repeated; fo that the fentence which be done to rescue an involuntary vicftruck him with filent aftonishment, tim from the cruel immolation of awakened, at the fame time, the moft public infamy, he began, as soon as tender feelings of humanity and com- he could fufficiently collect himself, to paffion. enquire into the circumstances of her ftory. Suppreffing, therefore, his perfonal intereft in what he had heard, and anxious to know if any thing might [To be concluded in our next.] An Account of ESSEX: With a neat and accurate MAP of that County. SSEX is bounded, on the north, : bridgeshire; on the weft, by Hertfordshire and Middlefex; on the fouth, by Kent; and, on the east, by the German Ocean. It is feparated from Suffolk by the river Stour, from Middlefex by the Lea, and from Kent by the Thames from part of Hertfordfhire it is divided by the Stort and the Lea. Its greatest length, from east to west, is fixty-one miles, and its greatest breadth, from north to fouth, fifty miles. It contains ze hundreds, 24 market towns, and 415 parishes. It fends eight members to parliament; two for the county, and fix for Colchester, Harwich, and Malden. Effex is the most fouthern of the three counties on the eastern coaft, which together form a tame continued tract of vaft extent, undiftinguished by any confiderable eminence or ridge, but in general fufficiently elevated to be dry and arable, and rich in the various products of agriculture. The road from London to Norwich by Newmarket, which paffes along the western fides of Effex and Suffolk to the middle of Norfolk, a distance of one hundred and eight miles, is more level and unvaried in its furface than any tract of ground of equal length in the kingdom. almost the whole county. It appears the Thames to Hatfield Broad Oak, and from the river Lea to Brentwood and Ongar. At prefent it includes only the half hundred of Waltham, and fome parts of the hundreds of Becontree and Ongar. The river Roding, running parallel to the Lea, fertilizes this part of the county, which is famous for its butter, fold for a high price in London under the name of Epping butter. Northward the country becomes more open and uneven. Saffron Walden, in this part, by its name, fhows the product for which it is famous. Saffron, which was formerly cultivated in various parts of the kingdom, is now grown almoft folely between this place and Cambridge, in a circuit of about ten miles. light foil and dry country are peculiarly adapted to this plant. The English faffron has always been in high eftimation. A rich gen The middle of Effex is in general a fine corn country, varied with tle inequalities of furface, and sprinkled with woods. Toward the fea-coaft it gradually declines into marfhy grounds, broken by arms of the fea into islands, and frequently inundated. What are called The Hundreds,' which include only the hundreds of Effex poffeffes, however, a variety Rochford and Dengy, were formerly of foil and face of country. Its fouth- deemed extremely unwholesome; but western part is chiefly occupied by the great improvements in agriculEpping Foreft. This was formerly ture, in thefe parts, have, in a concalled the Foreft of Effex, by way of fiderable degree, obviated this obeminence; for it once comprehended jection; and many parts of these N n hun hundreds are not only rich in arable Dunmow and Chelmsford, terminates and pasture land, but beautiful in pro- at Malden in the fame mouth with the fpect and scenery. The farms in these former. parts are very large, and the farmers rich, and industrious to improve their grounds by manuring with chalk, brought by fea from Kent. Numbers of calves are brought from all these parts of Effex to the London markets. The other parts of the county are esteemed as healthy as any of the neighbouring ones. The principal rivers properly belonging to this county are, the Coln, rifing near Clare in Suffolk, and, after paffing Colchefter, emptying itfelf into a creek of the fea between Merfey island and the main. In the faltwater inlets and pools at the mouth of this river are bred the famous Colchefter oyfters, fo well known as an article of commerce and luxury. The Blackwater takes its rife near Saffron Walden, and, flowing by Bocking, Coggeshall, and Kelvedon, discharges itself at Malden into an arm of the fea. The Chelmer, fpringing near the fame place, winds through the middle of the county, and, paffing by The Crouch, after a fhort course on the fouth-eastern fide, mixes with the fea among the marihes of Burnham and Foulness isle. The Walfleet and Burnham oyfters are the produc of its creeks and pits. The Roding, which enters the Thames near Barking, has been already mentioned. The principal harbour on the Effex coaft is that of Harwich, fituated on a tongue of land oppofite to the united mouths of the Stour and Orwell. It affords an occafional fhelter to the coafting fleets continually paffing along these fhores, but has not much trade of its own. South of Harwich is the Naze, a hooked promontory, enclofing a few low iflands. From hence the land declines weftward, forming the funnel, which terminates in the mouth of the Thames. Befide the creeks already noticed, there is one within the mouth of the Thames, running up by the town and fmall