for our having lately contemplated the distorted features and false colouring of her caricature, as presented to us by the daubing hand of Gallic patriots. and Christianity as eccentric? When atheism shall be considered as a proof of accomplished breeding, and religion as the stamp of a vulgar education? When the regular course of obedi⚫ ence to masters and tutors will consist in renouncing the hope of everlasting happiness, and in deriding the idea of future punishment? When every man and every child, in conformity with the principles professed in the convention, shall presume to say with his tongue, what hither to even the fool has only dared to say in heart, That there is no God.* Christianity, which involves the whole duty of man, divides that duty into two portions-the love of God and the love of our neighbour. Now, as these two principles have their being from the same source, and derive their vitality from the union; so impiety furnishes the direct converse-That atheism which destroys all belief But highly as the freedom of the press ought to be valued, would it really be so very heavy a misfortune, if corrupt and inflaming publications, calculated to destroy that virtue which every good man is anxious to preserve, that peace which every honest man is struggling to secure, should, just at this alarming period, be somewhat difficult to be obtained? Would it be so very grievous a national calamity, if the crooked progeny of treason and blasphemy should find it a little inconvenient to venture forth from their lurking holes, and range abroad in open day? Is the cheapness of poison, or the facility with which it may be obtained, to be reckoned among the real advantages of medicinal repositories? And can the easiness of ac-in, and of course cuts off all love of, and comcess to seditious or atheistical writings, be seriously numbered among the substantial blessings of any country? Would France, at this day, have had much solid cause of regret, if most of the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and d'Alembert (the prolific seed of their wide-spreading tree) had found more difficulty in getting into the world, or been less profusely circulated when in it? And might not England at this moment have been just as happy in her ignorance, if the famous orations of citizen Dupont and citizen Manuel, had been confined to their own enlightened and philosophical countries ?* To return to these orations :-We have too often, in our own nation, seen and deplored the mischiefs of irreligion, arising incidentally from a neglected or an abused education. But what mischiefs will not irreligion produce, when, in the projected schools of France, as announced to us by the two metaphysical legislators above mentioned, impiety shall be taught by system? When out of the mouths of babes and sucklings the monstrous opinions, exhibited by Dupont and Manuel, shall be perfected? When the fruits of atheism dropping from their newly planted tree of liberty, shall pollute the very fountains of knowledge? When education being poisoned in all her springs, the rising generation. shall be taught to look on atheism as decorous, Extract from Mons. Manuel's Letter to the National The priests of a republic are its magistrates, the law its gospel. What mission can be more august than that of the instructors of youth, who having themselves escaped from the hereditary prejudice of all sects, point out to the human race their inalienable rights, founded upon that sublime wisdom which pervades all nature. Reli gious faith impressed on the mind of an infant seven years old, will lead to perfect slavery: or dogmas at that age are only arbitrary commands. Ah! what is belief without examination, without conviction. It renders inen either melancholy or mad, &c. Legislators! Virtue wants neither temples nor syna. gogues. It is not from priests we learn to do good or noble actions. No religion must be taught in schools which are to be national ones. To prescribe one would be to prefer it to all others.-There history must speak of sects, as she speaks of other events. It would become your wisdom, perhaps, to order that the pupils of the republic should not enter the temples before the age of seventeen, Reason must be taken by surprise, &c. Hardly were children born before they fell into the hands of priests, who first blinded their eyes, and then deliver ed them over to kings. Wherever kings cease to govern, ariests must cease to educate ' munion with God, disqualifies for the due performance of the duties of civil and social life. There is, in ite way, the same consistency, agree. ment and uniformity, between the principles which constitute an infidel and a bad member of society, as there is between giving glory to God in the highest,' and exercising peace and good will to men.' My fellow Christians! This is not a strife of words; this is not a controversy about opinions of comparatively small importance, such as you have been accustomed at home to hear even good men dispute upon, when perhaps they would have acted a more wise and amiable part had they remained silent, sacrificing their mutual differences on the altar of Christian charity: But this bold renunciation of the first great fun. damental article of faith, this daring rejection of the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the world, is laying the axe and striking with a vigorous stroke at the root of all human happiness. It is tearing up the very foundation of human hope, and extirpating every true principle of human excellence. It is annihilating the very exist. ence of virtue, by annihilating its motives, its sanctions, its obligations, its object, and its end. That atheism will be the favoured and the popular tenet in France seems highly probable; whilst in the wild contempt of all religion, which has lately had the arrogance to call itself toleration, it is not improbable that christianity itself may be tolerated in that country, as a sect not persecuted perhaps, but derided. It is, however, far from clear, that this will be the case, if the new