imperative of lesan, being made at length an adjective, took a positive standing, Hence, when we compare two things together, each smaller than an assumed standard, we say in the comparative (and spite of Dr. Johnson's disapprobation)This is the lesser-and of three things, thus stated, "That is the least.' This is less than that' is proper: it implies this is that, with loss: to-wit of what appears wanting on comparison with the other.

Profit is French; from the Latin proficio, I do for: signifying (if I may so quaintly express it) that which the thing done does for the doer.

Balance we shall trace to the Greek. The French balance is from their old word baller, to swing, the Gr. for which is ballo. This was transferred first to the librating scale-beam (the proper term, by the bye, for the stillyard, on which is a scale of weights) and then to the now plus, now minus difference of the opposite columns in a Ledger

account.

Bill. Fr. billet. The word, like the thing it implies, must travel to find its origin. The old Bel or Baal of the Phenicians (our first correspondents in trade) signifying any thing round, as the sun, or a head, (whence our bull, from the great head of the animal) was applied also to the head and beak of birds: thence, by a natural comparison, it was transferred to the curved pointed instrument used for cutting wood. A piece of wood so billed was a billet—and a smaller piece, flattened and marked with the name of the house or sign, served to billet the soldiers in a town. By a modern improvement this came to be a strip of paper, retaining the same name: and hence the French billet-doux for the ladies, and billet de charge for their husbands: which latter we have shortened to the ancient standard and made it the monosyllable Bill: so here it is for the Readers acceptance at last.

Cash. Commonly known to have been the name of a kind of small shell money, met with by our early traders in the East Indies. And here, having brought my dealing to its most desirable issue, payment, I might dismiss my reader for the present-but duty requires that in taking his money, I leave with him a word of advice. Cain, as we find in Sacred writ, slew his brother—and gain has been, more or less, a murderer in all nations since. Whilst therefore he pockets the balance in his favour from a speculation or an adventure, let the young merchant reflect that, very possibly, his gain may have been another's loss. How would he have felt, had the case been the reverse? He would not wish, doubtless, to see a family starving for every thousand pounds he may add to his estate! Let those who prize a generous disposition, nay, who would not see every nobler feeling of our nature eradicated in their breasts, consider well the nature and tendency of the business they are proposing to follow. Those pursuits which tend the most directly to what Locke or Adam Smith (I forget whether) calls an increase of the species of things, which raise produce, and change the form of the material, and transmit it elsewhere for use,

ADDRESS TO AN INTOLERANT.

253

consuming of other's goods and helping them the while, these are what a man who regards his peace of mind will prefer to all dealings dependent merely on the rise or fall of markets, and subject hence more peculiarly to the hazard of uncertain speculation. Yet must the Capitalist, in the present state of things, have his turn. He is a reservoir for the accumulation of a saleable commodity until it can be vended to profit, and, thus employed, of use in society. He should be paid for his risque and his interest put by (for of his own should the goods be paid for, or left unbought) but if he grasp at gain from both ends, bearing down the grower or manufacturer, and enhancing his own price by mean artifices, let him look to it: for his foundation is as surely rotten under him, as the pillars of truth and justice (which heaven itself has set up), are secure. Ed.

ART. V.-Address to an Intolerant.

Gentle shepherd, tell me where
I may evite thy tender care!
Shall I to this pole go, or that;

Or down among the Australians squat ;
To East or West direct my flight,
Go meet the morn, or seek the night?

My Squaw full well can knit and sew,

And might for a Red Indian do:

My back, 'tis true but ill would bear

The burthen of his peltry ware,

From Western woods and wilds brought down
To stand a mart at Shawnoctown:

Yet would his cup of charity

Be larger than as mix'd by thee;

And should I soon, thro' frost and snow,

An exile, to his country go,

Full many a welcome would he say

To his warm house' (whate'er the day),

Yet marvel at the faith they have,

Who for their God thus make a slave.

Note; When the quakers were under a cruel persecution by the Magistrates of Boston, New England, Nicholas Upshal, a man of an unblameable conversation, and a church member of their communion, shewed the sufferers kindness, by giving five shillings a week to the gaoler, to let those confined in prison have the sustenance necessary for life-the magistrates having caused the gaol window to be boarded up, that none might communicate with or help them. And proceeding afterwards to reason with the magistrates, and warn them not to be found fighting against God, (as likewise forbearing their religious assemblies) he was fined, imprisoned and then banished; though a weakly old man, and the season the depth of winter. Coming

at length to Rhode Island, he met an Indian prince, who having understood how he had been dealt with, behaved himself very kindly, and told him if he would live with him he would make him a warm house and further said, 'What a God have these English, who deal so with one another about their God!' Sewel's History of the Quakers : vol. 2, p. 270.

ART. VI.-On Bodies of Divinity:

On a singular effect of fright on the organs of speech. Dr. A. Clarke.

