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tion/ leaves no`thing/ to ex'ercise resolution, or fl'atter expecta'tion. The dead/ cannot return; and no`thing/ is left us he're/ but lan'guishment/ and gri'ef.

Yet/ such is the course of n'ature, th'at/ whoev`er lives lo'ng/ must outlive those/ whom he loves and h'onours. Such is the condition of our present exi'stence/, that life/ must one time lose its associations, and every inhabitant of the earth/ must walk downward to the grave/ alone and unregar'ded, without o'ne partner of his jo'y or gri'ef, without o'ne/ i^nterested wi'tness of his misfortunes or success.

Misfortune, indeed, he may yet feel; for where is the bottom of the mi'sery of man! And what is success to him that has non'e/ to enjoy it? Happiness is not found in self-contempla'tion; it is perceived only when it is refl'ect

ed from another.

We know little of the state of departed so'uls, because suc'h knowledge/ is not necessary to a good life'. Reason/ deserts us at the brink of the grave, and can give no further intelligence. Revelation/ is not who'lly-s'ilent. There is jo'y in the angels of heaven/ over o^ne sinner/ that rep'ent eth, and surely this joy/ is not incommunicable to so'uls/ disentangled from the body, and ma`de li^ke a'ngels.

Let hope, therefore, di'ctate, (what revelation does not conf'ute,) that the union of souls/ may still rem'ain; and that w'e who are struggling with si'n, so'rrow, and infir'mities, may have our part in the attention and kind'ness of th'ose who have finished their co'urse, and are now recei'ving their rewar'd.

These are the gre^at occasions/ which force the mind/ to take refuge in rel'igion: when we have no help in ourselves, what can remain, but that we look up to a hig`her and a greater Power? and to what hope/ may we no^t* raise our ey'es and hea'rts, when we consi'der/ that the great^est Power/ is the Best.

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* Although most of our clerical instructors have the good taste to avoid what Archbishop Whately calls "the common error of giving the copula" the emphatic impulse instead of the predicate, nevertheless we but seldom hear the Decalogue skilfully and effectively pronounced; and where the copula does not receive too much force, the subject and predicate are rarely uttered with sufficient energy and feeling ;—and it is only where the copula ("not") is plainly antithetic, as in this, and the 169th page, that it requires to be emphatically pronounced.

Surely there is no ma'n/ wh'o, (thu's affli'cted,) does not seek succour in THE GOSPEL, which has brought life and immortality to light! The precepts of Epic'urus, (who teaches us to endu`re what the laws of the universe make n'ecessary,) may silence/ but not content us.

The dictates of Z'eno, (who commands us to look with indi'fference on all external things,) may dispose us to conceal our s'orrow, but can not assuˇage it. Re`al-alleviation of the lo'ss of frie`nds, and ra'tional tranquillity/ in the prospect of our own dissolution, can be received o'nly from the pro'mises of Hiˇm/ in whose hands are life' and de'ath ;-and, from the assurance of another and better-state, in which/all tears will be wiped from the e'yes, and the whole so'ul/ shall be filled with jo'y. Philo'sophy/ may infuse stubbornness, but Religion-only can give patience!

THE SUBSTANCE OF A SPEECH,

Against WILLIAMS, the Printer and Publisher of "The Age of Reason."

LORD ERSKINE.

THE defendant stands indi'cted/ for having published this boo'k, which I have only read from the obligations of professional dut'y, and whi'ch/ I rose from the reading-of/ with astonishment and disgu'st. For my ow'n part, gentlemen, I have been ever deeply devoted to the truths of Chri ́stianity ; and my firm belief in the Holy-Gospel, is by no means o'wing to the pre'judices of education, (though I was rel'igiously-educated by the be'st of parents,) but/ arises from the fullest and most continued-reflections of my riper years and understanding:-it for'ms, at this moment, the great consolation of my life, whi'ch, (as a shadow,) must pass away, and, with`out it, inde'ed, I should consider my long course of health and prosperity, (perhaps too'-long and too-u'ninterrupted to be good for any m'an,) only as the du'st/ which the wind scat'ters, and rather as a sn`are/ than as a blesˇsing.

This publication appears to me/ to be as mis'chievous and cru'el/in its pr'obable-effects, as it is manifestly illegal in its pri'nciples; because it strikes at the be'st, sometimes, al'as! the o'nly-refuge and consolation/ amidst the distr'esses and

Concluding tone.

afflictions of the world. The poo'r and hu'mble, (whom it affects to pity,) may be stab'bed to the heart-by-it, they have more occasion for firm ho'pe/ beyond the grave, than tho'se/ who have greater comforts to render life delightful. I can conceive a distre'ssed, but virtuous-man, surrounded by children, looking up to him for bre'ad, when he has non'e/ to gi've them; sinking under the las't-day's-labour, and u'nequal to the next; yet, still looking up with confidence to the ho'ur/ when all tears shall be wiped from the eye of af'fliction, bearing the b'urden/ la'id-upon-him, by a mysterious Pro`vidence, which he ad'ores; and looking fo'rward (with exulta'tion) to the revealed pro'mises of his Cre'ator, when he shall be greater/ than the greatest, and hap'pier/ than the haˇppiest-of-mankind! What a change/ in suˇch-a-breast, might n^ot* be wrought/ by su'ch a meˇrciless-publication!

