I. I may obferve, in ihtfirji place, and I beg ic

may be particularly attended to, that in all thole vil- lainous machinations againR the peace of the world, the attack has been firfl made on the principles of Morality and Religion. The confpirators faw that till thefe are extirpated, they have no chance of fuc- cefs ; and their manner of proceeding (hews that they confider Religion and Morality as infeparably conneded together. We learn much from this — Fas eft et ab hojie doceri. — They endeavour to deflroy our religious fentiments, by firil corrupting our mo- rals. They try to inflame our pafiions, that when the demands from this quarter become urgent, the reftraints of Religion may immediately come in fight, and ftand in the way. They are careful, on this oc- calion, to give fuch a view of thofe reftraints, tliat the real origin of them does not appear. — We are made to believe that they have been altogether the contrivance of Priefls and defpots, in ord^^r to get the command of us. They take care, to fupport thefe aflertions by fads, which, to our great (hame, and greater misfortune, are but too nunjerous. Having now the paffions on their fide, they find no difficuky in perfuading the voiuptuarv, or the diicontented, that tyranny, acluaily exerted, or refolved on in fu- ture, is the fole origin of religious reHraint. He feeks no further ars^ument, and e;ives liimfelf no trouble to find any. Had he examined the matter with any care, he would find himfeif juft brought back to thofe very feelings of moral excellence and moral depravity that he wifhes to get rid of altoge- ther; and thefe would tell him tljat pure Religion
does
•3 14 THE FREN'CFikEVOLUfrON, CtiAP. IV/'
does not hy a fingle reflralnt on us that a noble na-- ture would not have laid on itfelf— -nor enjoins a iingle duty which an ingenuous 2nd warm heart would not be aChamed to find itfeif deficient in. He' would then lee that all the fandlions of Religion are fitted to his high rank in the fcale of exiflcnce.- And the more he contemplates his future profpecfls, the more they brighten upon his view, the more attainable they appear, and the more he is able to know what they may probably be. Having attained this happy fiate of mind, (an attainment in the power of any kind heart that is in earned in the enquiry) he will think that no punifhment is too great for the un- thankful and groveling foul which can forego fuch hopes, and rejed thefe noble proffers, for the com«^ paratively frivolous and tranfitory gratifications of life. He is not frightened into worthy and virtuous condud by fears of fuch merited punifliment ; but^ if not enticed into it by his high expedations, he is^ at leafl^i retained in the paths of virtue by a kind of manly fliame.
But all this is overlooked, or is kept out of lights in the inflrudions of Illuminatifm. In thefe (heeyd mufl be kept always direded to the Defpot. This is the bugbear, and every thing is made to conned
with pre fen t ©r future tyranny and oppreinon
Therefore Religion is held out as a combination of terrors— the invention of the itate-tools, the prieils. But it is not eafy to ftifie the fuggeftions of Nature — • therefore no pains are fpared to keep them down^ by encreahng the uncertainty and doubts which arife in the courfe of all fpeculations on fuch fubjects* Such difficulties occur in all fcientific difcufTions.— ^ Heie they muit be numerous and embarraffing— - for in this enquiry we come near the firfl: principles of things, and the firft prnicipies of human know- ledge. The geometer does not wonder at mif-
takcs
(jUAF, iV. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.^ Jiff
takes even in his fcience, the mofl: fiinple of all
others. Nor does the mechanic or the cheiuifl;
rejed all his fcience, becaufe he cannot attain clear conceptions of iome of the natural reiations which operate in the phenomena under his confide- ration.^—Nor do any of thefe lludents of nature brand wirh the name of fool, or knave, or bigot, another perfon who has drawn a difi'erent concLu-
fion from the phenomenon. In one point they
all agree— they find themfelves poffeffed of faculties which enable them to fpeculate, and to difcover ; and they find, that the operation of thofe faculties is tjuite unlike the things which they contemplate by their means — and they feel a Jatisja&ion in the pqf-
Jeffion of them^ and in this diftindion.^ But this
feems a misfortune to our Illuminators. I have long been ftruck v^ith this. If by deep meditation I have folved a problem which has baffled the en- deavours of ethers, I (hould hardly thank the perfon .who convinced me that my fuccefs was entirely own- ing to the particular fiate of my health, by which my brain was kept free from many irritations to which other perfons are cxpofed. Yet this is the condud of the Illuminated — They are abundantly felf-con- ceited ; and yet they continually endeavour to de- firoy all grounds of felf-eflimaticn. — They rejoice in every difcovery that is reported to them of fome refembiance, unnoticed before, between mankind and the inferior creation, and would be happy to find that the refembiance is complete. It is very true, Mr. Pope's '' Poor Indian, with untutor'd *' mind," had no objedion to his dog's going to heaven with him :
" And thinks, admitted to that equal flcy, " His faithful dog fhali bear him eompany.''
