162 
23° S. from its frft appearance, and about 
4%. fince laft night. Its haze {eems more 
oblong. Itis hardly, if at all, now vift- 
ble tothe naked eye ; tho. gh with the tele- 
fcope, its light does not feem impaired. 
I remain, your’s fincercly, 
Aug. 233.1797. Cui: 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazime. 
SIR, 
Vole correfpondent, T. I. $8. in the 
lat Magazine, has quoted the ftatute 
of the 32d Henry VIII, for the purpote 
of proving the tlegality of marrying a 
wife’s fitter: but althoughthat ftarute de- 
clares,that all perfons may lawfully marry, 
“except fuch as are prohibited by God's 
law; yet 4 marriage contracted in oppofi- 
tion to what is called God’s law, 1s not 
legally void. The parties may be pro- 
ceeded againf in the ecclefiaftical courts ; 
and, if the judges there decree the mar- 
riage to be void, then, and not till then, it 
is void by the law of England. Thisis the 
fpirit of the doétrine held by Blackftone, 
in his Commentaries, when {peaking of 
the relation of perfons in marriage, in the 
fifteenth charter of the firft volume. 
Thus it appears, that this ftatute is of no 
effeét in itfelf, asa law; and is merely 
a direétory to ecclefiaftical courts, where 
proceedings againft marilages of this 
nature are now become, in a great de- 
gree, obfolete; and I know an inftance 
where the party married his wife’s fitter, 
and has lived with her, unmolefted by 
fpiritual cenfure, for feveral years. If 
have made ule of the expreffion above, 
of “ what is called God’s law,”’ becaufe 
I conceive it ftill remains to te fatif- 
fa€torily proved that the Levitical law 
alluded to, proceeded immediately from 
the deity; or, even if it did, that 1t was 
deGened for all mankind; for there might 
be a neceffity for it in the country where 
it was firft promulgated, that does not 
exit elfewhere : and if that proof is not 
brought forward, there can be no moral 
ebligation to obey the law. Iam, nr, 
Your's, ke; W.-C. P. 
— EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR 
ALBEIT you may wifh to avoid the 
£% drynefs and dullnefs of political dif- 
- euffion in your Magazine, yet you muft 
be fenfidle that in an age of quiduunkery 
like the prefent, it is not always pofhible 
to difregard the paffing events of Europe. 
It has long, for example, been the fafhion 
fo advert to the horrid maflacres which 
Marrying a Wife's SifterunModern Novels. 
ghofts, hobgoblins, 
F Aug, 
difgraced France during the tyranny of 
Robefpierre ; and, whatever a good and 
loyal fubjeét happens to write, whether 
a hiftory, a life, a fermon, or a pofting 
bill, he thinks it his duty to introduce a 
due proportion of his abhorrence and in- 
dignation agzinft all fuch- bloody pro- 
ceedings. Happy, fir, would it be, if 
we could contemplate barbarity without 
adopting it; 1f we could meditate upon 
cruelty without learning it; and if we 
could paint a man without 2 head, with- 
out fuppofing what would be the cafe if 
fome of our friends were without their 
heads. But, alas! fo prone are we te 
imitation, that we have exaétly and faith- 
fully copied the sysTEM OF TERROR, 
if not in our ftreets, and in our fields, at 
leaft in our circulating libraries, and in 
our clofets, Need I fay that I am ad- 
verting to the wonderful revolution that - 
has taken place ia the arf of novel- 
writing, in which the only exercife for_ 
the fancy is now upon the moft frightful 
fubjeéts, and in which we reverfe the 
petition in the litany, and riot upon 
“battle, murder, and fudden death.” 
Good, indeed, it muft be confeffed, 
arifes out of evil. If, by this revolution, 
we have attained the art of frightening 
young people, and reviving the age of 
and fpirits, we 
have, at the fame time, fimplified genius, 
and fhown by what eafy procefs a writer 
may attain great celebrity in circulating 
libraries, boarding-{chools, and watering 
places. What has he todo but builda 
caftle in the air, and furnith it with dead 
bodies and departed fpirits, and he ob- 
tains the character of a man of a moft 
“* wonderful imagination, rich in imagery, 
and who has the wonderful talent of con- 
ducting his reader in a cold fweat 
through five er fix volumes.” 
Perhaps neceffity, the plea for-all reva- 
lutions, may haye occafioned the prefent. 
A novel ufed to be a defcription of 
human life and manners; but human 
life and manners a/ways deferibed, mutt 
become tirefome; all the difficulties at- 
tending upon the tender pafhon have 
been exhaufted; maiden aunts have be- 
come ftale; gallant colonels are fo com- 
mon, that we mect with them in ever 
volunteer corps. There are but few ways 
of running away with a lady, and not 
many more of breaking the hearts of her 
parents. Clumfy citizens are no longer 
to be feen in one horfe-chaifes, and their 
willas are removed from the’ bottom of 
Gray’s Inn Lane, to the moft delightful 
and picturefque fituations, tywelye ar fit- 
tecm 
