thinks himself bewitched by Obi, will apply to an Obi-man or Obi-woman, for cure-Laws have been made in the Weft Indies to punish this obian practice with death; but they have had no effect. Laws conftructed in the West Indies, can never fupprefs the effect of ideas, the origin of which is in the centre of Africa. I faw the obi of the famous negro robber, Three fingered Jack, the terror of Jamaica in 1780 and 1781. The Maroons who flew him brought it to me. His obi confifted of the end of a goat's horn, filled with a compound of grave dirt, afhes, the blood of a black cat, and human fat; all mixed into a kind of pafte. A black cat's foot, a dried toad, a pig's tail, a flip of parchment of kid's fkin, with characters marked in blood on it, were alfo in his obian bag. Thefe, with a keen fabre, and two, like Robinfon Crufoe, were all guns, his obi; with which, and his courage in defcending into the plains, and plundering to fupply his wants, and his fkill in retreating into difficult faltneffes, commanding the only accefs to them, where none dared to follow him, he terrified the inhabitants, and fet the civil power, and the neiglibouring militia of that ifland, at defiance, for two years. He had neither accomplices, nor affociate. There were a few runaway negroes in the woods near Mount Libanus, the place of his reticat; but he had cruffed their foreheads with fome of the magic in his horn, and they could not betray him. But he trufted no one. He fcorned affittance. He afcended above Spartacus. He robbed alolle fought all his battles alone; and always killed his purfuers. By his magic, he was not only the dread of the begroes, but there were many white people who believed he was poffeffed of fome fupernatural power. In hot climates, females marry very young; and often with great difparity of age. Here Jack was the author of many troubles: for feveral matches proved unhappy. Give a dog an ill-name, and hang him.' Clamours rofe on clamours againft the cruel forcerer; and every conjugal mishap was laid at the door of Jack's fpeli on the wedding day. God knows, poor Jack had finis 'enough of his own to carry, without loading him with the fins of others. He would fooner have made a medean cauldron for the whole ifland, than disturb one lady's happineis. He had many opportunities; and, though he had a mortal hatred to white men, he was never known to hurt a child, ur abufe a woman. die. But even Jack himself was born to Aliured by the rewards offered by Governor Dalling, in a proclamation, dated the 12th of December 1780, and by a refolution which followed it, of the houfe of affembly, two negroes, named Quafher, and Sam (Sam was captain Davy's fon, he who shot a Mr Thompson, the master of a London fhip at old harbour) both of Scots Hall, Maroon town, with a party of their townfmen, went in fearch of him. Quafher, before he fet out on the expedition, got himself chrittened, and changed his name to James Reeder. The expedition commenced; and the whole party had been creeping about in the woods, for three weeks, and blockading, as it were, the deepelt receffes of the most inacceflible part of the island, where Jack, far remote from all human fociety, refided—bat in vain. Reeder and Sam, tired with this mode of war, refolved on proceeding in fearch of his retreat; and taking him, by forming it, or perifhing in the attempt. They took with them a little boy, a proper fpirit, and a good fhot, and left the relt of the party. Thefe three, whom I well knew, had not been long separated, before their cunning eyes difcovered, by impref fions among the weeds and bushes, that fome perfon muft have lately been that way. They foftly followed these impreffions, making not the leaft noife. Prefently they difcovered a fmoke. They prepared for war. They came upon Jack before he perceived them. He was roasting plantains, by a little fire on the ground, at the mouth of a cave. This was a fcene: -not where ordinary actors had a common part to play. Jack's looks were fierce and terrible. He told them he would kill them. Reeder, inftead of fhooting Jack, replied, that his obi had no power to hurt him; for he was chriftened; and that his name was no longer Quafher. Jack knew Reeder; and, as if paralized, he let his two guns remain on the ground, and took up only his cutlafs. These two had a defperate engagement feveral years before, in the woods; in which conflict Jack loft the two fingers, which was the origin of his prefent name; but Jack then beat Reeder, and almoft killed him, with feveral others who affifted him, and they fled from Jack. To do three-fingered Jack juftice, he would now have killed both Reeder and Sam; for, at first, they were frightened at the fight of him, and the dreadful tone of his voice; and well they might; they had befide no retreat, and were to grapple with the braveft, and ftrongeft man in the world. But Jack was cowed; for he had prophefied that white obi would get the better of him; and from experience, he knew the charm would Ïofe none of its strength in the hands of Reeder. Without farther parley, Jack, with his cutlafs in his hand, threw himself down a precipice at the back of the cave. Reeder's gun miffed fire. Sam fhot him in the fhoulder. Reeder, like an English bull-dog, never looked, but, with his cutlafs in his hand, plunged headlong down after Jack. Ed. Mag. July 1799. The defcent was about thirty yards, and almoft perpendicular. Both of them had preferved their cutlaffes in the fall. Here was the ftage, on which two of the ftouteft hearts, that were ever hooped with ribs, began their bloody ftruggle. The little boy, who was ordered to keep back, out of harm's way, now reached the top of the precipice, and, during the fight, fhot Jack in the belly. Sam was crafty, and coolly took a round about way to get to the field of action. When he arrived at the spot where it began, Jack and Reeder had clofed, and tumbled together down another precipice, on the fide of the mountain, in