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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37774-8.txt b/37774-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e96cf28 --- /dev/null +++ b/37774-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1097 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Considerations on Religion and Public +Education, by Hannah More + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Considerations on Religion and Public Education + +Author: Hannah More + +Release Date: October 17, 2011 [EBook #37774] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + CONSIDERATIONS + ON + RELIGION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION, + WITH + REMARKS + ON THE _SPEECH_ OF + _M. DUPONT_, + DELIVERED IN THE + NATIONAL CONVENTION + OF + FRANCE. + TOGETHER WITH + AN ADDRESS TO THE LADIES, &c. + OF + _GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND_. + + [Decoration] + + BY HANNAH MORE. + + FIRST _AMERICAN_ EDITION. + + PRINTED AT _BOSTON_, + BY WELD AND GREENOUGH. + SOLD at the MAGAZINE OFFICE, No. 49, State Street. + MDCCXCIV. + + + + +[Decoration] + +A PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE LADIES, &c. of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, IN +BEHALF OF THE FRENCH EMIGRANT CLERGY. + +[Decoration] + + +If it be allowed that there may arise occasions so extraordinary, that +all the lesser motives of delicacy ought to vanish before them; it is +presumed that the present emergency will in some measure justify the +hardiness of an Address from a private individual, who, stimulated by +the urgency of the case, sacrifices inferior considerations to the +ardent desire of raising further supplies towards relieving a distress +as pressing as it is unexampled. + +We are informed by public advertisement, that the large sums already so +liberally subscribed for the Emigrant Clergy, are almost exhausted. +Authentic information adds, that multitudes of distressed Exiles in the +island of Jersey, are on the point of wanting bread. + +Very many to whom this address is made have already contributed. O let +them not be weary in well-doing! Many are making generous exertions for +the just and natural claims of the widows and children of our brave +seamen and soldiers. Let it not be said, that the present is an +_interfering_ claim. Those to whom I write, have bread enough, and to +spare. You, who fare sumptuously every day, and yet complain you have +little to bestow, let not this bounty be subtracted from another bounty, +but rather from some superfluous expense. + +The beneficent and right minded want no arguments to be pressed upon +them; but I write to those of every description. Luxurious habits of +living, which really furnish the distressed with the fairest grounds for +application, are too often urged as a motive for withholding assistance, +and produced as a plea for having little to spare. Let her who indulges +such habits, and pleads such excuses in consequence, reflect, that by +retrenching _one_ costly dish from her abundant table, the superfluities +of _one_ expensive desert, _one_ evening's public amusement, she may +furnish at least a week's subsistence to more than one person,[A] as +liberally bred perhaps as herself, and who, in his own country, may have +often tasted how much more blessed it is to give than to receive--to a +minister of God, who has been long accustomed to bestow the necessaries +he is now reduced to solicit. + +Even your young daughters, whom maternal prudence has not yet furnished +with the means of bestowing, may be cheaply taught the first rudiments +of charity, together with an important lesson of economy: They may be +taught to sacrifice a feather, a set of ribbons, an expensive ornament, +an idle diversion. And if they are thus instructed, that there is no +true charity without self denial, they will _gain_ more than they are +called upon to _give_: For the suppression of one luxury for a +charitable purpose, is the exercise of two virtues, and this without any +pecuniary expense. + +Let the sick and afflicted remember how dreadful it must be, to be +exposed to sufferings, without one of the alleviations which mitigate +_their_ affliction. How dreadful it is to be without comforts, without +necessaries, without a home--_without a country_! While the gay and +prosperous would do well to recollect, how suddenly and terribly those +for whom we plead, were, by the surprising vicissitudes of life, thrown +from equal heights of gaiety and prosperity. And let those who have +husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, or friends, reflect on the +uncertainties of war, and the revolution of human affairs. It is only by +imagining the possibility of those who are dear to us being placed in +the same calamitous circumstances, that we can obtain an adequate +feeling of the woes we are called upon to commiserate. + +In a distress so wide and comprehensive, many are prevented from giving +by that common excuse--"That it is but a drop of water in the ocean." +But let them reflect, that if all the individual drops were withheld, +there would be no ocean at all; and the inability to give much ought +not, on any occasion, to be converted into an excuse for giving nothing. +Even moderate circumstances need not plead an exemption. The industrious +tradesman will not, even in a political view, be eventually a loser by +his small contribution. The money raised is neither carried out of our +country, nor dissipated in luxuries, but returns again to the community; +to our shops and to our markets, to procure the bare necessaries of +life. + +Some have objected to the difference of _religion_ of those for whom we +solicit. Such an objection hardly deserves a serious answer. Surely if +the superstitious Tartar hopes to become possessed of the courage and +talents of the enemy he slays, the Christian is not afraid of catching, +or of propagating the error of the sufferer he relieves.--Christian +charity is of no party. We plead not for their faith, but for their +wants. And let the more scrupulous, who look for desert as well as +distress in the objects of their bounty, bear in mind, that if these men +could have sacrificed their conscience to their convenience, they had +not now been in this country. Let us shew them the purity of _our_ +religion, by the beneficence of our actions. + +If you will permit me to press upon you such high motives (and it were +to be wished that in every action we were to be influenced by the +highest) perhaps no act of bounty to which you may be called out, can +ever come so immediately under that solemn and affecting description, +which will be recorded in the great day of account--_I was a stranger +and ye took me in_.---- + + + + +[Decoration] + +_The following is an exact Translation from a_ SPEECH _made in the +National Convention at Paris, on Friday the 14th of December, 1792, in a +Debate on the Subject of establishing Public Schools for the Education +of Youth, by Citizen_ DUPONT, _a Member of considerable Weight; and as +the Doctrines contained in it were received with unanimous Applause, +except from two or three of the Clergy, it may be fairly considered as +an Exposition of the Creed of that Enlightened Assembly. Translated +from_ Le Moniteur _of Sunday the 16th of December, 1792_. + +[Decoration] + +What! Thrones are overturned! Sceptres broken! Kings expire! And yet the +Altars of GOD remain! (Here there is a murmur from some Members; and the +Abbé ICHON demands that the person speaking may be called to order.) +Tyrants, in outrage to nature, continue to burn an impious incense on +those Altars! (Some murmurs arise, but they are lost in the applauses +from the majority of the Assembly.) The Thrones that have been reversed, +have left these Altars naked, unsupported, and tottering. A single +breath of enlightened reason will now be sufficient to make them +disappear; and if humanity is under obligations to the French nation for +the first of these benefits, the fall of Kings, can it be doubted but +that the French people, now sovereign, will be wise enough, in like +manner, to overthrow those Altars and _those Idols_ to which those Kings +have hitherto made them subject? _Nature_ and _Reason_, these ought to +be the gods of men! These are my gods! (Here the Abbé AUDREIN cried out, +"There is no bearing this;" and rushed out of the Assembly.--A great +laugh.) Admire _nature_--cultivate _reason_. And you, Legislators, if +you desire that the French people should be happy, make haste to +propagate these principles, and to teach them in your primary schools, +instead of those fanatical principles which have hitherto been taught. +The tyranny of Kings was confined to make their people miserable in this +life--but those other tyrants, the Priests, extend their dominion into +another, of which they have no other idea than of eternal punishments; a +doctrine which some men have hitherto had the good nature to believe. +But the moment of the catastrophe is come--all these prejudices must +fall at the same time. _We must destroy them, or they will destroy +us._--For myself, I honestly avow to the Convention, _I am an atheist_! +(Here there is some noise and tumult. But a great number of members cry +out, "What is that to us--you are an honest man!") But I defy a single +individual, among the twenty-four millions of Frenchmen, to make against +me any well grounded reproach. I doubt whether the Christians, or the +Catholics, of which the last speaker, and those of his opinion, have +been talking to us, can make the same challenge.--(Great applauses.) +There is another consideration--Paris has had great losses. It has been +deprived of the commerce of luxury; of that factitious splendour which +was found at courts, and invited strangers hither. Well! We must repair +these losses.--Let me then represent to you the times, that are fast +approaching, when our philosophers, whose names are celebrated +throughout Europe, PETION, SYEYES, CONDORCET, and others--surrounded in +our Pantheon, as the Greek philosophers where at Athens, with a crowd of +disciples coming from all parts of Europe, walking like the +Peripatetics, and teaching--this man, the system of the universe, and +developing the progress of all human knowledge; that, perfectioning the +social system, and shewing in our decree of the 17th of June, 1789, the +seeds of the insurrections of the 14th of July and the 10th of August, +and of all those insurrections which are spreading with such rapidity +throughout Europe--So that these young strangers, on their return to +their respective countries, may spread the same lights, and may operate, +_for the happiness of Mankind_, similar revolutions throughout the +world. + +(Numberless applauses arose, almost throughout the whole Assembly, and +in the Galleries.) + +[Decoration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: Mr. Bowdler's letter states, that about Six Shillings a +week included the expenses of each Priest at Winchester.] + + + + +[Decoration] + +REMARKS + +ON THE + +SPEECH of Mr. DUPONT, + +ON THE SUBJECTS OF + +Religion and Public Education. + +[Decoration] + + +It is presumed that it may not be thought unseasonable at this critical +time to offer to the Public, and especially to the more religious part +of it, a few slight observations, occasioned by the late famous Speech +of Mr. Dupont, which exhibits the Confession of Faith of a considerable +Member of the French National Convention. Though the Speech itself has +been pretty generally read, yet it was thought necessary to perfix it to +these Remarks, lest such as have not already perused it, might, from an +honest reluctance to credit the existence of such principles, dispute +its authenticity, and accuse the remarks, if unaccompanied by the +Speech, of a spirit of invective and unfair exaggeration. At the same +time it must be confessed, that its impiety is so monstrous, that many +good men were of opinion it ought not to be made familiar to the minds +of Englishmen; for there are crimes with which even the imagination +should never come in contact. + +But as an ancient nation intoxicated their slaves, and then exposed them +before their children, in order to increase their horror of +intemperance; so it is hoped that this piece of impiety may be placed in +such a light before the eyes of the Christian reader, that, in +proportion as his detestation is raised, his faith, instead of being +shaken, will be only so much the more strengthened. + +This celebrated Speech, though delivered in an assembly of Politicians, +is not on a question of politics, but on one as superior as the soul is +to the body, and eternity to time. The object here, is not to dethrone +kings, but HIM by whom kings reign. It does not here excite the cry of +indignation that _Louis_ reigns, but that _the Lord God omnipotent +reigneth_. + +Nor is this the declaration of some obscure and anonymous person, but an +exposition of the Creed of a public Leader. It is not a sentiment hinted +in a journal, hazarded in a pamphlet, or thrown out at a disputing club: +but it is