Thi.
31 6 TME fRengh Revolution. chap. iv.
This is Kot an abjed, but it is a modeft fentiment. But our high-minded philofophers, who, with Bea- trice in the play, '' cannot brook obedience to a *' wayward piece of marl," if it be in the fhape of a Prince, have far other notions of the matter. In- deed they are not yet agreed about it. Mr. de la Meiherie hopes, that before the enlightened Repub- lic of France has got into its teens, he fhall be able to tell his fellow-citizens, in his Journal de Phyfique^ that particular form of cryflallization which men have been accufremed to call God. — Dr. Prieftley again deduces all inteiligenee from eladic undulations, and will probably think, that his own great difcove- ries have been the quiverings of fome fiery marfli miafma. While Pope's poor Indian hopes to take his dog to heaven with him, thefe Illuminators hope to die like dogs, and that both foul and body fliall be as if they never had been.
Is not this a melancholy refult of ail our Illumi- nation? It is of a piece with the termination of the ideal Phiiofophy, viz. profelTed and total ignorance. Should not this make us ftart back and helitate, before we pout like wayward children at the hardlhips of civil fubordination, and before we make a facrifice to our ill humour of all that we value ourfelves for ? Does it not carry ridicule and abfurdity in its fore- head ?-— Such alTertions of perfonal worth and dig- nity, (always excepting Princes and Prieds,) and fuch abjed acknowledgments of worthleiTnefs. — Does not this, of itfelf, ftiow that there is fome ra- dical fault in the whole ? It has all arifen from what they have called Illumination^ and this turns out to be worfe than darknefs— But we alfo know that it has all arifen from felf-conceited difcontent, and that it has been brought to its prefent ilate by the rage of ipeculation. We may venture to put the queliion to any man's confcience — -whether difcon- - tent
CHAP. iv. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 317
tent did not precede his doubts about his own nature and whether he has not encouraged the train of argu- ment that tended to degrade him ? '' Thy wifb '* was father, Harry, to that thought."— -Should not this make us diftruft, at leafl:, the operations of this faculty of our mind, and try to moderate and check this darling propeniity. — It feems a misfortune of the age — for we fee that it is a natural fource of dif- turbance and revolution.
But here it will be immediately faid, '' What, ** mufl: we give over thinking— -be no longer ration- '' ai creatures, and believe every lie that is told us?" By no means.— Let us be really rational creatures — and, taught by experience, let us, in all our fpecu- lations on fubjeds which engage the paffions, guard ourfeives with the mod anxious care againfl the rifk of having our judgments warped by our dehres. — There is no pvcpenfity of our nature of which the proper and modv-sft indulgence is not beneficial to man, and which is not huitful, when this indulgence is carried too far. — And if we candidly perufe the page of hiftory, we Tnaii be convinced that the abufe is great in proportion as the fubjecft is important. What has been fo ruinoufly perverted as the reli- gious principle ? — What horrid fuperflition has it nC' produced? The Reader will not, I hope, take it am lis that I prefume to diredl his attention to fome maxims which ought to condu(5t a prudent man in his indulgence of a fpeculative difpofition, and ap- ply them to the cafe in hand.
