formation of the public mind, and amidst the warmest professions of attachment to virtue, to effect an entire disruption of morality from religion, Pretending to be the teachers of virtue and the guides of life, they propose to revolutionize the morals of mankind, to regenerate the world by a process entirely new, and to rear the temple of virtue, not merely without the aid of religion, but on the renunciation of its principles and the derision of its sanctions. Their party has de rived a great accession of numbers and strength, from events the most momentous and astonishing in the political world, which have divided the sentiments of Europe betwixt hope and terror, and, however they may issue, have, for the present, swelled the ranks of infidelity. So rapidly indeed has it advanced since this crisis, that a great majority on the continent, and a considerable proportion in England of those who pursue literature as a profession, may justly be considered as the open or disguised abettors of Atheism. • With respect to the sceptical and religious systems, the inquiry at present is not so much which is the truest in speculation, as which is the most useful in practice; or, in other words, whether morality will be best promoted, by considering it as part of a great and comprehensive law, emanating from the will of a supreme, omnipotent legislator; or as a mere expedient adapted to our present situation, enforced by no other motives than those which arise from the prospects and interests of the present state.' After having urged, with irresistible force, the arguments which prove that, without the belief of a future state, virtue never can be the universal and invariable, though it may the common and usual, interest of men; Mr. Hall proceeds to shew that unbelief has a tendency to produce that state in which the greatest conceivable number of atrocious crimes, and the smallest possible number of heroic acts of virtue, may reasonably be expected, He concludes his observations on this momentous subject with a passage which we cannot refrain from laying before our readers: • In affirming that infidelity is unfavourable to the higher class of virtues, we are supported as well by facts as by reasoning. We should be sorry to load our adversaries with unmerited reproach; but to what history, to what record, will they appeal, for any traits of moral greatness, any sacrifice of interest or lifc, any instances of daring heroic virtues exhibited by their disciples? Where shall we Look for the trophies of infidel magnanimity, or atheistical virtue? Not that we mean to accuse them of inactivity: they have recently filled the world with the fame of their exploits; exploits of a different kind indeed, but of imperishable memory and disastrous lustre. • Though it is confessed, great and splendid actions are not the ordinary employment of life, but must, from their nature, be reserved for high and eminent occasions, yet, that system is essentially defective which leaves no room for their cultivation. They are important, both from their immediate advantage and their remoter inAuence. They often save, and always illustrate, the age and nation in which they appear. They raise the standard of morals; arrest RFV, FAB. 1890. the 1 the progress of degeneracy; and diffuse a lustre over the paths of life. They are noble monuments of the greatness of the human soul; and present to the world the august image of virtue in her sublimest form, from whence streams of light and glory issue to remote times and ages; while their commemoration, by the pen of historians and poets, excites a noble emulation, and awakens in distant bosoms the sparks of kindred excellence. • Combine the frequent and familiar perpetration of atrocious deeds, with the dearth of great and generous actions, and you have the exact picture of that condition of society, which completes the degradation of the species; the frightful contrast of dwarfish virtues and gigantic vices, where every thing that is good is mean and stunted in its growth, and every thing evil is rank and luxuriant; a sickening uniformity prevails, and the soul asserts its native grandeur only in volcanic eruptions of anarchy and crime." Though Mr. Hall, however, in our opinion, has victoriously established his principle with respect to this part of the subject, he is with reason convinced that the indirect influence of religion, as it enters into our sentiments and forms our character, is much more extensive and important than its direct influence, as arising from a deliberate regard to the happiness or misery of another life, and from its fitness to fill up that chasm which must always exist in every scheme of moral reasoning that is founded merely on the utility of virtue in the present world. It is on the subject of the imdirect influence of religion, that he has chiefly displayed all the powers of his vigorous understanding, and all the stores of his richly endowed mind. It is here that he exhibits an union of comprehensive philosophy with animated and splendid eloquence, of which few other examples are to be found. It is here, on a subject which has been discussed and (it might have been thought) exhausted by the greatest men of many successive ages, that Mr. Hall has given the most decisive proof of his genius, by many arguments and reflections which are at once original, just, and profound. Those who are familiar with moral discussions know the extreme difficulty of producing even a new paradox, on subjects which have so often and so long employed all the powers of the human understanding. It is easy for men of sense to deliver very important moral truths, if they will content themselves with repeating and enforcing what has been often said before; which we are far from denying to be very useful, and indeed absolutely necessary. It is possible, though not easy, for men of ingenuity, if they merely seek singularity, and throw off all regard to truth and the interests of mankind, to discover some new path in the wilderness of error, which no former hunter of paradoxes had explored. To be original and just, however, is on all subjects very difficult; and it is a mark of the highest superiority superiority of understanding, when displayed on a subject which seemed so nearly exhausted as the connection between morality and religion. - We select the following passage in justification of our criticism; not as being the most splendid, but as being the most easily separable from the body of the discourse: • The exclusion of a supreme Being and of a superintending Providence, tends directly to the destruction of moral taste. It robs the universe of all finished and consummate excellence, even in idea. The admiration of perfect wisdom and goodness, for which we are formed, and which kindles such unspeakable rapture in the soul, finding in the regions of scepticism nothing to which it corresponds, droops and languishes. In a world which presents a fair spectacle of the order and beauty of a vast family nourished and supported by an almighty Parent; in a world which leads the devout mind, step by step, to the contemplation of the first fair and the first good, the sceptic is