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remains of primitive tradition, than to their own abstracted speculations *.

He therefore who wishes to succeed in this momentous enquiry, must learn to carry into it a spirit of humility, a dependance. upon divine aid, and a reverent regard to every discovery that God has been pleased to make of himself in his word, as well as in his works. Otherwise, if in contempt or neglect of the former, he trusts to his own researches into the latter, he will probably find, however he may be armed with all the powers of philosophy, and exempted from every external interruption, that the Creator of the universe, after all his investigation, will remain to him, as to the Athenians of old, an unknown God.

* Should the reader be disposed to enquire into the state of religious knowledge in the heathen world, he may consult Leland on the advantage and necessity of revela tion; a work which I presume is inferior to none upon the subject, and which doubtless highly merits the attention of every young man of liberal education, and especially of every student of divinity.

But if, instead of a vain reliance upon his own understanding, he looks to the light of revelation, he may be directed to such an interpretation of the works of creation and providence, as will lead him to just views of the Deity; particularly in the two-fold character he sustains towards man, of a righteous judge who will not forbear to take cognizance of his offences, and of a tender parent who is disposed to forgiveness, whenever it can be shewn without an impeachment of his just authority. It is this complex character upon which I shall here insist; as we are much more concerned to enquire what God is to us, and what we may expect at his hands, than to enter into any curious metaphysical disquisition of what he is in his own absolute being and perfections.

If then, in the manner above stated, divested of prejudice and guided by revealed light, we take a survey of sublunary nature, or of that system at the head of which we are placed, we shall find that it

has undergone a great change on account of human apostacy; that it lies under the frown of heaven; that its order and course is disturbed; and, in fine, that it has become a stage on which the Almighty no less displays his justice and his judgments, than his grace and his beneficence; on which his indignation against sin is no less conspicuous, than his compassionate regard to sinners.

Whichever way we direct our view, this mingled character now is recognised. It is recognised, when we see the hopes of the year intercepted by unseasonable frosts or blighting winds; or the joy of the reaper damped by sweeping rains, even when his sickle is in the harvest; when we see the earth teeming spontaneously with noxious plants, while those which are useful are not generally yielded without toil and culture; and emitting her poisonous steams along with her salutary exhalations; when we see the most fruitful regions infested with noisome beasts and insects, undermined

by volcanic fires, or exposed to the artillery of heaven*.

* In a book intitled Studies of Nature, written in French by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated by Dr. Hunter, minifter of a Scots' church in London, it is asserted, contrary to what is here advanced, That calamities such as those here specified" are only inflicted by nature on man, when he deviates from her laws." "If storms," says the author, "sometimes ravage his orchards and his corn-fields, it is because he frequently places them where nature never intended they should grow. Storms scarcely ever injure any culture, except the injudicious cultivation of man. Forests and natural meadows never suffer in the slightest degree." (Vol. ii. p. 36.) Again: "I do not believe there ever would have been a single unwholsome spot upon the earth, if men had not put their hands to it." (Ibid. p. 40.) Any attempt to expose these passages would be quite superfluous. Surely the author, when he wrote them, must have forgot (to name no other quarter of the world) the whole continent of America, which it is well. known was found generally insalubrious, and scarcely habitable, before it had passed under the hand of the cultivator.

As the work now cited, after its vogue in France, has found its admirers in this country, a few more strictures upon it'in this place, in order to guard the young and incautious reader against its illusions, will not perhaps be confidered as altogether impertinent.

Again; if we fix our view on man, we find judgment and mercy apparent through

From Pythagoras and some other ancient philosophers, the author has borrowed a notion upon which a great part of his work proceeds, and which is well suited to be wrought upon by a lively and fanciful genius. "When two contraries (he observes) come to be blended, of whatever kind, the combination produces pleasure, beauty and harmony. I call the instant and the point of their union harmonic expression. This is the only principle which I have been able to perceive in nature.” (Vol. ii. p. 279.) Again, "Nature opposes beings to each other in order to produce agreeable conformities.I consider this great truth as the key of all philosophy." (Ibid. p. 275.) Among his other strange theories, his account of the tides, from the melting of the ice at the polar regions, is singularly wild and improbable.-From the schools of heresy, infidelity, and anarchism, he has collected that "Man in a state of purity [by which he here means a state of nature] has no dangerous error, to fear." (Vol. v. p. 69.) "I repeat it (says he) for the consolation of the human race, moral evil is foreign to man as well as physical." (Vol. v. p. 434.) And should it be enquired how the world came to be so generally corrupt as we now find it, he will answer, " Man is born good, it is society that renders him wicked." (Vol. ii. p. 134.) Or as he elsewhere tells us, that all our vices are "the necessary results of our political institutions.” (Vol. vi. p. 65, 66.) Lastly, from an Indian Paria he has

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