But it seems, this is an age of re^ason, and the ti^me and the person are at la`st/ arri'ved, that are to dis'sipate the errors/ which have overspread the past generations of ignorance'. The believers in Chri'stianity are many, but it belongs to the few that are wise/ to correct their credulity. Belief is an act of rea'son; superior-reason may, therefore, di'ctate to the we'ak. In running the mind over the long list of sinc'ere and devout Christians, I cannot help lamenting that Ne^wton/ had not lived to this day, to have had his sha^llowness/ filled up with this n^ew-flood of light! - But/ the subject is too awful for irony. I will speak plai'nly and directly. Newton/ was a Christian ! Newton, whose mind burst forth from the fet'ters/ cast by na'ture/ upon our fi'nite conc'eptions Newton, whose science was tru'th, and the foundation of whose knowledge-of-it/ was philo'sophy; not those visionary and arrogant presum'ptions/ which too often usurp its n'ame, but philosophy/ resting on the basis of mathematics, whi'ch, (like figures,) cannot lie' Newton, who carried the li'ne and rule to the ut`most-barriers of creation, and explored the prin'ciples/ by which all created matter is held together, and exi'sts. But this extr^aordinary m'an, (in the mighty-reach of his mind,) overloo`ked, perh ́aps, the errors/ which a minu'ter investigation of the created thi'ngs/ on this earth/ might have taught him, of the es'sence of his Creator.

* Vide Note, page 167.

What shall then be said of the great Mr. Boy'le, who looked into the organic structure of all m'atter, (even to the brute/ inan'imate substances which the foot tre'ads-on)? Suc'h a man/ may be supposed to have been e'qually-qualified/ with Mr. Pa'ine, to look up through na'ture/ to na'ture's-God! Yet the result of all his contempla'tions/ was the most confirmed and devo`utbelief of all which the other holds in conte'mpt, as de'spicable/ and dri velling-superstition :-But th`is-error/ mi'ght, perhaps,arise from a want of a due attention to the foundations of hu'man-judgment, and the structure of that understanding/ which God has gi'ven-us/ for the investiga'tion of tru`th.

Let that question/ be answered by Mr. Locke, who w'as, (to the highest pitch of devotion and adoration,) a Christian. Mr. Lo'cke, whose office w'as/ to det ́ect the errors of th ́inking, by going up to the fountain of thought, and to direc't/ into the proper track of reasoning/ the devious mind of man, by showing him/ its whole process, from the first perceptions of sen'se, to the las't conclu'sions of ratiocina'tion, putting a rein besid'es/ upon false-opinion (by practical rules) for the co'nduct of hu'man-judgment. But thes'e-men/ were only deep thi^nkers, and lived in their clo^sets, u'naccustomed to the traffic of the wo'rld, and to the la'ws/ which/ practically/ regu

late mankind.

Gentlemen! in the pla'ce/ where we now si't/ to administer the justice of this great country, above a century ago, the ne`ver-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew H'ale presi'ded; whose fai'th in Christianity/ is an exalted commentary upon its tru'th and re'ason, and whose life/ was a glorious example of its fruit in m'an, admi'nistering hu'man-justice/ with a wis`dom and purity (drawn from the pure fountain of the Ch'ristian-dispensation,) which ha's-been, and wi'll-be, (in all'-ages,) a subject of the highest re'verence and admi'ration. But it is s'aid by the author, that the Christian fable/ is but the tale of the more ancient superstitions of the world, and may be easily dete'cted/ by a proper understanding of the myth'ologies of the hea'thens. Did Milton understand those myth'ologies? Was he less versed/ than Mr. Pa^ine/ in the superstitions-ofthe-world? No, they were the subject of his immortal-song; and/ though shut out from all recurrence to th'em, he poured them for th/ from the stores of a me'mory/ rich with all that m'an ever kn'ew; and laid them in their order/ as the illustration of that re'al and exalted-faith, the unquestionable

so`urce of that fervid g'enius, which cast a sort of sh ́ade/ upon all the other-works of ma'n

"He passed the bounds/ of flaming space,
(Where angels trem'ble/ while they ga'ze ;)
He saw, t'ill (blasted with exc'ess-of-light,)
He closed his ey`es/ in endless night."-

But it was the light of the body only/ that was extinguished : "the celestial light/ shone in'ward, and enabled him to justify the ways of G'od/ to m'an." The result of h`is-thinking/ was/ nevertheless/ no't the same as the author's. The mysterious incarnation of our bl'essed-Saviour, (which this work blasphemes/ in w'ords/ so wholly unfit for the m'outh of a Christian, or for the ear of a court of justice, that I dar'e not, I will-not, give them u'tterance,) M'ilton made the grand conclusion of the Pa'radise-Lost, the re'st of his finished-labours, and the ultimate ho`pe, expect'ation, and gl'ory of the world.

"A virgin is his m'other, b'ut/ his SIRE,

The power of the Most High; he shall ascend
The throne here'ditary, and bou'nd his rei'gn/

With earth's wide bounds, his gloˇry/ with the heavens."

Th'us you find/ all' that is great, or wis'e, or splendid, or illustrious/ among created-beings; all the mi'nds/ gifted beyo'nd o'rdinary-nature, (if not inspired by its universal Author/ for the advancement and dig'nity of the w'orld,) though divided by distant a'ges, and by the clashing opinions, (distinguishing them from one another,) yet jo'ining, (as it were,) in one sublime cho`rus, to celebrate the truths of Christianity, and la'ying/ upon its holy a'ltars/ the never-fa'ding offerings of their immortal wis'dom.

EULOGIUM ON MR. FOX.*

R. B. SHERIDAN.

UPON the one great s'ubject, wh'ich/ at this mo`ment, I am confident has posses`sion of the whole feelings of every ma'n whom I add'ress-the lo'ss, the irre parable-loss, of the great,

*The speech from which this eulogy is taken, was delivered on the Hustings, prior to the interment of Mr. Fox, on Mr. Sheridan's relinquishing the contest for Westminster.-Mr. Fox died in 1806, within twelve months of his great rival, Mr. Pitt.

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