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the German lafte, and the love of the wild and gloomy, are 

 not to be accounted for, from ordinary caufes ; and have in them 

 more weight and importance, than are ufually attached to mere 

 matters of tafte and criticifm. May not thefe be among the ele- 

 ments, of feverifli agitation, and mighty change, afloat, by the 

 permiffion of Providence, for jaurpofes, to us infcrutable, in the 

 moral fyftem ? May not- this revolution in tafte be a prelude to 

 other revolutions ; a fmall fliirt of the cloud, like a man s hand, 

 ufheri.ng in the blackening tempeft ? Are not the German writings 

 calculated, to generate, in both fexes, a ferocious hardihood, and 

 independence of mind ; a dangerous contempt of eftablifhied forms ; 

 a promptitude, to fufFer and to dare ; an enthufiafm of rharader, 

 fitting them for feafons of energy, of exertions, of privations, dan- 

 gers, and calamities ? It is natural, for human blindnefs and inat- 

 tention, to overlook the inftruments, and operations, by which 

 Providence prepares and fafhions great and furprifing events. It is 

 the folly of man, to afcribe too little weight and importance to 

 moral caufes ; while, it is the courfe of Providence (as it were, on 

 purpofe, to humble human pride,) to ad, by feemingly minute 

 and inefficient caufes. Who knows, then, but this preternatural 

 appetite for the irregular, the indecorous, the boifterous, the fan- 

 guinary, and the terrific, may be the precurfor of fome ftrange, 

 moral, or political convulfion ? 



