by mere inconfiderate and unguarded chat, she would ftart from her felf-complacent dream. If fhe could conceive how much the may be diminishing the good impreffions of young men; and if the could imagine how little amiable levity or irreligion makes her appear in the eyes of thofe who are older and abler, (however loofe their own principles may be,) fhe would correct herself in the first initance, from pure good nature; and in the fecond, from worldly prudence and mere felf-love. But on how much higher principles would she restrain herself, if she habitually took into account the important doctrine of confequences and if the reflected that the leffer but more habitual corruptions make up by their number, what they may feem to come fhort of by their weight: then perhaps fhe would find that, among the higher clafs of women, inconfideration is adding more to the daily quantity of evil than almost all other caufes put together.

There is an inftrument of inconceivable force, when it is employed against the interests of Chriftianity: it is not reasoning, for that may be answered; it is not learning, for luckily the infidel is not seldom ignorant; it is not invective, for we leave fo coarfe an engine to the hands of the vulgar; it is not evidence, for happily we have that all on our fide: it is RIDICULE, the most deadly weapon in the whole arfenal of impiety, and which becomes an almost unerring fhaft when directed by a fair and fashionable hand. No maxim has been more readily adopted, or is more intrinsically falfe, than that which the fascinating eloquence of a noble fceptic of the laft age contrived to render fo popular, that "ridicule is the test of truth*. It is no teft of truth itfelf; but of their firmnefs who affert the cause of truth, it is indeed a fevere telt. This light, keen, miffile weapon, the irrefolute, unconfirmed Chrif tian will find it harder to withstand, than the whole heavy artillery of infidelity united,

A young man of the better fort, has, perhaps juft entered upon the world, with a certain fhare of good difpofitions and right feelings; neither ignorant of the evidences, nor deftitute of the principles of Christiani

Lord Shaftsbury.

ty; without parting with his respect for religion, he fets out with the too natural with of making himself a reputation, and of ftanding well with the fashionable

of the female world. He preferves for a time a horror of vice, which makes it not difficult for him to refift the groffer corruptions of fociety; he can as yet repel profanenefs; nay, he can withstand the banter of a club. He has fenfe enough to fee through the miforable fallacies of the new philofophy, and spirit enough to expofe its malignity. So far he does well, and you. are ready to congratulate him on his fecurity. You are mistaken the principles of the ardent, and hitherto promifing adventurer are fhaken, juft in that very fociety where, while he was looking for pleasure, he doubted not for fafety. In the company of certain women of good fashion and no ill fame, he makes fhipwreck of his religion. He fees them treat with levity or derifion fubjects which he has been used to hear named with refpect. He could confute an argument, he could unravel a fophiftry; but he cannot tand a laugh. A fneer, not at the truth of religion, (for that perhaps is by none of the party difbelieved,) but at its gravity, its unfeafonablenefs, its dulnefs, puts all his refolution to flight. He feels his miftake, and. ftruggles to recover his credit; in order to which, he adopts the gay affectation of trying to feem worfe than he really is; he goes on to fay things which he does not believe, and to deny things which he does believe; and all to efface the first impreffion, and to recover a reputation which he has committed to their hands on whofe report he knows he fhall stand or fall, in thofe circles in which he is ambitious to fhine.

That cold compound of irony, irreligion, selfishness, and fneer, which make up what the French, (from whom we borrow the thing as well as the word) so well exprefs by the term perfiftage, has of late years made an incredible progrefs in blafting the opening buds of piety in young perfons of fashion. A cold pleafantry, a temporary cant word, the jargon of the day (for the "great vulgar" have their jargon) blights the first promife of ferioufnefs. The ladies of ton have certain watch-wards, which may be detected as indi

cations of this fpirit. The clergy are spoken of under the contemptuous appellation of the Parfons. Some ludicrous affociation is infallibly combined with every idea of religion. If a warm-hearted youth has ventur ed to name with enthusiasm fome eminently pious character, his glowing ardor is extinguished with a laugh and a drawling declaration, that the perfon in queftion is really a mighty harmless good creature, is uttered in a tone which leads the youth fecretly to vow, that whatever elfe he may be, he will never be a good harmlets creatu re.

