a church-woman, and the daughter swallows a hasty breakfast, and packs off to Percy, the Tabernacle, or Doughty Street, what sort of seasoning can we expect the dinner to have; whether it be of herbs, or a stalled ox? Let cheerful piety study an elegant accomplishment, or pluck the most innocent flower of life, moroseness will rebuke the unhallowed enjoyment, and ruffle the glassy surface of the bosom, whose tranquillity reflected heaven. Let religion be mentioned, and let the several parties be in earnest, and how sadly will they realize our Saviour's prediction: "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." How precious a substratum is all this for family devotion. David could compare brethren dwelling together in unity, to the oil that flowed down Aaron's beard; but for a family so constituted, oil is too demulcent an emblem. Like Ruth, they would rather steep their morsel in vinegar. And where, for them, would be the blessings of religion? Where would be charity, the very bond of peace? Their obedience would be rebellion,— their agreement, difference,-their brotherly-kindness, contention, their home any thing but a heaven.

CHAPTER XXIII.

REIGN OF GEORGE III. FROM 1800 TO 1810.

Contents.

I. Infidelity generated in England by the French Revolution.-II. Tom Paine.-III. Mary Wolstonecraft and William Godwin.-IV. Fysche Palmer.-V. Gilbert Wakefield.-VI. Defenders of Truth: Bishop Watson; Remarks on his Apologies, Plan for equalizing Benefices, Notions of Episcopacy, and the Articles.-VII. Arthur Young, Sir Thomas Bernard, Hannah More, William Gilpin, Jones of Nayland. -VIII. Biblical Researches: Kennicott, Archbishop Newcome, Dr. Geddes, Cruden, Crutwell, Harmer, Burder, Sir William Jones, Captain Wilford, Taylor, and Wells.-IX. Diocesan Meetings of the Clergy.X. Nott, Lawrence, Mant; Taylor's "Why are you a Churchman;"-XI. Character of religious periodical Works: British Critic, Orthodox Churchman, Christian Remembrancer, Christian Observer, Edinburgh, Quarterly and British, Eclectic, Critical and Monthly Reviews, Monthly Magazine, Gentleman's Magazine, Evangelical, Arminian, Baptist, Missionary.-XII. Sunday Newspapers.

I. As the heaving of the billows continues after a storm is appeased, the effects of the French Revolution were felt in this country, when the danger

of its contagion had passed away. The different circumstances of France and England, indeed, might have shown any reasonable mind, that the extreme remedies intended for the one, were unsuited to the case of the other. In politics, England had asserted and obtained those rights one hundred years before, which France began to claim in 1788; and in religion, while France was blindfolded and borne down by superstition, England enjoyed a rational Protestantism, and a purified faith. Yet were there fanatics who perceived not this difference; and, as in the beginning of the nineteenth century, their principles continued to prevail, we may slightly notice them, in order to introduce those honourable characters, who opposed a barrier to the spreading mischief they had occasioned.

II. We have already mentioned the principal productions of Thomas Paine; but a slight biographical sketch may more fully unfold his character. Born at Thetford, in Norfolk, in 1737, he exhibited early signs of an extraordinary mental depravation. Twice dismissed, on account of fraud, from his office in the excise, he sailed to Philadelphia in 1775, to seek a new character in a new world. His malignant mind, educated in a freeschool, had sheathed itself in the armour of talent; and his first publication, entitled Common Sense, was an artful attempt to stir the passions of the Americans. It obtained for him an office,

whence he was expelled for dishonesty. Seemingly fraught with demoniac possession, he recrossed the Atlantic, and passing over to Paris, mingled in the fray of the French Revolution; but soon revisited London, where, to inflame the temper of the public mind, which he saw was favourable to his purpose, he published, in 1791 and 1792, the first and second parts of the Rights of Man*. To avoid a prosecution, he again returned to Paris, and in 1795 assailed the public faith, by his Age of Reason,--a work replete with the lowest and coarsest blasphemy; concerning which, it was observed by Bishop Watson, "that though many infidel writers has been more able, many more learned, he had surpassed them all in daring impiety." Though the world be indebted to this effusion of low ribaldry, for one of the finest specimens of Erskine's eloquence, and for that masterly production the Apology for the Bible; yet, since the poison has been infused where the antidote will never come," it had been happier," to use the language of the learned apologist, "that the life of the poisoner had been

*With the political speculations of Paine we are only concerned, as they were connected with the corruption of morals. A pleasant caricature exhibited Britannia wearing stays, which were laced tight by Paine, who was a staymaker: "O Tom, Tom!" she is made to say over her shoulder, 66 you may mend my shapes, but you are ruining my constitution."

terminated before he had completed his intention; that the faith of thousands had not been unsettled, consolation not taken from the unhappy virtuous, and fear from the minds of the wicked; that reins had not been given to the domination of every passion; nor public security, and private happiness, been endangered by corrupted morals."

Paine returned to America, where he span out a wretched life, and died a confirmed dramdrinker, and an unreclaimed free-thinker. Being pressed, on his death-bed, to declare what he thought of Christ, " mention not that name to me," replied he, in an equivocal answer, which might be consistence, but perhaps was alarm. His bones were disinterred by William Cobbett, who brought these precious relics back to England. His works have been likewise restored from the grave by Carlile, who has paid rather dearer for his literary Goulism.

III. But, though the circulation of such mischiefs be sufficiently atrocious in a man, the infidelity of a woman is frightful. "A woman with a beard," says Lavater, "is not a greater monster, than a woman without religion." At a time when licentious thought was deemed a proof of superior intellect, it is not surprising that several females, ambitious of distinction, should quit the paths of order and sober-mindedness, to strike into the eccentricities of the new school. The Coriphée of these female philosophers was Mary