Hence it is, that we are fo fubject to fevers,---and that it carries away more people than all the rest of the diseases: Out of every forty-two that have it, twenty-five generally die. It was fo in the time of Hippocrates, 430 years before Chrift: And fo Dr. Sydenham and Dr. Friend found it, in their practice :

But (I fay) had my four Doctors confidered the fever as I have plainly stated it, without vainly pretending to be fo wife as to know the effential caufes of it; and in the beginning of it, before the terrible appearances, the vigil, delirium, fubfultus, the dry black tongue, the furred teeth, and the pale, unconcocted urine, had caused a depletion by large bleeding, had opened the pores by a mild fudorific, had then given a vomit, Rad. Ipecacuanha in fmall fackwhey or chicken-water, and let the sufferer indulge in that thin diluting liquor, an emulfion of the feeds and almonds in barley-water, and, if the patient required it, a draught of table-beer with a toast, between whiles; had this been done very foon, there might be relief as quickly; or if the fever still run high, to bleed again, and wash down some proper alexipharmic powder with a proper cordial julap, it is poffible nature would have been able to accomplish

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the work, and health had been again reftored. I use the word proper alexipharmic, and proper cordial julap, because the Theriaca and Mithridatium of the fhops, which are commonly, almost always ordered as an alexipharmic bole, are rather poisons than useful in a fever; and because the tincture and fyrup of saffron, the treaclewater, or any other diftilled compound, are not fit cordials in the cafe; but it fhould be the conferva lujulæ in an emulfion ex fem. fr. cum amygd. in aq. bordei. This is the true alexipharmic,---and the only cordial, to be given in a fever. ---But it was the deftructive alexipharmics and cordials of the shops they forced down Maria's throat, and this, with the other bad prescriptions and management, killed one of the finest and most excellent women that ever lived.

And now to give the world a better idea of this admirable woman than any defcription of mine can exhibit, I fhall here place a few religious little pieces, which she writ, while Mifs Spence, and which I found among her papers.

MORAL

MORAL THOUGHTS: Written by Mifs SPENCE.

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MORALITY.

BSTRACT, mathematical, or phyfical truth, may be above the reach of the bulk and community of mankind. They have neither the leifure, nor the neceffary helps and advantages to acquire the natural knowledge of arts and fciences. The many calls and importunities of the animal kind, take up the greatest part of their time, thoughts, and labour, fo that the more abstract fpeculations, and experimental difquifitions of philofophy, are placed by Providence quite out of their reach, and beyond their fphere of action.

On the contrary, moral truth, right and wrong, good and evil, the doing as we would be done by, and acting towards all men as they really are, and ftand related in fociety; these things are as evident to the understanding, as light and colours are to the eye, and may be called the intellectual, moral fenfe. Here needs no deep learning, or trouble and expence of education, but

the fame truths are as evident, and as much feen and felt by the learned and unlearned, the gentleman and the ploughman, the favage or wild Indian, as by the best inftructed philofopher. The divine perfections fhine through all nature, and the goodness and bounty of the Creator to all his creatures, imprefs the obligation of imitating this wifeft and best of Beings upon every man's heart and confcience.

But notwithstanding the maxims of morality are thus folidly established, and adapted to all capacities; and though every man has a happiness to feek, and a main end to fecure, which must be infinitely preferable to any concerns of life, yet here it is we find, that mankind in general have been most lost and bewildered, as if Providence had placed their own happiness, and the way to it, more out of their power than any thing else. How this fhould happen, might feem unaccountable at firft fight, and yet it can be no great mystery to any man tolerably acquainted with the world and human nature. It is no difficult matter to difcover the reasons hereof, and it is withal highly ufeful to give them their due confideration.

1. The principal caufe I take to be the prevailing strength and bias of private, corrupt, animal affection, and defires. Reafon is filenced and borne down by brutal appetite and paffion. They refolve to gratify their fenfual appetites and defires, and will therefore never taste or try the fuperior pleasures and enjoyments of reafon and virtue. But fuch men as these having declared open war against their own reafon and confcience, and being refolved at all rifks to maintain the combat, must be self-condemned, and cannot plead ignorance, or error of judgment in the cafe.

2. Another fundamental cause of moral error, is the prejudice and prepoffeffion of a wrong education. Falfe principles and abfurd notions of God and religion, wrought early into the tender, unexperienced mind, and there radicated and confirmed from time to time, from youth to riper age, by parents, teachers, our most intimate friends and acquaintance, and fuch as we have the best opinion of, and confide most in; fuch caufes make fuch ftrong impreffions, that the groffeft errors, thus rivetted and fixed, are with the greateft difficulty ever conquered or cleared off. In this cafe, men turn out well-grounded believers, and are well-armed against conviction. Circumcifion

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