history of the family. But let an inquirer give a glance at the actual state of society; where he would soon see, that, in an unknown variety of instances, there does not, and will not, exist such family union as will smooth away the roughnesses perpetually occasioned, not merely by the division of property, but by misapprehension or opiniativeness; by infirmity, or pure selfishness."-Asked by inconsiderate persons! Truly, Sir, I regard it as the most considerate and pertinent question which could be put a question, the omission of which would betray great inconsiderate ness. These sisters, till their father's death, did live together. Why may they not continue so to do? Married persons live together, and in many cases must. Why is not the privilege extended to them, and even to their family, that, if they cannot well agree, they may be indulged with a separate establishment, each for him and her self? And why is a will to be constructed, to the injury of the other children, that a bounty may be given to the unsocial or ambitious tempers of these single daughters, who, it will be shrewdly surmised, have, by such qualities, missed the attainment of husbands? It will likewise be thought, that they are sufficiently rewarded, by being now put in pos session of their undiminished or in creased portion, perfectly secure, in the event of any matrimonial connection, however fortunate, that no future involuntary diminution of the still further increased fortune will take place. ..I cannot easily account for it, why your correspondent so anxiously anticipates family dissensions as the result of his scheme; a scheme not only more just than any other, but of which the justice is "self-evident." I only observe on this point, that the unjust are the guilty. In the kind of distinction, which your correspondent closes with making, between sons and daughters, with respect to their respective ca pacity to encounter the storms of life, he appears not to have adverted to the fact, that sons are frequently not less feminine than daughters; and, in the married state, how often is it observed, that the wife governs! It will be apparent, to any reader of the ingenious and eloquent paper I have been considering, that the principal thread which runs through the whole argument is wanting and not wanting. Now, if we rise above the rank of a day labourer, the boundaries of these two terms in practical interpretation will be found to be very arbitrary and various; and more especially, if the decision should be left to the persons themselves. Cases, however, of real want, upon a liberal construction, are entitled to the consideration of the other members of the family. If a son be reduced to difficulties, more especially if it be not by his own fault, his brothers and sisters should not shut up the bowels of their compassion from him. But I should think the plea improper, if the applicant, acting on the fatal, but too common mistake, of living rather according to his supposed station than his means, should allow himself in expensive gratifications or a luxurious mode of living; or if he should indulge himself (for there is indulgence even here,) in continuing his name and subscrip tions to charitable institutions; because he is actually making free with the property of others *. Besides every other lawful endeavour to help himself, I should likewise think it right, that, had he determined to live a single life, he should convert his property into an annuity, and forego the inferior and unnecessary gratification of having a will to make. I should still more strongly object, if, from any motive, he determined to continue the possession of landed property, not in * On this principle a correspondent, some improper, and indeed unjust, a bankrupt's years back, bus judiciously condemned, as continuing to subscribe to public charities. his own immediate occupancy; as, by such means, he supports a second person, and does not receive an annual income half so great as an annuity would yield. The supposed advance in the value of land is, I believe, fallacious. If the difference between the income of a landed property, and the income it would produce invested in the funds, were allowed to accumulate, it would much more than keep pace with any advance that can reasonably be anticipated in the value of land. Land, it is said, cannot run away; but the owner may be obliged to run away from it. Any national convulsion which shook the funds, would shake land. It is, indeed, natural and reasonable, for wealthy people, to wish to have property of different kinds. One main objection to your correspondent's system seems to be, that, in order to its success, it requires a system of disingenuous concealment, and perhaps management. Supposing human nature not perfect (too reasonable a supposition), some of the children at least, if they know their father's principle, will endeavour to conceal any increase of their property, and feign a poverty greater than exists. They may practise on the senile weakness of their parent, in the manner so eloquently described in the verses of Dr. Johnson, quoted by your correspondent. They may misrepresent and calumniate their brethren. The father's business is, to be aware of such attempts, and do what he can to detect and defeat them. I consider it of importance, on this subject, still further to observe, that at the death of the testator all is fixed: no more variations. Now, suppose, in the seven years subsequent to that event, either the common revolutions of life, or such as had occurred in this very family, to take place, how then would the will, at last unalterable, operate? I might fill much of my paper, Mr. Editor, by pourtraying in pathetic display the change of condition in each member of the family - the riches of the poor, the poverty of the rich - the sick recovered, the healthy sick-the vicious reclaimed, the moral corrupted → every thing, in fact, in much greater disorder than would probably otherwise have existed, because the head of the family undertook to be more of a Providence than is allowed to mortals. But, it will be said, he has done the best he could. Certainly not, unless he has considered, that