the implied faith of the rulers of a great nation. + +Little notice would have been due to this famous Speech, if it had +conveyed the sentiments of only _one_ vain orator; but it should be +observed, that it was heard, received, _applauded_, with two or three +exceptions only--a fact, which you, who have scarcely believed in the +existence of atheism, will hardly credit, and which, for the honour of +the eighteenth century, it is hoped that our posterity, being still more +unacquainted with such corrupt opinions, will reject as totally +incredible. + +A love of liberty, generous in its principle, inclines some good men +still to savour the proceedings of the National Convention of France. +They do not yet perceive that the licentious wildness which has been +excited in that country, is destructive of all true happiness, and no +more resemble liberty, than the tumultuous joys of the drunkard, +resemble the cheerfulness of a sober and well regulated mind. + +To those who do not know of what strange inconsistences man is made up; +who have not considered how some persons, having at first been hastily +and heedlessly drawn in as approvers, by a sort of natural progression, +soon become principals;--to those who have never observed by what a +variety of strange associations in the mind, opinions that seem the most +irreconcileable meet at some unsuspected turning, and come to be united +in the same man;--to all such it may appear quite incredible, that well +meaning and even pious people should continue to applaud the principles +of a set of men who have publicly made known their intention of +abolishing Christianity, as far as the demolition of altars, priests, +temples, and institutions, _can_ abolish it; and as to the religion +itself, this also they may traduce, and for their own part reject, but +we know, from the comfortable promise of an authority still sacred in +this country at least, that _the gates of hell shall not prevail against +it_. + +Let me not be misunderstood by those to whom these slight remarks are +principally addressed; that class of well intentioned people, who favour +at least, if they do not adopt, the prevailing sentiments of the new +Republic. You are not here accused of being the wilful abetters of +infidelity. God forbid! "we are persuaded better things of you, and +things which accompany salvation." But this _ignis fatuus_ of liberty +and universal brotherhood, which the French are madly pursuing, with the +insignia of freedom in one hand, and the bloody bayonet in the other, +has bewitched your senses, and is in danger of misleading your steps. +You are gazing at a meteor raised by the vapours of vanity, which these +wild and infatuated wanderers are pursuing to their destruction; and +though for a moment you mistake it for a heaven-born light, which leads +to the perfection of human freedom, you will, should you join in the mad +pursuit, soon discover that it will conduct you over dreary wilds and +sinking bogs, only to plunge you in deep and inevitable ruin. + +Much, very much is to be said in vindication of your favouring in the +first instance their political projects. The cause they took in hand +seemed to be the great cause of human kind. Its very name insured its +popularity. What English heart did not exult at the demolition of the +Bastile? What lover of his species did not triumph in the warm hope, +that one of the finest countries in the world would soon be one of the +most free? Popery and despotism, though chained by the gentle influence +of Louis XVIth, had actually slain their thousands. Little was it then +imagined, that anarchy and atheism, the monsters who were about to +succeed them, would soon slay their ten thousands. If we cannot regret +the defeat of the two former tyrants, what must they be who can triumph +in the mischiefs of the two latter? Who, I say, that had a head to +reason, or a heart to feel, did not glow with hope, that from the ruins +of tyranny, and the rubbish of popery, a beautiful and finely framed +edifice would in time have been constructed, and that ours would not +have been the only country in which the patriot's fair idea of well +understood liberty, and of the most pure and reasonable, as well as the +most sublime and exalted Christianity might be realized? + +But, alas! it frequently happens that the wise and good are not the most +adventurous in attacking the mischiefs which they perceive and lament. +With a timidity in some respects virtuous, they fear attempting any +thing which may possible aggravate the evils they deplore, or put to +hazard the blessings they already enjoy. They dread plucking up the +wheat with the tares, and are rather apt, with a spirit of hopeless +resignation, + + "To bear the ills they have, + "Than fly to others that they know not of." + +While sober minded and considerate men, therefore, sat mourning over +this complicated mass of error, and waited till God, in his own good +time, should open the blind eyes; the vast scheme of reformation was +left to that set of rash and presumptuous adventurers, who are generally +watching how they may convert public grievances to their own personal +account. It was undertaken, not upon the broad basis of a wise and well +digested scheme, of which all the parts should contribute to the +perfection of one consistent whole: It was carried on, not by those +steady measures, founded on rational deliberation, which are calculated +to accomplish so important an end; not with a temperance which indicated +a sober love of law, or a sacred regard for religion; but with the most +extravagant lust of power, and the most inordinate vanity which perhaps +ever instigated human measures; a lust of power which threatens to +extend its desolating influence over the whole globe; a vanity of the +same destructive species with that which stimulated the celebrated +incendiary of Ephesus, who being weary of his native obscurity and +insignificance, and prefering infamy to oblivion, could contrive no +other road to fame and immortality, than that of setting fire to the +exquisite Temple of Diana. He was remembered indeed, as he desired to +be, but only to be execrated; while the seventh wonder of the world lay +prostrate through his crime. + +It is the same over ruling vanity which operates in their politics, and +in their religion, which makes Kersaint[B] boast of carrying his +destructive projects from the Tagus to the Brazils, and from Mexico to +the shores of the Ganges; which makes him menace to outstrip the +enterprises of the most extravagant hero of romance, and almost +undertake with the marvelous celerity of the nimbly footed Puck, + + "To put a girdle round about the earth + "In forty minutes."---- + +It is the same vanity, still the master passion in the bosom of a +Frenchman, which leads Dupont and Manuel to undertake in their orations +to abolish the Sabbath, exterminate the Priesthood, erect a Pantheon for +the World, restore the Peripatetic Philosophy, and in short revive every +thing of ancient Greece, except the pure taste, the wisdom, the love of +virtue, the veneration of the laws, and that degree of reverence which +even virtuous Pagans professed for the Deity. + +It is surely to be charged to the inadequate and wretched hands into +which the work of reformation fell, and not to the impossibility of +amending the civil and religious institutions of France, that all has +succeeded so ill. It cannot be denied, perhaps, that a reforming spirit +was wanted in that country; their government was not more despotic, than +their church was superstitious and corrupt. + +But though this is readily granted, and though it may be unfair to blame +those who in the _first outset_ of the French Revolution, rejoiced even +on religious motives; yet it is astonishing, how any pious person, even +with all the blinding power of prejudice, can think without horror of +the _present_ state of France. It is no less wonderful how any rational +man could, even in the beginning of the Revolution; transfer that +reasoning, however just it might be, when applied to France, to the case +of England. For what can be more unreasonable, than to draw from +different, and even opposite premises, the same conclusion? Must a +revolution be equally necessary in the case of two sorts of Government, +and two sorts of Religion, which are the very reverse of each other? +opposite in their genius, unlike in their fundamental principles, and +widely different in each of their component parts. + +That despotism, priestcraft, intolerance, and superstition, are terrible +evils, no candid Christian it is presumed will deny; but, blessed be +God, though these mischiefs are not yet entirely banished from the face +of the earth, they have scarcely any existence in this country. + +To guard against a real danger, and to cure actual abuses, of which the +existence has been first plainly proved, by the application of a +suitable remedy, requires diligence as well as courage; observation as +well as genius; patience and temperance as well as zeal and spirit. It +requires the union of that clear head and sound heart which constitute +the true patriot. But to conjure up fancied evils, or even greatly to +aggravate real ones, and then to exhaust our labour in combating them, +is the characteristic of a distempered imagination and an ungoverned +spirit. + +Romantic crusades, the ordeal trial, drowning of witches, the torture, +and the Inquisition, have been justly reprobated as the foulest stain of +the respective periods, in which, to the disgrace of human reason, they +existed; but would any man be rationally employed, who should now stand +up gravely to declaim against these as the predominating mischiefs of +the present century? Even the whimsical Knight of La Mancha himself, +would not fight wind mills that were pulled down; yet I will venture to +say, that the above named evils are at present little more chimerical +than some of those now so bitterly complained of among us. It is not, as +Dryden said, when one of his works was unmercifully abused, that the +piece has not faults enough in it, but the critics have not had the wit +to fix upon the right ones. + +It is allowed that, as a nation, we have faults enough, but our +political critics err in the objects of their censure. They say little +of those real and pressing evils resulting from our own corruption, +which constitute the actual miseries of life; while they gloomily +speculate upon a thousand imaginary political grievances, and fancy that +the reformation of our rulers and our legislators is all that is wanting +to make us a happy people. + +The principles of just and equitable government were, perhaps, never +more fully established, nor public justice more exactly administered. +Pure and undefiled religion was never laid more open to all, than at +this day. I wish I could say we were a religious people; but this at +least may be safely asserted, that the great truths of religion were +never better understood; that Christianity was never more completely +stripped from all its incumbrances and disguises, or more thoroughly +purged from human infusions, and whatever is debasing in human +institutions. + +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 +awfully illustrated a position, which is not the less sound for having +been often controverted, That no degree of wit and learning; no progress +in commerce; no advances in the knowledge of nature, or in the +embellishments of art, can ever thoroughly tame that savage, the natural +human heart, without RELIGION. The arts of social life may give a +sweetness to the manners and language, and induce, in some degree, a +love of justice, truth, and humanity; 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 polish is a proof of the solidity of the body; it +depends greatly on the nature of the substance, is not superinduced by +accidental causes, but in a good measure proceeding from internal +soundness. + +The poets of that 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. Fact will put fable out of countenance; and the crimes +which are usually held up to our abhorrence 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. + +If the same astonishing degeneracy in taste, principle, and practice, +should ever come to flourish among us, Britons may still live to exult +in the desolation of her cities, and in the destruction 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 chace; when all, O enviable privilege! were equally savage, +equally indigent, and equally naked; may extol it as the restoration of +reason, and the triumph of nature, that they are again brought to feed +on acorns, instead of bread. Groves of consecrated misletoe may happily +succeed to useless corn fields; and Thor and Woden may hope once more to +be invested with all their bloody honours. + +Let not any serious readers feel indignation, as if pains were +ungenerously taken to involve their religious, with their political +opinions. Far be it from me to wound, unnecessarily, the feelings of +people whom I so sincerely esteem; but it is much to be suspected, that +certain opinions