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another, with the squeaking of chanting choristers, disguised (as are all the rest) in white surplices; some in corner caps, and silly copes, imitating the fashion and manner of Anti-Christ, the Pope, that man of sin, and child of perdition, with his other rabble of miscreants and shavelings." Though I have no great love for "the rabble of miscreants and shavelings," and no reverence for the scarlet lady of Babylon, I must confess that, in the matter of church music, I am a staunch Anti-Puritan.

SINGULAR DEVONSHIRE CUSTOM.

THE southern part of Devonshire is remarkable for its cyder. In order to ensure a good fruit harvest, the following custom is generally kept up in that quarter. On the eve of the Epiphany, the farmer, attended by his men, with a large pitcher of cyder, goes to the orchard, and then encircling one of the best bearing trees, they drink the following toast three several times:

"Here's to thee, old apple tree,

Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou
may'st blow,

And whence thou may'st bear apples enow!
Hat's full! cap's full!

Bushels, bushels-sack's full,

And my pockets full too!

Huzza! Huzza! Huzza!"

This done, they return to the house, the doors of which they are sure to find bolted by the females, who, be the weather what it may, are inexorable to all entreaties to open them, till some one among them has guessed at what is on the spit, which is generally some little nice thing, difficult to be hit on, and is the reward of him who first names it. The doors are then thrown open, aud the lucky clod receives the tid bit as his recompense. Some are so superstitious as to believe, that if they neglect this custom, the trees will bear no apples that year.

QUEEN CATHERINE.

BY the care of his relict Queen Catherine, the conqueror of France, Henry V. who died at Vincennes, near Paris,

was interred in a chest of grey marble, at the feet of Edward the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey. It was but a short time after her having performed this pious duty, that the fair Frenchwoman became enamoured by the manly graces of Owen Tudor. His introduction was singular. "He being a courtly and active gentleman was commanded once to dance before the Queen, and in a turn, not being able to recover himself, fell into her lap, as she sat on a large stool, with many of her ladies about her." Sir John Wynne tells us, "that the Queen, after her marriage having heard her husband's kindred and country objected to as most vile and barbarous, was desirous to see some of his kinsmen. Whereupon he brought to her presence John ap Meredyth, and Howel ap Lewelyn ap Howel, his neare cosens, men of goodly stature and personage, but wholly destitute of bringing up and nurture. For when the Queen had spoken to them in diverse languages, and they were not able to answer her, she said, that they were the goodliest dumbe creatures that ever she saw.'

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TO THE EDITOR OF THE POCKET MAGAZINE.

THE HYPOCRITE.

SIR,-In a lately published number of a theological Magazine, professing liberality and impartiality, I find the following paragraph: "THE HYPOCRITE, written expressly to ridicule religion, has been performed recently with great applause at the Opera House. It is thus that the Theatre endeavours to counteract the good designs of those societies which are established to promote morality and religion, by adopting those plays which seem most likely to bring both into contempt.'

If liberality and impartiality be founded upon and advanced by falsehood, this paragraph, which is a tissue of falsehood from beginning to end, is admirably adapted to promote their cause. But if they rest, as I have always considered them to do, upon the oldfashioned principles of truth and justice, I consider the

writer of the above not to be one of their best friends, whatever he professes to be. He asserts a falsehood, and then draws worse than a false conclusion from it. I read this play some time since, and so far from considering that it ridiculed religion, it left a directly contrary impression on my mind. I considered it as tending to advance the cause of true religion, and admirably calculated to put people on their guard against that detestable moral ill.-" the respect which vice pays to virtue."

Hypocrisy. Is it presumed "there is no such thing?" surely no one would say so, while the character of Judas is recorded in the sacred page. When Mary had anointed Jesus's feet with precious ointment, "Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." St. John xii. 4—6. When I read the paragraph copied above, I was astonished at the character it gave of the “ Hypocrite," and immediately procured it to ascertain how I could have formed such an erroneous opinion of it. I read it. It is true I was much displeased with the frequent introduction of the name of the Deity in silly exclamations; but after having gone carefully through, to the last exeunt omnes, I could find no ground for altering my first opinion of it: indeed that opinion was strengthened by the exact resemblance between its hero, and the wretch described in the three verses quoted above from St. John. And I think no candid reader perusing the following passage from it (the conclusion which is always, in such productions, the most important part,) will say it was "written expressly to ridicule religion."

"Sir John Lambert.-And, for the sake of that hypocritical villain, I declare, that henceforward I renounce all pious folks; will have an utter abhorrence for every thing that bears the appearance.

"Charlotte.-Nay, now, my dear sir, I must take the liberty to tell you, you go from one extreme to another. What! because a worthless wretch has im

posed upon you, under the fallacious shew of austere grimace, will you needs have it, every body is like him? Confound the good with the bad, and conclude, there are no truly religious in the world? Leave, my dear sir, such rash consequences to fools and libertines. Let us be careful to distinguish between virtue and the appearance of it. Guard if possible against doing honor to hypocrisy. But, at the same time, let us allow there is no character in life, greater or more valuable than that of the truly devout-nor any thing more noble, or more beautiful than the fervour of a sincere piety.

Sir John, having been weak enough to be led by the nose by a canting hypocrite, is very properly made, to support his character, to go to the opposite extremeequally indicative of his weakness. While Charlotte, with the same propriety, is made to interrupt him with the respectful modesty becoming a daughter, and the open firmness of a christian, and tell him that hypocrisy is not religion-that while the professor of the first is the most detestable being in existence, the man who really possesses the other is the greatest and most valuable member of society.

The person who could say this was written for the purpose which it is asserted it was, could surely have never read it; had he done so he would have avoided making such an unfounded assertion, and thence drawing such a false inference. Instead of the Theatre endeavouring "to counteract good designs," he ought to know that it tells us that all that live must die, passing through nature to eternity," and that "there is another and a better world."

That "Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not."

&c. &c. &c.-It also tells us we should tell TRUTH and shame the devil." And it says,

"We are off to blame in this,—

'Tis too much proved,—that, with devotion's visage And pious action, we do sugar o'er

The devil himself."

He ought to know too,

"That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been so struck to the soul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ."

The theatre, therefore, does not deserve to be calumniated with such a charge; but this proves the truth of that assertion-" Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."

Had the writer entered his protest against the frequent violation of the divine command, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,”-the abuse of "the purpose of acting," in the introduction of the name of the Deity in silly ejaculations; I would have joined heart and hand in the deed. But such an indiscriminate and unfounded attack I cannot but condemu. It is true I am fond of a good dramatic representation, and of drawing a lesson therefrom, (which I never fail to do. See Pocket Magazine, Vol. 3, page 328,) but I am not on that account the less so of "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father," which is "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and. to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." Neither am I so infatuated with it, as to admire all I see and hear in such representations: but prefer culling flowers to gathering weeds, and do not desire the cynic philosopher's reward for doing the latter the task of separating the chaff from a quantity of corn, and receiving it for his pains. Certainly the less I see to offend the eye, and hear to offend the ear, the more I am gratified by what I have seen and heard; and it is no doubt the same with every thinking visitor of the theatre. I say visitor, because I believe the frequenter goes there but to see, and be seen, and pass away, or rather kill the time, and thinks nothing at all about it. It is therefore the interest of managers, and ought to be the law of the public, to omit any and every thing that may offend against modesty and virtue-particularly such ejaculations as "O God!" and "O Lord!" &c. For this "though it make the

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