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chaotic mafs, the hardihood in defpifmg eftablifhed forms and legal 

 inftitutions, and the innovating meddHng fpirit of the new philo- 

 fophy, the credulity and enthufiaftic bigotry, of antient reli- 

 gionifts,* the, dreams, the felf-delufions, and fupernatural preten- 

 fions of alchanlfts and Rojicruciam^ and the unintelligible jargon; 

 and incOmprehenfible reveries of the myftics. — And, fuch is the 

 •catching power of enthufiafm, that the wildeft and moft penicious 

 abfurdities of the Germans have rapidly fpread, and found nume- 

 rous adherents and followers, in the reft oi Europe. 



It will not, I truft, appear foreign from the purpofe, if I fhould 

 add a few words, on the rage for German produdions, and the 

 German ftyle, which is now fo prevalent in England. — It is, in- 

 deed, extraordinary, that, in a country, which boafts fuch a high 

 ftate of refinement, this favage kind of writing fhould find fo 

 many admirers, and partifans ; and form, as it were, a new fchool 

 of compofition. — Muft we attribute the phenomenon to a radical 

 deelenfion of tafte ? — ^I fhould be forry to think it — for the de- 

 clenfion of tafte is the certain harbinger, of imbecihty of mind, 

 and the abfence of public fpirit, and virtuous feeling. Tafte is; 

 'only good fen fe applied to the works of genius ; a reditude of" 

 fentiment, a perception of beauty, and good order; and where 

 thefe are wanting, one. of the great foundations and fafe-guards of " 

 * moral. 



* See in Wraxall's Travels a furprifing ftory, of a conjuror, who profeft to raife 

 the dead. 