in politics have a tendency to lead to certain opinions +in religion. Where so much is at stake, they will do well to keep their +consciences tender, in order to do which they should try to keep their +discernment acute. They will do well to observe, that the same restless +spirit of innovation is busily operating under various, though seemingly +unconnected forms. To observe, that the same impatience of restraint, +the same contempt of order, peace, and subordination, which makes men +bad citizens, makes them bad Christians; and that to this secret, but +almost infallible connexion between religious and political sentiment, +does France owe her present unparalleled anarchy and impiety. + +There are doubtless in that unhappy country multitudes 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, when light and order shall spring +from the present darkness and confusion, and the reign of chaos shall be +no more. + +May I be permitted a short digression on the subject of those exiles? It +shall only be to remark, that all the boasted conquests of our Edwards +and our Henrys over the French nation, do not confer such substantial +glory on our own country, as she derives from having received, +protected, and supported, among 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, and 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 performed without effort or exertion, and with +no view to renown; but resulting naturally and necessarily from the +religion they profess. + +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 commenced 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 symptom of the +reigning disease. + +While the fantastic phraseology of the new Republic is such, as to be +almost as disgusting to sound taste, as their doctrines are to sound +morals, it is curious to observe how deeply the addresses, which have +been sent to it from the Clubs[C] in this country, have been infected +with it, as far at least as phrases and terms are objects of imitation. +In other respects, it is but justice to the French Convention to +confess, that they are hitherto without rivals and without imitators; +for who can aspire to emulate that compound of anarchy and atheism which +in their debates is mixed up with the pedantry of school boys, the +jargon of a cabal, and the vulgarity and ill-breeding of a mob? One +instance of the prevailing cant may suffice, where an hundred might be +adduced; and it is not the most exceptionable.--To demolish every +existing law and establishment; to destroy the fortunes and ruin the +principles of every country 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 +shackles 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 have adopted. Little would a simple stranger, uninitiated +in this new and surprising dialect, imagine that the peaceful terms of +fellow-citizen and of brother, the winning offer of freedom and +happiness, and the warm embrace of fraternity, were only watch-words by +which they in effect, + + Cry havoc, + And let slip the dogs of war. + +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 XIVth, as their fashionable notions of liberty would be +irreconcileable with those of the true Revolution Patriots of his great +contemporary 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 Christine 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 +honours of a sitting_, be obliged to confess, that he was equally +puzzled to tell the one, or to foretel the other. + +If it shall 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 thunder-bolt, let us try at +least to extract personal benefit from 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 to +our own--_Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness_. Let every +one of us humbly inquire, in the self-suspecting language of the +disciples to their Divine Master--_Lord, is it I?_ Let us learn to fear +the fleets and armies of the enemy, much less than those iniquities at +home which this alarming dispensation may be intended to chastize. + +The war which the French have 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. + +GOD grant that those who go forth to fight 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 of us who remains at home remember also, that even he may +contribute to the internal safety of his country, by the integrity of +his private life, and to the success of her defenders, by following them +with his fervent prayers. And in what war can the sincere Christian ever +have stronger inducements to pray for the success of his country, than +in this? Without entering far into any political principles, the +discussion of which 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[D]. 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 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 on the ground of self-defence and necessity--if ever men +might be literally said to fight _pro_ ARIS _et focis_, this seems 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 extravagance in asserting, that they have seemed +incapable of producing, even in ages, that extent of mischief, that +comprehensive desolation, which _philosophy, falsely so called_, has +produced in three years. + +Christians! it is not a small thing--it is _your life_. The pestilence +of irreligion which you detest, will insinuate itself imperceptibly with +those manners, phrases, and principles which you admire and adopt. It is +the humble wisdom of a Christian, to shrink from the most distant +approaches to sin, to abstain from the very appearance of evil. If we +would fly from the deadly 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! before that awful period +arrives, which shall exhibit 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 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 +participation of that mercy which they have abused; so that they may +happily find, while the discovery can be attended with consolation, that +_doubtless there is a reward for the righteous; verify, there is a_ GOD +_who judgeth the earth_. + + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote B: See his Speech, enumerating their intended projects.] + +[Footnote C: See the Collection of Addresses from England, &c. +Published by Mr. Mc. KENZIE, _College Green_, DUBLIN.] + +[Footnote D: See the Report of Mr. Pitt's Speech in the House of +Commons on Feb. 12, 1793.] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note + + +Printer errors have been changed and are listed below. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. + +Characters that could not be displayed directly in Latin-1 are +transcribed as follows: + +_ - italics + + +The following changes have been made to the text: + +Page 18: Changed "involve their religous" to "involve their religious". + +Page 18: Changed "in order to which they" to "in order to do which +they". + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Considerations on Religion and Public +Education, by Hannah More + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + +***** This file should be named 37774-8.txt or 37774-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/7/37774/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Considerations on Religion and Public Education + +Author: Hannah More + +Release Date: October 17, 2011 [EBook #37774] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>CONSIDERATIONS<br /> +ON<br /> +RELIGION <span class="smcap">and Public</span> EDUCATION,</h1> +<p class="fm4">WITH</p> +<p class="fm2">REMARKS</p> +<p class="fm3">ON THE <i>SPEECH</i> OF</p> +<p class="fm2"><i>M. DUPONT</i>,</p> +<p class="fm4">DELIVERED IN THE</p> +<p class="fm3">NATIONAL CONVENTION</p> +<p class="fm4">OF</p> +<p class="fm2">FRANCE.</p> +<p class="fm4">TOGETHER WITH</p> +<p class="fm3"><span class="smcap">an</span> ADDRESS <span class="smcap">to the</span> LADIES, &c.</p> +<p class="fm4">OF</p> +<p class="fm3"><i>GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i_001a.png" width="500" height="42" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">By</span> HANNAH MORE.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i_001a.png" width="500" height="42" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="fm3">FIRST <i>AMERICAN</i> EDITION.</p> + +<hr style="width: 40%;" /> +<p class="fm3"><span class="smcap">PRINTED at <i>BOSTON</i></span>,</p> +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">by</span> WELD <span class="smcap">and</span> GREENOUGH.</p> +<p class="fm4"><span class="smcap">Sold</span> at the <span class="smcap">Magazine Office</span>, No. 49, State Street.<br /> +MDCCXCIV.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i_003a.png" width="600" height="236" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>A PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE LADIES, &c. of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, IN +BEHALF OF THE FRENCH EMIGRANT CLERGY.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 292px;"> +<img src="images/i_003b.png" width="292" height="42" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>If it be allowed that there may arise occasions so extraordinary, that +all the lesser motives of delicacy ought to vanish before them; it is +presumed that the present emergency will in some measure justify the +hardiness of an Address from a private individual, who, stimulated by +the urgency of the case, sacrifices inferior considerations to the +ardent desire of raising further supplies towards relieving a distress +as pressing as it is unexampled.</p> + +<p>We are informed by public advertisement, that the large sums already so +liberally subscribed for the Emigrant Clergy, are almost exhausted. +Authentic information adds, that multitudes of distressed Exiles in the +island of Jersey, are on the point of wanting bread.</p> + +<p>Very many to whom this address is made have already contributed. O let +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>them not be weary in well-doing! Many are making generous exertions for +the just and natural claims of the widows and children of our brave +seamen and soldiers. Let it not be said, that the present is an +<i>interfering</i> claim. Those to whom I write, have bread enough, and to +spare. You, who fare sumptuously every day, and yet complain you have +little to bestow, let not this bounty be subtracted from another bounty, +but rather from some superfluous expense.</p> + +<p>The beneficent and right minded want no arguments to be pressed upon +them; but I write to those of every description. Luxurious habits of +living, which really furnish the distressed with the fairest grounds for +application, are too often urged as a motive for withholding assistance, +and produced as a plea for having little to spare. Let her who indulges +such habits, and pleads such excuses in consequence, reflect, that by +retrenching <i>one</i> costly dish from her abundant table, the superfluities +of <i>one</i> expensive desert, <i>one</i> evening's public amusement, she may +furnish at least a week's subsistence to more than one person,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> as +liberally bred perhaps as herself, and who, in his own country, may have +often tasted how much more blessed it is to give than to receive—to a +minister of God, who has been long accustomed to bestow the necessaries +he is now reduced to solicit.</p> + +<p>Even your young daughters, whom maternal prudence has not yet furnished +with the means of bestowing, may be cheaply taught the first rudiments +of charity, together with an important lesson of economy: They may be +taught to sacrifice a feather, a set of ribbons, an expensive ornament, +an idle diversion. And if they are thus instructed, that there is no +true charity without self denial, they will <i>gain</i> more than they are +called upon to <i>give</i>: For the suppression of one luxury for a +charitable purpose, is the exercise of two virtues, and this without any +pecuniary expense.</p> + +<p>Let the sick and afflicted remember how dreadful it must be, to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +exposed to sufferings, without one of the alleviations which mitigate +<i>their</i> affliction. How dreadful it is to be without comforts, without +necessaries, without a home—<i>without a country</i>! While the gay and +prosperous would do well to recollect, how suddenly and terribly those +for whom we plead, were, by the surprising vicissitudes of life, thrown +from equal heights of gaiety and prosperity. And let those who have +husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, or friends, reflect on the +uncertainties of war, and the revolution of human affairs. It is only by +imagining the possibility of those who are dear to us being placed in +the same calamitous circumstances, that we can obtain an adequate +feeling of the woes we are called upon to commiserate.