2jo Rev. Air. Hall's Inquiry concerning 
“ It is a remarkable circumftance, fays Brown 
in his EJfay on the Char aft erics,* that, in the 
decline of both the Greek and Roman ftates, 
when religion had loft its credit and efficacy, this 
very tafte, this ipecies of philofophy, ufurped its 
place, and became the common ftudy and amufe- 
ment both of the vile and vulgar.” Quintilian, 
no doubt, had a view to this, in the following 
paffiage. Nunc autem , qua vel ut propriaphilofophia 
afferuntur, pajjim traftamus omnes. Shiis enim modo 
de jufto, aequo, ac bono, non et virpeffimus loquitur ? 
The truth feems to be, that a mere fenfe of 
the beauty of virtue cannot operate, as a coercive 
power ;t and, however the theory may pleafe 
the reafoner in the fhade, when the paffions 
ftagnate without impulfe, and the appetites are 
fecluded from their objeCts, it will be of little 
force, againft the ardor of defire, or the vehe¬ 
mence of rage; amidft the pleafures, or conflicts 
of the world. To counteract the power of 
temptations, hope muft be excited by the prof- 
peCt of rewards, and fear, by the expectation of 
punifhment. In a word, virtue may owe her 
panegyric to a Plato, or a Shaftefbury, but muft 
derive her efficacy and authority, from religion. 
From what has been advanced, it appears to 
me extremely evident, that, fuppofing tafte were 
* Efiay II. Se£l. 10. 
j- See'the Preface to the Preceptor, by Dr. Johnfon. 
con fide red. 
