of a nation as a standard of its improvementas not only drawing forth the powers of the mind, but as evidences of its vast capacity. He shews the multitudes of individuals they support-the innocent pleasure they afford-the high patronage they have had the immortality they have conferred--the superior taste of their admirers, the degraded minds of others, &c, &c. &c. We applaud the discourse:-we are satisfied with our fixing upon what is so truly excellent and sublime: and, pitying those duller mortals who cannot rise superior to the notions and creeds brought from their nurseries, we cry, "Let the arts flourish!"

But a little calmer consideration is necessary here: for, allowing this declamation of our orator to be a fair, yet, is it a full statement of the matter before us? Having mentioned a further view of the subject as expressed by my late invaluable friend, may I not, on a review, be allowed to offer a few observations in vindication of it? For, as to the abuse of the Arts, in inflaming the passions, administering to superstition, or insulting devo, tion, morality, or lawful government, it is too gross to need animadversion.

If, after such warm panegyrics on the Fine Arts, a thinking man perceives their comparative excellence hoisted beyond its limits in the moral scale-if he observes 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 creature-capable 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 totally 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 con jectures 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 shewn 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 reply 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.

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"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, realising 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.

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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