</p> + +<p>In a distress so wide and comprehensive, many are prevented from giving +by that common excuse—"That it is but a drop of water in the ocean." +But let them reflect, that if all the individual drops were withheld, +there would be no ocean at all; and the inability to give much ought +not, on any occasion, to be converted into an excuse for giving nothing. +Even moderate circumstances need not plead an exemption. The industrious +tradesman will not, even in a political view, be eventually a loser by +his small contribution. The money raised is neither carried out of our +country, nor dissipated in luxuries, but returns again to the community; +to our shops and to our markets, to procure the bare necessaries of +life.</p> + +<p>Some have objected to the difference of <i>religion</i> of those for whom we +solicit. Such an objection hardly deserves a serious answer. Surely if +the superstitious Tartar hopes to become possessed of the courage and +talents of the enemy he slays, the Christian is not afraid of catching, +or of propagating the error of the sufferer he relieves.—Christian +charity is of no party. We plead not for their faith, but for their +wants. And let the more scrupulous, who look for desert as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +distress in the objects of their bounty, bear in mind, that if these men +could have sacrificed their conscience to their convenience, they had +not now been in this country. Let us shew them the purity of <i>our</i> +religion, by the beneficence of our actions.</p> + +<p>If you will permit me to press upon you such high motives (and it were +to be wished that in every action we were to be influenced by the +highest) perhaps no act of bounty to which you may be called out, can +ever come so immediately under that solemn and affecting description, +which will be recorded in the great day of account—<i>I was a stranger +and ye took me in</i>.——</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 292px;"> +<img src="images/i_006.png" width="292" height="53" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i_007a.png" width="600" height="205" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><i>The following is an exact Translation from a</i> SPEECH <i>made in the +National Convention at Paris, on Friday the 14th of December, 1792, in a +Debate on the Subject of establishing Public Schools for the Education +of Youth, by Citizen</i> <span class="smcap">Dupont</span>, <i>a Member of considerable Weight; and as +the Doctrines contained in it were received with unanimous Applause, +except from two or three of the Clergy, it may be fairly considered as +an Exposition of the Creed of that Enlightened Assembly. Translated +from</i> Le Moniteur <i>of Sunday the 16th of December, 1792</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 292px;"> +<img src="images/i_007b.png" width="292" height="58" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>What! Thrones are overturned! Sceptres broken! Kings expire! And yet the +Altars of <span class="smcap">God</span> remain! (Here there is a murmur from some Members; and the +Abbé <span class="smcap">Ichon</span> demands that the person speaking may be called to order.) +Tyrants, in outrage to nature, continue to burn an impious incense on +those Altars! (Some murmurs arise, but they are lost in the applauses +from the majority of the Assembly.) The Thrones that have been reversed, +have left these Altars naked, unsupported, and tottering. A single +breath of enlightened reason will now be sufficient to make them +disappear; and if humanity is under obligations to the French nation for +the first of these benefits, the fall of Kings, can it be doubted but +that the French people, now sovereign, will be wise enough, in like +manner, to overthrow those Altars and <i>those Idols</i> to which those Kings +have hitherto made them subject? <i>Nature</i> and <i>Reason</i>, these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> ought to +be the gods of men! These are my gods! (Here the Abbé <span class="smcap">Audrein</span> cried out, +"There is no bearing this;" and rushed out of the Assembly.—A great +laugh.) Admire <i>nature</i>—cultivate <i>reason</i>. And you, Legislators, if +you desire that the French people should be happy, make haste to +propagate these principles, and to teach them in your primary schools, +instead of those fanatical principles which have hitherto been taught. +The tyranny of Kings was confined to make their people miserable in this +life—but those other tyrants, the Priests, extend their dominion into +another, of which they have no other idea than of eternal punishments; a +doctrine which some men have hitherto had the good nature to believe. +But the moment of the catastrophe is come—all these prejudices must +fall at the same time. <i>We must destroy them, or they will destroy +us.</i>—For myself, I honestly avow to the Convention, <i>I am an atheist</i>! +(Here there is some noise and tumult. But a great number of members cry +out, "What is that to us—you are an honest man!") But I defy a single +individual, among the twenty-four millions of Frenchmen, to make against +me any well grounded reproach. I doubt whether the Christians, or the +Catholics, of which the last speaker, and those of his opinion, have +been talking to us, can make the same challenge.—(Great applauses.) +There is another consideration—Paris has had great losses. It has been +deprived of the commerce of luxury; of that factitious splendour which +was found at courts, and invited strangers hither. Well! We must repair +these losses.—Let me then represent to you the times, that are fast +approaching, when our philosophers, whose names are celebrated +throughout Europe, <span class="smcap">Petion</span>, <span class="smcap">Syeyes</span>, <span class="smcap">Condorcet</span>, and others—surrounded in +our Pantheon, as the Greek philosophers where at Athens, with a crowd of +disciples coming from all parts of Europe, walking like the +Peripatetics, and teaching—this man, the system of the universe, and +developing the progress of all human knowledge; that, perfectioning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> the +social system, and shewing in our decree of the 17th of June, 1789, the +seeds of the insurrections of the 14th of July and the 10th of August, +and of all those insurrections which are spreading with such rapidity +throughout Europe—So that these young strangers, on their return to +their respective countries, may spread the same lights, and may operate, +<i>for the happiness of Mankind</i>, similar revolutions throughout the +world.</p> + +<p>(Numberless applauses arose, almost throughout the whole Assembly, and +in the Galleries.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 294px;"> +<img src="images/i_009.png" width="294" height="77" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Mr. Bowdler's letter states, that about Six Shillings a +week included the expenses of each Priest at Winchester.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i_010a.png" width="600" height="223" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>REMARKS</h2> + +<h2>ON THE</h2> + +<h2>SPEECH of Mr. DUPONT,</h2> + +<h2>ON THE SUBJECTS OF</h2> + +<h2>Religion and Public Education.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 292px;"> +<img src="images/i_010b.png" width="292" height="48" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>It is presumed that it may not be thought unseasonable at this critical +time to offer to the Public, and especially to the more religious part +of it, a few slight observations, occasioned by the late famous Speech +of Mr. Dupont, which exhibits the Confession of Faith of a considerable +Member of the French National Convention. Though the Speech itself has +been pretty generally read, yet it was thought necessary to perfix it to +these Remarks, lest such as have not already perused it, might, from an +honest reluctance to credit the existence of such principles, dispute +its authenticity, and accuse the remarks, if unaccompanied by the +Speech, of a spirit of invective and unfair exaggeration. At the same +time it must be confessed, that its impiety is so monstrous, that many +good men were of opinion it ought not to be made familiar to the minds +of Englishmen; for there are crimes with which even the imagination +should never come in contact.</p> + +<p>But as an ancient nation intoxicated their slaves, and then exposed them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +before their children, in order to increase their horror of +intemperance; so it is hoped that this piece of impiety may be placed in +such a light before the eyes of the Christian reader, that, in +proportion as his detestation is raised, his faith, instead of being +shaken, will be only so much the more strengthened.</p> + +<p>This celebrated Speech, though delivered in an assembly of Politicians, +is not on a question of politics, but on one as superior as the soul is +to the body, and eternity to time. The object here, is not to dethrone +kings, but HIM by whom kings reign. It does not here excite the cry of +indignation that <i>Louis</i> reigns, but that <i>the Lord God omnipotent +reigneth</i>.</p> + +<p>Nor is this the declaration of some obscure and anonymous person, but an +exposition of the Creed of a public Leader. It is not a sentiment hinted +in a journal, hazarded in a pamphlet, or thrown out at a disputing club: +but it is the implied faith of the rulers of a great nation.</p> + +<p>Little notice would have been due to this famous Speech, if it had +conveyed the sentiments of only <i>one</i> vain orator; but it should be +observed, that it was heard, received, <i>applauded</i>, with two or three +exceptions only—a fact, which you, who have scarcely believed in the +existence of atheism, will hardly credit, and which, for the honour of +the eighteenth century, it is hoped that our posterity, being still more +unacquainted with such corrupt opinions, will reject as totally +incredible.</p> + +<p>A love of liberty, generous in its principle, inclines some good men +still to savour the proceedings of the National Convention of France. +They do not yet perceive that the licentious wildness which has been +excited in that country, is destructive of all true happiness, and no +more resemble liberty, than the tumultuous joys of the drunkard, +resemble the cheerfulness of a sober and well regulated mind.</p> + +<p>To those who do not know of what strange inconsistences man is made up;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +who have not considered how some persons, having at first been hastily +and heedlessly drawn in as approvers, by a sort of natural progression, +soon become principals;—to those who have never observed by what a +variety of strange associations in the mind, opinions that seem the most +irreconcileable meet at some unsuspected turning, and come to be united +in the same man;—to all such it may appear quite incredible, that well +meaning and even pious people should continue to applaud the principles +of a set of men who have publicly made known their intention of +abolishing Christianity, as far as the demolition of altars, priests, +temples, and institutions, <i>can</i> abolish it; and as to the religion +itself, this also they may traduce, and for their own part reject, but +we know, from the comfortable promise of an authority still sacred in +this country at least, that <i>the gates of hell shall not prevail against +it</i>.</p> + +<p>Let me not be misunderstood by those to whom these slight remarks are +principally addressed; that class of well intentioned people, who favour +at least, if they do not adopt, the prevailing sentiments of the new +Republic. You are not here accused of being the wilful abetters of +infidelity. God forbid! "we are persuaded better things of you, and +things which accompany salvation." But this <i>ignis fatuus</i> of liberty +and universal brotherhood, which the French are madly pursuing, with the +insignia of freedom in one hand, and the bloody bayonet in the other, +has bewitched your senses, and is in danger of misleading your steps. +You are gazing at a meteor raised by the vapours of vanity, which these +wild and infatuated wanderers are pursuing to their destruction; and +though for a moment you mistake it for a heaven-born light, which leads +to the perfection of human freedom, you will, should you join in the mad +pursuit, soon discover that it will conduct you over dreary wilds and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +sinking bogs, only to plunge you in deep and inevitable ruin.</p> + +<p>Much, very much is to be said in vindication of your favouring in the +first instance their political projects. The cause they took in hand +seemed to be the great cause of human kind. Its very name insured its +popularity. What English heart did not exult at the demolition of the +Bastile? What lover of his species did not triumph in the warm hope, +that one of the finest countries in the world would soon be one of the +most free? Popery and despotism, though chained by the gentle influence +of Louis XVIth, had actually slain their thousands. Little was it then +imagined, that anarchy and atheism, the monsters who were about to +succeed them, would soon slay their ten thousands. If we cannot regret +the defeat of the two former tyrants, what must they be who can triumph +in the mischiefs of the two latter? Who, I say, that had a head to +reason, or a heart to feel, did not glow with hope, that from the ruins +of tyranny, and the rubbish of popery, a beautiful and finely framed +edifice would in time have been constructed, and that ours would not +have been the only country in which the patriot's fair idea of well +understood liberty, and of the most pure and reasonable, as well as the +most sublime and exalted Christianity might be realized?