"adopt it. I cheerfully determined upon it without "the leaft fcruple; and the only one I had to overcome was that of Therefa; whom, with the 66 greateft imaginable difficulty, I perfuaded to "comply." The year following a fimilar inconvenience was remedied by the fame expedient: no more reflection on his part, nor approbation on that of the mother. "She obliged with trembling. My fault, fays he, was great; but it was an er

ror.

He refolved on fettling at Geneva; and on going thither, and being mortified at his exclufion from the rights of a citizen by the profeffion of a religion different from his forefathers, he determined openly to return to the latter. "I thought, fays he, "the gospel being the fame for every Chriftian; "and the only difference in religious opinions the "refult of the explanations given by men to that "which they did not underftand, it was the exclu"five right of the fovereign power in every coun<< try to fix the mode of worfhip, and these unin"telligible opinions; and that confequently it was "the duty of a citizen to admit the one, and con"form to the other, in the manner prefcribed by "the law." Accordingly at Geneva he renounced popery.†

After paffing twenty years with Therefa, he made her his wife. He appears to have intrigued with a Madame de H—. Of his defires after that lady he fays, "Guilty without remorse, I foon became

"fo without measure."

Such according to his own account was the life

* Part II. Vol. I. pp. 123, 154, 155. 183, 187, 315.

Part II. Vol. I. pp. 263, 264.

‡ pp. 311, 378.

of uprightness and honour which was to expiate for a theft which he had committed when a young man, and laid it to a female fervant, by which the lost her place and character.* Such was Rouffeau, the man whom the rulers of the French nation have delighted to honour; and who for writing this account had the vanity and prefumption to expect the applaufe of his Creator. "Whenever the last trum"" pet fhall found, faith he, I will prefent myself "before the fovereign Judge, with this book in

my hand, and loudly proclaim, Thus have I act"ed-these were my thoughts -fuch was I. Pow""" er eternal! Affemble round thy throne the in"numerable throng of my fellow-mortals. Let 66 them liften to my Confeffions, let them blush at "" my depravity, let them tremble at my fufferings, "let each in his turn expofe with equal fincerity "the failings, the wanderings of his heart; and "if he dare, aver, I was better than that man.Ӡ

CHA P. VI.

Christianity has not only produced good effects in thofe who cordially believe it, but has given to the morals of fociety at large a tone, which Deifm fo far as it operates, goes to counteract.

No

O man walks through life without a rule of fome kind, by which his conduct is directed, and his inclinations reftrained. They who fear not God are influenced by a regard to the opinions of

*Vol. I. pp. 155; 160:

+ Vol. p. 1.

men. To avoid the cenfure, and gain the applaufe of the public, is the fummit of their ambition.

Public opinion has an influence not only on the conduct of individuals in a community, but on the formation of its laws. Legiflators will not only conform their fyftems to what the humours of the people will bear, but will themselves incline to omit thofe virtues which are the moft ungrateful, and to fpare thofe vices which are most agreeable.

Nor is this all: fo great is the influence of public epinion, that it will direct the conduct of a community against its own laws. There are obfolete sta tutes, as we all know, the breach of which cannot be punished: and even statutes which are not obsolete, where they operate against this principle, have but little effect; witnefs the connivance at the atrocious practice of duelling.

Now if public opinion be fo potent a principle, whatever has a prevailing influence in forming it, must give a decided tone to what are confidered as the morals of a nation. I fay to what are confidered as the morals of a nation: for strictly speaking, fo much of the love of God and man, as prevails in a nation, fo much morality is there in it, and no more. But as we can judge of love only by its expreffions, we call thofe actions moral, though it is poffible their morality may be only counterfeit, by which the love of God and man is ordinarily expreffed. If we perform thofe actions which are the ordinary expreffions of love, from fome other motive, our good deeds are thereby rendered evil in the fight of him who views things as they are : nevertheless what we do may be equally beneficial to fociety as though we acted from the pureft motive. In this indirect way Christianity has operated

more than any thing that has been called by the name of religion, or by any other name, towards meliorating the ftate of mankind.

It has been obferved, and with great propriety, that in order to know what religion has done for an individual, we muft confider what he would have been without it. The fame may be faid of a nation, or of the world. What would the nations of Eu. rope have been at this time, if it had not been for the introduction of Chriftianity? It cannot reafonably be pretended that they would have been in any better fituation, as to morality, than that which they were in previous to this event: for there is no inftance of any people having by their own efforts emerged from idolatry, and the immoralities which attend it. Now as to what that ftate was, fome notice has been taken already, fo far as relates to the principles and lives of the old philofophers. To this I fhall add a brief review of the state of fociety amongst them.

Great praises are beftowed by Plutarch on the cuftoms and manners of the Lacedemonians. Yet the fame writer acknowledges that theft was encouraged in their children by a law; and that to "fharp"en their wits, to render them crafty and fubtle, "and to train them up in all forts of wiles and "cunning, watchfulness and circumfpection, where

by they were more apt to ferve them in their s wars, which was upon the matter the whole 66 profeffion of this Commonwealth. And if at any "time they were taken in the act of ftealing, they ઃઃ were most certainly punished with rods, and the

penance of fafting; not because they esteemed "the ftealth criminal, but because they wanted. "skill and cunning in the management and conduct

I

"of it."* Hence, as might be expected, and as Herodotus obferves, their actions were generally contrary to their words; and there was no dependance upon them in any matter.

As to their chastity, there were cominon baths in which the men and women bathed together: and it was ordered that the young maidens fhould appear naked in the public exercises, as well as the young men, and that they should dance naked with them at the folemn feftivals and facrifices. Hufbands also were allowed to impart the use of their wives to handsome and deferving men, in order to the producing of healthy and vigorous children for the Commonwealth.

Children which were deformed, or of a bad conftitution were murdered. This inhuman custom was common all over Greece; fo much fo that it was reckoned a fingular thing among the Thebans, that the law forbad any Theban to expofe his infant, under pain of death. This practice, with that of procuring abortion, were encouraged by Plato and Aristotle.

The unnatural love of boys was fo common in Grecce, that in many places it was fanctioned by the public laws, of which Ariftotle gives the reafon : viz. to prevent their having too many children. Maximus Tyrius, celebrates it as a moft fingular he-, roic act of Agefilaus, that being in love with a beautiful barbarian boy, he fuffered it to go no farther than looking at him, and admiring him. Epictetus alfo praises Socrates in this manner: "Go to So

crates, and fee him lying by Alcibiades, yet flightst ing his youth and beauty. Confider what a victo

* Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. p. 95.