encompassed with nothing but obscurity, meanness and dis- order. • When we reflect on the manner in which the idea of Deity is formed, we must be convinced that such an idea intimately present to the mind, must have a most powerful effect in refining the moral taste. Composed of the richest elements, it embraces in the character of a beneficent Parent and almighty Ruler, whatever is venerable in wisdom, whatever is awful in authority, whatever is touching in goodness. • Human excellence is blended with many imperfections, and seen under many limitations; it is beheld only in detached and separate portions, nor ever appears in any one character whole and entire: so that, if we wish, in imitation of the Stoics, to form out of these fragments the notion of a perfectly wise and good man, we know it is a mere abstraction, a fiction of the mind, without any real Being in whom it is embodied and realized. In the belief of a Deity these conceptions are reduced to reality: the scattered rays of an ideal excellence are concentrated and become the real attributes of that Being with whom we stand in the nearest relation, who sits supreme at the head of the universe, is armed with infinite power, and pervades all nature with his presence. • The efficacy of these sentiments, in producing and augmenting a virtuous taste, will indeed be proportioned to the vividness with which they are formed, and the frequency with which they recur, yet some benefit will not fail to result from their existence, even in their lowest degree. • The idea of a supreme Being, has this peculiar property, that as it admits of no substitute, so from the first moment it is impressed, it is capable of continual growth and enlargement. God himself is immutable; but our conception of his character is continually receiving fresh accessions, is continually growing more extended and refulgent, by having transferred upon it new perceptions of beauty and goodness, by attracting to itself, as a centre, whatever bears the impress of dignity, order or happiness. It borrows splendour from : Ο 2 all 1 all that is fair, subordinates to itself all that is great, and sics enthroned on the riches of the universe." After some excellent observations on the spirit of heathenism, and on the tendency even of the most corrupt systems of religion to keep alive some sense of duty, Mr. Hall thus concludes: 'Revelation, by displaying the true character of God, affords a pure and perfect standard of virtue; heathenism, one in many respects defective and vicious; the fashionable scepticism of the present day, which excludes the belief of all superior powers, affords no standard at all. Human nature knows nothing better or higher than itself. All above and around it are shrouded in darkness; the virtues have no room to expand by the prospect being confined to the tame realities of life; nor are any excursions permitted into that unseen world, the true element of the great and good, by which virtue is fortified with motives equally calculated to satisfy the reason, to delight the fancy, and to impress the heart." Among the many admirable passages in this discourse, there is none which we have read with more pleasure than the observations on the institution of marriage, and on that important part of morality which relates to the intercourse of the sexes: but we are concerned to observe in it a misconception (for we are persuaded that it is not a misrepresentation) of the sentiments of an ingenious writer. Mr. Hall remarks: • The aim of all the leading champions of infidelity is, to rob mankind of these benefits, and throw them back into a state of grose and brutal sensuality. Mr. Hume asserts adultery to be but a slight offence when, known; when secret, no crime at all. In the same spirit, he represents the private conduct of the profligate Charles, whose debaucheries polluted the age, as a just subject of panegyric. A disciple in the same school has lately had the unblushing effrontery to stigmatise marriage as the worst of all monopolies; and in a narrative of his licentious amours, to make a formal apology for departing from his principles, by submitting to its restraints. The popular productions on the continent, which issue from the atheistical school, are incessantly directed to the same purpose." As to some of the writers on whom Mr. Hall has animadverted in this passage, we abandon them to his just severity: but he has certainly mistaken the opinions of Mr. Hume. It is very true that, as an historian, Mr. Hume has not spoken with great harshness of the softer vices: but, as a moral philosopher, he has everywhere blamed them as injurious to society. The sentiment which Mr. Hall ascribes to him is not given as his own, but as a quotation from La Fontaine; and it is not mentioned by Mr. Hume as a maxim of morality, but as descriptive of the dissolute manners of France: Quand on le sçait, c'est peu de chose; quand on ne le sçait pas, ce n'est rien." This is a mistake which ought to be corrected in a future edition of the sermon. Here 1 4 Here our extracts and observations must terminate; not for want of subject, but for want of room. If we were to indulge our own feelings, without regard to the limits of our Review, we should scarcely know when to finish our extracts, or how to bound our praises. This sermon, indeed, is in every respect entitled to rank among the first productions of the age. It is distinguished by solid and profound philosophy; the very reverse of that sorry and shallow sophistry which has of late usurped the name. It breathes a spirit of humility, piety, and charity; worthy of that pure and divine religion, to the defence of which the author has consecrated his talents. His eloquence is not a puny and gaudy bauble, fashioned by the tools and tricks of a mechanical rhetorician; it is the natural effusion of a fertile imagination, of an ardent mind, and of a heart glowing with zeal for truth, with reverence for God, and with love for men. His style is easy, various, and animated; not free indeed from those petty incorrectnesses, which seem to be scarcely separable from natural composition, but perfectly 'exempt from affectation, -a blemish far more un-pardonable than negligence, and into which those who too studiously avoid carelessness have in general been too liable to fall. On a review of all his various excellencies, we cannot but expect with confidence that the name of Mr. Hall will be placed by posterity with the illustrious names of Paley and of Watson, among the best writers of the age, as well as the most vigorous defenders of religious truth, and the brightest examples of Christian charity. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, 1800. FRANCE. Art. 17. Copies of Original Letters from the French Army in Egypt. • The letters and dispatches, of which the following are copies, have been recently intercepted, on their passage from Egypt to France, by the British Squadron in the Mediterranean; and have since been printed here by authority of government. They are reprinted in their present shape by the editors of the two former collections, on the same subject, for the more general information of the public. 1 |