the country. Do not multitudes, in places of great resort, come to perpetrate, calmly and sedately, without any remorse, such crimes as would surprise a less knowing sinner so much as to hear of? Can it then be safe to be present at the exhibition of so many vicious characters as always must appear upon the stage? Must it not, like other examples, have a strong though insensible influence, and indeed the more strong because unperceived?

CHARACTER OF THEATRICAL REPRESENTATIONS.

Where can the plays be found, at least comedies, that are free from impurity, either directly or by allusion and double-meaning? It is amazing to think that women who pretend to decency and reputation, whose brightest ornament ought to be modesty, should continue to abet, by their presence, so much unchastity as is to be found in the theatre. How few plays are acted which a modest woman can see consistently with decency in every part! And even when the plays are more reserved themselves, they are sure to be seasoned with something of this kind in the prologue or epilogue, the music between the acts, or in some scandalous farce with which the diversion is concluded. The power of custom and fashion is very great in making people blind to the most manifest qualities and tendencies of things. There are ladies who frequently attend the stage, who, if they were but once entertained with the same images in a private family with which they are often presented there, would rise with indignation, and reckon their reputation ruined if ever they should return. With what consistency they gravely return to the same schools of lewdness, they themselves best know.

CHARACTER OF ACTORS.

The life of players is not only idle and vain, and therefore inconsistent with the character of a Christian, but it is still more directly and grossly criminal. Not only from the taste of the audience must the prevailing tendency of all successful plays be bad, but, in the very nature of the thing, the greatest part of the characters represented must be vicious. What, then, is the life of a player? It is wholly spent in endeavoring to express the language, and exhibit a perfect picture, of the passions of vicious men. For this purpose they must strive to enter into the spirit and feel the sentiments proper to such characters.

Thus, their character has been infamous in all ages,—just a living copy of that vanity, obscenity, and impiety which is to be found in the pieces which they represent. As the world has been polluted by the stage, so they have always been more eminently

.

so, as it is natural to suppose, being the very cisterns in which this pollution is collected and from which it is distributed to

others.

Can it be lawful, then, in any one to contribute in the least degree to support men in this unhallowed employment? Is not the theatre truly and essentially what it has been often called rhetorically, the school of impiety, where it is their very business to learn wickedness? And will a Christian, upon any pretended advantage to himself, join in this confederacy against God, and assist in endowing and upholding the dreadful seminary?

PRINCIPLES REGULATING MONEY.1

I will now sum up, in single propositions, the substance of what has been asserted, and I hope sufficiently proved, in the preceding discourse.

1. It ought not to be imputed to accident or caprice that gold, silver, and copper formerly were, and the two first continue to be, the medium of commerce; but to their inherent value, joined with other properties, that fit them for circulation. Therefore, all the speculations formed upon a contrary supposition are inconclusive and absurd.

2. Gold and silver are far from being in too small quantity at present for the purpose of a circulating medium in the commercial nations. The last of them-silver-seems rather to be in too great quantity, so as to become inconvenient for transportation.

3. The people of every nation will get the quantity of these precious metals that they are entitled to by their industry, and no more. If by any accident, as plunder in war, or borrowing from other nations, or even finding it in mines, they get more, they will not be able to keep it. It will in a short time find its level. Laws against exporting the coin will not prevent this. Laws of this kind, though they are still in force in some nations supposed to be wise, yet are in themselves ridiculous. If you import more than you export, you must pay the balance, or give up the trade.

4. The quantity of gold and silver at any time in a nation is no evidence of national wealth, unless you take into consideration the way in which it came there, and the probability of its continuing.

5. No paper of any kind is, properly speaking, money. It ought never to be made a legal tender. It ought not to be forced upon anybody, because it cannot be forced upon everybody.

6. Gold and silver, fairly acquired and likely to continue, are

This is at the close of his very able and learned "Essay on Money as a Medium of Commerce; with Remarks on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Paper admitted into General Circulation."

real national as well as personal wealth. If twice as much paper circulates with them, though in full credit, particular persons may be rich by possessing it, but the nation in general is not.