doctrines should become generally *It is a remarkable circumstance, that though the French are continually binding themselves by oaths, they have not mentioned the name of God in any oath which has been invented since the revolution. It may also appear curious to the English readers, that though in almost all the addresses of congratulation, which were sent by the associated clubs from this country to the National Convention, the success of the French arms was in part ascribed to Divine providence, yet in none of the answers was the least notice ever taken of this. And to show how the same spirit spreads itself among every description of men in France, their admiral Latouche, after having described the dangers to which his ship was exposed in a storm, says, we owe our exist ence to the tutelary Genius which watches over the des tiny of the French republic, and the defenders of liberty and equality." prevalent. Atheists are not without their bigotry; they too have their spirit of exclusion and monopoly in a degree not inferior to the most superstitious monks. And that very spirit of intolerance which is now so much the object of their invective, would probably be no less the rule of their practice, if their will should ever be backed by power. It is true that Voltaire and the other great apostles of infidelity have employed all the acuteness of their wit to con vince us that irreligion never persecutes. To prove this, every art of false citation, partial extract, suppressed evidence, and gross misrepresentation, has been put in practice. But if this unsupported assertion were true, then Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin, Cyprian, and Basil, did not suffer for the faith once delivered to the saints. Then the famous Christian apologists, most of them learned converts from the pagan philosophy, idly employed their zeal to abate a clamour which did not exist, and to propitiate emperors who did not persecute. Then Tacitus, Trajan, Pliny, and Julian, those bitter enemies to Christianity, are suborned witnesses on her side. Then ecclesiastical history is a series of falsehoods, and the book of martyrs a legend of romance.* That one extravagant mischief should produce its opposite, is agreeable to the ordinary course of human events. That to the credulity of a dark and superstitious religion, a wanton contempt of all decency, and an unbridled profaneness should succeed, that to a government absolutely despotic, an utter abhorrence of all restraint and subordination should follow, though it is deplorable, yet it is not strange. The human mind in flying from the extreme verge of one error, seldom stops till she has reached the opposite extremity. She generally passes by with a lofty disdain the obvious truth which lies directly in her road, and which is indeed commonly to be found in the midway, between the error she is flying from, and the error she is pursuing. Is it a breach of Christian charity to conclude, from a view of the present state of the French, that since that deluded people have given up GOD, GOD, by a righteous retribution, seems to have renounced them for a time, and to have given them over to their own heart's lust, to work iniquity with greediness? If such is their present career, what is likely to be their appointed end? How fearfully applicable to them seems that awful denunciation against an ancient, offending people- The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.' tion of liberty:* his moderation and humanity facilitated their plans and increased their power which, with unparalleled ingratitude, they em. ployed to degrade his person and character in the eyes of mankind, by the blackest and most detestable arts, and at length to terminate his calamities by a crime which has excited the grief and indignation of all Europe. On the trial and murder of that most unfortunate king, and on the inhuman proceedings which accompanied them, I shall purposely avoid dwelling, for it is not the design of these remarks to excite the passions. I will only say, that so monstrous has been the inversion of all order, law, humanity, justice, received opinion, good faith, and religion, that the conduct of his bloody executioners seems to have exhibited the most scrupulous conformity with the principle: announced in the speeches we have been con sidering. In this one instance we must not ca!! the French an inconsequent people. Savage brutality, rapine, treason and murder have been the noxious fruit gathered from these thorns. the baneful produce of these thistles. An overturn of all morals has been the well-proportioned. offspring of a subversion of all principle. But, notwithstanding the consistency, in this instance, between cause and consequence; so new and surprising have been the turns in their extraordinary projects, that to foretell what their next enterprize would be from what their last has been, has long baffled all calculation, has long bid defiance to all conjecture. Analogy from history, the study of past events, and an investigation of present principles and passions judgment, memory, comparison, combination and deduction, afford human sagacity but very slen der assistance in its endeavours to develope then future plans. We have not even the data of consistent wickedness on which to build rationa! conclusions. Their crimes, though visibly connected by uniform depravity, are yet so surpri singly diversified by interfering absurdities, as to furnish no ground on which reasonable argu. ment can be founded. Nay, such is their incredible eccentricity, that it is hardly extravagant to affirm, that improbability is become rather an additional reason for expecting any given event to take place. But let us, in this yet happy country, learn at least one great and important truth from the errors of this distracted people. Their conduct has always illustrated a position, which is not the less sound for having been often controverted-That no degree of wit and learning, no pro gress in commerce, no advances in the know ledge of nature, or in the embellishments of