which fall they both loft their weapons. Sam de fcended after them, who also loft his cutlafs, among the trees and bushes in getting down. When he came up to them, though without weapons, they were not idle; and, luckily for Reeder, Jack's wounds were deep and defperate, and he was in great agony. D Sam came up juft time enough to fave Reeder: for Jack had caught him by the throat, and with his giant's grafp. Reeder then was with his right-hand almoff cut off, and Jack ftreaming with blood from his shoulder and belly; both covered with gore and gafhes. In this ftate Sam was umpire; and decided the fate of the battle. He knocked Jack down with a piece of a rock. When the lion fell, the two tigers got upon him, and beat his brains out with ftones. The little boy foon after found his way to them. He had a cutlafs, with which they cut off Jack's head, and three fingered hand, and took them in triumph to Morant Bay. There they put their trophies into a pail of rum; and, followed by a vaft concourfe of negroes, now no longer afraid of Jack's obi, they car. ried them to Kingston, and Spanish town; and claimed the reward of the king's proclamation, and the house of affembly. ON 26 ON DISSIPATION, AND THE MODERN HABITS OF FASHIONABLE LIFE. From Mifs Hannah More's' Strictures on the Modern Syflem of Female Education, BUT (Concluded from our left, p. 428.) · JT while we would affert that a woman of a cultivated intellect is not driven by the fame neceffity into the giddy whirl of public refort; who but regrets that real cultivation does not inevitably preferve her from it? No wonder that inanity of character, that vacuity of mind, that torpid ignorance, fhould plunge into diffipation as their natural refuge; fhould feek to bury their infignifi. cance in the crowd of preffing multitudes, and hope to escape analyfis and detection in the undistinguished maffes of mixed affemblies? There attrition rubs all bodies fmooth, and makes all furfaces alike; thither fuperficial and external accomplishments naturally fly as to their proper fcene of action; as to a field where competition is in perpetual exercife; where the laurels of admiration are to be won, and the trophies of vanity triumphantly carried off! It would indeed be matter of little comparative regret, if this corrupt air were only breathed by thofe of the above defcription whofe natural element it feems to be; but who can forbear regretting that the power of fashion attracts alfo into this impure and unwholesome atmosphere minds of a better make, of higher aims and ends, of more ethereal temper? minds who, renouncing enjoyments for which they have a genuine tafte, and which would make them really happy, neglect fociety they love, and purfuits they admire, in order that they may feem happy and be fashion. able in the chafe of pleasures they defpife, and in company they difapprove! But no correctness of tafte, no depth of knowledge, will infallibly preserve a woman from this contagion, unless her heart be impreffed with a deep Chriftian conviction, that fhe is refponfible for the application of knowledge as well as for the dedication of time. This contagion is fo deep, fo wide, and fatal, that if I were called upon to affign the predominant cause of the greater part of the misfortunes and corruptions of the great and gay in our days, I fhould not look for it principally in any feemingly great or ftriking caufe; not in the practice of notorious vices, not originally in the dereliction of Chriftian principle; but I should not hesitate to afcribe it to a growing, regular, fyftematic feries of amufements; to an inceffant, boundless, and not very difreputable diffipation. Other corruptions, tho' more formidable in appearance, are yet lefs fatal in fome respects, becaufe they leave us intervals to reflect on their turpitude, and fpirit to lament their exceffes; but diffipation is the more hopeless, as by engrof. fing almoft the whole of life, and enervating the whole moral and intellectual fyftem, it leaves neither time nor reflection, nor fpace for feltexamination, nor temper for the cherishing of right affections, nor leifure for the operation of found principles, nor interval for regret, nor vigour to refift temptation, nor energy to ftruggle for amendment. The great master of the fcience of pleafure among the ancients, who reduced it into a fyftem, which he called the chief good of man, directed that there fhould be interval enough between the fucceffion of delights to fharpen inclination; and accordingly inftituted periodical days of abftinence; well knowing that gratification was beft promoted by previous felf-denial. But fo little do our vo taries of fashion underftand the true nature of pleasure, that one amufe ment ment is allowed to overtake another without any interval, either for recollection of the patt or preparation for the future. Even on their own felfish principle, therefore, nothing can be worfe understood than this unremitted pursuit of enjoyment: for to fuch a degree of labour is this purfuit carried, that their pleasures exhauft instead of exhilarating, and their recreations require to be refted from. And, not to argue the question on the ground of religion, but merely on that of prefent enjoyment; look abroad and fee who are the people that complain of wearinefs, liftleffnefs, and dejection. You will not find them among fuch as are overdone with work, but with pleasure. The natural and healthful fatigues of business are recruited with natural and cheap gratifications; but a fpirit worn down with the toils of amusement, requires pleafures of poignancy; varied, multiplied, ftimulating! It has been obferved by medical writers, that that fober excefs in which many indulge, by conftantly eating and drinking a little too much at every day's dinner, and every night's fupper, more effectually undermines the health, than thofe accidental exceffes, with which others now and then break in upon a life of general fobriety. This illuftration is