port of Leigh, and forming Canvey ifle. Curious PARTICULARS of the LIFE of THOMAS PARR, the celebrated Centenary. AMONG the valuable pamphlets in the Harleian Library, in the British Museum, is one entitled, The Old, Old, very Old Man; or, the Age and Long Life of Thomas Parr,' &c. This life is written in verfe, and is dedicated to king Charles the firft, by John Taylor; who, being one of his majesty's watermen, is ufually ftyled the Water-Poet.' He informs the king, that as he had had the greateft, the leaf, and the oldest of his fubjects, at his court, meaning William Evans, his gigantic porter; little Jeffrey, the queen's dwarf; and this Thomas Parr; he chofe the latter, for the subject of his mufe; and begs his majefty's acceptance of this defcription of his life, as he had received and read others of his poems. From this poetical life it appears, that Thomas Parr was the fon of John Parr, of Winnington, in the parish of Alberbury in Shropshire, and that he was born in the reign of king Edward IV, in the year 1483. He lived with his father, who was a husbandman at Winnington, till he was seventeen years old, when he was fent to fervice, under a mafter of the fame calling, with whom he dwelt, till the death of his father, about the year 1518; then, returning home, he refided upon the farm, or lands, of which his father left him in poffeffion, till the leafe expired in 1522. He then then renewed the leafe, for twentyone years, of Mr. Lewis Porter; and, when this ended, in 1543, he renewed it, a fecond time, for the fame term, of Mr. John Porter. In 1563, Old Parr, being then fourfcore years of age, married Jane, a maiden, the daughter of John Taylor; by whom he had a fon and daughter, who both died very young. The next year, 1564, his fecond leafe ending, he renewed, for the like term, of Mr. Hugh Porter. In 1585, ended his third leafe; and he took a leafe, for life, of John the fon of Hugh Porter. In 1588, being then aged one hundred and five years, and having,' fays our poetical biographer, a colt's tooth in his head, he did penance in a white sheet, in Alderbury church, for lying with a handsome woman, named Katherine Milton, and getting her with child.' In 1595, he buried his wife Jane, after they had lived together thirtytwo years. Having continued a widower ten years, and being now one hundred twenty-two years of age, he married in 1605, Jane the widow of Anthony Adda, daughter of John Loyde, of the parish of Gillfels, in Montgomeryfhire; and they lived thirty years together. But now, thinking that time might diminish the ftrength of his tenement, as it had increased the value of his tenure, he was, for his wife's fake, defirous to renew his leafe for years; which was not complied with, though he politically counterfeited the renewal of his age, by pretending to fee, who had been long blind, a pin on the floor, which having directed his wife to lay there, he bade her take up, in presence of his landlord's fon, Mr. Edward Porter, with whom it paffed as a pleasant conceit, but it had no effect. Soon after, Thomas earl of Arundel, a great lover of antiquities, vifiting an estate of his, in those parts, was led by the fame of this great curiofity, this Thomas de Temporibus, to vifit him. He took him into his protection, and having prevailed on him to fee London, ordered a litter with two horses for his carriage; and being attended by his daughter in-law, named Lucy, John the Fool, and a fervant of his lordfhip's, named Brian Kelley, who defrayed their expences on the road, they fet out from Winnington: but, when they arrived at Coventry, the multitude of people grew fo great and preffing, to behold this breathing monument, that Kelley was afraid he fhould be able to carry his charge no further. At last, with flow marches, they arrived fafe at London, about the end of September, 1635. King Charles having had certificates from the gentry of Shropshire of the leases aforefaid, and other particulars, prov ing Thomas Parr, to be the eldest fon of Time, alive; he was admitted to court, admired with great veneration, and had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand. Care was taken to ac commodate him with all conveniences, in a lodging provided for him at Westminster. But the change agreed not; he had breathed in a freer air, fed on fimpler diet, nor had been used to fuch throngs of vifitors. All which, though now grown very decrepit, so as not to walk, without two persons to fupport him, and having only one tooth left in his head, not his colt's tooth beforementioned, might haften his natural decay; and he at last paid the debt of nature like other men, though it was longer delayed, on the 15th of November following; after he had been, little more than fix weeks, removed to the city aforefaid. He lived 152 years, nine months, and fome odd days, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. *It should feem from what follows afterward, that he was almoft, but not quite blind, Nnz THE THE THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 'HE celestial beings who inhabit the blissful fcenes above, can conceive nothing more wonderful than that indifference and unconcern with which too many of the human race regard the doctrine of a future ftate. Could these