art, It is no part of the present design to enter in- can ever thoroughly tame that savage, the natu to a detail of their political conduct; but I can-ral human heart, without RELIGION. The arts not omit to remark, that the very man in their of social life may give sweetness to manners, long list of kings who seemed best to have de- and grace to language, and induce, in some de. served their assumed application of most Chris-gree, a respect for justice, truth, and humanity: tian, was also most favourable to their acquisi It may be objected here, that this is not applicable to the state of France; for that the Roman emperors were not atheists or deists, but polytheists, with an esta blished religion, To this it may be answered, that modern infidels not only deny the ten pagan persecutions, but accuse Christianity of being the only persecuting religion; and affirm that only those who refuse to embrace it discover a spirit of toleration. but attainments derived from such inferior causes are no more than the semblance and the shadow of the qualities derived from pure Christianity. Varnish is an extraneous ornament, but true *Of this the French themselves were so well persua ded, that the title of Restorateur de la liberte Francoise was solemnly given to Louis XVIth by the Constituen Assembly. polish is a proof of the solidity of the body on whose surface it is produced. It depends greatly on the nature of the substance, is not superinduced by accidental causes, but in a good measure proceeds from internal soundness. The poets of that classic country, whose style, sentiments, manners, and religion, the French so affectedly labour to imitate, have left keen and biting satires on the Roman vices. Against the late proceedings in France, no satirist need employ his pen; that of the historian will be quite sufficient. Truth will be the severest satire; fact will put fable out of countenance; and the crimes which are usually held up to our abhorrence, and are rejected for their exaggeration in works of invention, will be regarded as flat and feeble by those who shall peruse the records of the tenth of August, of the second and third of September, and of the twenty-first of January. when light and order shall spring from the pre sent darkness and confusion, and the reign of chaos shall be no more. May I be permitted a short digression on the subject of the conduct of Great Britain to these exiles? It shall only be to remark, that all the boasted conquests of our Edwards and our Hen. rys over the French nation, do not confer such substantial glory on our own country, as she de. rives from having received, protected, and supported among innumerable multitudes of other sufferers, at a time and under circumstances so peculiarly disadvantageous to herself, three thousand priests, of a nation habitually her enemy, and of a religion intolerant and hostile to her own. This is the solid triumph of true Christianity; and it is worth remarking, that the deeds which poets and historians celebrate as rare and splendid actions; which they record as sublime instances of greatness of soul, in the heroes of the pagan world, are but the ordinary and habitual virtues which occur in the common course of action among Christians; quietly per view to renown or reward; but resulting natu rally and consequently from the religion to which they belong. If the same astonishing degeneracy in taste, principle, and practice, should ever come to flourish among us, Britain may still live to exult in the desolation of her cities, and in the de-forming without effort or exertion, and with no struction of her finest monuments of art; she may triumph in the peopling of the fortresses of her rocks and her forests; may exult in being once more restored to that glorious state of liberty and equality, when all subsisted by rapine and the chase; when all, O enviable privilege! were equally savage, equally indigent, and equally naked; her sons may extol it as the restoration of reason, the triumph of nature, and the consummation of liberty, that they are again brought to feed on acorns, instead of bread! Groves of consecrated misletoe may happily succeed to useless cornfields; and Thor and Woden may hope once more to be invested with all their bloody honours So predominating is the power of an example we have once admired, and set up as a standard of imitation, and so fascinating has been the ascendency of the convention over the minds of those whose approbation of French politics com menced in the earlier periods of the revolution, that it extends to the most trivial circumstances. I cannot forbear to notice this in an instance which, though inconsiderable in itself, yet ceases to be so when we view it in the light of a prevailing symptom of the reigning disease. While the fantastic phraseology of the new Let not any serious reader feel indignation, republic is such, as to be almost as disgusting to as if pains were ungenerously taken to involve sound taste as their doctrines are to sound motheir religious with their political opinions. Far rals, it is curious to observe how deeply the adbe it from me to wound, unnecessarily, the feel- dresses, which have been sent to it from the ings of people, many of whom are truly esti- clubs in this country, have been infected with inable but it is much to be suspected, that cer- it, as far at least as phrases and terms are obtain opinions in politics have a tendency to lead jects of imitation. In the more leading points to certain opinions in religion. Where so much it is but justice to the French convention to conis at stake, they will do well to keep their confess, that they are hitherto without rivals and sciences tender, in order to which they should without imitators; for who can aspire to emutry to keep their discernment acute. They will late that compound of anarchy and atheism do well to observe, that the same restless spirit which in their debates is mixed up with the peof innovation is busily operating under various, dantry of a school-boy, the jargon of a cabal, though seemingly unconnected