6 The Enquirer,—No, AXVIT 
mystical sect, it must be favourableto the 
evolution of the reasoning faculty, and is 
therefore perhaps suicidal. In Holland, 
and elsewhere, it died out less from refu- 
tation, or persecution, than from miernal 
€auses, 
’ The merely philosophic sects have also 
their use. ‘Teachers of this persuasion 
have been very efficacious iu resisting va- 
rious pernicious moral prejudices, which 
have occasionally resulted from excessive 
attachment to the sacred books. The 
attempts of the Anabaptists to introduce 
eommunity of goods, of the Quakers to 
abolish military service, of the Calvinists 
to extinguish fornication, of the Catholics 
to torture and burn alive for heresy, have 
been got under, not by the arguments of 
theology, but by those of philosophy,’There 
¥s a reciprocity of merality necessary in 
the external relations of states, to which 
‘Scripture is less plastic than reason, 
Hence every civilized society has found 
it expedient to keep alive an illuminated 
sect,lifted either by pride or science,above 
all the forms of popular credulity. In 
many churches of the once Lutheran pro- 
vinces of Germany, the anti-supernatu- 
ralist christianity of the professgrs Kich- 
horn and Paulus has lately been brought 
to anchor on the sacred books. InChina, 
the religious establishment of the country 
js habitually engaged in a like hostility 
against all the forms of superstition. Yet 
yn Germany, as in China, to a large body 
of the people, such opinions are unwel- 
comely licentious. 
_ Nor are the Jews undeserving an ap- 
propriate and limited patronage. They 
have, indeed, some usages which interfene 
with sociability,and which are necessaril 
an impediment to that neighbourly inter- 
course with Christians, which would. tend 
to efface reciprocal dislikes. Such are 
their notions about diet. In early and 
ignorant communities, it is expedient to 
teach the essential arts of life in the laws, 
We have statutes which direct how to 
brew, ard how to bake, and which ren- 
der criminal a departure from the national 
recipe. We have also laws about fishand 
butchey’s meat, which resist the sale and 
use of unwholesome food. The Jews 
have many suchlaws, which divide ani- 
mals into clean and urciean, or, as the 
words ought to be rendered, into whole- 
‘some and unwholesome. The Jews wish 
to keep their sabbath on the seventh day; 
but, since the alteration of the calendar, 
they, in fact, keep it wrong, and might as 
well keep it on the Sunday. The Jews 
[Feb ts 
encourage among their children a pres 
dilection for some occupations, which are 
necessarily held in disrepute; such as 
pediary, frippery, pawn-broking, and 
usury. A pedlar will always appear to be 
a cheat, because he must always charge 
higher than a stationary shopkeeper, In 
addition to the regular profit of the req 
tailer, he must be paid tor the porterage 
of his wares from door to door, and forthe 
time lost in fruitless applications, Frippery 
will always be held somewhat offensive, . 
The man who sells lis cast-off clothes in- 
stead of giving them away, is ashamed of 
the avarice or penury which thatimplies ; 
he dislikes therefore to see his fripperer, 
whichreminds him of ameanness. Pawns 
broking is regulated by law; it is often an 
honest and useful employment, and might 
be a most humane and generous occu 
pation: but it can never be an hononr- 
able one, A sense of shame inevitably 
haunts the man who pledges his watch, 
or the woman who pawns a cloak, to re= 
lieve the necessities even of a sick child; 
Usury is odious: not merely because the 
lawgiver has idly made it a crime, but 
because, in all cases of bankruptey, those 
persons who have. received exorbitant 
interests for their advances, appear to be 
the only persons benefited at the expense 
of more scrupulous creditors, fn all these 
branches of commerce, and other such 
might be enumerated, the nature of the: 
employment tends to excite a feeling of 
disgust, which is improperly transferred 
to the Jewish people, because it happens 
that they frequently exercise such em- 
ployments. By preferring for their chil 
dren the more respectable lines of busi- 
ness, hostile prejudices would abate ; but 
society would still be compelled to seek 
out other persons for this division of Ja- 
bour. And to whatever individuals it be 
consigned, moral instruction and admo= 
nition is surely expedient. 
If so many forms of sectarism ean 
strike root in a given community with 
obvious advantage to the whole, why 
should they not be all alike favoured by 
the magistrate? They would then seve= 
rally be embraced hy the adapted con- 
verts, and prevail every where in the der 
sirable proportions. The charities of 
tolerance abound most where piety has 
many shapes. Moral competition, and 
general instruction, is increased by the 
variety OF sects. wm 
And why should they net. be suffered 
to ramify within, as well as without, the 
national church? , )' 
elu Be 