variations may happen after his death, as well as before it. But the children will rectify the inequa lity. Then his own arrangement was superfluous and officious. Children, indeed, have often acted with honour in this respect. But in hu man affairs we have, alas! to deal with human nature; and many plausible reasons may be adduced why the letter of the will should be strictly adhered to. You will observe, Mr. Editor, that I have adduced no facts in support of my arguments: not be cause I have them not; for I have them; but because fictitious ones go for nothing, and to publish real ones would, in my mind, be inde corous. After all, I am not so stiff in opinion and principle, but that I admit the propriety of immaterial inequalities, and particularly in the case of ill-health, by the increase of income for life, where there is no prospect of marriage; and doubt not but they would be acquiesced in, by the reasonable, provided a statement were made, in an open and manly manner-no artifice, no management, no undue concealment, no misrepresentation - in short, nothing dishonourable. And, indeed, the experience how often too much policy defeats its own end, should recommend the adage, that honesty is the best policy. 1 conclude about as long a paper as EXECUTOR's with a passage from ArchbishopTillotson's Sermons; an authority not perhaps of the less weight on the subject of morality, from the circumstance of his having CURSORY REMARKS ON THE SUBJECT OF EMULATION. (Concluded from p. 503.) III. I PROCEED to consider, how far imitation implies and is coincident with emulation. We are, in the sacred Scriptures, exhorted to be followers, or imitators (μurai) devoted his attention too exclusively to that inferior, although essential, branch of true religion. At the close of his first sermon "Of the Educa tion of Children," where he is instructing parents to educate their children in the principles of "justice and honesty," he guards them against setting an example of injus tice, "which" (he writes) "in this" of God," and " of Christ." Here particular they will be as apt to the desire of surpassing must be eximitate as in any one thing; be- cluded. The Apostle also calls on cause of the present worldly ad- his converts to be "imitators of vantage which it seems to bring, him, as he is of Christ," (1 Cor. and because justice is in truth a xi. 1; 2 Thes. iii. 7-9. Here, also, manly virtue, and least understood imitation must, I think, exclude the by children; &c. idea of emulation, as far as excelling another is implied. Others, indeed, are proposed as patterns for imitation, where that idea may not be so absolutely excluded by the na ture of the case itself: (1 Thes. ì. 6; Heb. vi. 12; xiii. 13). But it is evident, from the nature of the human mind, and from facts, that where emulation of surpassing enters, imitation ceases. The young man, who looks up with veneration and love to his father, and strives to imitate him, is chiefly in danger of copying his defects along with his excellencies: but, whenever he indulges the idea of surpassing his father, he strikes out into some new line, and no longer imitates him. This is the ruin of many conceited sons of wise and pious parents. Thus Jehoiakim, desirous of surpassing his father Josiah, neglected to imitate his piety and equity, but aimed to exceed and eclipse him in the magnificence of his palace: (Jer. xxii. 13—19.) "I remember, that Xenophon, in his Institution of Cyrus, which he designed for the idea of a well-educated prince, tells us this little but very instructive story concerning young Cyrus: That his governor, the better to make him understand the nature of justice, put this case to him you see, there, says he to Cyrus, two boys playing of different -stature; the lesser of them hath a -very long coat, and the bigger a very short one. Now, says he, if you were a judge, how would you dispose of these two garments? Cyrus immediately, and, with very good reason as he thought, passeth this sudden sentence; that the taller boy should have the longer garment, and he that was of lower stature the shorter, because this - certainly was fittest for them both: apon which, his governor sharply rebukes him to this purpose; telling him, that if he were to make two coats for them, he said well; but he did not put this case to him as a tailor, but as a judge, and as such he had given a very wrong sentence: for a judge, says he, ought not to - consider what is most fit, but what is just; not who could make the best use of a thing, but who hath the most right to it.". 2 PARENS. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 153. I have known many preachers imitate senior ministers, to whom they were greatly attached; and succeed in copying their faults, at least, along with their excellencies. One of this description said in my hearing, "I do not intend to copy Mr., but I love the man, and I catch his manner, without being conscious of it. Oh! if we did but love Christ, we should catch his manners." I have also known junior ministers emulous of surpassing 4 F their seniors: but, were they imitators of them? So far from it, that they were almost afraid of copying what they could not deny to be good in them, while they carefully avoided their faults, real or supposed: and they seemed to think it necessary to proceed entirely on another plan; generally with much self preference and censoriousness against those whom they thus affected to surpass and excel. Indeed, every author, painter, sculptor, or artist of any kind, the moment in which he begins to aim at surpassing another, ceases to make him his model, and to imitate him as such. Imitation, at most, can only lead to equality, not superiority; and almost all who attain to real excellence in their several lines, imitate and emulate models, which they do not at all expect to excel. The boy who affects to surpass his master in writing, will not very closely attend to his copy, or strive to write more and more like it. . IV. We proceed to inquire, in what respects the desire of excellence differs from the emulation of excelling or surpassing others. This has been kept in view throughout the whole of the preceding in'quiry; and, though it probably will be found to be the very HINGE on which the whole controversy turns, it is seldom clearly and distinctly admitted." 