forms; to ob- and the vulgarity and ill-breeding of a mob? serve, that the same impatience of restraint, the One instance of the prevailing cant may suffice, same contempt of order, peace, and subordina- where a hundred might be adduced, and it is tion, which makes men bad citizens, makes them not the most exceptionable. To demolish every bad Christians; and that to this secret and al-existing law and establishment; to destroy the most infallible connexion between religious and political sentiment, does France owe her present inparalleled anarchy and impiety. There are doubtless in that unhappy country inultitudes of virtuous and reasonable men, who rather silently acquiesce in the authority of their present turbulent government, than embrace its principles or promote its projects from the sober conviction of their own judgment. These, together with those conscientious exiles whom this nation so honourably protects, may yet live to rejoice in the restoration of true liberty and solid peace to their native country, fortunes and ruin the principles of every coun try into which they are carrying their destructive arms and their frantic doctrines; to untie or cut asunder every bond which holds society together; to impose their own arbitrary shac kles where they succeed, and to demolish every thing where they fail. This desolating system, by a most unaccountable perversion of language, they are pleased to call by the endearing name of fraternization; and fraternization is one of the favourite terms which their admirers in this country have adopted. Little would a simple See the collection of address-s from England stranger, uninitiated in this new and surprising Ami iet slip the dogs of war. God grant that those who go forth to fign our battles, instead of being intimidated by the number of their enemies, may bear in mind that there is no restraint with God to save by many or by few.' And let the meanest among us who remains at home remember also, that even he may contribute to the internal safety of the country, by the integrity of his private life, and to the success of her defenders, by fol. lowing them with his fervent prayers. And in what war can the sincere Christian ever have stronger inducements and more reasonable encouragement to pray for the success of his country, than in this? Without entering far into any In numberless other instances, the fashionable language of France at this day would be as unintelligible to the correct writers of the age of Louis the XIV. as their fashionable notions of liberty would be irreconcilable with those of the true revolution patriots of his great contem-political principles, the discussion of which porary and victorious rival William the Third. Such is indeed their puerile rage for novelty in the invention of new words, and the perversion of their taste in the use of old ones, that the celebrated Vossius, whom Christiana of Sweden | oddly complimented by saying, that he was so learned as not only to know whence all words came, but whither they were going, would, were he admitted to the honour of a sitting, be obliged to confess, that he was equally puzzled to tell the one, as to foretel the other. would be in a great measure foreign to the design of this little tract, it may be remarked, that the unchristian principle of revenge is not our motive to this war; conquest is not our object; nor have we had recourse to hostility in order to effect a change in the internal government of France.* The present war is undoubtedly undertaken entirely on defensive principles. It is in defence of our king, our constitution, our religion, our laws, and consequently our liberty, in the sound, sober, and rational sense of that term. It is to defend ourselves from the savage violence of a crusade, made against all religion, as well as all government. If ever therefore a war was undertaken or the ground of self-defence and necessity-if ever men might be liberally said to fight pro ARIS et Focis, this seeme to be the occasion. The ambition of conquerors has been the source of great and extensive evils: religious fanaticism, of still greater. But little as I am disposed to become the apologist of either the one principle or the other, there is no extrava gance in asserting, that they have seemed inca pable of producing, even in ages, that extent of mischief, that variety of ruin, that comprehensive desolation, which philosophy, falsely so call. ed, has produced in three years. If it shail please the Almighty in his anger to let loose this infatuated people, as a scourge for the iniquities of the human race; if they are delegated by infinite justice to act as storm and tempest fulfilling his word,' if they are commissioned to perform the errand of the destroying lightning or the avenging thunderbolt, let us try at least to extract personal benefit from a national calamity; let every one of us, high and low, rich and poor, enter upon this serious and humbling inquiry, how much his own individual offences have contributed to that awful aggregate of public guilt, which has required such a visitation. Let us carefully examine in what proportion we have separately added to that common stock of abounding iniquity, the description of which formed the character of an ancient nation, and is so peculiarly applicable Christians! it is not a small thing-it is your to our own-Pride, fulness of bread, and abun- life! The pestilence of irreligion which you dedance of idleness. Let every one of us humbly test, will insinuate itself imperceptibly with inquire, in the self-suspecting language of the those manners, phrases, and principles which disciples of their Divine Master-Lord, is it I? you admire and adopt. It is the humble wisdom Let us learn to fear the fleets and armies of the of a Christian, to shrink from the most distant enemy, much less than those iniquities at home, approaches of sin: to abstain from the very apwhich this alarming dispensation may be in-pearance of evil. If we would fly from the deadtended to chastise. The war which the French had declared against us, is of a