IX. Nor can it be faid that thefe are vain fears.

We know that the enemy is working among us, and that there are many appearances in thefe kingdoms which ftrongly refemble the contrivance of this daii- eerous affociation. We know that before the Order of Ilium inati was broken up by the Eledor of Bava- lia, there were feveral Lodges in Britain, and we may be certain that they are not all broken up. I know that they are not, and that within thefe tvro years fome Lodges were ignorant or affeded to be fo, of the corrupted principles and dangerous deligns of the liluminati. The conflitution of the Order fhcws that this mav be, for the L were illuminated by degrees. But I muft remark, that we can hardly fappofe a Lodge to be effabliflied in any place, unlefs there be fome very zealous Bro- ther at hand to inilrucf and direct it. And I think th:}t a perfon can hardly be advanced as far as the
rank
CHAP. iv. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 353
rank of Scotch Knight of the Order, and be a fafc man either for our Church or State. I am very well informed, that there arefeveral thoufands of fubfcrib- ing Brethren in London alone, and we can hardly doubt, but that many of that number are vs^ell advan- ced. The vocabularv alfo of the Illuminati is cur- rent in certain focieties among us. Thefe focieties have taken the very name and conftitution of the French and German focieties. Correfponding —
Affiliated— Provincial — Refcript — Convention
Reading Societies— Citizen of the World — Liberty and Equality, the Imprefciiptible Rights of Man, ^c. &c. And mull: it not be acknowledged that our public arbiters of literary merit have greatly chang- ed their manner of treatment of Theological and po- litical writings of late years ? I'ill Paine's Age of Reafon appeared, the mofl: fceptical writings of Eng- land kept within the bounds of decency and of argu- ment, and we have not, in the courfe of two centu- ries, one piece that (hould be compared with many of the blackguard produdions of the German prefTes. Vet even thofe performances generally met with fharp reproof as well as judicious refutation. This is a tribute of coramendacion to Vvhich mv countrv is moll juilly entitled. In a former part of my life I was pretty converlant in writings oi this kind, and have feen aimoll every Engiifli performance of note. I cannot exprefs the furpriie and difgufl which I felt atthe number and the grofs indecency of the German dilTertations which have come in mv way fince I be- gan this little hiftory,— and many of the titles which I obferve in the Leipzig catalogues are fuch as I think no Britifh writer would make ufe of. I am told that the iicentioufnefs of the prefs has been equally remarkable in France, even before the Re- volution.— May this fenfe of propriety and decen- cy long continue to protcd us, and fupport the na- tional
354 "^"^ FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAP, JV,
tional character for real good breeding, as our aN tainmerjts in manly fcience have hitherto gained us the reipeft of the furrounding nations !
I cannot help thinking that BritiHi fentiment, or Britifti delicacy, is changed ; for Paine's book is treated by moil of our Reviewers with an af- fected liberality and candour, and is laid before the public as quite new matter, and a fair field for difculiion-rr—and it ftrikes me as if our critics were more careful to let no fault of his ppponents pafs unnoticed than to expofe the futility and rudenefs of this indelicate writer. In the review^ of poli^ tical w^ritings we fee fgw of thole kind endeavours, which real love for our conftitutional government would induce a writer to employ in order to le{^ fen the fretful difcontents of the people ; and there is frequently betrayed a fatisfadljon at find- ing adminiftration in flraits, either through mif- conducit or misfortune. Real love for our coun- try and its government would (I think) induce a perfon to mix with his criticifms fome fentiments of fympathy with the embarraiTirtent of a minifter loaded with the builncfs of a great nation, in a li- tuation never before experienced by any minifler. The critic would recollect that the minifter was a man, fubjeift to error, but not necefTarily nor alto- gether bale. But it ieems to be an afiumed prin- ciple with fome of our political writers and re- viewers that government mud always be in fault, and that every thing needs a reform. Such w^ere the beginnings on the continent, and we cannot doubt but that attempts are made to influence the public mind in this country, in the very way that has been pra(^ifed abro^id. — Nay,
X, The detcftable dodlrines of Illuminatifm have been openly preached among us. Has not Dr. Frieftley faid, (1 think in one of his letters on
the
4(
CHAP* IV. tHE FR£NCH REVOLUTIOxN. 3^ |
the Birmingham riots,) " That if the condition of other nations be as much improved as that ©f France will be by the change in her fyftcm of government, tlie great crifis, dreadful as it may appear, will be a confummation devoutly to be wifhcd for ;i-^and though calamitous to many^ perhaps to many innocent perfons, v^ili be even- tually glorious and happy ?" — Is not this equi- valent to Spartacus faying, *' True— there will be *' a ftorm, a convulfion — but all v/ill be calm " again ?".^~Does Dr. Prieflley think that the Bri- tifli will part more eafiily than their neighbours in France with their property and honours, fecured by ages of peaceable poiTellaon, protedled by law, and acquiefced in by all who wifli and hope that their own defcendants may reap the fruits of their honeft induftry ?— Will they make a lefs manly ftruggle ? — Are they lefs numerous ? — Mufl his friends, his patrons, whom he has thanked, and praifed, and flattered^ yield up all peaceably, or fall in the general ftruggle ? This writer has al- ready given the moft promifing fpecimens of his own docility in the principles of Illuminatifm, and has already paffed through feveral degrees of ini- tiation. He has refined and refined on Chrifti- anity, and boafts, like another Spartacus, that he has, at laft, hit on the true fecret. — Has he not been preparing the minds of his rea ifm by his theory of mind, and by his commen- tary on the unmeaning jargon of Dr. Hartley ? I call it unmeaning jargon, that I may avoid giv- ing it a more appolite and difgraceful name. For, if intelligence and defign be nothing but a certain modihcation of the vib?atiuncula or un- dulations of any kind, what is fupreme intelli- gence, but a more extenfive, and (perhaps they will call it) refined undulation, pervading or mix- ing
35^ '^HE FRENCH REVOLUTION. GHAP. IV i
ing with all others ? Indeed it is in this very man- ner that the univerfal operation of intelligence is pretended to be explained* As any new or par- tial undulation may be fuperinduced on any otliei- already exiftinpf, and this without the leaft diflurb- ance or confuiion, fo may the inferior intelligen- ces in the univerfe be only fuperinduftions on the operations of this fupreme intelligence which per- vades them all, — -And thus an undulation (of w^hat? furely of fomething prior to and independent of this modification) is the caufe of all the beings in the univerfe, and of all the harmony and beauty that we obferve, — And this undulation is the ob- \ jedl of love, and gratitude, and confidence (that is, of other kinds of undulations.) — Fortunately ail this has no meaning. — ^But furely, if any thing can tend to diminilh the force of our religious fentiments, and make all Dr. Prieftley's difcoveries in Chriftianity infignificant, this will do it.