Whoever will for a while call off his attention from the common affairs of life, the Curce hominum^ €t rerinn pondus inane^ and will but reflecl a little on that wonderful principle within him, which carries him over the whole univerfe, and (hows him its va- rious relations — Whoever alfo remarks how very fraall a proportion his own individual exillence bears
2 R to
^iS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAP, iv,
O
to this immeafurable fcene, cannot bat feel an inex- preflible pleafure in the contemplation of his own powers— He mult rife in his own eflimation, and be difpofed to cheriOi withfondnefs this principle which fo emniently raifes him above all around him. Of ail the fources of human vanity this is fureiy the mod maniv, the moft excufable, and the moii likely to be extravagantly indulged. ^ — Vv^e may be certain that it will be ip indulged, and that men will fre- quently fpecula^e for the fake of fpeculation alone, and that they will have too much confidence in the refults of this favourite occupation. — As there have been ages of indolent and abjed credulity and fuper- itition, it is next to certain that there are aifo times of wild and extravagant fpeculation— -and when we fee it becoming a fort of general paffion, we may be certain that this is a cafe in point.
This can hardly be denied to be the characler of the prefent day. It is not denied. On the con- trary it is gloried in as the prerogative of the eigh- teenth century. All the fpecuiations of antiquity are conlidered as glimmerings (with the exceptions of a few brighter fiafhes) vvhen compared with our pre- fent meridian fplendor. We (liould therefore liften with caution to the inferences from this boafted 11-^ lumination. Alio when we reflect on what palfes in our own minds, and on what we obfeive in the world, of the mighty influence of our defires and pafTions on our judgments, we fhould carefully no- tice whether any fuch warping of the belief is pro- bable in the prefent cafe. That it is fo is almoil cer- tain—for the general and immediate effed of this Illumination is to lellen or remove many rellraints which the .^andions of religion lay on the indul- gence of very flrong paflions, and to diminifh our regard for a certain purity or corrc6lnefs of man- ners, which religion recommends as the only con-
dua
CHAF. iv« THE FRENCH REVOLUTION^ 3X9
du£l fuitecl to our noble natures, and as abfolutely neeeffary for attaining that perfection and happi-
nefs of which we are capable. For furely if we
take away rehgion, it will be wifdom *' to eat and '* to drink, fmce to-morrow we die.'* If, more- over, we fee tliis Illumination extolled above all fciencc, as friendly to virtue, as improving the heart, and as producing a juit morality, which will lead to happinefs both for ourfelves and others^ but perceive at the fame time that thefe affertions are made at the expence of principles, which our natural feelings force us to venerate as fbpreme and paramount to all others, we may then be cer- tain that our informer is trying to midead and de-
ceive us.- For all virtue and goodnefs both of
heart and conduct, Js in perf^ft harmony, and there is no jarring or inconfiftency. But we mud pafs this fentence on the doftrincs of this lllumi- natiorii For it is a melancholy truth that they have been preached and recommended, for the moft part^ by clergymen, pariih-miniflers, who, in the prefence of invoked Deity, and in the face of the world, have fet their folemn ieal to a fyf- tem of doctrines dire£tly oppofite to thofe recom- mended in their writings ; which doctrines they folemnly profefs to believe, and folemnly fwear to inculcate. Surely the informations and indruc- tionsof fuch men lliould be rejedled. Where (hall wc find their real opinions ? In their folemn oaths? ^-^or in thefe infidel differtations? — In either cafe, they are deceivers, whether mifled by vanity or by the mean defirc of church-emoluments ; or they are prcftitutes, courting the fociety of the wealthy and fenfual. Honedy, like juftice, admits of no degrees. A man is honed, or he is a knave, and who would trufb a knave ? But fuch men are unfuitable inftru6tors for another reai'on — they are
unwife ;
':>20 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAP, IV.
unwife ; for, whatever they may think, they are not refpedled as men of worth, but are inwardly defpifed as parafites, by the rich, who admit them into their company, and treat them with civility, for their own realbns. We take inftrudlions not merely from the knowing, the learned, but from the wife — not therefore from men who give fuch evidences of wtaknefs.
