[ 52 ] 



hands of this perfon, and tell him, from them, to frame his judg- 

 ment of mankind, their difpofitions, and their dealing^s — What 

 would he think ? — He would confider his fellow creatures as pefti- 

 lent monfters of guilt and folly. — He would thank Heaven, that 

 in his fequeftered Lazaretto, he had fo long efcaped the plagues 

 of fociety, and been removed from the contagious commerce with 

 mankind. — " I have feen enough, (he would cry) remove me from 

 " this congregation of fiends and ideots ; return me to my folitude ; 

 " clofe the door for ever ; and let me forget, if poflible, that I am 

 "^ a man." , 



Having confidered the peculiaries, not only of flyle and man- 

 ner, but alfo in the choice of fubjed matter, that diftinguifh and 

 disfigure the writings of the German School; and the obvious ten- 

 dency, and natural effeds of fuch produ6iions, viewed in a politi- 

 cal lie;ht, with regard to their influence on moral opinion, on the 

 temper of the human mind, and the condud of men in fodcty ;. 

 one is naturally borne by the current of thought, to confider fome 

 of the moft prominent caufes, which have given birth to the pe- 

 culiarities in queftion, and impreft on the German writings their fe^- 



rocious charader, and revolutionary bias, With refped to the 



general coarfene'fs of fiyle, and the abfolute want, or the per- 

 verfion of tafte, it is to be obferved, that one of the moft 

 notorious caufes, of a perverted tafte, and defedive judgment, is 

 ignorance of life and manners. The more people mix with each 



other 



