STUDY XÎV. 337 



whom, in other refpefts, I love. Do we not con- 

 vey to the youngeft children, fentiments of fear, 

 and of averfion, for metaphyfical objeâis, which 

 have no exiftence ? Wherefore (hould they not 

 be infpired with confidence and love for the 

 Being who fills univerfal Nature with his bene- 

 ficence ? Children have not the ideas of God fuch. 

 as are taught by fyflems of Theology and Philo- 

 fophy ; but they are perfeclly capable of having 

 the fentiment of him, which, as we have feen, is 

 the reafon of Nature. This very fentiment has 

 been exalted among them, during the time of the 

 Crufades, to fuch a height of fervor, as to induce 

 multitudes of them to alTume the Crofs for the con- 

 quefl of the Holy Land. Would to God I had 

 preferved the fentiment of the exiftence of the 

 Supreme Being, and of his principal attributes, as 

 pure as I had it in my earlieft years ! It is the heart, 

 ftill more than the underftanding, that Religion 

 demands. And which heart, I befeech you, is 

 mofl filled with the Deity, and the mofl agree- 

 able in his fight ; that of the child who, elevated 

 with the fentiment of Him, raifes his innocent 

 hands to Heaven, as he ftammers out his prayer, 

 or of the fchoolman, who pretends to explain His 

 Nature. 



It is very eafy to communicate to children ideas 



of God, and of virtue. The daifies fpringing up 



VOL. IV. z among 