</p> + +<p>But, alas! it frequently happens that the wise and good are not the most +adventurous in attacking the mischiefs which they perceive and lament. +With a timidity in some respects virtuous, they fear attempting any +thing which may possible aggravate the evils they deplore, or put to +hazard the blessings they already enjoy. They dread plucking up the +wheat with the tares, and are rather apt, with a spirit of hopeless +resignation,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To bear the ills they have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Than fly to others that they know not of."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>While sober minded and considerate men, therefore, sat mourning over +this complicated mass of er<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>ror, and waited till God, in his own good +time, should open the blind eyes; the vast scheme of reformation was +left to that set of rash and presumptuous adventurers, who are generally +watching how they may convert public grievances to their own personal +account. It was undertaken, not upon the broad basis of a wise and well +digested scheme, of which all the parts should contribute to the +perfection of one consistent whole: It was carried on, not by those +steady measures, founded on rational deliberation, which are calculated +to accomplish so important an end; not with a temperance which indicated +a sober love of law, or a sacred regard for religion; but with the most +extravagant lust of power, and the most inordinate vanity which perhaps +ever instigated human measures; a lust of power which threatens to +extend its desolating influence over the whole globe; a vanity of the +same destructive species with that which stimulated the celebrated +incendiary of Ephesus, who being weary of his native obscurity and +insignificance, and prefering infamy to oblivion, could contrive no +other road to fame and immortality, than that of setting fire to the +exquisite Temple of Diana. He was remembered indeed, as he desired to +be, but only to be execrated; while the seventh wonder of the world lay +prostrate through his crime.</p> + +<p>It is the same over ruling vanity which operates in their politics, and +in their religion, which makes Kersaint<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> boast of carrying his +destructive projects from the Tagus to the Brazils, and from Mexico to +the shores of the Ganges; which makes him menace to outstrip the +enterprises of the most extravagant hero of romance, and almost +undertake with the marvelous celerity of the nimbly footed Puck,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To put a girdle round about the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"In forty minutes."——<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is the same vanity, still the master passion in the bosom of a +Frenchman, which leads Dupont and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>Manuel to undertake in their orations +to abolish the Sabbath, exterminate the Priesthood, erect a Pantheon for +the World, restore the Peripatetic Philosophy, and in short revive every +thing of ancient Greece, except the pure taste, the wisdom, the love of +virtue, the veneration of the laws, and that degree of reverence which +even virtuous Pagans professed for the Deity.</p> + +<p>It is surely to be charged to the inadequate and wretched hands into +which the work of reformation fell, and not to the impossibility of +amending the civil and religious institutions of France, that all has +succeeded so ill. It cannot be denied, perhaps, that a reforming spirit +was wanted in that country; their government was not more despotic, than +their church was superstitious and corrupt.</p> + +<p>But though this is readily granted, and though it may be unfair to blame +those who in the <i>first outset</i> of the French Revolution, rejoiced even +on religious motives; yet it is astonishing, how any pious person, even +with all the blinding power of prejudice, can think without horror of +the <i>present</i> state of France. It is no less wonderful how any rational +man could, even in the beginning of the Revolution; transfer that +reasoning, however just it might be, when applied to France, to the case +of England. For what can be more unreasonable, than to draw from +different, and even opposite premises, the same conclusion? Must a +revolution be equally necessary in the case of two sorts of Government, +and two sorts of Religion, which are the very reverse of each other? +opposite in their genius, unlike in their fundamental principles, and +widely different in each of their component parts.</p> + +<p>That despotism, priestcraft, intolerance, and superstition, are terrible +evils, no candid Christian it is presumed will deny; but, blessed be +God, though these mischiefs are not yet entirely banished from the face +of the earth, they have scarcely any existence in this country.</p> + +<p>To guard against a real danger, and to cure actual abuses, of which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +existence has been first plainly proved, by the application of a +suitable remedy, requires diligence as well as courage; observation as +well as genius; patience and temperance as well as zeal and spirit. It +requires the union of that clear head and sound heart which constitute +the true patriot. But to conjure up fancied evils, or even greatly to +aggravate real ones, and then to exhaust our labour in combating them, +is the characteristic of a distempered imagination and an ungoverned +spirit.</p> + +<p>Romantic crusades, the ordeal trial, drowning of witches, the torture, +and the Inquisition, have been justly reprobated as the foulest stain of +the respective periods, in which, to the disgrace of human reason, they +existed; but would any man be rationally employed, who should now stand +up gravely to declaim against these as the predominating mischiefs of +the present century? Even the whimsical Knight of La Mancha himself, +would not fight wind mills that were pulled down; yet I will venture to +say, that the above named evils are at present little more chimerical +than some of those now so bitterly complained of among us. It is not, as +Dryden said, when one of his works was unmercifully abused, that the +piece has not faults enough in it, but the critics have not had the wit +to fix upon the right ones.</p> + +<p>It is allowed that, as a nation, we have faults enough, but our +political critics err in the objects of their censure. They say little +of those real and pressing evils resulting from our own corruption, +which constitute the actual miseries of life; while they gloomily +speculate upon a thousand imaginary political grievances, and fancy that +the reformation of our rulers and our legislators is all that is wanting +to make us a happy people.</p> + +<p>The principles of just and equitable government were, perhaps, never +more fully established, nor public justice more exactly administered. +Pure and un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>defiled religion was never laid more open to all, than at +this day. I wish I could say we were a religious people; but this at +least may be safely asserted, that the great truths of religion were +never better understood; that Christianity was never more completely +stripped from all its incumbrances and disguises, or more thoroughly +purged from human infusions, and whatever is debasing in human +institutions.</p> + +<p>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 +awfully illustrated a position, which is not the less sound for having +been often controverted, That no degree of wit and learning; no progress +in commerce; no advances in the knowledge of nature, or in the +embellishments of art, can ever thoroughly tame that savage, the natural +human heart, without <span class="smcap">RELIGION</span>. The arts of social life may give a +sweetness to the manners and language, and induce, in some degree, a +love of justice, truth, and humanity; 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 polish is a proof of the solidity of the body; it +depends greatly on the nature of the substance, is not superinduced by +accidental causes, but in a good measure proceeding from internal +soundness.</p> + +<p>The poets of that 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. Fact will put fable out of countenance; and the crimes +which are usually held up to our abhorrence 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.</p> + +<p>If the same astonishing degeneracy in taste, principle, and practice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +should ever come to flourish among us, Britons may still live to exult +in the desolation of her cities, and in the destruction 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 <i>liberty and equality</i>, when all subsisted by rapine +and the chace; when all, O enviable privilege! were equally savage, +equally indigent, and equally naked; may extol it as the restoration of +reason, and the triumph of nature, that they are again brought to feed +on acorns, instead of bread. Groves of consecrated misletoe may happily +succeed to useless corn fields; and Thor and Woden may hope once more to +be invested with all their bloody honours.</p> + +<p>Let not any serious readers feel indignation, as if pains were +ungenerously taken to involve their religious, with their political +opinions. Far be it from me to wound, unnecessarily, the feelings of +people whom I so sincerely esteem; but it is much to be suspected, that +certain opinions in politics have a tendency to lead to certain opinions +in religion. Where so much is at stake, they will do well to keep their +consciences tender, in order to do which they should try to keep their +discernment acute. They will do well to observe, that the same restless +spirit of innovation is busily operating under various, though seemingly +unconnected forms. To observe, that the same impatience of restraint, +the same contempt of order, peace, and subordination, which makes men +bad citizens, makes them bad Christians; and that to this secret, but +almost infallible connexion between religious and political sentiment, +does France owe her present unparalleled anarchy and impiety.</p> + +<p>There are doubtless in that unhappy country multitudes of virtuous and +reasonable men, who rather silently acquiesce in the authority of their +present turbulent government, than embrace its principles or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> 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, when light and order shall spring +from the present darkness and confusion, and the reign of chaos shall be +no more.</p> + +<p>May I be permitted a short digression on the subject of those exiles? It +shall only be to remark, that all the boasted conquests of our Edwards +and our Henrys over the French nation, do not confer such substantial +glory on our own country, as she derives from having received, +protected, and supported, among multitudes of other sufferers, at a time +and under circumstances so peculiarly disadvantageous to herself, <i>three +thousand priests</i>, 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, and 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 performed without effort or exertion, and with +no view to renown; but resulting naturally and necessarily from the +religion they profess.</p> + +<p>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 commenced 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 symptom of the +reigning disease.</p> + +<p>While the fantastic phraseology of the new Republic is such, as to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +almost as disgusting to sound taste, as their doctrines are to sound +morals, it is curious to observe how deeply the addresses, which have +been sent to it from the Clubs<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> in this country, have been infected +with it, as far at least as phrases and terms are objects of imitation. +In other respects, it is but justice to the French Convention to +confess, that they are hitherto without rivals and without imitators; +for who can aspire to emulate that compound of anarchy and atheism which +in their debates is mixed up with the pedantry of school boys, the +jargon of a cabal, and the vulgarity and ill-breeding of a mob? One +instance of the prevailing cant may suffice, where an hundred might be +adduced; and it is not the most exceptionable.