many opinions have afterwards become current in the world, which at first were regarded with horror, as heretical, blasphemous, seditious, atheistical, and immoral, it might make one suspect that this is not the way in which it is wise to treat opinion at all, It might guide us to the conclusion that we should keep clear of such associations, when we hear opinions expressed. We should think it a profitable study to know any convictions to which a human mind can be honestly led; led, I say; for all honest opinion is involuntary, and therefore not the subject of praise or blame. Nobody should be thought the worse of for any opinions, so long as they are opinions, and not affectations. Were people to leave off being shocked with one another, they would begin to understand one another, and that would be a good step towards understanding all matters on which the world has not yet arrived at knowledge and truth. I was for some years partially acquainted with one of the best books in the Unitarian controversy; but some of the criticisms shocked me; I thought them wild, far-fetched, and of a bad tendency; and so for that time I would read no more, much to my own loss. And thus it continually is with books and people. The worst of all tendencies is the tendency to suppression of thought, which is that of truth, which is that of virtue, which is that of happiness.

I shall only mention more, the want of mental cultivation in individuals, as an obstacle to deriving

the greatest advantage from society. Those who are improving themselves most will, when they come together, most improve one another, and give most enjoyment to one another. The lowest is apt to pull everything down to its own level: 'As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the face of man his friend;' but alas for the iron, if the friend be only clay! The moral of the parable holds here: Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, that he may have abundantly.' There is a view in which individual improvement is the dictate of benevolence to society, and benefit from society the reward of personal improvement. It is the common character of real duties, which are all real interests. In enlightened society, the largest giver is, unfailingly, from his very capacity, the largest receiver. It is measured back into his own bosom.

In these remarks I have noticed many things which it is beyond the power of individuals to alter, which spring out of the manners of our age and country. Let not the remarks, therefore, be thought misplaced or profitless. I would excite no individuals to a crusade against society; but how do errors, theoretical or practical, wear out of the world, save by individual conviction, felt and expressed, and accumulating till it becomes the spirit and the power of reformation? It is something to have the eyes of the mind open to see, and the heart not heavy to understand. And if you

have heedfully followed me, you will have felt that all these observations on society were one great lesson of individual duty and improvement, of personal and Christian morality. For surely he who appreciates and cherishes a frank simplicity of character, a strong sense of human brotherhood, an aversion to ostentation and pretension, rátional, unexpensive tastes and habits, justice towards others' mental rights, and charity for their failings, and a constant desire and effort for improvement, both in and by solitude and society; he who does this, is in the way of growing in grace and knowledge. He is making himself more and more worthy of the name of a disciple of Christ. It is mere superstition to say that this is no part of religion. It may not be a part of that by which priests can profit; or on which to build a fame for superior sanctity; or by which to hold together a sect or faction; but it is not the less a part of religion, Christianity, on that account. It is an important part, for it enters largely into the formation of character; and that is more than can be said for many dogmatic articles of faith, for many ceremonial forms of worship. Let there be many such persons in all sects of religion, and there would soon be an end of sectarianism. Let there be many such persons in all classes of society, and there would soon be a demolition of classification. Let there be many such persons in all nations, and there would soon be an

end of internal tyrannies and external aggressions. Let there be many such persons in society, and society would not be a scene of coldness, hypocrisy, affectation, and competition; but God's family of human brethren on earth. Then, is not this religion? and Gospel? And may not we do ourselves good, Christian good, spiritual good, by pursuing such a train of thought? I think so. And that it will tend to make us grow up in all things into him who is our head, even Christ: Christ the friend of publicans and sinners, because they had no other friend; the friend of all, in being their friend; because he who raises any, benefits the rest: their friend-but not less the friend of the most enlightened and most righteous; the friend of every description of men, because he was the friend of mankind, the saviour of the world.

deficiency or forgetfulness on that score; and so far as my knowledge extends of the disposition within, and the circumstances without, under whose influences they act, there is adequate motive for their doing whatever is right and useful in this particular, without invoking the aid of the more powerful sanctions of religion and morality to impel a better observance. So far as modern times need this virtue, it is a virtue of native growth in our country. England has long been the generous hostess of all earth's fugitives. Thither they came, in turn, to escape from revolutionary fury and regal vengeance. This island has long been one great temple of hospitality, the sanctuary and asylum of the oppressed. If for a time there were any exceptions to this generosity, they have all been owing to the policy of our statesmen, and not to the feelings of our countrymen. The national heart was always right, and a right noble heart it is. The madness of continental despotism has ever elicited and illustrated the glory of British hospitality. Why then, be thought, put forward a precept, which is doubly rendered obsolete?—obsolete, by the indigenous vigour of the disposition which it was meant to cherish, but which needs not cherishing; and obsolete, by the difference of our manners and condition, which otherwise provide for that convenience for which, in those times, private hospitality was the chief provision. And I reply that it is put

it

may