Jack's elder brother, Sir Thomas Quickset, who gave him the benefice, is lord of the manor; so that Jack has full power to beat up the game unmolested. He goes out three times a week with his brother's hounds, whether Sir Thomas hunts or not; and has besides a deputation from him as lord of the manor, consigning the game to his care, and empowering him to take away all guns, nets, and dogs, from persons not duly qualified. Jack is more proud of his office than many other country clergymen are of being in the commission of the peace. Poaching is, in his eye, the most heinous crime in the two tables? nor does the care of souls appear to him half so important a duty as the preservation of the game.

Sunday, you may suppose, is as dull and tedious to this ordained sportsman as to any fine lady in town: not that he makes the duties of his function any fatigue to him, but as this day is necessarily a day of rest from the usual toils of shooting and the chace. It happened, that the first Sunday after I was with him he had engaged to take care of a church, which was about twenty miles off, in the absence of a neighbouring clergyman. He asked me to accompany him; and the more to encourage me, he assured me, that we should ride over as fine a champaign open country as any in the north. Accordingly I was roused by him in the morning before daybreak by a loud hallooing of Hark to Merriman,' and the repeated smacks of his half-hunter; and after we had fortified our stomachs with several slices of hung beef and a horn or two of stingo, we sallied forth. Jack was mounted upon a hunter, which he assured me was never yet thrown out : and as we rode along, he could not help lamenting that so fine a soft morning should be thrown away upon a Sunday; at the same time remarking that the dogs might run breast high.

Though we made the best of our way over hedge and ditch, and 'took' every thing; we were often delayed by trying if we could prick a hare, or by leaving the road to examine a piece of cover; and he frequently made me stop, while he pointed out the particular course that Reynard took, or the spot where he had earth'd. At length we arrived on full gallop at the church, where we found the congregation waiting for us; but as Jack had nothing to do but to alight, pull his band out of the sermon-case, give his brown scratch bob a shake, and clap on the surplice, he was presently equipped for the service. In short, he behaved himself, both in the desk and pulpit, to the entire satisfaction of all the parish, as well as the 'squire of it; who, after thanking Jack for his excellent discourse, very cordially took us home to dinner with him.

I shall not trouble you with an account of our entertainment at the 'squire's; who being himself as keen a sportsman as ever followed a pack of dogs, was hugely delighted with Jack's conversation. Church and King, and another particular toast (in compliment, I suppose, to my friend's clerical character) were the first drank after dinner; but these were directly followed by a pint bumper to 'Horses sound, Dogs healthy, Earths stopt, and Foxes plenty.' When we had run over again, with great joy and vociferation, as many chaces as the time would permit, the bell called us to evening-prayers, after which, though the 'squire would fain have had us stay and take a hunt with him, we mounted our horses at the church door, and rode home in the dark; because Jack had engaged to meet several of his brother sportsmen, who were to lie all night at his own house, to be in readiness to make up for the loss of Sunday, by going out a cock-shooting very early the next morning.

I must leave it to you, Cousin, to make what reflections you please on this character: only observing that the country can furnish many instances of these ordained sportsmen, whose thoughts are more taken up with the stable or the dog-kennel than the church : and indeed, it will be found that our friend Jack and all of his stamp are regarded by their parishioners, not as Parsons of the Parish, but rather as 'squires in orders.

Sav'd from the shock, from dangers yet unknown,
His mercy we implore, whose pow'r we own.

IT is not easy for the mind of man to recover itself from any extraordinary panic which has once seized it for which reason we cannot be surprised that many well meaning people, who have not yet shaken off the apprehensions, occasioned by the late dreadful earthquakes, should be led to conjure up new terrors, and alarm themselves with imaginary dangers. Their fears interpret every common incident, and even the change of weather, as signs of approaching destruction. If the day be calm and serene, such (they say) is the usual forerunner

of a shock; or, if the night prove tempestuous, they can hardly persuade themselves that it is only the wind which rocks their houses. With this propensity to entertain any unreasonable dread about future events, it is no wonder that weak minds should be worked upon by little dabblers in philosophy, who, having gleaned a few barren scraps from the Magazines, presume even to foretell the dissolution of the world by the Comet which is expected to appear in 1758. Swift, in his Voyage to Laputa, has a passage so very apposite to these idle pretenders to science, that I shall beg leave to transcribe it.

These people,' says he, are under continual 'disquietudes, never enjoying a minute's peace of mind; and their disturbances proceed from causes, which very little affect the rest of mortals. Their ' apprehensions arise from several changes they dread in the celestial bodies. For instance, that the earth, by the continual approaches of the • sun towards it, must in course of time be absorbed, or swallowed up. That the face of the sun will by degrees be encrusted with its own effluvia, and give no more light to the world. That the ' earth very narrowly escaped a brush from the last 'comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to

ashes; and the next, which they have calculated for one-and-thirty years hence, will probably de'stroy us. For, if in its perihelium it should approach within a certain degree of the sun (as by their calculations they have reasons to dread) it will receive a degree of heat ten thousand times 'more intense than that of red-hot glowing iron; • and, in its absence from the sun, carry a blazing • tail ten hundred thousand and fourteen miles long; through which, if the earth should pass at the distance of one hundred thousand miles from the • nucleus, or main body of the comet, it must in its

passage be set on fire, and reduced to ashes. That the sun, daily spending its rays without any nutriment to supply them, will at last be wholly 'consumed and annihilated; which must be attended with the destruction of this earth, and of all the 'planets that receive their light from it.

They are so perpetually alarmed with the ap'prehensions of these and the like impending dan < gers, that they can neither sleep quietly in their ' beds, nor have any relish for the common pleasures 6 or amusements of life. When they meet an acquaintance in the morning, the first question is ' about the sun's health, how he looked at his setting ' and rising, and what hopes they have to avoid the 'stroke of an approaching comet. This conversa'tion they are apt to run into with the same temper 'that boys discover to hear terrible stories of spirits ' and hobgoblins, which they greedily listen to, and dare not go to bed for fear.'

Let us, however, banish from our thoughts all such vain notions, and let us fortify our minds with a true sense of religion; which will teach us to rely on the protection of that Providence which has hitherto preserved us. It is with great pleasure that I remark the unanimous concurrence of almost all ranks of people, in allowing the propriety of the present solemn Fast as a necessary act of humiliation, to avert the wrath and vengeance of Heaven, and call down its mercies upon us. It is true, indeed, that no persons do more prejudice to the cause of religion than they who cloud its genuine cheerfulness with the gloom of superstition, and are apt to consider every common accident that befals us as a judgment. They clothe religion in the most terrifying habit, and (as it were) dress it up in all the horrors of the Inquisition. These people are much to be pitied; and it is to be wished that their mistaken piety could be better regulated. But there