For the MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

REVERIE IN AN EVENING WALK.

"An undevout aftronomer is mad."

GREAT and marvellous are thy works, Lord, God Almigh

ty; just and true are all thy ways, thou King of faints." Such is the warm and elevated language of infpiration. Such are the fentiments of piety and love.

The existence of a Being infinitely good, wife and powerful, is fo ftrikingly difplayed on all the works of creation, that to doubt it fhows ingratitude, to deny it, impiety. "Every thing giveth proof of God; every thing, that proveth it, giveth caufe of adoration." Let the bold infidel attentively examine the beauty and grandeur of the univerfe; and confider the conftitution of his own nature, fearfully and wonderfully made. Let him reflect on the revolutions of the feafons, and the charming diverfity, they afford. Let him contemplate the lively bloom of fpring, the rich splendour of summer, the ripe luxuriance of autumn, and the hoary face of winter ;

“Or look abroad through nature to the range

Of planets, funs, and adamantine spheres,

Wheeling unfhaken through the void immenfe."

Will not the furvey of scenes, fo beautiful, fo wonderful, fo magnificent and sublime, teach him to confess the existence, admire the wisdom, adore the goodness, and revere the majesty of the Moft High? Will it not diffipate the horrid gloom of his thoughts, and diffuse the holy light of religion over his mind? He, who will not be convinced by truths, fo manifeft and impreffive, "Is loft to virtue, loft to manly thought,

Loft to the noble fallies of the foul.”

He has perverted the gifts of nature, and degraded the dignity of humanity. He is unworthy to participate the bleffings of focial intercourfe, or to enjoy the efteem of his fellow-creatures. He fhould be confidered as an alien to fociety, an enemy to man, and an object of contempt.

Although a clear evidence of divine perfection may be de rived from examining the wonderful ftructure of the body, and the noble faculties of the foul; from contemplating the lower or

ders of creation, and the delightful varieties of the earth; yet when we raise our view, and furvey "the fpacious firmament on high," where

"Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres, centres roll;"

our belief is ftrengthened, and our admiration is increased. We cannot but exclaim with the Pfalmift, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work.” He, who can behold these splendid objects of almighty power with indifference, muft either poffefs the coldnefs of infidelity, or, in the forcible language of our motto, must be mad.

In contemplating the heavens, there is a pleasure, which, to a pious and reflecting mind, is far more pure and fublime, than any other employment can afford. It is a pleasure, derived from the sweetest and most refined affections of the heart; from the affections of love, gratitude and devotion.

At the folemn hour of night, when every breath is peace, and not a cloud obfcures the ferenity of the heavens, who can behold the "blue ethereal fky," fpangled with innumerable stars, "Forever finging as they fhine,

The hand that made us is divine,"

without glowing with admiration for wonders, fo magnificent, without feeling adoration for their great Creator?

"There is a noble pathos in the fkies,

Which warms our paffions, profelytes our hearts.”

The mind is exalted by their majefty and enlightened by their fplendour. Imagination is awakened; and while our eyes are. elevated above the earth, we feem to approach nearer to the prefence of that almighty Being, " who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the duft of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a balance." ALCANDER.

FOR THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY. CHURCH MUSIC.

MR. EDITOR,

THERE is nothing more difcordant to my feelings, than most

of the mufic, with which our temples are at prefent profaned.

Most of our modern pieces would better fuit the fiddlers of a ball-room, than the choir of our churches. They are compofed, in general, by boors as ignorant of the principles of music, as the rules of propriety, and unfortunately are selected by inftructors, who have not more correct perceptions. I have long wished for fome interference on the part of the good and pious. But they fleep, and they fuffer. I wifh the following extract (from T. Collyer) would awaken them to fome regard to the subject, and that we may no longer be disturbed in our devotions by the hurried and jigging measures of tunes, which are as improper, as inharmonious.

"One word on Church Music, and I have done. The end of Church Mufic is to relieve the wearinefs of a long attention; to make the mind more cheerful and compofed; and to endear the offices of religion. It should therefore imitate the perfume of the Jewish Tabernacle, and have as little of the compofition of common ufe as is poffible. There must be no voluntary maggots, no military tattoos, no light and galliardizing notes; nothing that may make the fancy trifling, or raise an improper thought this would be to profane the service, and bring the play-house into the Church. Religious harmony must be moving, but noble withal; grave, folemn, and feraphic: fit for a martyr to play, and an angel to hear. It fhould be contrived fo as to warm the best blood within us, and take hold of the finest part of the affections; to transport us with the beauty of holinefs; to raise us above the fatisfactions of life, and make us ambitious of the glories of heaven."