thoughtless mortals conceive but a small part of the glorious realities, which will be one day the inheritance of the Juft, with what unutterable joy and gratitude would they hail that divine religion, which has difpelled every doubt, and announced the glad tidings of life and immortality And how often would they exclaim in the language of one of their own poets, Through habitable space, wherever born, Howe'er endow'd! To live free citizens duce one more argument on this fubject, drawn from the confideration of the great uncertainty with which fome of their philofophers, and the absolute contempt with which others, regarded the momentous doctrine of a future life. Indeed, the imperfect state of morals in the heathen world, both in theory and practice, is the lefs to be wondered at, when we reflect, that they were deftitute of thofe great fanctions of virtue, which refult from the convic tion, that the moral government of the Supreme Being extends to a life beyond the grave. According to the most early Greek poets (from whom only we can learn the real opinions of the vulgar) the tate of the best men after death was very melancholy and undefirable, notwithstanding the charming defcriptions which they fometimes give of it. In Homer, Achilles, in the Elyfian Fields, tells Ulyffes, who is reprefented as meeting him there, that he had rather be the flave of fome poor cottager on earth, than to have the most extenfive empire over the dead: Talk not of ruling in this dolorous Rather I choose laboriously to bear air, A flave to fome poor hind that toils for bread, By more than feeble faith on the Supreme! Than reign the scepter'd monarch of the To rife in fcience as in blifs, In addition to the arguments I have already urged, to demonftrate the neceffity of a Divine Revelation, from the confideration of the degrading ideas which the ancient Heathens entertained of the Deity, and their imperfect and erroneous conceptions of virtue and vice *, I fhall now ad dead. POPE. When this fubject came to be dif cuffed by the philofophers, who rejected the traditions on which the vulgar belief was founded, the doctrine of a future ftate began first to be doubted, and, at latt, to be generally disbelieved. All their philofophers, Socrates not excepted, fpeak with * No. VIII, in our Magazine for February. great great uncertainty concerning a future If the heathen philofophers had been bleffed with the fame exalted views of a future state which Chriftians poffefs, they must have made the fame obvious ufe of it, in ftrengthening the fanctions of virtue, and fupporting them under the troubles of life and the apprehenfions of death. But the motives by which they would enforce the practice of virtue, are all independent of the confideration of a future life; being derived from the intrinfic excellence of virtue, and its complete fufficiency for happiness here, notwithstanding all the calamities we may endure. In their difcourses of confolation to their friends, and their own foliloquies in diftrefs, we find nothing comparable to the glorious confiderations which the gofpel of Jefus Chrift inculcates, and to the divine hope and unutterable joy with which these confiderations have fo often infpired the virtuous believer. Uncertain and imperfect as were the notions of a future late among the Greeks and Romans, we find lit tle or no remains of them at the time of the promulgation of Christianity. We have the most fatisfactory evidence, that the belief of a future ftate was rejected, in that learned and inquifitive age, both by the philofophers and the vulgar. This was principally owing to the pretended fcience of those days; and the era of the declenfion of the traditional opinions at Rome, is well known to have been the introduction of the Greek philofophy into that city. Among the moderns who rejected the belief of a Divine Revelation, many have difcarded, moreover, the doctrine of a future ftate of retribution; fuch as lord Bolingbroke, Mr. Collins, Mr. Chubb, and Mr. Hume. The latter, who likewise argues against the doctrine of a Providence, obferves, that thofe are vain reafoners, and invert the order of nature, who, inftead of regarding this prefent life, and the prefent fcene of things, as the fole object of their contemplation, render it a paffage to fomething farther;' and yet, he says, that those who attempt to difabuse men of their prejudices in favour of a future ftate, may, for aught he knows, be good reafoners, but he cannot allow them to be good citizens or politicians; fince they free men from reftraint upon their paffions, and make the infringement of the laws of equity and fociety in one refpect more ealy and fecure.-Could Mr. Hume then, upon his own principles, lay claim to the character of a good citizen or a good man? It is common with many perfons, when they first become unbelievers, to boast of the fufficiency of the light of nature, with respect to the knowledge of God, the rule of human duty, and the doctrine of a future ftate. But these unbelievers are not fufficiently aware, how much the ferious belief of a future life depends upon the belief of revelation; and, confequently, how much that belief would be fhaken, when the ground on which it had been built was removed. After re jecting |