1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



41J 



much for Ihe one is at least in one re- 

 spect honest, and the other is manifestly 

 hypocritical. 



Intolerance, in spite of the gentle spirit 

 of Christianity, is diffused widely among 

 us ; and no wonder, for in the eyes of 

 teachers, it is, whatever be their declara- 

 tions, a virtue, and what is more, one 

 easily practised. The man who teaches 

 wishes to find docility, not opposition, 

 among those he teaches; and if he does 

 not find it, he is, naturally enough per- 

 haps, offended ; and if he have power will 

 quickly be for enforcing his instruction. 

 It is abominable, especially when he is 

 taking so much trouble, all for their bene- 

 fit too, not to be listened to. He not only 

 then wishes to inform but to control. If 

 he cannot himself exereise that control, he 

 will seek the aid of the ruling power, and 

 to gain that aid, must first persuade him his 

 own interest is involved, and then alarm 

 him for his safety. This is the process of 

 priestcraft and bigotry. It is the interest 

 of society to get the instruction without 

 the tyranny; and therefore, while they 

 seriously listen, they must strenuously 

 labour to keep the teacher to his office. 



The object of the writer no fool at all 

 events is to reclaim against this spirit of 

 intolerance so inculcated, and to defend 

 the claims of grave and reflecting deists 

 to the confidence of their fellow creatures 

 at least to be considered as persons not 

 peculiarly or justly obnoxious to suspicion 

 and distrust to inculcate, in short, an ex- 

 cellent lesson, not to judge of conduct by 

 opinions. It is not a book we would re- 

 commend to young people, because they 

 are in no state to judge of the question 

 it is above their years, and no good is to 

 be done by substituting one set of preju- 

 dices for another; but to others, to those 

 who are capable of any serious reflection, 

 we do recommend at least the perusal 

 not stirely for the purpose of shaking their 

 faith in the doctrines of revelation, but to 

 deepen the conviction, which we hope is 

 fast spreading among us, that religion is 

 a personal concern, for which we are re- 

 sponsible, not to our fellows, but to our 

 Maker to lead us to a little self-exami- 

 nation to lesson the sense of superiority 

 that is so apt to swell our bosoms, and 

 make us trust less to names and more to 

 things. 



Elizabeth Evanshaw is a deist in obe- 

 dience to her convictions convictions 

 produced on a candid spirit by abundant 

 reflection and research. She loses her in- 

 heritance by the harsh prejudices of a 

 Calvinist mother ; she goes a governess- 

 ing, and is dismissed ignomiuiously, not 

 because she inculcates deism for she is 

 no proselyte-monger but because whis- 

 pers of her principles reach her employer's 

 ears; she is subjected to insolent propo- 



sals, because a deist cannot of course be 

 virtuous ; she marries, and is treated with 

 distrust and cruelty by her husband, not 

 because she performs not her duties cheer- 

 fully, excellently, faithfully, but because 

 she perseveres in her belief, and how can a 

 deist be honest? Her children are torn from 

 her; and one, inoculated with methodism, 

 treats her harshly and contemptuously ; 

 she is entrusted with the care of the 

 education and fortunes of a friend's child, 

 and her husband swindles her out of the 

 property, rely ing on the merciful construc- 

 tion of the world he being a Christian, 

 aud his wife a Deist. This perfect scoun- 

 drel dies, and leaves her a miserable pit- 

 tance, and places the children under other 

 guardianship. Her substantial virtues, 

 however, have not left her wholly without 

 friends ; she has a most efficient one in a 

 jew lady herself exposed to the liberal 

 and magnanimous odium of society and 

 eventually she comes into possession of 

 very large property. Her children, by 

 Ihe greedy friends of her husband, are 

 also speedily restored to her, and she pro- 

 poses with her friends, the jews, to quit 

 the neighbourhood of her sufferings, and 

 retire to Italy, far remote from her perse- 

 cutors, whose sentiments towards her, 

 however, were rapidly changing. With 

 8 or 10,000/. a year, exile was indeed quite 

 gratuitous. The possession of such cmpls 

 funds was a virtue of weight enough to 

 counterbalance Ihe villainy of infidelity. 



We protest for ourselves against the 

 ready inferences of levity and prejudice. 

 We are not ourselves if the writer is 

 recommending deism; but we are strongly 

 inclined to sympathize with him, and think 

 it hard indeed, that a person who aims at 

 nothing but the discovery of truth, is not 

 allowed to give expression to that convic- 

 tion unless it tally with the formularies 

 of the reigning party, without being sub- 

 jected to illiberal construction and specu- 

 lative imputations. " Charity thiuketh 

 no evil," is the decisive, but forgotten 

 language of Christianity, and if the pre- 

 cious sentiment were suffered to sink into 

 our hearts, and actually exert an influence, 

 more g-ood will, and consequently peace 

 aud comfort, would be diffused over society 

 in REALITY, than all the appearances 

 which the varnish of civility and polite- 

 ness spread over it only to betray. 



Papistry Storrti'd^or the Din gin 1 Down 

 o' the Cathedral; 1827. Nothing abso- 

 lutely unreadable could be expected from 

 Mr. Tennant's pen after " Anster Fair," 

 although we must confess the very title- 

 page of the book before us was nearly 

 repelling us, when we fownd it to be "ane 

 poem, in sax sangs imprentit at Ediu- 

 brogh, be Oliver and Boyd." Ane poem 

 in sax sangs all in Scotch ! Well, it 

 must be got through ; so here goes; and 



3 G 2 