—To demolish every +existing law and establishment; to destroy the fortunes and ruin the +principles of every country 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 +shackles 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 +<i>fraternization</i>; and fraternization is one of the favourite terms which +their admirers have adopted. Little would a simple stranger, uninitiated +in this new and surprising dialect, imagine that the peaceful terms of +fellow-citizen and of brother, the winning offer of freedom and +happiness, and the warm embrace of fraternity, were only watch-words by +which they in effect,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">Cry havoc,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let slip the dogs of war.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 XIVth, as their fashionable notions of liberty would be +irreconcileable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>with those of the true Revolution Patriots of his great +contemporary and victorious rival, William the Third.</p> + +<p>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 Christine 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, <i>were he admitted to the +honours of a sitting</i>, be obliged to confess, that he was equally +puzzled to tell the one, or to foretel the other.</p> + +<p>If it shall 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 thunder-bolt, let us try at +least to extract personal benefit from 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 to +our own—<i>Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness</i>. Let every +one of us humbly inquire, in the self-suspecting language of the +disciples to their Divine Master—<i>Lord, is it I?</i> Let us learn to fear +the fleets and armies of the enemy, much less than those iniquities at +home which this alarming dispensation may be intended to chastize.</p> + +<p>The war which the French have 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> 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 <span class="smcap">God</span> +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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">God</span> grant that those who go forth to fight our battles, instead of being +intimidated by the number of their enemies, may bear in mind, that +"there is no restraint with <span class="smcap">God</span> to save by many or by few." And let the +meanest of us who remains at home remember also, that even he may +contribute to the internal safety of his country, by the integrity of +his private life, and to the success of her defenders, by following them +with his fervent prayers. And in what war can the sincere Christian ever +have stronger inducements to pray for the success of his country, than +in this? Without entering far into any political principles, the +discussion of which 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<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>. 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 +<i>Liberty</i>, in the sound 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 on the ground of self-defence and necessity—if ever men +might be literally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> said to fight <i>pro</i> ARIS <i>et focis</i>, this seems to +be the occasion.</p> + +<p>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 extravagance in asserting, that they have seemed +incapable of producing, even in ages, that extent of mischief, that +comprehensive desolation, which <i>philosophy, falsely so called</i>, has +produced in three years.</p> + +<p>Christians! it is not a small thing—it is <i>your life</i>. The pestilence +of irreligion which you detest, will insinuate itself imperceptibly with +those manners, phrases, and principles which you admire and adopt. It is +the humble wisdom of a Christian, to shrink from the most distant +approaches to sin, to abstain from the very appearance of evil. If we +would fly from the deadly 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; <i>but, as for us and our +houses, we will serve the Lord</i>.</p> + +<p>And, O gracious and long suffering God! before that awful period +arrives, which shall exhibit 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 <span class="smcap">THEE</span>, but in the contempt +of <span class="smcap">THY</span> most holy law, do <span class="smcap">THOU</span>, 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 example to all the nations of the earth, what a people +<i>can</i> do, who have cast off the fear of <span class="smcap">THEE</span>, do <span class="smcap">THOU</span> graciously bring +them back to a sense of that law which they have violated, and to +participation of that mercy which they have abused; so that they may +happily find, while the discovery can be attended with consolation, that +<i>doubtless there is a reward for the righteous; verify, there is a</i> <span class="smcap">God</span> +<i>who judgeth the earth</i>.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> See his Speech, enumerating their intended projects.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> See the Collection of Addresses from England, &c. +Published by Mr. Mc. KENZIE, <i>College Green</i>, <span class="smcap">Dublin</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> See the Report of Mr. Pitt's Speech in the House of +Commons on Feb. 12, 1793.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note<a name="tnotes" id="tnotes"></a></h3> +<p>Printer errors have been changed and are listed below. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original.</p> + + +The following changes have been made to the text: + +<p>Page 18: Changed "involve their religous" to "involve their religious".</p> + +<p>Page 18: Changed "in order to which they" to "in order to do which +they".</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Considerations on Religion and Public +Education, by Hannah More + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + +***** This file should be named 37774-h.htm or 37774-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/7/37774/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Considerations on Religion and Public Education + +Author: Hannah More + +Release Date: October 17, 2011 [EBook #37774] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + CONSIDERATIONS + ON + RELIGION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION, + WITH + REMARKS + ON THE _SPEECH_ OF + _M. DUPONT_, + DELIVERED IN THE + NATIONAL CONVENTION + OF + FRANCE. + TOGETHER WITH + AN ADDRESS TO THE LADIES, &c. + OF + _GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND_. + + [Decoration] + + BY HANNAH MORE. + + FIRST _AMERICAN_ EDITION. + + PRINTED AT _BOSTON_, + BY WELD AND GREENOUGH. + SOLD at the MAGAZINE OFFICE, No. 49, State Street. + MDCCXCIV. + + + + +[Decoration] + +A PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE LADIES, &c. of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, IN +BEHALF OF THE FRENCH EMIGRANT CLERGY. + +[Decoration] + + +If it be allowed that there may arise occasions so extraordinary, that +all the lesser motives of delicacy ought to vanish before them; it is +presumed that the present emergency will in some measure justify the +hardiness of an Address from a private individual, who, stimulated by +the urgency of the case, sacrifices inferior considerations to the +ardent desire of raising further supplies towards relieving a distress +as pressing as it is unexampled. + +We are informed by public advertisement, that the large sums already so +liberally subscribed for the Emigrant Clergy, are almost exhausted. +Authentic information adds, that multitudes of distressed Exiles in the +island of Jersey, are on the point of wanting bread. + +Very many to whom this address is made have already contributed. O let +them not be weary in well-doing! Many are making generous exertions for +the just and natural claims of the widows and children of our brave +seamen and soldiers. Let it not be said, that the present is an +_interfering_ claim. Those to whom I write, have bread enough, and to +spare. You, who fare sumptuously every day, and yet complain you have +little to bestow, let not this bounty be subtracted from another bounty, +but rather from some superfluous expense. + +The beneficent and right minded want no arguments to be pressed upon +them; but I write to those of every description. Luxurious habits of +living, which really furnish the distressed with the fairest grounds for +application, are too often urged as a motive for withholding assistance, +and produced as a plea for having little to spare. Let her who indulges +such habits, and pleads such excuses in consequence, reflect, that by +retrenching _one_ costly dish from her abundant table, the superfluities +of _one_ expensive desert, _one_ evening's public amusement, she may +furnish at least a week's subsistence to more than one person,[A] as +liberally bred perhaps as herself, and who, in his own country, may have +often tasted how much more blessed it is to give than to receive--to a +minister of God, who has been long accustomed to bestow the necessaries +he is now reduced to solicit. + +Even your young daughters, whom maternal prudence has not yet furnished +with the means of bestowing, may be cheaply taught the first rudiments +of charity, together with an important lesson of economy: They may be +taught to sacrifice a feather, a set of ribbons, an expensive ornament, +an idle diversion. And if they are thus instructed, that there is no +true charity without self denial, they will _gain_ more than they are +called upon to _give_: For the suppression of one luxury for a +charitable purpose, is the exercise of two virtues, and this without any +pecuniary expense. + +Let the sick and afflicted remember how dreadful it must be, to be +exposed to sufferings, without one of the alleviations which mitigate +_their_ affliction. How dreadful it is to be without comforts, without +necessaries, without a home--_without a country_! While the gay and +prosperous would do well to recollect, how suddenly and terribly those +for whom we plead, were, by the surprising vicissitudes of life, thrown +from equal heights of gaiety and prosperity. And let those who have +husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, or friends, reflect on the +uncertainties of war, and the revolution of human affairs. It is only by +imagining the possibility of those who are dear to us being placed in +the same calamitous circumstances, that we can obtain an adequate +feeling of the woes we are called upon to commiserate. + +In a distress so wide and comprehensive, many are prevented from giving +by that common excuse--"That it is but a drop of water in the ocean." +But let them reflect, that if all the individual drops were withheld, +there would be no ocean at all; and the inability to give much ought +not, on any occasion, to be converted into an excuse for giving nothing. +Even moderate circumstances need not plead an exemption. The industrious +tradesman will not, even in a political view, be eventually a loser by +his small contribution. The money raised is neither carried out of our +country, nor dissipated in luxuries, but returns again to the community; +to our shops and to our markets, to procure the bare necessaries of +life. + +Some have objected to the difference of _religion_ of those for whom we +solicit. Such an objection hardly deserves a serious answer. Surely if +the superstitious Tartar hopes to become possessed of the courage and +talents of the enemy he slays, the Christian is not afraid of catching, +or of propagating the error of the sufferer he relieves.--Christian +charity is of no party. We plead not for their faith, but for their +wants. And let the more scrupulous, who look for desert as well as +distress in the objects of their bounty, bear in mind, that if these men +could have sacrificed their conscience to their convenience, they had +not now been in this country. Let us shew them the purity of _our_ +religion, by the beneficence of our actions. + +If you will permit me to press upon you such high motives (and it were +to be wished that in every action we were to be influenced by the +highest) perhaps no act of bounty to which you may be called out, can +ever come so immediately under that solemn and affecting description, +which will be recorded in the great day of account--_I was a stranger +and ye took me in_.---- + + + + +[Decoration] + +_The following is an exact Translation from a_ SPEECH _made in the +National Convention at Paris, on Friday the 14th of December, 1792, in a +Debate on the Subject of establishing Public Schools for the Education +of Youth, by Citizen_ DUPONT, _a Member of considerable Weight; and as +the Doctrines contained in it were received with unanimous Applause, +except from two or three of the Clergy, it may be fairly considered as +an Exposition of the Creed of that Enlightened Assembly. Translated +from_ Le Moniteur _of Sunday the 16th of December, 1792_. + +[Decoration] + +What! Thrones are overturned! Sceptres broken! Kings expire! And yet the +Altars of GOD remain! (Here there is a murmur from some Members; and the +Abbe ICHON demands that the person speaking may be called to order.) +Tyrants, in outrage to nature, continue to burn an impious incense on +those Altars! (Some murmurs arise, but they are lost in the applauses +from the majority of the Assembly.) The Thrones that have been reversed, +have left these Altars naked, unsupported, and tottering. A single +breath of enlightened reason will now be sufficient to make them +disappear; and if humanity is under obligations to the French nation for +the first of these benefits, the fall of Kings, can it be doubted but +that the French people, now sovereign, will be wise enough, in like +manner, to overthrow those Altars and _those Idols_ to which those Kings +have hitherto made them subject? _Nature_ and _Reason_, these ought to +be the gods of men! These are my gods! (Here the Abbe AUDREIN cried out, +"There is no bearing this;" and rushed out of the Assembly.--A great +laugh.) Admire _nature_--cultivate _reason_. And you, Legislators, if +you desire that the French people should be happy, make haste to +propagate these principles, and to teach them in your primary schools, +instead of those fanatical principles which have hitherto been taught. +The tyranny of Kings was confined to make their people miserable in this +life--but those other tyrants, the Priests, extend their dominion into +another, of which they have no other idea than of eternal punishments; a +doctrine which some men have hitherto had the good nature to believe. +But the moment of the catastrophe is come--all these prejudices must +fall at the same time. _We must destroy them, or they will destroy +us._--For myself, I honestly avow to the Convention, _I am an atheist_! +(Here there is some noise and tumult. But a great number of members cry +out, "What is that to us--you are an honest man!") But I defy a single +individual, among the twenty-four millions of Frenchmen, to make against +me any well grounded reproach. I doubt whether the Christians, or the +Catholics, of which the last speaker, and those of his opinion, have +been talking to us, can make the same challenge.--(Great applauses.) +There is another consideration--Paris has had great losses. It has been +deprived of the commerce of luxury; of that factitious splendour which +was found at courts, and invited strangers hither. Well! We must repair +these losses.--Let me then represent to you the times, that are fast +approaching, when our philosophers, whose names are celebrated +throughout Europe, PETION, SYEYES, CONDORCET, and others--surrounded in +our Pantheon, as the Greek philosophers where at Athens, with a crowd of +disciples coming from all parts of Europe, walking like the +Peripatetics, and teaching--this man, the system of the universe, and +developing the progress of all human knowledge; that, perfectioning the +social system, and shewing in our decree of the 17th of June, 1789, the +seeds of the insurrections of the 14th of July and the 10th of August, +and of all those insurrections which are spreading with such rapidity +throughout Europe--So that these young strangers, on their return to +their respective countries, may spread the same lights, and may operate, +_for the happiness of Mankind_, similar revolutions throughout the +world. + +(Numberless applauses arose, almost throughout the whole Assembly, and +in the Galleries.) + +[Decoration] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: Mr. Bowdler's letter states, that about Six Shillings a +week included the expenses of each Priest at Winchester.] + + + + +[Decoration] + +REMARKS + +ON THE + +SPEECH of Mr. DUPONT, + +ON THE SUBJECTS OF + +Religion and Public Education. + +[Decoration] + + +It is presumed that it may not be thought unseasonable at this critical +time to offer to the Public, and especially to the more religious part +of it, a few slight observations, occasioned by the late famous Speech +of Mr. Dupont, which exhibits the Confession of Faith of a considerable +Member of the French National Convention. Though the Speech itself has +been pretty generally read, yet it was thought necessary to perfix it to +these Remarks, lest such as have not already perused it, might, from an +honest reluctance to credit the existence of such principles, dispute +its authenticity, and accuse the remarks, if unaccompanied by the +Speech, of a spirit of invective and unfair exaggeration. At the same +time it must be confessed, that its impiety is so monstrous, that many +good men were of opinion it ought not to be made familiar to the minds +of Englishmen; for there are crimes with which even the imagination +should never come in contact. + +But as an ancient nation intoxicated their slaves, and then exposed them +before their children, in order to increase their horror of +intemperance; so it is hoped that this piece of impiety may be placed in +such a light before the eyes of the Christian reader, that, in +proportion as his detestation is raised, his faith, instead of being +shaken, will be only so much the more strengthened. + +This celebrated Speech, though delivered in an assembly of Politicians, +is not on a question of politics, but on one as superior as the soul is +to the body, and eternity to time. The object here, is not to dethrone +kings, but HIM by whom kings reign. It does not here excite the cry of +indignation that _Louis_ reigns, but that _the Lord God omnipotent +reigneth_. + +Nor is this the declaration of some obscure and anonymous person, but an +exposition of the Creed of a public Leader. It is not a sentiment hinted +in a journal, hazarded in a pamphlet, or thrown out at a disputing club: +but it is the implied faith of the rulers of a great nation. + +Little notice would have been due to this famous Speech, if it had +conveyed the sentiments of only _one_ vain orator; but it should be +observed, that it was heard, received, _applauded_, with two or three +exceptions only--a fact, which you, who have scarcely believed in the +existence of atheism, will hardly credit, and which, for the honour of +the eighteenth century, it is hoped that our posterity, being still more +unacquainted with such corrupt opinions, will reject as totally +incredible. + +A love of liberty, generous in its principle, inclines some good men +still to savour the proceedings of the National Convention of France. +They do not yet perceive that the licentious wildness which has been +excited in that country, is destructive of all true happiness, and no +more resemble liberty, than the tumultuous joys of the drunkard, +resemble the cheerfulness of a sober and well regulated mind. + +To those who do not know of what strange inconsistences man is made up; +who have not considered how some persons, having at first been hastily +and heedlessly drawn in as approvers, by a sort of natural progression, +soon become principals;--to those who have never observed by what a +variety of strange associations in the mind, opinions that seem the most +irreconcileable meet at some unsuspected turning, and come to be united +in the same man;--to all such it may appear quite incredible, that well +meaning and even pious people should continue to applaud the principles +of a set of men who have publicly made known their intention of +abolishing Christianity, as far as the demolition of altars, priests, +temples, and institutions, _can_ abolish it; and as to the religion +itself, this also they may traduce, and for their own part reject, but +we know, from the comfortable promise of an authority still sacred in +this country at least, that _the gates of hell shall not prevail against +it_. + +Let me not be misunderstood by those to whom these slight remarks are +principally addressed; that class of well intentioned people, who favour +at least, if they do not adopt, the prevailing sentiments of the new +Republic. You are not here accused of being the wilful abetters of +infidelity. God forbid! "we are persuaded better things of you, and +things which accompany salvation." But this _ignis fatuus_ of liberty +and universal brotherhood, which the French are madly pursuing, with the +insignia of freedom in one hand, and the bloody bayonet in the other, +has bewitched your senses, and is in danger of misleading your steps. +You are gazing at a meteor raised by the vapours of vanity, which these +wild and infatuated wanderers are pursuing to their destruction; and +though for a moment you mistake it for a heaven-born light, which leads +to the perfection of human freedom, you will, should you join in the mad +pursuit, soon discover that it will conduct you over dreary wilds and +sinking bogs, only to plunge you in deep and inevitable ruin. + +Much, very much is to be said in vindication of your favouring in the +first instance their political projects. The cause they took in hand +seemed to be the great cause of human kind. Its very name insured its +popularity. What English heart did not exult at the demolition of the +Bastile? What lover of his species did not triumph in the warm hope, +that one of the finest countries in the world would soon be one of the +most free? Popery and despotism, though chained by the gentle influence +of Louis XVIth, had actually slain their thousands. Little was it then +imagined, that anarchy and atheism, the monsters who were about to +succeed them, would soon slay their ten thousands. If we cannot regret +the defeat of the two former tyrants, what must they be who can triumph +in the mischiefs of the two latter? Who, I say, that had a head to +reason, or a heart to feel, did not glow with hope, that from the ruins +of tyranny, and the rubbish of popery, a beautiful and finely framed +edifice would in time have been constructed, and that ours would not +have been the only country in which the patriot's fair idea of well +understood liberty, and of the most pure and reasonable, as well as the +most sublime and exalted Christianity might be realized? + +But, alas! it frequently happens that the wise and good are not the most +adventurous in attacking the mischiefs which they perceive and lament. +With a timidity in some respects virtuous, they fear attempting any +thing which may possible aggravate the evils they deplore, or put to +hazard the blessings they already enjoy. They dread plucking up the +wheat with the tares, and are rather apt, with a spirit of hopeless +resignation, + + "To bear the ills they have, + "Than fly to others that they know not of." + +While sober minded and considerate men, therefore, sat mourning over +this complicated mass of error, and waited till God, in his own good +time, should open the blind eyes; the vast scheme of reformation was +left to that set of rash and presumptuous adventurers, who are generally +watching how they may convert public grievances to their own personal +account. It was undertaken, not upon the broad basis of a wise and well +digested scheme, of which all the parts should contribute to the +perfection of one consistent whole: It was carried on, not by those +steady measures, founded on rational deliberation, which are calculated +to accomplish so important an end; not with a temperance which indicated +a sober love of law, or a sacred regard for religion; but with the most +extravagant lust of power, and the most inordinate vanity which perhaps +ever instigated human measures; a lust of power which threatens to +extend its desolating influence over the whole globe; a vanity of the +same destructive species with that which stimulated the celebrated +incendiary of Ephesus, who being weary of his native obscurity and +insignificance, and prefering infamy to oblivion, could contrive no +other road to fame and immortality, than that of setting fire to the +exquisite Temple of Diana. He was remembered indeed, as he desired to +be, but only to be execrated; while the seventh wonder of the world lay +prostrate through his crime. + +It is the same over ruling vanity which operates in their politics, and +in their religion, which makes Kersaint[B] boast of carrying his +destructive projects from the Tagus to the Brazils, and from Mexico to +the shores of the Ganges; which makes him menace to outstrip the +enterprises of the most extravagant hero of romance, and almost +undertake with the marvelous celerity of the nimbly footed Puck, + + "To put a girdle round about the earth + "In forty minutes."