and the children of her children. Thou knowest, for I have often related it to thee, the state of Adam at the moment of his creation: now how changed how altered!-now I must die: my children too must die; and I their father must bring that death upon them. O, that thought lies as heavy as a mountain on me: it is a thought most horrible. Go, my son, and cheer my Selima: I will retire, and, close to the altar, make myself a grave.

Seth. I will not leave thee, nor shalt thou make for thyself a grave:-0, I conjure thee, by the mercy of that Being who has hitherto supported thee, make not for thyself a grave.

Adam. Abel is buried there, and there will I be buried too. Would you wish to see me mouldering before your eyes?

Seth. O thou great God, whose judgment is suspended over us!

Adam. The terrors of the Almighty are around me: I must avert my face from thee, my son. It is a day of terror, What is it that moves yonder-Dost thou not see the rocks tremble, my son? He approaches! - Dost thou not hear his steps? Dost thou not now behold how violently the hill near our hut is agitated! On that hill he stands, Dost thou not behold him in his terrors clad?

Seth. Darkness surrounds me!-my vision is dimmed; but I can bear. Adam (to Seth). Then hear him (To the Angel of Death) I know thy footsteps well, Messenger of the Judgment! Angel of Death! Destrover!-bere am 1.

and me.

The Angel of Death. Thus He says, -He who from dust created thee man, ere the sun has set behind you cedar wood, thou shalt die the death. Many of thy race will die; many will sink into death in peace; but, thou shalt die the death. When I return, and with my presence shake these rocks, that they together fail, then thou shalt die. Thine eye will become dark, and thou shalt not see; but thine ear will hear the thundering roar of the falling rocks, ere the sun has set behind yon cedar wood.

Adam. Tell Him, who from dust created me man, and who has visited *me with his judgment, that I will prostrate myself before him, and adore his power. And O, thou Angel of

Terror implore him not to forsake me in the agonies of death.

Seth. O, my beloved father, I will die with thee. Why dost thou leave me, father?

Adam. To adore the power of God.

Eighth Scene.
SETH (solus).

O, inexpressible grief! not to be named by human lips: it will prey on my life till my bones are laid with his.

thou first and best of fathers-father of the yet unborn; parent of the hudeath-the day of the death of my man race; this day is the day of his father. How soon has it arrived, attended with all its terrors, to ask me, with a warning voice, if in my hear I fear the Almighty. O, I will repait to my father, and, by his side, pro. strate myself before the altar. trembling arm shall assist him to dig his grave. O! the grave of my father and thou terrible voice," Ere the sun has set behind yon cedar wood!"

1 his

SECOND ACT-First Scene.
ADAM. SETH.

Adam (who stands leaning on the altár, close to his grave). It is terrible, my son. Here, indeed, the rose spreads its fragrance, and the cedar lifts its branches on high; but still it is terrible. Here I must sink into corruption: I, who sprang forth from the plastic hand of the Almighty; 1; unborn of mortal; I, the first of beings, and Eden's blissful tenant. Now corruption, with its dread attendants, stands before me. My eye grows dim: my arm trembles: with difficulty Einhale the breath of life. I feel the chillness of death creeping slowly over me: I feel it here-here in my licart-now anxiously throbbing with the last pulse of life. I shall de the death: 'shall not sink into death, as sleep falls on the eyes of the infant. My eye still grows dimmer: come, my son, ere creation, with all its fair forms, is closed upon me, let me once more survey one little past of the glorious carthy material land: open wide the door of my Lut, and let the prospect be towards Eden.

Seth. Yonder lie the mountains of Eden.

Adam. I cannot see the mountains.

Is the sun wholly covered with clouds, my son?

Seth. There are many clouds, and heavily they roll; but the sun is not wholly covered.

Adam. Is it far from the cedar wood? but do not tell me; in a short time I will ask thee again.

Seth. Now, by heavy clouds, the sun is obscured; black, as when the tempest rages.

Adam. I see them not; nor, when the sun again emerges, shall I behold it: for,when I once again return to my grave, I shall never leave it. Come, my son, let me rest on thice.

Seth. My father!

