because men, who are taught to fear God alone, can undergo the feverest trials; a religion in bort (to conclude my weak conceptions on fo fublime a fubject) which was the perfection or completion of natural law, the fcience of the truly wife, the refuge of the humble, the confolation of the wretched; fo majeftic in its fimplicity, fo fublime in its doctrine, fo great in its object, fo aftonishing in its effects.—I have endeavoured (fays this excellent author in his conclufion) to explore the inmoft recesses of my heart, and having difcovered no fecret motive there, which should induce me to reject a religion fo well calculated to fupply the defects of my reafon, to comfort me under affliction and to advance the perfection of my nature, I receive this religion as the greatest bleffing Heaven in its goodness could confer upon mankind; and I should fill receive it with gratitude, were I to confider it only as the very best and most perfect system of practical philofophy. (BONNET.) That man, hurried away by the impetuofity of his paffions, is capable of ftrange and monftrous irregularities I am not to learn; even vanity and the mean ambition of being eccentric may draw out very wild expreffions from him in his unguarded. hours; but that any creature fhould be deliberately blafphemous, and reason himself (if I may fo exprefs it) into irrationality, furpaffes my conception, and is a fpecies of defperation for which I have no name. If the voice of univerfal nature, the experience of all ages, the light of reafon and the immediate evidence of my senses cannot awaken me to a dependance upon my God, a reverence for his reli gion gion and an humble opinion of myself, what a loft creature am I ! Where can we meet a more touching description of God's omniprefence and providence than in the 139th pfalm? and how can I better conclude this paper than by the following humble attempt at a tranflation of that most beautiful address to the Creator of mankind. PSALM CXXXIX. I O Lord, who by thy mighty power 2 In whatsoever path I stray, Nor can my tongue pronounce a word, 4 In every particle I see The fashion of thy plastic hand : 5 Knowledge too excellent for me, Me, wretched man, to understand. 6 Whither, ah! whither then can I From thine all-prefent spirit go? 7 To Heav'n? 'tis there thou'rt thron'd on high: To Hell? 'tis there thou rul❜ft below. 8 Lend me, O Morning, lend me wings! 9 ᎪᏂ ! 9 Ah fool! if there I meant to hide, For thou, my God, fhalt reach me there; 10 Again, if calling out for night, 11 Nay, darkness cannot intervene Light or no light, there's nought, I ween, 12 Thine is each atom of my frame; 13 Oh! what a fearful work is man! My God, how marvellous thy plan! 14 My very bones, tho' deep conceal'd 15 That eye, which thro' creation darts, 16 Ere Time to fhape and fashion drew 17 O God! how gracious, how divine, 18 I 18 I might as well go tell the sand, 19 Wilt thou not, Lord, avenge the good? 20 Loud are their hoftile voices heard Doth not my zealous foul return 23 Try me, dread Power! and fearch my heart; Lay all its movements in thy view ; Explore it to its inmoft part, Nor spare it, if tis found untrue. 24 If devious from thy paths I ftray, N° CXLVI. Ef genus hominum, qui esse primos fe omnium rerum volunt, Nec funt. (TERENT. EUN.) WHAT a delightful thing it is to find one's felf in a company, where tempers harmonize and hearts hearts are open; where wit flows without any checks but what decency and good-nature impofe, and humour indulges itfelf in thofe harmless freaks. and caprices that raife a laugh, by which no man's feelings are offended. This can only happen to us in a land of freedom; it is in vain to hope for it in thofe arbitrary countries, where men muft lock the doors againft fpies and informers, and must entrust their lives, whilft they impart their fentiments, to each other. In fuch circumstances a mind, enlightened by education is no longer a bleffing: What is the advantage of difcernment, and how is a man profited by his capacity of feparating truth from error, if he dare not exercife that faculty? It were fafer to be the blind dupe of fuperftition than the intuitive philofopher, if born within the jurifdiction of an inquifitorial tribunal. Can a man felicitate himself in the glow of genius and the gaiety of wit, when breathing the air of a country, where fo dire an inftrument is in force as a lettre de cachet? But experience hath fhewn us, that if arbitrary monarchs. cannot keep their people in ignorance, they cannot retain them in flavery; if men read, they will meditate; if they travel, they will compare, and their minds must be as dark as the dungeons, which imprison their perfons, if they do not rife with indignation against fuch monftrous maxims, as imprifonment at pleasure for undefined offences, felfaccufations extorted by torments and fecret trials, where the prifoner hath neither voice nor advo cate. Let thofe princes, whofe government is fo administered, make darkness their pavilion, and draw their very mountains down upon them to fhut out the light, or expect the period of their defpotifn |
