181%] Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. | 251 
t 
_and. hast not withholden ‘the request of 
u3 lips, Selah, , For thou presentest him 
_with the blessing of goodness, thou set- 
: : 
_test a crown of pure gold on_ his head ; » 
_and, since God hath wrought out his 
salvation, let us always endeavour to 
maintain it, that it may be said of oure 
‘King, that he did that which was right 
in the sight of the Lord, and that, 
*_** By doing ourselves that which is right 
‘in the sight of the Lord; for the sins of a 
people do sometimes provoke God to 
"leave their King, that he may do evil in 
ak! 
the sight of the Lord, as David was !cft 
to number. Israel for the sins of the 
people: and, again, the anger of the Lord 
was kindled against Israel, and he moved 
David against them to say, Go, number 
‘Israel and Judah, 
“Thus David, though otherwise a good 
man, was left to fall for the faults of bis 
people; God was so filled with anger 
against Israel, as to desert and leave 
David to himself, so that he yielded to 
the satanical suggestion, that he might 
bring dreadful destruction on the people.” 
Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
a 
IMPERIAT, HERETICS. 
HE Greek emperor Manuel Com- 
nenus affirmed, that Mahomet’s 
god was the true god; for which the 
bishop of Thessalonica reproached him 
in bitter. terms, and caused the opinion 
to be condemned by an especial synod. 
i ‘PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
“Lord Bacon in his advice about the 
‘Charterhouse, says, “The great number 
“of schvols which are in your, highness’s 
realin doth cause a want, and likewise 
‘an overflow. By means thereof they 
“find want, in the country and towns, both 
_of servants for husbandry,and apprentices 
for trade. On the other side, there 
“being more scholars bred than the state 
can prefer and employ, and the active 
part of life not bearing a proportion to 
the preparative, it falls out that too many 
pérsons are bred unfit for other vocations, 
and unprofitable for that in which they 
are brought up. Thusthe realm is filled 
with indigent, idle, and wanton, people, 
which are but the materials of revolu- 
tion” ” 
This has always been, and still is, ‘the 
grand tory argument against promoting 
“popular instruction: but it deserves 
notice, that this alarm was sounded at 
‘the very commencement of the reign of 
‘James the First, which endured nearly a 
quarter of a century in perfect tranquil- 
“lity. 
SABBATICAL PASTIME. 
© The clergy have always doubted whe- 
.therthe precept '‘ Keep holy the Sabbath 
Day” is a command to make holiday by 
playing, or by abstaining from play. 
“Some think it ordains joy, and game, 
and Sport, gaiety, spectacles, and festi- 
Yity: some think it enjoins fasting, 
Mourning, penance, silence, meditation, 
gloom, and austerity, 
Of the former description of prelates 
was Aylmer, bishop of London, under 
_queen Elizabeth, who, upon the green at 
his country-house in Fulham, used to 
play bowls on the Sunday with his cleri- 
cal and other guests.. See Strype’s Life 
of Aylmer, p. 215 and 294. James I. 
and Charles I. favoured by their pros 
clamations this Sunday lularity; and 
Morer, in bis book on the Name and 
Notion of the Sabbath, defended learn- 
edly the practice. 
Of late years a proclamation, ascribed 
to the celebrated John, Bowles, has been 
regularly read in courts of justice, which 
invites the magistracy to repress the en= 
joyments of the people: surely, our ans 
cestors were more rational, who thought 
that God delights in the happiness of 
man, : 
HALE, THE COMEDIST. 
One remarkable instance of a success- 
ful acquirement of the idiomatic pecu- 
liarities of a foreign language, is that of 
Hale, an Englishman, who composed for 
the French stage, Le jugement de Midas, 
VAmant jaloux, and Les Evenemens 
Imprevus, which last especially “is an 
ayreeable lyric comedy, and has been 
permanently succcssful. 
What'circumstances led to Hale’s ex- 
patriation, some of your readers can 
perhaps communicate ; he died at Paris, 
it is.said, in very necessitous circums 
stances. . 
WHITEHEAD, - 
Among the poems of the Jaureate 
Whitehead, one of the best is an eexy 
“written at the convent of ILaut- Villers, in 
Champagne, and dated in 1744. The 
descriptive portion has likeness, the an- 
tiquariay portion loftiness, aiid an,inge- 
nious moral is well attached in the ful- 
lowing stanza; 
Temperance, 