Were it poflible for the departed foul of New^- ton to feel pain, he would furely recolleft with re- gret that unhappy hour, when provoked by Dr. Hooke's charge of plagiarifm, be firft threw out his ivhim of a vibrating ether, to fliew what might be made of an hypothehs. — For Sir Ifaac Newton mud be allowed to have paved the way for much of the atomical philofophy of the moderns. Newton's aether is aifumed as a fac totum by every precipitate fciolifl, who, in defpite of logic, and in contradic- tion to all the principles of mechanics,, gives us the- ories of mufcular motion, of animal fen-^ation, and even of intelligence and volition, by the undula- tions of setherial fluids. Not one of a hundred of thefe theories can go through the fundamental theo- rem of all this dodrine, the 47th prop, of the 'Sd . book of the Principia, and not one in a thouiand know that Newton's inveftigation is inconcluiive. —
Yet
CHAP. IV. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 2>S1
Yet they talk ofthe effects and modificatioriS of chofe un- dulations as familiariy andconndentjyasif they could dernonllrate the propolitions in Euclid's Elements. Yet fuch is the reaion that fatisfies Dr. Prieftly. — But I do not fappoie that he has yet attained his acme of likimination. His genius has been cramped by Britifh prejudices. — -Theie need not fway his mind any longer. lie is now in that " rard temporis {^ct *' loci) feiici tut e^ ubi /entire qu^e veils ^ etquajentias ^' dic^te licet ^' — in the country which was honour- ed by giving the world the firil: avowed edition of the Age of Reajon^ with the name of the (hop and pub- liiher. I make no doubt but that his mind will now take a higher i^ight, — and we may expect to fee him fire " that train by which he boalled that he would *' blow up the religious eftablifhrnent of his ftupid , *- and enflaved native country."— Peace be with him. — But I grieve that he has left any of his friends and abettors among us, who declaim, in the moil violent and unqualified terms, againit all national EflabliQiments of Religion, and in no friendly terms of any ellablifliments which maintain or allow any privileged Orders. Difcanting much on fuch topics increafes the difiatisfaclion of the lefs fortu- liate part of mankind, who naturally repine at ad- vantivges which do not arlfe from the peribnal merit of th.^ pcfTeiTor, akhoui>h thev are the natural and necellary fruits of m€rit in their anceflors, and of the JLifiice and fecurity of our happy Conilitution. No well informed and feniible man will deny that the greateft injury was done to pure Religion v/hen Coniiantine deciaied Chriftianity to beihe Religion of the Empire, and vefced the Church with all the rich- es and power of the Heathen Prieflhood. Butit is falfe that this wasthe fourceof ail orof the woril corruptions of Chrillianity. The mereii novice in Church Hiftory knows that the errors of the GncHics, of the Cerin-
2 X thians.
^5^ THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAP, iv^
thians, and others, long preceded this event, and that thoufands lofl their lives in thofe naetaphyfical dil'putes. But I cannot help thinking that, in the prefent condition of Europe, religion would defert the world, if the opinions of men were not dired- ed, in fome proper degree, by National Eliabiifli- ments. Teachers among the Independents will court popuh^rity, as they have always courted it ; by foflering fome favourite and difcriininating opinion Qt their hearers. The old fubjevfts of debate have now loil their zeit, and I iliouid fear that tlie teach- ers would find it a fuccelsful, as it is an eafy road to popularity, to lead their hearers through a feries of refinements, till they are landed, much to their fa- tisfaclion, in the Materialifm of Dr. Prieftley, from which it is but a Rep to the Atheifm of Diderot and Condorcet.
Seeing that there are fuch grounds of apprehen- fion, I tliink that we have caufe to be upon our guard, and that every man who has enjoyed the fw^eets of Britifli liberty fliould be ver^ anxious in- deed to preferve it. We fhould difcourage all fe- cret alTemblies, which afford opportunities to the difaffecled, and all converfations which fofter any notions of political perfection, and create hanker- ings after unattainable happinefs. Thefe only in- creafe the difcontents of the unfortunate, the idle, and the worthlefs.— Above all, we fliould be careful to difcourage and check immorality and licentiouf- nefs in every (liape. For this will of itfelf fubvert every government, and will fubjecl us to the vile tyranny of a profligate mob.