our nature, and without it fociety cannot fubfift. Concerning its modes of adminiftration, endlefs differences obtain. But by each of the parties, however violent may be their contefts, the utility of fome kind of reftrictive authority has never been denied. The only question that has been agitated by politicians, frequently with an intemperate warmth, is what kind of government best subferves the good of mankind. With the folution of this problem I am not now concerned. But it is impoffible for me not to recognize the beneficial effects of well or dered legiflation. What a fcene of diforder and confufion must prefent itself from an affemblage of near a million of human beings, without laws to reftrain the impetuofity of appetite, and fubdue the violence of paffion! Impelled as we are by the focial principle to unite together in communities; it is neceffary to afcer tain and fecure mutual rights. Life and property, are too valuable to be left to the mercy of the lawlefs plunderer. To relinquish a portion of our liberty for the better fecurity of what remains, is the dictate of reafon and religion. Indeed legiflation, from its being effential to the welfare and happinefs of fociety, has been afcribed to a divine origin. Lycurgus, Solon, and Numa, legiflators of antiquity, pretended to fupernatu ral communications. Their regulations were deemed the refult of an intercourfe with the gods. Indeed, magiftrates are intended by heaven to be a terror to evil doers, and a praife to them that do well. The British metropolis is an epitome of the world! The remarks, therefore, which apply to the government of cities, may be extended, with fome little variafion, to the bulk of the human race. Though it be at present |