496 
litics and religious controversy forming 
part of the discussion. I do not know 
whether any such societies, ever before 
existed in St. Alban’s; but in London 
and elsewhere, experience has shewn 
that questions like these are the rocks 
upon which most societies cf this kind 
have split: and ifthe gentlemen of St. 
Alban’s, or any other gentlemen who 
may have formed, or may yet form them- 
selves into debating societies, are really 
desirous of improving themselves, let 
me humbly warn them to discard such 
questions for the future. They will find 
the field of science and literature and 
philosophy, ample enough for their, <is- 
cussions for fifty years to come, without 
ever touching upon religion or politics. 
Hadlow Street, 4th Oct, 1824. 
———<—>— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
HJNCLOSED I have sent you a 
second communication from the 
St. Alban’s Literary Society, which I 
should feel obliged by your either in- 
serting, or noticing in your Answers to 
Correspondents.— Your’s respectfully, 
J. Harris, Jun, 
St. Alban’s, 12th Oct. 1824. 
On the Love of Lire. 
From the earliest periods of infancy 
down. to the second childhood of decre- 
pitude, the love of life teaches us to 
exert our faculties for our preservation 
and well-being. From the moment that 
the babe is presented to the breast of 
its mother to the latest hour of weak 
and debilitated age, when it receives 
assistance and nourishment from chil- 
dren’s children; throughout all the vari- 
ations of youth, manhood, and de- 
cay, the love of life never forsakes us ; 
but, in every situation, and under every 
circumstance, teaches us to cherish 
and preserve our frame. Children rarely 
think of death, and never but with ap- 
prehension and dismay; and it is 
equally true, that, for the most part, 
the old regard it with a childish fear : 
“ The tree of deepest root is found 
Least willing still to quit the ground.” 
I must own, that it has often been to 
me amatter of much surprize to wit- 
ness men, grey, and bent with the 
weight of years, without a seeming 
‘comfort ‘upon earth, and almost’ with- 
out a sensé or faculty to’ enjoy one, 
clinging to life with all an infant’s fond- 
ness. From this I have been convinced, 
that the Love of Life is an innate qua- 
lity of the strongest and most enduring 
Essay on the Love of Life. 
(Jane, 
power. It is.inseparable from existence : 
and I am of. opinion, Hee enemies 
the influence of the most. perplexing anc 
distressing circumstances, howsoever we 
may affect to. despise our ,lives,>we 
should resign'them, were they toybe:de- 
manded, with sorrow and reluetanee, | 
I concur, with Byron in the.opinion, 
that laurel oF 
“ The yery. suicide, { 
Lets out impatiently the rushing, breath,, 
Less from disgust of life, than. dread of 
death.” EPMA oe 
In sickness also, and! bodily: calamity, 
when the thread of existence »seems 
almost severed by the pangs of disease ; 
when fever breathes its burning’ pesti- 
lence through every pore, aiid mature 
groans in the convulsions of pains éven 
then, when to -be nothing, would seem 
“a consummation deyoutly to -be wish- 
ed,” we still, cling to .existence, ‘and 
pray, not for the oblivion of the-grave, 
but for the renewal. of health, and the 
prolongation of life, )> ovo) ou) jen’ 
And when, ‘at length, indisposition 
loosens his debilitating: grasp, and: the 
sufferer recovers strength sufficient ‘to 
quit his sickly couch and:walk-abroad, 
how sweet and » refreshing’ «does: the 
meanest natural object appear! 
“ See the wretch, that long has tost’ 
On the’ thorny bed of pain,’ 
At length repair his vigour lost, 
And breathe and walkagain 9: ” 
The meanest flow’ret of the vale, 
The simple note that swells the gale, 
The common sun, the air; the, skies, ; 
To him are opening ,paradise.”’",, (4. 
It is evident that the love of ‘life in- 
cludes, in some measure, ‘the idea of 
happiness, and the desire. to attain iv: 
for happiness is the essence of. desire’; 
and we consequently cling to‘those‘ob- 
jects which can give us either*imme- 
diate or promise us future pleasure/ “It 
is from the same principle of’ action 
that the sensualist continually cherishes 
and gratifies his appetites, and the mo- 
ralist chastens and governs them, ‘and 
practices self-denial. Both are’ equally 
influenced by the love'of life; although 
the one is content with a calm’and last- 
; 
Who are so desirous of pleasure or 
existence, and of the ‘pleasures derivable 
from it. We feel as though we were 
“created 
