There never, I believe, was a time when men delivered their opinions with more hardiness than at present, or with a more frank avowal of their consequences, however shocking they may be to common sense, or offensive to virtue and piety. This bold procedure, although its effect upon weak or corrupt minds is to be often lamented, we may hope is sometimes of service in awakening the caution of the more sober and discerning. Such as are of this character, upon finding, for instance, that the doctrine of necessity, when followed up with intrepidity, leads to consequences which they justly regard with horror, may learn to look with a prudent jealousy on any opinion that has a close affinity with it, by whatever authority, or under whatever pretences it may come recommended.

The path of truth is often narrow and

racter is impeached, we may, with humble reverence, plead for God, and vindicate that moral excellence which is the glory of his nature, and of which the image is the glory and the perfection of man."

REID'S Essays on the Powers of the Human Mind,

vol. iii. p. 444-5.

arduous; like some passages over the Alps, where it is dangerous to look on either side, as by misplacing a single step the traveller plunges down a precipice. The doctrines of providence and human liberty are confessedly of this nature; which should excite the utmost wariness in those who endeavour to trace them, lest they should either degrade man into a piece of mechanism, or withdraw him from his proper state of dependance; lest they should philosophize providence into fate, or detract from its overruling direction.

Observing this medium, a good man will keep on his way across the precipices of error, and amidst the winds of warring opinions, unshaken and serene. If he looks back to his original creation, it will be with thankfulness; if onward to his final destiny, it will be with hope; and when he surveys the present disordered state of the world, and sees multitudes of his fellowcreatures,

Living in hatred, enmity, and strife
Among themselves, and levying cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy."

This, though it will move his sorrow, will not destroy his peace; he will view all this evil under a divine control, and unite in reverent confession with the royal prophet, The wrath of man shall praise God; the remainder of wrath he will restrain *.

* Psalm lxxvi. 10.

SECTION IV.

Containing some relieving Considerations, drawn from particular Topics;-from the pliability of Man to his external Situation;-from the great and good Examples frequently displayed in a hostile Period;-and from the general Vanity and unimportance of the World.

THUS far of the general doctrine of a superintending Providence, and of the support it may afford to good men amidst all the evils which either they contemplate in the world around them, or which they are called to suffer themselves. We shall now proceed to some more particular topics, which may contribute to the same purpose.

I. The power there is in our nature to adapt itself to a wonderful variety of circumstances, may yield some relieving considerations to every benevolent mind while it surveys the present state of things.

Man

can derive his nourishment from a greater variety of food than any other animal, and endure a greater diversity of climate; he is found in all latitudes, and can pass from the equator to the pole without material inconvenience. His mind is no less capable of forming itself to his political situation, with very little assistance from learning, or moral discipline. The great mass of mankind who are born to poverty and toil, are generally as satisfied with their humble lot, from being early accustomed to it, as those who occupy the superior ranks of life appear to be with theirs.

Nor will oppression itself, superadded to daily drudgery, totally embitter human life, if the yoke be not at once so galling and unremitting, as that the bruises it inflicts have no time to heal.

Should we look into those despotic states where acts of extreme violence are rare, we might possibly find that the bulk of the people pass their lives with tolerable ease and quiet. The peasants whose abode is at the foot of Vesuvius, although they often hear the mountain rumble, and see it now