Adam. Ye beautiful plains! ye lofty mountains! ye cool amd shady vallies! ye flowers of the fields, which yield to the foot of the wanderer! ye trees, which, on the mountain's top, penetrate the clouds! ye biissful fields, in which, with joy, I have wandered; in which I inhaled life and health; in which I have been so long and so often happy; in which I have seen all my children,and so many living beings around me! And thou, superior to all, thou Eden-but I cannot speak the bliss I there enjoyed; for now, with the remembrance of that bliss, must my tears be mingled; and, in this solemn hour, with my tears I will not profane it. On this day, from all ye beloved objects, I take my last farewel:day, on which I cease to be a mortal. -on this Yet, ye will not cease to bear the marks of the curse which, with my mortality, was pronounced upon you. I will retire, my son, for I can now scarcely distinguish the river from the plain What will my feelings be, when I shall no longer be able to distinguish the best of my sons? (Aside) he trembles; I must collect myself.(To Seth am fearful that Selima will join us: O, how could I support the grief and melancholy of that ten

der innocent!

Seth. I can no longer conceal it from you, my father; I have lately seen Selima pass several times anxiously before the hut.

strikes terror to my soul! Thou art Abel in his death, but I have seen a terribly pale, my father: I did not see youth, who died, ere a few summers had given strength to his form, and whose death was concealed from you,

Adam. Then shall I, with my Abel, meet one more of my children? Ah! they have, perhaps, concealed, both from thee and me, the death of many. Did the youth fear the Almighty? Seth. His soul was good. pervaded me when he died, for he No fear died with the smile of an angel: but I could not support the view of him when he was dead. But Selima comes.

Adam. Ah! Sunim, my younger son!my Sunim is not yet found. Second Scene.

SELIMA. The Former.

Selima. Be not angry, my father, that I again trespass against your commands: but hear me, my father. There is a man walking round our but,a man, such as before I have never seen. Adam: but, when I view him, a ter- • He says, he comes to rible shivering passes over me. Some men must elsewhere reside, who are not thy sons; for Adam's son is this man not.

Adam. How is this man form'd, Selima?

Selima. Tall, with a threatening mien. His eyes are sunk, and wildly they roll about, as if in search of some particular object. himself with spotted skins; and, in He has covered his hand, he bears a heavy knotted club. He seems burnt by the sun, and yet looks pale; but not so pale as thou art, my father.

Adam. Did not the man uncover his forehead?

Selima. Yes, he did expose it; and on it there was something, which I cannot describe; for I trembled as I beheld it :-it appeared as if it had been scorched by lightning.

Adam. Tell me, my son, shall I be able to conceal from her the melancholy truth? Sits the paleness of death already on my cheeks? Thou turnest away from me!

Adam. It is Cain! Seth, it is Cain! my death still more bitter. Go, and The Almighty has sent him to make learn if it be he: go, and tell him to betake himself to the woods; that I will not view his face: but, if he be Seth. Each word thou speakest him hither, and I have merited it: resolved to come, then has God seut UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. XIV.

2 A

men themselves, for not giving them the means to avoid superstition.-Wherefore if their zeal has been indiscreet, their intention has been good and we may venture to affirm, from the eagerness they shewed in embracing religion and cleaving so close to it under all the disadvantages it appeared to them in, they would have as firmly adhered to true piety had they obtained a clearer light of it.

What should hinder us from regulating our minds by the faith and discipline of Christ and his church? If we laid the foundation of philosophy and scholastic divinity; should we not be as able as the men, in the progress of our studies, to understand, compare and interpret the holy scriptures, the writings of the fathers and the sacred canons? Might we not qualify our minds and hearts to compose religious works, to preach, to confute novelties, to regulate ourselves and others, to remove their scruples, and to resolve cases of conscience, as well as the most learned casuists living?

Thus far I insist, there is no science or public office in a state, which women are not as much qualified for by nature as the ablest of men. With regard however to divinity, our natural capacity has been restrained by a positive law of God; and therefore we know better than to lay claim to what we could not practise without sacrilegious intrusion. Though, by the bye, let it be observed that the bar which our Divine Saviour has put to our exercising any religious functions, neither bars us from any other public offices, nor proves us unworthy or naturally incapable of exercising even them. That he forbad us those functions proves us naturally apt for them. But why he forbad us, it would be presumptuous to enquire. However

PRACTICE sufficiently speaks us if it is lawful to reason at all upon the

no less Christian men: divine precepts; we may assign a we receive the gospel with reverence reason, which carries its own probabiand humility, and submit to its doc- lity with it and rather redounds to the trines and precepts in a more exem- honour than disrepute of our sex. plary manner than the generality of God undoubtedly knew the general them. I own, some of our sex have tendency of the men to impiety and carried their worship to superstitious irreligion; and therefore why might lengths; but have not many of the he not conting the functions of remen done so too? And yet the latter ligion to that sex, to attract some of are the most culpable: since the igno- them at least to those duties they bave rance in which the former have been such a general apathy for? Especially bred reflects all the reproach on the since the natural propensity of our

Cain. I will curse thee. Adam. Come then, and I will shew thee the place where thou shalt curse ine. Come, this is thy father's grave: this day is the day of my death: it has been announced to me by an angel of

death.

