serves them take such hold of the minds of their admirers, that the prospect is closed here: and that they have, like those of old, in veneration of meaner objects, turned their backs toward the temple of the Lord: Ezekiel viii, 16. I say, IF such things be, and be observed by a Christian, and especially by a Christian minister, ought he not to feel on such an occasion a portion of that spirit which stirred within him who stood on Mars-Hill, and boldly reproved the blind devotions of the place? Ought he not to address them in some such language as this?

"Ye modern Athenians, devoted, like the ancients, to your idols, while HE, who should be the object of your supreme regard, seems an UNKNOWN GOD! The ancients demand our pity in this respect: the sparks, which these children of the night struck in their moral darkness, might naturally gain their highest attention they had no standard, as we have, of estimating the comparative weight and worth of things. But let us, who are of the day, be sober.

Let the arts

live; but let not the man perish!-Let the arts flourish; but let not the man fade; and, lost in an undue admiration of their charms, be found at length fruitless and speechless before his Judge!"

To see a guilty, dying, and responsible creaturecapable of enjoying and glorifying his Maker-created for this end; and, though fallen away from his God, yet provided with means for returning to his favour and image-to see such an one, having but a short interval for accomplishing this his greatest work, yet to tally occupied and infatuated by his taste for the evanescent charms of sculpture, painting, music, &c.wasting his only opportunity in the admiration of shadows and sounds, while impending and everlasting realities are forgotten, if not despised :-to hear him offering apologies for such a conduct, drawn from the innocence and excellence of the objects by which he is thus blinded, bondaged, and infatuated,-is, to say

the least of it, a striking and prodigious instance of his fallen and miserable condition.

Were a criminal under condemnation, and allowed but a short interval before the sentence of death was executed; and could he obtain not only pardon, but preferment, if he properly applied for these during that space of time; what should we think of the man, though in other respects sober and rational, if, instead of improving his opportunity, he wasted it in placing pictures and images round his cell, or listening to the songs of the next prisoner? and if, in addition to this, he were angry whenever his friends reminded him of the infatuation; treating their remonstrances as enthusiastic and irrational?

It is not our fond opinions and unfounded conjectures as to the propriety or probability of this statement, which ought to decide in our minds as to the truth of it; but the express declarations of that Judge, before whom we must all shortly stand. He has shown ruin coming on the neglecter, as certainly as on the opposer, of his grace. The benighted loiterer, when carried away by a flood or perishing in a pit, will receive but small consolation that he did not waste his day in bed, but in a cabinet or concert. Nor does the snare ever become more dangerous than when reputation, splendour, and the abstract innocence and excellence of it, tend to quiet any alarm in the consciences of men.-Perimus in LICITIS.

Who shall roll for us the stone from the door of a sepulchre which entombs such multitudes? and multitudes, not of the vulgar only, but of geniuses, of scholars, of politicians, and of philosophers. Here, among other views of it, the superiority of religion appears a superiority, which needs not rank and talents to help out its effect. Produce ONE true disciple of our great Teacher, though the meanest as to his natural capacity and education, yet this man, knowing his ground, cannot but feel the deepest pity

for his scorners.

To each insulter he might justly re

ply in the words of our great poet:

Fain would I something say, yet to what end?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul to apprehend
The sublime notion, and high mystery.

"I see," says he, "that, if the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not-directing their attention to some perishing frivolity or other, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." On the contrary, such a man, elevated, in fact, by his grasp of mind, surveys the prospect before him. He, like the patriarch, realizing the approaching danger, provides an ark to the saving of his house: -like Moses, he is not to be cheated with the pleasures of sin for a season; but endures, seeing him who is invisible:-like Abraham, he goes forward from a shadow to a certainty. The enchantment is broken. -the lie is detected-he feels a full conviction what it is to become a man, and put away his childish things. Feeling his natural weakness, he learns, that man must cling, in order to climb: he rises, like the feeble vine, on a wall of salvation: and, thus, both the rationality and superiority of true religion is sensibly and infallibly demonstrated, at least to his own heart.

So common is the fact, that I think no unprejudiced observer, who regards this subject as it respects the poor, but must have been struck with the meliorating and elevating effect of true religion with respect to them. Even the most squalid wretch found among them, whose habits of stupidity, sensuality, and wild disorder have sunk him below the brutes; such an one may be sometimes seen rising by religion into a rationality that surprises the observer. The man awakes and erects himself: he looks upward: he abstracts and compares: and, acting upon his new and 26*

VOL. I.

higher sentiments, becomes, to all intents, a true moral philosopher.

In a word, if to pursue the best end in the choice of the fittest means be a just definition of wisdom, then, in spite of all misrepresentation, religion in exercise, like Bacon's religion, marks the truly wise man: and, to feel this wisdom bring satisfaction home to the heart-directing it to substantials, and breaking those enchantments of life which at first entice, often betray, and never could satisfy-is to rise to the character of a happy and superior man. On the contrary, for any one to represent such a principle as contracting the mind, while it actually expands and elevates it, is like asserting, that he, who is capable of surveying a prospect before him, is more limited in his views and faculties than another whose purblind eye can discern nothing but what is brought close to it. Or, to treat a resolution to maintain and act upon such a principle as weak or irrational, is as if one should affirm, that it would have been wiser if the prodigal had determined to stay and perish with the swine, than that he should at length have come to himself, and returned to his father.

"Still," says the objector, "do I not see religionists gloomy, contracted, superstitious, and sometimes false?" Look again at the remarks on the identity of sound religious principle, and the accidents which tend to obscure it, and your objection is answered. "But if Bacon rose superior to these in cheerfulness and liberality, were not his sentiments rather cynical and monkish respecting the arts?" Not at all. Had he been more independent and unencumbered, I cannot doubt but that both his taste and his conscience would have agreed in placing an organ, a painted window, or a monument, in his church; in adding a few select pieces to his collection: in increasing the portraits of his friends; in turning his garden walk;

or in directing the style of his alcove. 'Wherein then did he differ from the generality of those, whom he saw come to him as an artist ?" I reply, he differed, toto cœlo: he would have treated these momentary trifles, to use his own expression, but as his "toys," while his treasure, and consequently his heart, would have been in heaven.

I have to apologize to the reader for having carried these reflections to a far greater length than I intended. But if they illustrate and recommend the piety of the character presented-if they in any degree atone for the great waste of my own life in the pursuit of sounds and shadows-if they warn youth against the charms preparing on the continent, Baited with reasons not unplausible, To wind into the easy-hearted man, And hug him into snares;

some

if, finally, while the light is obscured by the smoke of that incense which ascends on all sides to the idol of the day, my feeble efforts may be accepted with his, who cried, If Baal be God, serve him; but if Jehovah be God, serve him; I shall rejoice in having made them, however they may be misunderstood, or misrepresented.