ANECDOTE.

CALISTO, an Athenian harlot, had the impudence to tell Socrates, that her profeffion was better than his; there was more force and persuasion in it, she faid; for he could not draw away one of her guests, while it was in her power to thin his school, and leave him nothing but the walls to talk to. Socrates gravely replied, that all fhe faid might well be; for philofophy was like tugging up the hill, and went fomewhat against the grain; but lewdness was rolling downwards, and the motion might be pleasant at first, though a man broke his bones at the bottom of the fall. GATAKER.

For the MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

PROPOSAL OF A GENERAL NAME FOR THE UNITED STATES.

MR. PERSE,

but an

IN casting my eye over the new edition of Dr. MORSE'S American Gazetteer, I obferve by his preface, that he has introduced the word FREDONIA, as a general name by which to designate our country. With a design, he says, merely to bring the fubject fairly before the public, he has given an example in the Appendix to his work, to fhow the convenience of fuch a name. The author appears to prefer this name to America or Columbia, only because it " runs more happily through all the variations, important in a generic name." This, I admit, is a weighty confideration in a national name ; additional one of fome importance may be derived from the etymology of the word. In an ingenious publication on this fubject, in the newspapers fome time fince, afcribed to Dr. MITCHILL of New-York, in which it was proposed to call our country FREDON, OF FREDONIA, the author fays the word "may mean, a free-gift; or any shing done freely, or the land of free privileges and doings." But in looking into the Achaiological Glossary of that learned English law antiquary, Sir HENRY SPELMAN, I found the words Freda, Fredum, Fredus, the explanations of which were fo curious, and, at the fame time, fo confonant to the above subject, and to our national denominations, that I have thought it proper to tranflate the paffage, and to fend it to you, with fome remarks, for publication in your useful periodical work. The three words, abovementioned, express precisely the fame meaning in the feminine, neuter and mafculine genders. In ancient charters and laws, there words fignified the fine or mula, or rather compofition money, or redemption money, which an offender paid either to the treasury, or to the magiftrate, for the purpose of making up the breach, and obtaining his peace.

The fine alfo, which was paid by a delinquent to the king, as a fatisfaction, or atonement for having violated his peace, was called his fredum. As the radical Saxon word fride fignifies "peace," the fine paid in all these cafes, might be called his peace-offering.

This fredum, mula, or peace-money, was demanded, as well in cafes of breach of the peace, without force, as with it. For every violation of the king's rule or law was faid to be a breach of his peace. Hence a fredum was exacted, both from a plaintiff, who brought a frivolous, or tortuous action, pro falso clamore; and from a convict, because of the wrong, which he had perpetrated. And this was his peace-offering, which procured his reconcilement with his fovereign. This word, my author obferves, was never current in England, and became obfolete on the continent after the age of the Emperor Frederic II. Now the application of thefe terms of feudal law, as employed in the courts of the middle ages of Europe, to the United States, is obvious and natural.

As an individual of old, who had incurred the displeasure of his lord or fovereign, paid his fredum, and was reftored to peace again; fo our nation in the late revolution, not indeed for any fault of theirs, having fallen under the frowns and hoftile operations of Great Britain, actually paid a large fredum of blood and treasure, and was afterwards by an honourable treaty in 1783, reftored to peace and independence.

From rebels and traitors against their fovereign, (epithets as undeferved, as they are reproachful,) our valiant and heroic countrymen, with their fwords, and by their treasure, paid the price of peace, and were thus transformed into a nation of Fredes, or to speak more rhetorically, into a nation of Fredonians, whofe country, of course, fhould be called Fredonia. Let any one, who objects to this name for his country, suggest a A NATIONAL MAN. better.

FOR THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

MEMOIR OF MRS. INCHBALD.*

BIOGRAPHERS have frequently remarked, that the lives

of literary characters are feldom attended with extraordinary incidents: or, if their peculiar adventures be ever fo noble and difficult, they are beyond the comprehenfion and obfervance of the common multitude, and will therefore, in vain, demand *It will be perceived, that much of this memoir it taken verbatim from that in a work entitled "Public Characters,"