kind altogether unexampled in every respect; insomuch that human wisdom is baffled when it would pretend to conjecture what may be the event. But this at least we may safely say, that it is not so much the force of French bayonets, as the contamination of French principles, that ought to excite our apprehensions. We trust, that through the blessing of God we shall be defended from their open hostilities, by the temperate wisdom of our rulers, and the bravery of our fleets and armies: but the domestic danger arising from licentious and irreligious principles among ourselves, can only be guarded against by the personal care and vigilance of every one of us who values religion and the good order of society in this world and an eternity of happiness in the next. ly contagion of atheism, let us fly from those seemingly remote but not very indirect paths which lead to it. Let France choose this day whom she will serve; but as for us and our houses, we will serve the Lord. And, O gracious and long-suffering God! be. fore that awful period arrives, which shall ex hibit the dreadful effects of such an education as the French nation are instituting; before a race of men can be trained up, not only without the knowledge of Thee, but in the contempt of Thy most holy law, do Thou, in great mercy change the heart of this people as the heart of one man. Give them not finally over to their own corrupt imaginations, to their own heart's lusts. But after having made them a fearful See the report of Mr. Pitt's speech in the House o Commons, on February 12, 1793, published by Wood fau example to all the nations of the earth, what a people can do, who have cast off the fear of Thee, do Thou graciously bring them back to a sense of that law which they have violated, and to a participation of that mercy which they have abused; so that they may happily find, whi the discovery can be attended with hope an consolation, that doubtless there is a reward fo the righteous; verily, there is a God who judge the earth. STRICTURES ON THE MODERN SYSTEM OF FEMALE EDUCATION WITH A VIEW OF THE PRINCIPLES AND CONDUCT PREVALENT AMONG WOMEN OF RANK AND FORTUNE. May you so raise your character that you may help to make the next age a better thing, and leave posterity in your debt, for the advantage it shall receive by your example.-Lord Halifar Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the Fall! INTRODUCTION. It is a singular injustice which is often exercised towards women, first to give them a very defective education, and then to expect from them the most undeviating purity of conduct-ic train them in such a manner as shall lay them open to the most dangerous faults, and then to censure them for not proving faultless. Is it not unreasonable and unjust to express disappointment if our daughters should, in their subsequent lives, turn out precisely that very kind of character for which it would be evident to an unprejudiced by-stander that the whole scope and tenor of their instruction had been systematically preparing them? Some reflections on the present erroneous system are here with great deference submitted to public consideration. The author is apprehensive that she shall be accused of betraying the interests of her sex by laying open their defects: but surely an earnest wish to turn their attention to objects calculated to promote their true dignity, is not the office of an enemy. So to expose the weakness of the land as to suggest the necessity of internal improvement, and to point out the means of effectual defence, is not treachery, but patriotism. Again, it may be objected to this little work, that many errors are here ascribed to women which by no means belongs to them exclusively, and that it seems to confine to the sex those faults which are common to the species: but this is in some measure unavoidable. In speaking on the qualities of one sex, the moralist is somewhat in the situation of the geographer, who is treating on the nature of one country: the air, soil, and produce of the land which he is describing, cannot fail in many essential points to resemble those of other countries under the same parallel; yet it is his business to descant on the one without adverting to the other; and though in drawing the map he may happen to introduce some of the neighbouring coast, yet his principal attention must be confined to that country which he proposes to describe, without taking into account the resembling circumstances of the adjacent shores. It may be also objected that the opinion here suggested on the state of manners among the higher classes of our countrywomen, may seem to controvert the just encomiums of modern travellers, who generally concur in ascribing a decided superiority to the ladies of this country over those of every other. But such is, in general, the state of foreign manners, that the com parative praise is almost an injury to English women. To be flattered for excelling those whose standard of excellence is very low, is but a degrading kind of commendation; for the value of all praise derived from superiority, depends on the worth of the competitor. The character of British ladies, with all the unparalleled advantages they possess, must never be determined by comparison with the women of other nations, but by comparing them with what they themselves might be if all their talents and unrivalled opportunities were turned to the best account. Again, it may be said, that the author is less disposed to expatiate on excellence than error: but the office of the historian of human inanners is delineation rather than panegyric. Were the end in view culogium and not improvement, eulogium would have been far more gratifying, nor would just objects for praise have been difficult to find. Even in her own limited sphere of ob servation, the author is acquainted with much excellence in the class of which she treats-with women who, possessing learning which would be thought extensive in the other sex, set an ex ample of deep humility to their own-women who, distinguished for wit and genius, are eminen |