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vates them-Some well meaning persons have therefore erred, in inflicting upon the lower parts of their nature, irrational and unmerciful lacerations-these may depress the spirits-but they do not regulate the passions, nor direct them to their proper objects-God has implanted the latter in us for the accomplishment of his purposes-and has withal condescended to grant us written rules for their regulation—and experience proves, that these rules violated and broken disorder society, but obeyed and acted upon, produce the harmony of creation-this is what I call rational theology-for if sensitive and social blessings were not necessary, appetites for them would not be given; and if completely sufficient to constitute the happiness of man, they would leave no vacuum in his soul unfilled; but as the contrary is known, it proves that there is a part in us, which can be rendered happy by nothing less than the Deity himself, who is the final point, from whence is suspended, and in which terminate, all the links of Providence and nature.

REFLECTIONS

RESULTING FROM THE MISFORTUNES OF ROUSSEAU WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS SOLITARY WALKER.

I have heard a great deal of Rousseau the Swiss or Savoyard philosopher, and generally so unfavourable, that I had conceived a strong prejudice against his cha

racter at this time none of his writings had fallen into my hands; but happening of late to meet with his confessions and reveries at an auction, I bought them, and found he had been much misrepresented-these little treatises bear the evident marks of true narrative-his confessions let you into the secret recesses of his heart, so far as he himself had knowledge of them-he does not disguise nor palliate his motives, but unfolds them to you with an amiable simplicity-what a pity that such a 'man should have wrong principles-he tells us in one of these treatises, that he was educated under the inspection of a pious (I think protestant) minister; and yet he does not appear to have had his mind sufficiently impressed with the nature and importance of the doctrines of the gospel; if these had due place in his judgment, he would hardly have violated the religious reluctances* which he felt in the case

* Although these reluctances were not adverted to as religious by Rousseau, I am nevertheless satisfied in my own mind, that they were properly speaking, divine convictions-Rousseau felt no uneasy sensation, while living in the most intimate habits of friendship with Madame de Warren-but no sooner does she propose to his then unperverted mind, a sinful alliance, than a something within him declines it, and even upon reflection seems to shudder at its approach-when for want of clearly understanding this reluctance to evil-placed in man by the Author of Nature, as the safeguard of his virtue-Rousseau abandons himself to the temptation, and even perpetrates the crime, against which, his nature thus informed revolted; how faithfully does the spirit of God resume its office in reproving him ah 'tis easy for the enlightened mind to perceive its heavenly traces, in the compunction and disappointment which Rousseau felt after the perpetration of his crime-'tis true these reluctances gradually decrease as they cease to be attended to; hence the danger of inattention and disobedience to these and other messengers of good, until a degree of hardness be acquired, which induce us to resolve our former scruples, into mere puerilities of youth, or prejudices of education; and as it becomes

of his connexion with M. Warren-he acknowledges he felt as if he had committed incest, when his own weakness and her false philosophy, triumphed over his salutary scruples. M.de Warren he represents as a very good catholic in her own opinion-alas! what a monstrous brood has such catholicism united with a spurious philosophy, engendered -this woman who had been corrupted by the sophisms of

our interest in proportion to our advancement in vice, to reason away every thing which may operate as a restraint upon the passions; the witness for God in the human mind is soon rejected -the outward revelation of his will in the scriptures which is its counterpart, becomes judged and disputed, and the ministers of the gospel, with all those who fear God, are esteemed as innovators of human happiness and proper objects of derisionOh ye who like the Swiss philosopher were once intimately acquainted with the chaste dictates of heavenly wisdom; but who like him cannot plead ignorance of their origin and destination-Ye whose feet were once beautiful upon the gospel plains, and whose trumpets with masculine energy animated the militant hosts to battle-Was the year of jubilee come that you east your arms to the dogs, and returned to the embraces of your wives and children? did peace overflow the land, and had the inhabitants laid down their arms, and sworn allegiance to your prince, that you deserted his cause and returned to your pleasures? or rather did an enemy take advantage of your weakness, to sow division in the army and to scatter the troops?

-Wonder not that this has been the portion of your weaker brethren, when you who were its generals were the first to flinch -my speech is directed to individuals in this nation, who being endowed with ministerial talents, sound constitution and understanding, independent fortune and general approbation, quit the field of religious labour in which they had been useful; and have returned, wholly returned to their farms and their merchandize these were men, to whom their weaker brethren who were destitute of these advantages, looked up for counsel and support in virtue-for some little instrumental succour against the enemy's scattered troops, which were harrassing them in the front and in the rere-but they looked in vain-many fell covered with their blood, and there was none to help them; and the fugitives who escaped with their lives, averting their heads backward, looked over the plains of Zion with anxious solcitude, but behold they were a ghastly waste!

her teacher in philosophy, who had conceived designs upon her virtue, when a young married woman; finding he could not obtain his purposes by an application to her passions, had recourse to artful reasoning for the perversion of her principles, and icceeded-the unfortunate man however met with severe punishment for his perfidy, for those latetudinarian sentiments with which he had inspired his pupil, and which had completely dethroned the gospel doctrine of chastity from her mind, opened a door to further licentiousness, and he had the misery to find himself supplanted in his turn-Rosseau remarks that he became the prey of a "consuming jealousy," when treated, as he had taught her to treat her husband.

I have heard it remarked that superstition is the parent. of licentiousness-it may be so,-but satisfied I am that it is not so exclusively-for there are not wanting proofs of persons, whose education has been according to the purest principles and forms of christianity, who nevertheless hold these latitudes as perfectly harmless, when they can be exercised without detection-for my own part I will say, and in sincerity, that I hope the good old gospel shall be for ever my pole star-I hope I shall with the divine assistance ever steer my course toward it; and if through the force of temptation or the weakness of nature, (as has been too often the case) I should have the misfortune to deviate from its heavenly path; may a defection of principle be the last occasion of my apostacy.

EXTRACTS

FROM

THE SOLITARY WALKER.

Page 150." When all my private enemies are dead, doctors and orators will still live-and although I had but those two bodies of men, as persecutors, I might be certain they would grant no more peace to my memory after my death, than they have granted my person during my lifetime."*

P. 151.-" All is at an end for me in this world-no one ean do me good or harm--I have nothing more to hope or to fear, and here I am tranquil in the midst of an abyss, poor unfortunate mortal, but impassable as God himself."

P. 153. My heart has been purified at the test of adversity, and I can scarcely find on sounding it with care, any remains of reprehensible propensity-what can I have more to confess when every terrestrial affection is wrung away—I have no more to thank than blame myself for-I am nothing for ever amongst men, and it is all I can be, having no farther real relation or actual society with them-Being no longer able to do any good that does not turn out bad, being no longer able to act without prejudicing myself or some one, to abstain is

* Are not these observations equally applicable to any other prejudiced bodies of men.

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