the cafe, what is there in my believing Chriftianity, more than in my believing any hiftorical fact, which I clearly comprehend: and has nothing in it which I fhould deem impoffible ?-Those who pretend to fee myfteries in it, and to believe them, talk idly; for no man ever did, or ever could, believe a mystery, any more than he could fee what was tranfacted in an invifible world. The complaifance and deference to authority, by which men are led to pretend to believe what they do not understand, and what they are told by others to believe, is like the fervility of those, who, though their eyes are imperfect and faulty, always fee as we do, or hear as we hear. This being the cafe, it is not eafy immediately to understand, why men fhould ever have been blamed or punished, because they could not believe. Believing is an act of the mind, upon confidering a fact or propofition; as feeing is an act, in confequence of turning the eye on the object. Men are influenced, in both thefe actions, exactly alike; by the ftrength and goodness. of their natural organs; by their situation, and the point of view in which they confider things. Every object, every fact, and every principle, may appear, in fome circumftance, different to different perfons. Why, then, if we punish a man for not difcerning truths as we difcern them, do we not punish him for not feeing as we fee?-There is no diftinction between these cases, which is founded in truth and common fense: but there is, in the artifices of policy, and the wiles of prieftcraft. If men be taken early enough, they may be induced to give up the faculties of their minds; but they must use their bodily fenfes. The exercise of reason is not only unneceffary, but inconvenient and dangerous, under all kinds of defpotic governments. It has been accordingly reprobated by all tyrants, civil and ecclefiaftical; heaven and hell have been ranfacked for allurements and terrors; the utmost abilities of the human mind have been employed to invent tortures, to prevent the use of reason. No wonder; it is the only fure and fatal enemy to every species of tyranny. Men have ever, and ever will be free, in exact proportion as they use their understandings. We, therefore, find, that civil and ecclefiaftical politicians have ever difcouraged enquiry, and the love of truth, as feditious, and dangerous to the state or to the church. Here we have the reafons of religious cruelty and perfecution; which have hung their infernal clouds for ages over the world: under which nothing generous and manly could ever fpring up; and which have rendered almoft the whole face of this globe a general wafte, traversed by rivers of human blood. Here and there the benign lights of philofophy and truth have lately illumined and gladened the world. Bleffed be thofe glorious fpirits who have occafioned it! who have facrificed their interefts and their lives to produce it! Bleffed be those who ftill ftruggle for the freedom of human reafon, and all the great rights of human nature! - Defpotifm, attended by cruelty and mifery, has too long ravaged the earth; he has hitherto held his` rule rule by horrors; he now puts on the mask of pleasure; and, attended by the Loves and Graces, diffipates our rational powers, and leads us into flavery. The confequence is bondage, if we are made to give up the ufe of our understandings, whether it be by cruelty, or whether it be by diffipation.' We entirely agree with this writer in what he fays, relative to the use of our understandings in matters of religion; but we cannot allow, that there is no demerit in unbelief, which, in many cafes, is but another name for wilful blindness, perverfenefs, and a criminal inattention to the voice of reafon and religion. Having explained that rational fear of God, which is excited by prayer and amiable views of the divine nature, the author gives us this juft and ftriking reprefentation of fuperftition. The difference between this pleafing and genuine principle, and that fear which produces fuperftition; is the difference be tween the motives which actuate a man, and thofe which actuate a flave. The one acts from himself, does his duty because he loves it the other is diftracted with apprehenfions; acts because he is enjoined: looks up to Supreme Power with terror; and interpofes as many interceffors as poffible, as barriers between him and the object he dreads. It is the bufinefs of fuperftition, to keep God as much as poffible out of view. We find, accordingly, in those religions where it prevails, that every artifice is made ufe of, to prevent the timid and broken fpirit of the devotee, from being fhocked with the most tranfient thoughts of God. Artful legiflators and priests, have intimidated the people to fuch a degree, that they have been glad to interpofe, between them and the Deity, not only angels, men, and animals; but even bits of old fhoes, and the parings of a wretch's nails. There is no view of human nature, more humiliating than this; there is no ftate of abjectness and mifery, out of which it is more diffi cult to extricate the unhappy creatures, who are involved in it. Vice is not fo hopeless as fuperftition. It engenders all the most loathfome villainies and miferies; and fanctifies and infures their existence, by holy appellations. It is funk below the reach of knowledge; and eradicates every principle, both of virtue and happiness, in the human mind,-We are happy, that we fee, only at a distance, the talons of this infernal fiend. We cannot rouse our spirit in a nobler caufe, than in that of entire liberty from its tyranny and government. Superftition blafts every thing around us; lays heaven and earth into one gloomy and horrid darkness; makes our religion a curfe; our governments defpotic and oppreffive; and renders us incapable of private virtue and happiness.' The following obfervations are equally rational and philofophical. The firft abufes of devotion, probably arofe, like the extravagancies of love, from indulging warm imaginations. The bounds bounds of nature once tranfgreffed, by the well-intended fictions of poetry, all the exceffes of fuperftition were produced; and artful men laid hold of them, for the purposes of avarice and ambition. Hence the idolatry of the ancients, moft of which we can trace, even at this time, into a poetical mythology, and the ufe of fymbols, which were originally reprefentations of rational fentiments. As a natural and reasonable worship would have fecured the improvement and virtue of the people; we fee, in fact, that the abfurdities and extravagancies of fuperftition, riveted on them the chains of avarice and vice. When Christianity was first introduced, the author of it aimed to reduce this doctrine to its first