Into what a pitiable state of degradation and depravity must their minds have sunk, who can prefer the mischievous eruptions, which are thrown out by such volcanos, as a Bolingbroke, a Shaftsbury, a Chesterfield, a Paine, or a Volney, to that blaze of mind and excellence, which issues from this brilliant constellation * !

It is, indeed, to no purpose, as we have witnessed in numberless instances, that a complication of evidence is shining around

* "Though I am persuaded, that the essential doctrines of Christianity, considered in themselves, may be sufficient to prove their divine origin and inspiration, yet, when I contemplate the beautiful simplicity, with which they are delivered, and the amazing success with which they were propagated-and when I compare these two circumstances with the character, the means, and the abilities, of the persons, who published them to the world, [ see then, indeed, the strongest presumptions in favour of their truth; and I pray God to forgive the wilful ignorance, and corrupt disingenuity of those, who pretend to believe, that twelve obscure, insignificant, illiterate men-without power, interest, opulence, or learningcould vanquish the prejudices of the world, triumph over the power of custom and education, and expose themselves to death in its most dreadful forms, in the service of an Impostor!"

us, if a man be resolved to bury himself in the deep, dark, dismal caverns of pertinacious Infidelity. The credimus, quod volumus, is alike applicable to our faith, and to our unbelief: and in vain are the most cogent, and, to ingenuous spirits, irresistible appeals addressed to our understanding, in any case, where the heart is disaffected. The clouds of mental error, and the shades of intellectual darkness, are rarely dissipated against our inclination; though, into candid, modest, and unpresuming inquirers, Truth is ever ready to emit her enlightening beams, and, in their sincere researches, to transport them with her beauty and glory. Nothing can have a greater tendency to eclipse them both from our sight, than the indulgence of any vicious propensity; and, especially, of that reasoning pride, which human vanity is too apt to cherish, and sometimes is so infatuated as to defend, with all the arts of sophistry and eloquence,

Among the peculiars of modern eccentricity, and the numerous obligations we

are under to the Philosophism of the age, there is one maxim, which is calculated to damp all the noblest exertions of the human intellect to check the current of honest inquiry, at once-and to encourage the baneful exercises of infidelity in every possible direction and extent. The maxim, I mean, is, "The innocence of error. For, if error be innocent, the research of truth is scarcely worth the pursuit.

What then! instead of cultivating that mental dignity, and soaring into those regions of discovery, for which we were formed, are we so groveling, as to think it harmless to deviate into the wilds of mistake and delusion, though surrounded with the means of light and knowledge? Can we deem it innocent, to indulge any false conceptions of the nature, perfections, and will, of the divine Being, or of religion, of virtue, and of morals, when the richest sources of the most correct information are put into our hands? Far be it from us

C

to relax and paralyze all our intellectual faculties, either by reposing in the castle of indolence and apathy; or, by rioting in the depravities of sense and appetite; or, by the adoption of a principle so fatal to those investigations, which are among the most pure and refined distinctions of the human kind *. Truth is a treasure of

"Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in Charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of TRUTH. It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed on the sea: a pleasure, to stand at the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof, below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing on the vantage-ground of Truth, and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests of the vale beneath; so always, that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride." BACON'S ESSAYS;

I perfectly agree with a philosophical writer, whom I cannot always approve, when he says, "A careful observation of Truth, the way to Happiness, and the practice of Reason, are in the issue the same thing. For, of the two last, each falls in with the first; and, therefore, each with other. They are all in the same interest, and conspire to advance and perfect human nature and the best definition which can be given of Religion is, that it is The pursuit of Happiness, by the practice of Truth and Reason."

such value, that it cannot be purchased at too dear a rate; and the words of a very ancient philosopher would be no dishonour to more enlightened times than those, in which he flourished:Χαίρειν εν εασας τας Τιμας τας των πολλων ανθρωπων, την ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ σκοπών, πειρασομαι τω οντι ως αν δύνωμαι βέλτιςος ων και ζην, και επειδαν αποθνησκω, αποθνήσκειν. Wherefore, bidding farewel to the honours of the multitude, and having my eye upon TRUTH, I will really endeavour, as far as I am able, to live in the best manner I can ; and when I die, to die so."

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But, without enlarging unnecessarily on a maxim, which is fraught with infinite mischief, and which therefore ought never to be noticed, but to be exposed, if Truth, whether in the mind, or in the expression, be the conception and the representation of things as they really are, a man must be lost either to good sense, or to rational consideration, who will be an avowed advocate for the innocence of conceiving or