plains of the Delta, and tinged by the varied colours of the soil through which they flow.

From these principles, there equally follows the expedience of the fullest and most unlimited toleration. "Truth," it has been said, " is one, but errors are many, and every man has a different one." This observation points to the advantage of giving the freest scope to sectarian speculation. Unless the minds of men are retained in the fetters of superstition, thought on religious subjects is unavoidable; and the only question comes to be, How is this speculation to be turned into the channel where it may do the most good and the least harm to the community? By unlimited toleration, the divisions of Dissenters become so excessive, that they soon cease to be formidable either to the cause of true religion or the tranquillity of the State. The absurdity of these different sects is, indeed, frequently deplorable during the period of their prosperity; but when the novelty of their establishment has passed away, they gradually fall into neglect, and are succeeded by others which minister, in some more popular way, to the unceasing desire for excitation among the people. In this way, error on religious subjects is constantly prevented from acquiring a formidable consistence; and the friends of rational piety may behold, without alarm, the successive growth and decay of the various religious sects which, at different times, agitate the public mind. These sects act like so many safety valves in allowing the escape of the dangerous passions which convulse mankind; the ardour of fanaticism and the fumes of enthusiasm are seldom formidable among civilized states, but when they are compressed by external oppression.

It is civil distinction which envenoms the shafts of religious controversy. Neither the Church of England nor the cause of truth have any thing to fear from the efforts of the numerous but divided Dissenters in Great Britain; but both are seriously endangered in the sister island, by the condensation of the whole fanaticism of the state into a body of ignorant and discontented Catholic zealots.

Farther, the emulation of rival churches, and the free discussion of religious subjects, is essential to keep alive the talent of the established clergy, and prevent the growth of ecclesiastical error. If men who are independent in their circumstances are not roused by external competition, they will speedily sink into inactivity. The danger of Dissenters is, that they will be excited to frenzy, that of the Established Church, that they will sink into slumber. The errors of Sectarians are often distressing; but they are not nearly so formidable to the cause of truth, as the obstinate adherence to darkness which characterizes a despotic and bigotted church. Reason sees much to lament in the Puritans of England, but it sees far more in the superstition of Spain ;-the one, by the discussion which it provokes, prepares its own downfal; the other, by the silence which it enjoins, aims at eternal duration.

Finally, religious enthusiasm, whatever may be its blemishes, is a necessary and useful tribute to the weakness of mankind. In vain would a church be established, adorned by all the talent, supported by all the learning, graced by all the piety of the age. By these means, the rational and enlightened might be secured; but what would become of the irrational and the ignorant, of the multitudes whom superstition

rules, or fancy sways, or passion misleads; of the young who are deaf to reason, but alive to feeling; of the aged, who can be roused only by the terrors of devotion? They, too, must be led into the ways of salvation; religious instruction, couched in a language to which they will not give ear, can never influence their conduct. The enthusiasm there is not to be regretted which grapples with passion; the divisions not to be lamented which excite curiosity; the fervour not to be despised which counterbalances the enjoyments of sin. Let us regret the weakness of our nature, not the means which Nature has established for its correction; and, in the midst even of the aberrations of reason, discover the operation of causes destined to reform and purify the human heart.

CHAPTER XIV.

ADVANTAGES AND DANGERS OF POPULAR

INSTRUCTION.

ARGUMENT.

Necessity of Religious Instruction-Increase of intellectual vigour and activity flowing from general Education-Corresponding danger with which it is attended-Effects of intellectual cultivation on the majority of men-Its total inefficacy as an antidote to sin-Dangers of exciting the imaginations of men beyond their sphere in life-Examples of the effect of extended informa tion on the increase of crime from Scotland-From England-From France— From Sweden and Norway-From America-Only remedy which is likely to be effectual in resisting the progress of depravity arising from the extension of human desires beyond the means of gratifying them, which their circumstances afford.

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EDUCATION," says M. Coussins,“ if not based on religious tuition, is worse than useless ;" and every day's experience is adding additional confirmation to the eternal truth. The Almighty has decreed that man shall not, with impunity, forget his Maker, and that no amount of intellectual cultivation-no degree of skill in the mechanical arts-not all the splendours of riches or the triumphs of civilisation, shall compensate for the want or neglect of this fundamental condition of human happiness. The proofs of this great truth are overwhelming, universal; they crowd in from all quarters, and the only difficulty is to select from the mass of important evidence that which bears most materially upon the question at issue.

That education, if based upon religion, may be expected to produce very different results, from education left to run riot for itself, or left only under the flimsy guidance of intellectual cultivation, is self-evident. The great cause of the total inefficiency of the latter for preservation, viz. the extremely small portion of mankind over whom it ever can exercise any sensible influence, compared with the multitude with whom pleasure and excitement are the ruling principles, is noways applicable to religious feeling. Every man has not an understanding capable of cultivation, but every man has a soul to be saved. Universal as is the stimulus of the senses and passions; as universal, if early awakened, are the reproaches of conscience, and the terrors of judgment to come. The Gospel was, in an especial manner, preached to the poor; not only are its leading principles obvious to every understanding, but its principal incidents find their way to every heart., Doubtless, there are great numbers in every age, and especially in every opulent age, to whom all its exhortations will be addressed in vain, and in whom the seductions of present interest or pleasure will completely extinguish all the effect of the most pointed denunciations of future dangers, either in this world or the next. But, still, the number of those whom religion can prevent from sinning, or reclaim from vice, is incomparably greater than those whom science or philosophy can affect. The proof of this is decisive. Every age of the world has shown numerous examples of nations convulsed, sometimes to the last degree, by religious fervour and sectarian enthusiasm, but nobody ever heard of the masses being moved by science or philosophy. Chemistry