7. The cry of the scarcity of money is generally putting the effect for the cause. No business can be done, say some, because money is scarce. It may be said with more truth, money is scarce because little business is done. Yet their influence, like that of many other causes and effects, is reciprocal.

8. The quantity of current money, of whatever kind, will have an effect in raising the price of industry and bringing goods dearer to market; therefore the increase of the currency in any nation by paper which will not pass among other nations, makes the first cost of every thing they do greater, and, of consequence, the profit less.

9. It is, however, possible that paper obligations may so far facilitate commerce and extend credit, as, by the additional industry that they excite, to overbalance the injury which they do in other respects. Yet even the good itself may be overdone. Too much money may be emitted even upon loan; but to emit money any other way than upon loan is to do all evil and no good.

10. Those who refuse doubtful paper, and thereby disgrace it, or prevent its circulation, are not enemies, but friends to their country.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1732-1799.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, the fourth son of Augustine Washington, and the first President of the United States, was born at Bridge's Creek, in the county of Westmoreland, Virginia, on the 22d of February, 1732, and died at Mount Vernon on the 14th of December, 1799. The following are the chief incidents of his public life:

EVENTS.

Feb. 22. His birth, in Westmoreland county, Virginia.
Apr. 12. Death of his father, at the age of forty-nine years.

Mar....

19

His brother Lawrence obtained for him a midshipman's warrant in the British Navy.

Surveyor of Lord Fairfax's lands on the Potomac River. Military Inspector, with the rank of Major, to protect the frontiers of Virginia against the French and Indians.

I give not an extended biography of General Washington, because to do any justice to the subject it would occupy more room than I could spare; while the lives of him are so numerous as to be accessible to any one. Read lives by Marshall, Ramsey, Weems, Edmunds, Guizot, (translated by Reeve,) Headley, Irving, Bancroft, Sparks; also an admirable book entitled "Maxims of Washington, Political, Moral, Social, and Religious; collected and arranged by J. F. Schroeder, D.D.," 1 vol. 12mo. Consult also "North American Review," li. 69, xlvii. 318, xxxix. 467; "American Quarterly," xv. 275, xvii. 74; "Methodist Quarterly," 38; also read Eulogies by Hamilton, Jay, Ames, Mason, &c.

YEARS.

HIS AGE.

EVENTS.

Battle of Trenton.

Aug. 14.

He sailed for Barbadoes with his brother Lawrence.
Adjutant-General.

Commissioner to the French on the Ohio.

Lieutenant-Colonel for the defence of the colony of Virginia. Aid-de-camp to General Braddock at the battle of Monongahela.

Commander-in-chief of the Virginian forces.

He resigned his commission.

His marriage. Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Commissioner for settling the military accounts of the colony.
His tour to the Ohio and Great Kenawa Rivers.

Member of the Virginia Conventions on the points at issue
between Great Britain and the Colonies.
Member of the first Continental Congress.
Member of the second Continental Congress.
Commander-in-chief.

Commander of the army at Cambridge.
Boston evacuated by the British army.
Declaration of American Independence.
Battle of Long Island.

Congress invested him with dictatorial powers.
Battle of Princeton.

Mar. 4.

57

Apr. 30.

57

Aug. 25.

Mar. 4.

65

66

July 3.
Dec. 14.

Arnold's treason.

Mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops.

Surrender of Yorktown and Gloucester.

Peace proclaimed to the army.

New York evacuated by the British army.

His tour to the Western country.

May 14. Delegate to the General Convention at Philadelphia to form a

President of the United States.

His inauguration at New York.

Death of his mother at the age of eighty-two years.
His tour through the Eastern States.

His tour through the Southern States.
President for a second term.

M. Genet, Minister from France to the United States.
Sept. 15. His Farewell Address to the People of the United States.
He retired to private life. Difficulties with France.
parations for war.

Commander-in-chief of the Armies of the United States.
His death at Mount Vernon.

Pro

VALEDICTORY COUNSELS OF WASHINGTON.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party; but in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose; and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands

a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the destinies of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all: religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It would be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment at least is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? * * *

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded, and that, in place of them, just and amiable feelings towards all, should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave.