THE WORKS

OF

VICESIMUS KNOX, D.D.

WITH A

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.

IN SEVEN VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN,

LUDGATE STREET,

MDCCCXXIV.

WINTER EVENINGS;

OR,

LUCUBRATIONS ON LIFE AND LETTERS.

(CONTINUED.)

EVENING I.

ON RECENT INSTITUTIONS FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES.

Sui memores alios fecêre merendo. VIRG.

1F any one should be disposed to censure with uncharitable severity the vicious manners of the present age, I should wish to lead him through the environs of London, and point out to him the modern palaces erected for the poor and afflicted of all denominations. These, I would say, are the trophies of Christianity; and these, we are taught to hope, will cover a multitude of sins, and plead powerfully in favour of transgressors at the mercy-seat of the Most High.

I was walking one fine morning in St. George's Fields, when the sun, shining delightfully, gilded the spires of the numerous churches in my view, and seemed to smile on the windows of the various public edifices devoted to charity around me; when I could not help exclaiming, "surely the great Father of us all, when he looks down with indignation on the crying sins of yon great city, will turn with