Such would be the condudl of a prudent man^ who lifcens to the inilru£tions of another with the ferious intention of profiting by them. In the pre- fent cafe he fees plain proofs of degraded ftlf ef- timation, of diflionefty, and of mean motives. But the prudent man will go further — he will remark that diifolute manners, and actions which are ine- vitably fubverfive of the peace and order, nay, of the very exiflence of fociety, are the natural and neceffary confequences of irreligion. Should any doubt of this remain in his mind ; (hould he fomctimcs think of an Epicftetus, or one or two in- dividuals of antiquity, who were eminently vir- tuous, without the influence of religious fan£tions, he fhould recollect, that the Stoics were animated by the thought, that while the wife man was play- ing the game of life, the gods were looking on, and pieafed with his fkiil. Let him read the beautiful account given by Dr. Smith of the rife of the Stoic philofcphy, and he will fee that it was an artificial but noble attempt of a few exalted minds, cnthufiafls in virtue, aiming to fteel their fouls againft the dreadful but unavoidable misfortunes to which they were continually expofed by the daily recurring revolutions in the turbulent demo- cracies of ancient Greece, There, a philofopher was this day a magiflrate, and the next day a cap- tive and a flave. He would fee that this fair pic- ture of mental happinefs and independence was
fitted
CHAP. IV, THE FRENCH B EVOLUTION. q:2I
O
fitte«l for the contemplation of only a few choice fphits, but had no influence on the bulk of man- kind. He muil admire the noble charaders who were animated by this manly enthLifiairij. and who have really exhibited fome wonderful pic- tures of virtuous heroifm ; but he will regret, that the influence of thefe manly, thcfe natural prin- ciples, was not more extenfive. lie will fayto himfelf, " How will a whole nation adt when re- *' ligious fanctions are removed, and men are ac- *' tuated by reafon alone?" — He is not without inflruction on this important fubjcdl. France has given an awful leiTon to furrounding nations, by lliewing them what is the natural erTect of fliaking; off the religious principle, and the veneration for that pure morality which characterifcs Chrii'- ftianity. By a decree of the Convention, (June 6, 1794) it is declared, that there is nothing criminal in the promifcuous commerce of the fexes, and therefore nothing that derogates from the female character, when woman forgets that (he is the depofitary of all domeftic fatisfaclion
that her honour is the facred bond of Co-
cial life that on her modefty and delicacy
depend all the refpetft and confidence that will make a man attach himfelf to her fociety, free her from labour, fliare with her the fruits of aii his own exertions, and work with willingnefs and de- light, that (lie may appear en all occahons his equal, and the ornament of all his acquifirions. In the ve- ry argument which this feleded body of fenators has given for the propriety of this decree, it has degraded woman below all eftiniation. '' It is to prevent her '* from i^iurdering the fruit of unlawful love, by re- *' moving her (hame, and by relieving her from the '' fear of want." The fenators fay, '' the Republic *' wantsxitizens, and therefore mufl not only re-
" move
322
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
CHAP. IV^'
*' move this temptation of Ihame^ but miifl: take care *' of the mother while ihe nurfes the child.- It is *' the property of the nation, and muft not be loft." The woman all the while is confidered only as the fhe-aniraal, the breeder of Sans Culottes. This is ihejujl morality of Ilkmiiination. It is really amuf- ing (for things revolting to nature now amufe) to obferve with what fidelity the principles of the Illu- minati have expreffed the fentiments which take pof- feiTion of a people who have fliaken off the fan(fiions of Religion and morality. The following is part of the addrefs to Pfycharion and the company mention- ed in page 257 : '■' Once more, Pfycharion, I in- dulge you with a look behind you to the flowery days of childhood. Now look forwards, young woynan / the holy circle of the marriageable^ {ynannbaren) welcome you. Young men, honour the young woman^ the future breeder {gebaere- rin) !'^ Then, to all. — '' Rejoice in the dawn of" Illumination and of Freedom. Nature at laft en- joys her facred never-fading rights. Long was her voice kept dov/n by civil fubordination,^ but the days of your majority now draw nigh, and you v;ill no longer, under the authority of guardians, account it a reproach to conhder with enlighten- ed eyes the fecret workfhops of nature, and to en^ joy your work and duty." Minos thought thig very fine, but it raifed a terrible difturbance and broke up the aflembly.
Such are the effecis of this boafted enlightening oi the human mind with refpecl. to religion and mora- lity. Let us next confider what is the refuit of the mighty informations which we have got in refpecl of our focial or political connexions.