Cain. And what altar is that? Seth. O, thou most unfortunate of men, because thou art the most criminal! that is Abel's altar, and on these stones his blood.

Cain. The rage of Hell rises in me! That altar, that terrible altar, lies like a rock upon me. Where am I? Where is Adam? Hear me, Adam: my curse begins-On the day on which thou, wilt die, Adam-on the last of thy days, may the agonics of seven thousand dying mortals seize thee: may the image of corruption

Adam. It is too much; it is too much, my first born. Now I fully comprehend thee, thou sentence of death, which above was pronounced upon me: I understand it wholly Cease, O cease, my first-born son!

Cain. Ah! Ah! have I shed my father's blood? Where am I? Who will lead me from this appalling scene -who will lead me that I may find the abyss of Heli? But my father is bere! Is it he himself? or doth he appear to me? Avert thy face from me, that I may fly! (He hastes away), R. H. [To be concluded in our next.]

REPUBLICATION OF

SCARCE TRACT S.

No. II.

WOMAN not inferior to MAN.

CHAPTER VI.

[Continued from p. 104.]

her; content to see the work already done to my hand, by that sex itself: and therefore refer my readers for a farther account of this true woman to what the Reverend Mr. Birch says of her in the History of the Works of the Learned:* which is so much the more to be relied on as it comes from a man; one of that sex which seems to pique itself with no other degree of equity, than that of never praising any of ours beyond their desert. If the comparison, this candid gentleman there makes between the talents of our sex and his own, should prove too galling for their innate jealousy ; let the men excuse him at least, and pacify themselves with the reflection on the thanks they all owe him for giving us this fresh instance, in his own person, of the possibility of finding a man who can throw off passion and prejudice, for the sake of truth and honesty.

It is not so much to do justice to my own sex, that I quote this instance, as to favour the men, by shewing that it is not absolutely impossible for them to be sometimes just, without a miracle. Indeed it might require, in all probability, the labours of a wandering Jew, to produce a few more instances of the like equity towards us in that jealous, ungenerous sex. But to find many ladies nothing inferior in merit to the last-mentioned, we need neither the pains of running back to antiquity, nor the expence of a voyage to foreign climes. Our own age and country may boast of more than one Sappho, numbers of Cornelias, and no scarcity of Schurmans and Daciers. If I chose to unite the several excellences of all these illustrious names in one, I might quote an Eliza not more to be envied for the towering superiority of

We may easily conclude then, that, if our sex, as it hitherto appears, have all the talents requisite to learn and teach those sciences, which qualify men for power and dignity; they are equally capable of applying their knowledge to practice, in exercising that power and dignity. And since, as we have said, this nation has seen many glorious instances of women, severally qualified to have all public authority centered in them: why may they not be as qualified at least for the subordinate offices of ministers of state, vice-queens, governesses, secretaries, privy-counsellors, and treasurers? Or why may they not, without oddity, be even generals of armies, and admirals of fleets? But this will her genius and judgment, than ho- be more proper to consider sepanoured for the use she makes of them. Her early advances in ancient and modern learning in general having raised her above the imitation of the men, as the many excellent virtues, added to her extensive knowledge, have secured her the esteem of the I MUST Confess, I cannot find how women; it is no wonder that, while the oddity would be greater, to see a the former are forced to admire her lady with a truncheon in her hand, in spite of prejudice, we are at liberty than with a crown on her head; or to do justice to her merit without why it should create more surprise, to fearing the suspicion of partiality to- see her preside in a council of war, wards her. However, as her own than in a council of state. Why excellence has extorted her just may she not be as capable of heading praise from the mouth of prejudice itself, I shall forbear to characterise

rately.

For June, 1799.

sex to virtue and religion, made it unnecessary to add any of those external helps to his divine grace, in order to win us to what our hearts lead us to.

If then we set custom and prejudice aside, where would the oddity be to see us dictating sciences from a university chair; since to name but one of a thousand, that foreign young lady, whose extraordinary merit and capacity but a few years ago forced a university in Italy to break through the rules of partiality, custom, and prejudice, in her favour, to confer on her a Doctor's degree, is a living proof that we are as capable, as any of the men, of the highest eminences in the sphere of learning, if we had justice done us.

CHAP. VII.

Whether Women are naturally qualified for military offices, or not.