112 Thoughts on the Exercises 



try. Hence we are able to discover the vices and vir- 

 tues of different nations by their tunes, as certainly as 

 by their laws. The effects of music, when simply me. 

 chanical, upon the passions, are powerful and extensive. 

 But it remains yet to determine the degrees of moral 

 ecstacy that may be produced by an attack upon the 

 ear, the reason, and the moral principle at the same 

 time, by the combined powers of music and eloquence. 



" The eloquence of the pulpit is nearly allied to mu- 

 sic, in its effects upon the moral faculty. There must 

 be a defect of eloquence in a preacher, who, with the 

 sources for oratory which are contained in the Old and 

 New Testaments, does not produce, in every man who 

 hears him, at least a temporary love of virtue. I grant 

 that the powers of eloquence cannot change men into 

 christians, but it certainly possesses the power of chang- 

 ing brutes into men. Could the eloquence of the stage 

 be properly directed, it is impossible to conceive the ex- 

 tent of its mechanical effects upon morals. The lan- 

 guage and imagery of a Shakspeare, upon moral and re- 

 ligious subjects, poured upon the passions and the 

 senses, in all the beauty and variety of dramatic repre- 

 sentation, who could resist or describe their effects'?'* 



To the combined influence of music and eloquence 

 is added the excitement of camp-meetings, in which the 

 sympathy of association conspires to give a sudden im- 

 pulse to the moral faculty, which it can neither resist 

 nor confine within ordinary limits ; and the violent and 

 irregular excitement produces a proportionate re-action 

 upon the nervous system, and consequent convulsive 