---- + +It is the same vanity, still the master passion in the bosom of a +Frenchman, which leads Dupont and Manuel to undertake in their orations +to abolish the Sabbath, exterminate the Priesthood, erect a Pantheon for +the World, restore the Peripatetic Philosophy, and in short revive every +thing of ancient Greece, except the pure taste, the wisdom, the love of +virtue, the veneration of the laws, and that degree of reverence which +even virtuous Pagans professed for the Deity. + +It is surely to be charged to the inadequate and wretched hands into +which the work of reformation fell, and not to the impossibility of +amending the civil and religious institutions of France, that all has +succeeded so ill. It cannot be denied, perhaps, that a reforming spirit +was wanted in that country; their government was not more despotic, than +their church was superstitious and corrupt. + +But though this is readily granted, and though it may be unfair to blame +those who in the _first outset_ of the French Revolution, rejoiced even +on religious motives; yet it is astonishing, how any pious person, even +with all the blinding power of prejudice, can think without horror of +the _present_ state of France. It is no less wonderful how any rational +man could, even in the beginning of the Revolution; transfer that +reasoning, however just it might be, when applied to France, to the case +of England. For what can be more unreasonable, than to draw from +different, and even opposite premises, the same conclusion? Must a +revolution be equally necessary in the case of two sorts of Government, +and two sorts of Religion, which are the very reverse of each other? +opposite in their genius, unlike in their fundamental principles, and +widely different in each of their component parts. + +That despotism, priestcraft, intolerance, and superstition, are terrible +evils, no candid Christian it is presumed will deny; but, blessed be +God, though these mischiefs are not yet entirely banished from the face +of the earth, they have scarcely any existence in this country. + +To guard against a real danger, and to cure actual abuses, of which the +existence has been first plainly proved, by the application of a +suitable remedy, requires diligence as well as courage; observation as +well as genius; patience and temperance as well as zeal and spirit. It +requires the union of that clear head and sound heart which constitute +the true patriot. But to conjure up fancied evils, or even greatly to +aggravate real ones, and then to exhaust our labour in combating them, +is the characteristic of a distempered imagination and an ungoverned +spirit. + +Romantic crusades, the ordeal trial, drowning of witches, the torture, +and the Inquisition, have been justly reprobated as the foulest stain of +the respective periods, in which, to the disgrace of human reason, they +existed; but would any man be rationally employed, who should now stand +up gravely to declaim against these as the predominating mischiefs of +the present century? Even the whimsical Knight of La Mancha himself, +would not fight wind mills that were pulled down; yet I will venture to +say, that the above named evils are at present little more chimerical +than some of those now so bitterly complained of among us. It is not, as +Dryden said, when one of his works was unmercifully abused, that the +piece has not faults enough in it, but the critics have not had the wit +to fix upon the right ones. + +It is allowed that, as a nation, we have faults enough, but our +political critics err in the objects of their censure. They say little +of those real and pressing evils resulting from our own corruption, +which constitute the actual miseries of life; while they gloomily +speculate upon a thousand imaginary political grievances, and fancy that +the reformation of our rulers and our legislators is all that is wanting +to make us a happy people. + +The principles of just and equitable government were, perhaps, never +more fully established, nor public justice more exactly administered. +Pure and undefiled religion was never laid more open to all, than at +this day. I wish I could say we were a religious people; but this at +least may be safely asserted, that the great truths of religion were +never better understood; that Christianity was never more completely +stripped from all its incumbrances and disguises, or more thoroughly +purged from human infusions, and whatever is debasing in human +institutions. + +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 +awfully illustrated a position, which is not the less sound for having +been often controverted, That no degree of wit and learning; no progress +in commerce; no advances in the knowledge of nature, or in the +embellishments of art, can ever thoroughly tame that savage, the natural +human heart, without RELIGION. The arts of social life may give a +sweetness to the manners and language, and induce, in some degree, a +love of justice, truth, and humanity; 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 polish is a proof of the solidity of the body; it +depends greatly on the nature of the substance, is not superinduced by +accidental causes, but in a good measure proceeding from internal +soundness. + +The poets of that 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. Fact will put fable out of countenance; and the crimes +which are usually held up to our abhorrence 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. + +If the same astonishing degeneracy in taste, principle, and practice, +should ever come to flourish among us, Britons may still live to exult +in the desolation of her cities, and in the destruction 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 chace; when all, O enviable privilege! were equally savage, +equally indigent, and equally naked; may extol it as the restoration of +reason, and the triumph of nature, that they are again brought to feed +on acorns, instead of bread. Groves of consecrated misletoe may happily +succeed to useless corn fields; and Thor and Woden may hope once more to +be invested with all their bloody honours. + +Let not any serious readers feel indignation, as if pains were +ungenerously taken to involve their religious, with their political +opinions. Far be it from me to wound, unnecessarily, the feelings of +people whom I so sincerely esteem; but it is much to be suspected, that +certain opinions in politics have a tendency to lead to certain opinions +in religion. Where so much is at stake, they will do well to keep their +consciences tender, in order to do which they should try to keep their +discernment acute. They will do well to observe, that the same restless +spirit of innovation is busily operating under various, though seemingly +unconnected forms. To observe, that the same impatience of restraint, +the same contempt of order, peace, and subordination, which makes men +bad citizens, makes them bad Christians; and that to this secret, but +almost infallible connexion between religious and political sentiment, +does France owe her present unparalleled anarchy and impiety. + +There are doubtless in that unhappy country multitudes 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, when light and order shall spring +from the present darkness and confusion, and the reign of chaos shall be +no more. + +May I be permitted a short digression on the subject of those exiles? It +shall only be to remark, that all the boasted conquests of our Edwards +and our Henrys over the French nation, do not confer such substantial +glory on our own country, as she derives from having received, +protected, and supported, among 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, and 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 performed without effort or exertion, and with +no view to renown; but resulting naturally and necessarily from the +religion they profess. + +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 commenced 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 symptom of the +reigning disease. + +While the fantastic phraseology of the new Republic is such, as to be +almost as disgusting to sound taste, as their doctrines are to sound +morals, it is curious to observe how deeply the addresses, which have +been sent to it from the Clubs[C] in this country, have been infected +with it, as far at least as phrases and terms are objects of imitation. +In other respects, it is but justice to the French Convention to +confess, that they are hitherto without rivals and without imitators; +for who can aspire to emulate that compound of anarchy and atheism which +in their debates is mixed up with the pedantry of school boys, the +jargon of a cabal, and the vulgarity and ill-breeding of a mob? One +instance of the prevailing cant may suffice, where an hundred might be +adduced; and it is not the most exceptionable.--To demolish every +existing law and establishment; to destroy the fortunes and ruin the +principles of every country 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 +shackles 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 have adopted. Little would a simple stranger, uninitiated +in this new and surprising dialect, imagine that the peaceful terms of +fellow-citizen and of brother, the winning offer of freedom and +happiness, and the warm embrace of fraternity, were only watch-words by +which they in effect, + + Cry havoc, + And let slip the dogs of war. + +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 XIVth, as their fashionable notions of liberty would be +irreconcileable with those of the true Revolution Patriots of his great +contemporary 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 Christine 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 +honours of a sitting_, be obliged to confess, that he was equally +puzzled to tell the one, or to foretel the other. + +If it shall 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 thunder-bolt, let us try at +least to extract personal benefit from 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 to +our own--_Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness_. Let every +one of us humbly inquire, in the self-suspecting language of the +disciples to their Divine Master--_Lord, is it I?_ Let us learn to fear +the fleets and armies of the enemy, much less than those iniquities at +home which this alarming dispensation may be intended to chastize. + +The war which the French have 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. + +GOD grant that those who go forth to fight 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 of us who remains at home remember also, that even he may +contribute to the internal safety of his country, by the integrity of +his private life, and to the success of her defenders, by following them +with his fervent prayers. And in what war can the sincere Christian ever +have stronger inducements to pray for the success of his country, than +in this? Without entering far into any political principles, the +discussion of which 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[D]. 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 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 on the ground of self-defence and necessity--if ever men +might be literally said to fight _pro_ ARIS _et focis_, this seems 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 extravagance in asserting, that they have seemed +incapable of producing, even in ages, that extent of mischief, that +comprehensive desolation, which _philosophy, falsely so called_, has +produced in three years. + +Christians! it is not a small thing--it is _your life_. The pestilence +of irreligion which you detest, will insinuate itself imperceptibly with +those manners, phrases, and principles which you admire and adopt. It is +the humble wisdom of a Christian, to shrink from the most distant +approaches to sin, to abstain from the very appearance of evil. If we +would fly from the deadly 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! before that awful period +arrives, which shall exhibit 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 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 +participation of that mercy which they have abused; so that they may +happily find, while the discovery can be attended with consolation, that +_doubtless there is a reward for the righteous; verify, there is a_ GOD +_who judgeth the earth_. + + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote B: See his Speech, enumerating their intended projects.] + +[Footnote C: See the Collection of Addresses from England, &c. +Published by Mr. Mc. KENZIE, _College Green_, DUBLIN.] + +[Footnote D: See the Report of Mr. Pitt's Speech in the House of +Commons on Feb. 12, 1793.] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note + + +Printer errors have been changed and are listed below. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. + +Characters that could not be displayed directly in Latin-1 are +transcribed as follows: + +_ - italics + + +The following changes have been made to the text: + +Page 18: Changed "involve their religous" to "involve their religious". + +Page 18: Changed "in order to which they" to "in order to do which +they". + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Considerations on Religion and Public +Education, by Hannah More + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONSIDERATIONS ON RELIGION *** + +***** This file should be named 37774.txt or 37774.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/7/37774/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Carla Foust, Joseph Cooper and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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