"Bodies of Divinity I do most heartily dislike: they tend to supersede the Bible. And independently of this they are exceedingly dangerous: they often give false notions, bring their own kind of proofs to confirm those notions, and by their mode of quoting insulated texts of Scripture, greatly pervert the true meaning of the word of God. This is my opinion of them: the ministers who preach from them fill the heads of their hearers with systematic knowledge.-The only preaching worth anything in God's account, and which the fire will not burn up [1 Cor. iii, 13.] is that which labours to convict and convince the sinner of his sin, to bring him into contrition for it, to convert him from it; to lead him to the blood of the covenant, that his conscience may be purified from its infection,—and then to build him up on this most holy faith, by causing him to pray in the Holy Ghost, and keep himself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This is the system pursued by the Apostles; and it is that alone which God will own to the conversion of sinners. I speak from the experience of nearly fifty years in the public ministry of the word: this is the most likely mode to produce the active soul of divinity, while the body' is little else than the preacher's creed." Life by I. B. B. Clarke, M. A. Vol. 3, p. 36.

"One of the effects of old age is, that the person loses words, as well as names, or involuntarily puts one word for another, in discourse. The following anecdote seems to shew that an occasional cause, inducing disorder of the nerves, may for a time subject a person to the same difficulty. There seems to be a partial paralysis on these occasions in the system of nerves, or fibres of the brain, connected with language (considered as a physical train of operations) analogous to that by which we lose the use of particular limbs or muscles of the body.

"In travelling, the anthor of the narrative had been greatly alarmed (at Uxbridge) by the circumstance of his wife's being run away with, in a carriage in which he was not himself riding. He says, after it, "I had spoken very little from the time we left Uxbridge. On attempting to pronounce Blenheim, I found I could not express the last syllable, but another in its place totally different. I tried it two or three times, but could not succeed. It was the same with other dissyllables; and besides there were several other words which I could not

at all catch. At last I found I could not recollect some of my wellknown sentences, nor even the best-known verse of a hymn, though I could perfectly recollect the tune. As I found I made the same error in the last syllable of words, I did not attempt to speak any more, lest it should attract the attention of the strangers that were in the coach. When we arrived at Worcester, I endeavoured to describe what I felt —but they were obliged to supply me with words very often, and guess out my meaning. I felt no affection in my head, no giddiness, no confusion, and my intellect was perfectly clear; but my power to call up my words greatly impaired. I was better the next day, but not recovered, and the work which I have since been obliged to go through has not helped me." The author appears to have been in his 70th year. Idem. vol. 3, p. 219.

ART. VII.-FABLES, &C., IN PROSE AND VERSE-CONTINUED,

The Fowler and the Viper. Æsop.

The Fowler went afield intent upon his prey
And spied a simple Thrush upon a hawthorn spray;
He thought the bird his own, but while he nearer drew
With limed twigs in hand, the songstress in his view,
A Viper on the grass, unseen-but by the tread
Rous'd from its coil, erects at once its scaly head
And strikes the man retires-and thus, he cries in pain,
Intending to destroy, my mortal wound I gain.

The Dove and the Sparrow. Phædr.

A hapless Dove, become the
prey
Of wanton puss, was borne away
Across the roof-Soon as she spied
Her case, th' insulting Sparrow cried,
What! the swift flier, that could elude
With ease the hawk, is now by shrew'd
Grimalkin caught!-The hawk in view
Down stooping, dies the sparrow too!

Thus it befalls, full oft, the man
Who, while he views misfortune, can
(Forgot his own precarious state)
The scene with pleasure contemplate.

The Wolf and the Goat. Esop.

Skipping the rocks and led too far,
A Goat perceives himself at war,
All on a sudden, with the beast
Who dogs the flock to gain a feast
Of kid or lamb-prowling below
The Wolf appear'd :-His bearded foe
Secure from capture, though at bay,
(For shut to safe descent the way
Was found) a parley thus began :
'Let me amuse you, for I can,
With a Welsh dance in our best style :
But I expect you'll pipe the while.'

The Wolf sung out, his pipe was heard,
The Shepherd with the dogs appear'd:
The case was clear; the thief withdraws
And shows his teeth and snaps
his jaws:

From the TIMES of Jan. 22nd, 1834. "In the Bail Court [King's Bench] before Mr. Justice J. Park in Banco. Mr. Blackburne moved for a writ of Certiorari to bring up an Inquisition taken before the Coroner of a place in Yorkshire for the purpose of quashing it. The defects in the Inquisition were,-first that the solemn affirmation of one of the Jurors had been taken, there being no statement that he was a member of the Society of Friends; and secondly, that it was stated in the proceedings that the deceased's death was occasioned by certain machinery, &c. Upon the first of these the learned Counsel contended that, even if a QUAKER could be on such a Jury at all [!] still it should have been stated [certainly it should, but who left it out? Ed.] that he was a member of the society of Friends ; and as to the second point, that the term, machinery "&c." was too loose an expression.

The

The Learned Judge observed, that there was an Act of Lord Morpeth's respecting quakers, which applied TO ALL CASES. defect however in this Inquisition was evident. Certiorari granted."

The Act should be produced, if future occasion require it, by the friend himself or any other person of his persuasion desiring to affirm under it; in our own defence against such misunderstandings. Ed.

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CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, FONTEFRACT.