not introduced with a defign to recommend occafional deviations into grofs vice, by way of a pious receipt for mending the morals; but merely to suggest that there is more probability, that those who are fometimes driven by unrefifted paffion in to irregularities, which fhock their cooler reason, are more liable to be roufed to a fenfe of their danger, than perfons whofe perceptions of evil are blunted by a round of fyftematical, exceffive, and yet not fcandalous diffipation. And when I af- firm that this fyftem of regular indul gence relaxes the foul, enflaves the heart, bewitches the fenfes, and thus difqualifies for pious thought or useful action, without having any thing. in it fo grofs as to fhock the confcience; and when I hazard an opinion that this ftate is more formidable because less alarming, than that which bears upon it a more determined character of evil, I no more mean to fpeak of the latter in flight and palliating terms, than I would intimate, because the fick fometimes recover from a fever, but feldom from a palfy, that a fever is therefore a fafe or a healthy ftate. But there feems to be an error in the first concoction, out of which the fubfequent errors fucceffively grow. First then, as has been obferved before, the fhowy education of women tends chiefly to qualify them for the glare of public affemblies: fecondly, they feem in many inftances to be fo educated, with a view to the greater probability of their being fplendidly married thirdly, it is alleged in vindication of thofe diffipated practices, that daughters can only be seen, and admirers procured at balls, operas, and affemblies: and that therefore, by a natural confequence, balls, operas, and affemblies, muft be followed up without intermiffion till the object be effected. For the accomplifhent of this object, it is that all this complicated machinery had been previously fet a-going, and kept in motion with an activity not at all flackened by the disordered state of the fyftem; for fome machines, initead of being ftopped, go fafter becaufe the true fpring is out of order; the only difference being that they go wrong, and fo the increased rapidity only adds to the quantity of error. It is alfo, as we have already remarked, an error to fancy that the love of pleasure exhausts itself by indulgence, and that the very young are chiefly addicted to it. D 2 The con trary trary appears to be true. The defire grows with the purfuit upon the fame principle, as motion is quickened by the continuance of the impetus. First then, it cannot be thought unfair to trace back the exceffive fondness for amusement, to that mode of education we have elfewhere reprobated. Few of the accomplishments, falfely fo called, affift the developement of the faculties: they do not exercife the judgment, nor bring into action thofe powers which fit the heart and mind for the occupations of life: they do not prepare women to love home, to understand its occupations, to enliven its unifor. mity, to fulfil its duties, to multiply its comforts: they do not lead to that fort of experimental logic, if I may fo fpeak, compounded of obfervation and reflection, which makes up the moral science of life and manners. Talents which have difplay for their object, defpife the narrow ftage of home: they demand mankind for their spectators, and the world for their theatre. While one cannot help fhrinking a little from the idea of a delicate young creature, lovely in perfon, and engaging in mind and manners, facrificing nightly at the public shrine of fashion, at once the votary and the victim; one cannot help figuring to oneself, how much more interesting fhe would appear in the eyes of a man of feeling, did he behold her in the more endearing fituations of domeftic life. And who can forbear wifhing, that the good fenfe, good tafte, and delicacy of the men, had rather led them to prefer feeking companions for life, in the almost facred quiet of a virtuous home? There they might have had the means of feeing and admiring thofe amiable beings in the beft point of view: there they might have been enabled to form a jufter eftimate of female worth, than is likely to be obtained in scenes, where fuch qualities and talents as might be expected to add to the ftock of domeftic comfort, muft neceffarily be kept in the back ground, and where fuch only can be brought into view, as are not particularly calculated to infure the certainty of home delights. O! did they keep their persons fresh and new, How would they pluck allegiance from men's hearts, And win by rarenefs !' By what unaccountable infatuation is it that men too, even men of fenfe, join in the confederacy against their own happiness, by looking for their home companions in the reforts of vanity? Why do not fuch men rife fuperior to the illufions of fa fhions? Why do they not uniformly feek her, who is to prefide in their families in the bofom of her own? In the practice of every domestic duty, in the exercise of every amiable virtue, in the exertion of every elegant accomplishment? Thofe accomplishments of which we have been reprobating, not the poffeffion, but the application? There they would find her exerting them to their true end, to enliven business, to animate retirement, to embellish the charming scene of family delights, to heighten the interesting pleasures of focial intercourse, and rifing to their nobleft object, to adorn the doctrine of God her Saviour. If, indeed, woman were mere outfide, form, and face only, and if mind made up no part of her compofition, it would follow that a ball-room was quite as appropriate a place for choofing a wife, as an exhibition room for choofing a picture. But, inafmuch as women are not mere portraits, their value not being determinable by a glance of the eye, it follows that a different mode of appreciating their value, and a different place for viewing them antecedent to their being individually felected, is defireable. The two cafes differ also in this, that |