1. The desire of real excellence, strictly speaking, must be confined to attainments valuable in them selves, or generally considered as such; or, at least, suited to the profession and station of the person concerned. But the emulation of surpassing others, includes almost every thing which can be conceived. Nero bad no desire of that wisdom and knowledge which would have qualified him to govern the Roman empire; but he had a strong emulation of excelling all the singers, musicians, and actors, and persons of that description, in the whole world. Many young men, even in the superior orders, to whom the senate and the council-board may be considered as accessible, manifest no desire of that excelfence of wisdom, and those endowments of appropriate knowledge and eloquence, which might enable them to be eminently useful to their country, and to mankind at large; but they vie with each other (or rather with coachmen), by their emulation of surpassing in driving four-in-band! What is there so mean, so base, so vulgar, or even so wicked, in which some are not emulous of excelling, or in which some do not consume a large portion of their time and application? The "holy emulation" of a Chris tian, however, must be that of at taining real excellence in wisdom and holiness: even "the honest emulation" of the world, must be that of something estimable in the general opinion of mankind, or of professional eminence: but the mere desire of excelling others will rea dily draw men into competitions with wrestlers, racers, jockeys, buffoons, boxers, and such-like persons. As the desire of excelling opens a door to such evils as these; as even in schools it often is quite as much gratified in the sports of the boys, in their battles, or in their superior adroitness in imposing on their teacher, as in the exercises of the school; surely a Christian parent may be allowed to caution his son against it, and a Christian adviser his friend; and to endeavour to repress it, by pointing out the nobler object of real attainable excellence in those things by which God may be glorified and men profited, and which will ensure "the honour that cometh from God only." 2. THE DESIRE OF EXCELLENCE leads a man to select, as his patterns, the most perfect models which he can possibly find. These he loves and admires, imitates and emulates, yet does not expect to surpass. But the desire of excelling others is not thus restricted. The object at which the person influenced by it aims, is to outstrip those within his own circle, whether more or less contracted: and this introduces the temptation of envying, and detract ing from, those whom he cannot surpass, and despising those whom he can. It suffices to the school boy, and to the candidate for academical honours, to stand at the top of the list of competitors; whether by means of his own actual proficiency, or their dulness and negligence, or even by insidious arts of attaining a station higher than what belongs in justice to him. But the eminence in actual knowledge and science which may be attained, and rendered exceedingly useful, is seldom thus earnestly sought. The proficiency in theological studies, which is essentially necessary to the able minister of Christ, is, it may be feared, but little pursued, even by those designed for the sacred service, during the term in which they eagerly run the race of honour and superiority in mathematical or @lassical learning. At the same time, in these eager competitions for academical distinctions, it will be hard indeed to avoid rejoicing in the falls and hindrances of rivals: and, as far as I have heard, observed, or experienced, the praises bestowed on competitors, in such circumstances, are very painful to the mind, and often considered as reflections on the person himself; exciting distaste, and tempting to detraction, discontent, and repinings. 3. He who seeks real excellence will, of course, employ no unfair means of attaining it, because that would defeat his end; but he who seeks to surpass others has not the same reason for scrupulousness, and must be in constant temptation to deviate from the rule of "doing to others as he would they should do unto him." 4. He who seeks real excellence will press forward, with his object full in view; and will not employ: himself in looking back upon any, whom he may have outstripped in his course but this must form a considerable part of the care and employment of him who only seeks to surpass others; and this will greatly abate and interrupt his pro gress, and divide and weaken his earnestness as to the main object.The Apostle bas admirably stated this peculiarity of desiring real, and not comparative, excellence, in his account of his own experience:"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. iii. 13, 14). Had he only aimed at surpassing others, he might, probably, have sat down quietly, as the acknowledged victor in the Christian course. 5. He who seeks real excellence, in those things which are immediately connected with true religion, will almost exclusively imitate and emulate models which he never can expect to surpass.-The all-perfeet God, the divine Saviour, the holy prophets and apostles, the primitive Christians, when " great grace was on them all;" and the most eminent saints, whose characters stand highest in Scripture, and in their most eminent graces; will be proposed to him as models for his imitation. And, however he might conclude, could he bring himself to make such comparisons fairly (which genuine humility will not allow a man to do in any ordinary case), that he had surpassed his fellow-christians, his neighbours, or contemporaries; yet, perceiving how far he came short of these models-how far short of Paul; how unlike the Saviour; how far from that perfection of love, and zeal, and holiness, prescribed by the commandment, nay, attainable by sinners, through the grace of Christ, and actually attained by many he would still say plus ultra," press forward!" But the desire of surpassing others will's |