INTRODUCTION.

- Facilis descensus averni:

Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis;

Sed revocare gradum, superasq; evadere ad auras,

Hoc opus, hic labor est.

The gates of hell are open night and day:

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:

But to return, and view the chearful skies;

In this the task, and mighty labour lies.

IT is no idle station to be posted at the gloomy avenue of death, there to receive the unwilling traveller, and conduct him in a path, the reverse of what he had chosen to tread, through the course of his former life: to meet the reluctant passenger on the brink of eternity's boundless ocean, and there open and point out, (if not secure) to him a passage to the land of everlasting life, who had before wilfully plunged himself into the attractive whirlpool of misery's abyss; to draw him thence as a drowning man; to revive the worse than senseless mass, to a moral sense and spiritual life; all this is no light task; it demands not only human endeavours, but divine assistance; it demands not only the zeal and diligence, the skill and vigilance of a faithful servant, but bespeaks the favourable wishes and aids, shall I add, the fervent prayers of all who wish prosperity to so necessary and valuable a work. If an ox or an ass fallen into a pit, be an object of care and compassion, how much more is a man, indued with an immortal soul, when in danger of sinking into the pit of everlasting destruction.

To this design, there are many requisites rather to be wished and hoped for, than suddenly obtained: Such as, that the time and means were more adequate to the end and purpose *, to make success more probable, evil habits should be rooted out, and * To this the excellent plan of a new prison, or rather workhouse, wherein labour, industry, and virtue might be practised, and idleness, vice and profaneness, more effectually prevented and suppressed, would, if executed, greatly conduce: a design, the weight of which, it should seem unreasonable to lay on the metropolis only, as it ought to be borne in some due proportion by the body of the nation. May I venture to advance, that this is a common concern, and fit to be imitated by every county or district.