principles. His apoftles deviated but little from his defign; and the church, for a few centuries, had a worship different from that of the heathens. But when Chriftianity entered into alliance with the ftate, was established by Conftantine, and made an engine of tyranny, to enflave the people; the gods and goddeffes of antiquity, only changed names, for thofe of Christ, the Virgin, Angels and Apottles; the gods were cliriftened, Mars into Peter; and Diana, or Venus, into the Virgin Mary; the altars remained; and all the ceremonies of their worship were heightened, or rendered more abfurd; and then transferred to the Chriftian faints. There is hardly any part of the public worship of Europe, which may not be traced to an idolatrous cuftom of the heathens. The abfurdity of these things is fo glaring, that men, who have not great fagacity, great candour, and great patience, are very apt to turn from public worfhip with difguft, as wholly founded in ignorance and superstition. The very language it has adopted, is puerile: and one might imagine our religious affemblies crouching before a capricious tyrant, or endeavouring to amufe and coax into good humour, fome fluctuating, wavering, and paffionate Being. In the fecond volume the author treats of honefty, juftice, humanity, beneficence, modefty, moderation, luxury, prudence, fortitude, meeknefs, and patience. The following fentiments are founded on juft obfervation, and a knowledge of the human heart. The enthusiasm of benevolence, like the enthufiafm of a tenderer paffion, makes perfons of the fineft fenfibility, and the best difpofitions, moft liable to deceit and disappointment. The attachment and gratitude occafioned by benefits are the produce only of the very beft foil. It is folly, therefore, to expect them in vicious, or even in indifferent, characters. These are to be treated like barren and indifferent ground, and to be benefited without the hope of a feward. Every man judges of another by what he feels in himself. No bad man ever could believe that another did him a benefit by a moral, a beneficent, or a generous action. His returns, therefore, are affected, flattering, and felfish-And it is an effect extremely common, to produce the most inveterate hatred in bad minds, merely by means of benefits. An An ill-difpofed man always poffeffes a kind of pride, which is offended at the thought of an obligation. As there is hardly any thing easier than to impose upon and mislead the paffions, when once they are fixed on their objects, he finds it not difficult to impofe on his benefactor, till it fuits his convenience to pull off the mafk. And we must have obferved, that the rancour, hatred, and malice of fuch a man, have been beyond thofe of common enemies; and ever in proportion to the number and greatness of the benefits which were bestown upon him. He conceived himself injured by the fuperiority of his benefactor; he knew that he injured him by his falfe returns of gratitude and obligation; which are both moft forcible reasons with fuch a man for hatred. This is increased by every repeated obligation; and it is extremely common to fee a good man injured with the moft inveterate malice, and fuffering under the worst ufage, because he had been guilty of cherishing a viper in his bofom.' We fhall only detain our readers with two fhort extracts, added to what we have already cited, as a farther instance of that freedom of enquiry, which this writer has difplayed on almoft every subject he has difcuffed. The hiftory of martyrdom, it is to be hoped, will be confined to the ecclefiaftical annals of Europe, where future ages will read with altonishment, and perhaps incredulity, that whole nations of wretches, in the human form, not only ravaged each others territories for plunder and glory; but, in times of peace, and from mere cruelty and thirt of blood, amused themselves with torturing and murdering each other, for a reafon which would difgrace the morality of dogs and wolves-because they did not fee exactly alike, and think exactly alike. This will not be believed in periods of real humanity and knowledge.' Speaking of the devil, our author fays, In what malignant brain, or in what deplorable and gloomy ftate, the doctrine of eternal damnation was generated, it is impoffible to imagine. It must be a wretch indeed, both in his understanding and his heart, who could fuppofe the principles of wisdom and goodness, which actuate nature, fo ineffectual; or the government of God fo feeble, that Satan fhould not only interrupt it here, but carry off the greater part of his fubjects hereafter, and divide the dominion of eternity with him.' Many of our author's obfervations are juft, reasonable, and philofophical. But they fhould be read with caution; as they fuggeft an unfavourable idea of fome of the doctrines of Chriftianity, which, if properly understood, would appear much more amiable than its enemies generally imagine. Euphrafine: Euphrofyne: or, Amusements on the Road of Life. By the Author of the Spiritual Quixote. Vol. II. 8vo. 2s. 6d. ferved. Dodsley. THE "HE ingenious author of the Spiritual Quixote * has here prefented the public with a very agreeable little volume of poems on various fubjects. The indifputable marks of original genius, eafy numbers, with a fund of pleafantry and good humour, run through the whole collection. We are obliged for many of them to the poetical fociety at Bath Eafton, where the author has, we fuppofe, been frequently crowned with the myrtie wreath, a reward infinitely fuperior to any praise which Reviewers can bestow upon him. The author has thought proper, for reafons best known to himself, to divide his poetical entertainment into four courfes, the Mifcellaneous, the Epigrammatical, the Humorous, and the Elegiac; to which, by way of defert, he has fubjoined fome imitations of the Greek and Latin claffics. The verfes on Dreams; on Caprice, to Mr. Anfty; the Pepper-box and Salt-cellar, a fable, all well written, have appeared in other collections, and confequently food the teft of criticifm: we fhall therefore fay no more of them, but that they are well worthy of a place in this collection. With regard to the reft, it is a cana dubia, and amongst so many dainties, we know not which to present to our readers by way of tafting the banquet. As a delicate moriel, however, which must be agreeable to every palate, we fhall give them our author's Invocation to Health. • What fprightly nymph trips o'er the lawn, O! fairer than the purple dawn, Chafing the joyless gloom of night! O! welcome! more than pow'r or wealth; As o'er the faireft landscape's face • An entertaining novel, generally attributed to the Rev. Mr. Graves. See Crit, Rev. vol. xxxv. P. 275. But |