Nor is ridicule more dangerous to true piety than to true tafte. An age which values itself on parody, burlefque, irony, and caricature, produces little that is fublime, either in genius or in virtue; but they amufe, and we live in an age which must be amufed, though genius, feeling, truth, and principle, be the facrifice. Nothing chills the ardour of devotion like a frigid farcafm; and, in the feason of youth, the mind fhould be kept particularly clear of all light affociations. This is of fo much importance that I have known perfons who, having been early accustomed to certain ludicrous combinations, were never able to get their minds cleanfed from the impurities contracted by this habitual levity, even after a thorough reformation in their hearts and lives had taken place: their principles became reformed, but their imaginations were indelibly foiled. They could defift from fins which the ftrictnefs of Chriftianity would not allow them to commit, but they could not difmifs from their minds images, which her purity forbade them to entertain.

There was a time when a variety of epithets were thought neceffary to exprefs various kinds of excellence, and when the different qualities of the mind were dif tinguished by appropriate and difcriminating terms; when the words venerable, learned, fagacious, profound, acute, pious, worthy, ingenious, valuable, elegant, agreeable, wife, witty, were used as fpecific marks of diftinct characters. But the legiflators of fashion have of late years thought proper to comprise all merit in one established epithet; an epithet which, it must be confeffed, is a very defirable one as far as it goes

This term is exclufively and indifcriminately applied wherever commendation is intended. The word pleafant now ferves to combine and exprefs all moral and intellectual excellence. Every individual, from the graveft profeffors of the graveft profeffion, down to the trifler who is of no profeffion at all, muft earn the epithet of pleasant, or must be contented to be nothing;; and must be configned over to ridicule, under the vulgar and inexpreffive cant word of a bore. This is the mortifying defignation of many a refpectable man, who though of much worth and much ability, cannot perhaps clearly make out his letters patent to the title of pleasant. For, according to this modern · claffification there is no intermediate ftate, but all are comprised within the ample bounds of one or the other of these two comprehenfive terms.

We ought to be more on our guard against this fpirit of ridicule, becaufe whatever may be the character of the prefent day, its faults do not fpring from the redundancies of great qualities, or the overflowings of extravagant virtues. It is well if more correct views of life, a more regular administration of laws, and a more fettled fstate of fociety, have helped to restrain the exceffes of the heroic ages, when love and war were confidered as the great and fole bufineffes of human life. Yet, if that period was marked by a romantic extravagance, and the prefent is diftinguished by an indolent felfishness, our fuperiority is not fo triumphantly decifive, as, in the vanity of our hearts, we may ready to imagine."

be

I do dot with to bring back the frantic reign of chivalry, nor to reinftate women in that fantastic em-pire in which they then fat enthroned in the hearts, or rather in the imaginations of men. Common fenfe is an excellent material of universal application, which the fagacity of latter ages has feized upon, and rationally: applied to the business of common life. But let us not forget, in the infolence of acknowleded fuperiority, that: it was religion and chap ity operating on the romantic fpirit of those times, which eftablished the defpotic fway of woman; and though in this altered fcene of things,

9

The now no longer looks down on her adoring votaries from the pedestal to which an abfurd idolatry had lifted her; yet let her remember that it is the fame reli gion and the fame chastity which once raifed her to fuch an elevation, that must still furnish the nobleft en ergies of her character; muft ftill attract the admira tion, ftill retain the refpect of the other fex.

While we lawfully ridicule the abfurdities which we have abandoned, let us not plume ourselves on that fpirit of novelty which glories in the oppofite extreme. If the manners of the period in qucftion were affected, and if the gallantry was unnatural, yet the tone of vir tue was high; and let us remember that conftancy, purity, and honour, are not ridiculous in themselves, though they may unluckily be aflociated with qualities which are fo; and women of delicacy would do well to reflect, when defcanting on those exploded manners, how far it be decorous to deride with two broad a laugh, attachments which could fubfift on remote gratifications; or grofsly to ridicule the tafte which led the admirer to facrifice pleasure to respect, and inclination to honour; how far it be delicate to fneer at that purity which made self-denial a proof of affection; to call in queftion the found understanding of him who preferred the fame of his mistress to his own indulgence; to burlefque that antiquated refinement which con. fidered dignity and referve as additional titles to affec

tion and reverence.

We cannot but be ftruck with the wonderful contraft exhibited to our view, when we contemplate the oppofite manners of the two periods in question. In the former, all the flower of Europe fmit with a delirious gallantry; all that was young, and noble, and brave, and great, with a fanatic frenzy, and prepofterous contempt of danger, traverfed feas, and fcaled mountains, and compaffed a large portion of the globe, at the expence of eafe, and fortune, and life, for the unprofitable project of rescuing, by force of arms, from the hands of infidels, the fepulchre of that Saviour, whom, in the other period, their pofterity would think it the height of fanaticifm fo much as to name in good company. That Saviour whofe altars they