1811.) 
to expect among the set of men, whose 
acquaintance natarally resulted from 
attaching oneself to the Platonic, the Stoic, 
orthe Epicurean, sect. And is not the like 
observable in our different denominations 
of Christians ? 
Let the man of fashion be a Catholic. 
It is the essence’ of fashion to fall in, it 
Knows not why, with the splendid ceremo- 
~ nial in use among the exalted; and to place 
vital perfection in exterior compliance. 
The catholic is the form of Christianity 
which has been found least unfavourable 
to the military spirit, and most indulgent 
tothe genteeler foibles. It patronizes 
the fisheries, by its Vietetic interference ; 
and the fine arts, by its ostentatious de- 
light in monuments of architecture, of 
Sculpture, and’ of painting. But let not 
the entire multitude be catholic. It is 
a religion which operates in the manner 
of military discipline, so as to secure de- 
cency without reforming the inward man, 
Wherever the catholic populace have 
broken luose; they have exceeded, in a 
savage, cruel, and blood-thirsty spirit, the 
populace of any other sect; and they are 
every where more idle and ignorant than 
their Protestant neighbeurs. 
Let the magistrate be a Bucerist. Bu- 
cerism, or else a national establishment, 
favours religious indifference and political 
toryism. The members of the Church of 
England, in general, are apparently free 
from those anxieties of the soul; those 
-mean selfish ambitious frettings about its 
fature condition, which haunt and vex so 
Jarge a portion of the methodistical sect, 
They are; in general, inclined to lend the 
authority of their support to the ministers 
ofthe Crown, and to receive witha favour- 
ing prejudice all the measures of the go- 
Vernment. ,Such predispositions adapt a 
justice of the peace to execute the laws 
with tolerance and alacrity. But let not 
the mass of citizens be Bucerists. That 
habitual antagonism to the party in power, 
which compels the discussion of all, and 
the modification of many, public acts, and 
which prevents still more abuses than it 
Corrects, would want the requisite popular 
encouragement, if the inhabitants of our 
Jarge towns were not in the main em- 
bodied under a_ priesthood less servile 
than the established clergy. The parlia-_ 
mentary friends of liberty, derive their 
popular support almost entirely from dis- 
senters. 
“Let the trader be a Calvinist. Auste- 
“rity favours frugality and industry. Cal- 
vinism, at least where it is a sect, and not, 
_ &8 in Scotland, an establishnent, seldom 
“The Enquirer.—No. XXVI11. 
5 
attracts the higher classes, or the very low= 
est class ; as if some degree of instruction 
and education were requisite to prepare © 
the votary—as if a considerable degrce of 
introduction and education unfitted him 
again for this form of belief. It is often 
accompanied witha punctilious easeless 
behaviour, the result probably of a récie 
procal inspection and_ vigilant controul, 
devised for purposes of moral. discipline, 
and incorporated with the constitutions 
of their congregations. Itis often ac 
companied also with an apparent gloom of 
mind, the result perhaps of an excessive 
use among their teachers of terrific de- 
nunciations ; but which toa mere by-stan= 
der might suggest the idea of secret res 
morse, orworldly embarrassment; and thus 
tend to affect the moral or pecuniary 
credit of these children of dejection, 
Such melancholics are apt to fly for relief 
to sottishness. Still the Calvinists, im 
general, are seen to be industrious, provi- 
dent, continent, neat, hospitable, but in 
other respects frugal, loth to military ser- 
vice, lovers of justice, of order, and of 
civil liberty. These are qualities, on the 
whole, desirable in the numerous class 
of tradesmen: it seems easier to increase 
their happiness than their utility. 
Other sects are insufficiently vast to be 
appreciated inthegross. One cannot yet 
decide whether the Socinians owe the me- 
ritorious qualities by which they are dis- 
tinguished, to their station in society, or 
to the influence of their favourite writers. 
Unitarianism is not yet vulgarized ; but 
from the recent reports of the Aunti-trinita- 
rial missionaries, it may be suspected 
that, in proportionas the sect gains ground 
among the vulgar, it will have to adopt 
something of the cant, the bigotry, and 
the zeal, for positive opinions; which com~ 
monly characterize the vulgar, The Ita- 
lian and Polish Unitarians appeared, while 
the sect was new, to aim at allying the 
splendid ritual of Rome with the simpie 
creed of theism, and to aspire at blending 
the taste of the Catholic, the principle of 
the Calvinist, and the liberality of the phi- 
losopher. But notwithstanding the con= 
ventions of noblemen held at Vicenza and 
at Cracow, the Unitarian party could no 
where attain the ascendancy, either ia 
the dukedomis of Italy, or in the republic 
of Poland, The educated and ambitious 
ranks gradually slid back through unbe- 
lief to conformity ; the forsaken multitude 
was classed with fanatic Anabaptists, and 
squeezed, between contempt and oppres- 
sion, into inactive insignificance. As 
Socinianism is peculiarly the reverse of a 
mystical 
