EXAMPLES OF DEPRAVITY. 



133 



assemblage of beings of the description to which 

 I have adverted, collected in a dark and dreary 

 region. Let us suppose many thousands of 

 millions of such characters as Nero, who set 

 fire to Rome, that he might amuse himself with 

 the wailings and lamentations which this cala 

 mity inspired, and insulted Heaven by offering 

 thanksgivings to the gods, after murdering his 

 wife and his mother, Tiberius who delighted 

 in torturing his subjects, and massacring them 

 in the most tormenting and cruel manner, Co- 

 ligula, celebrated in the annals of folly, cruelty, 

 and impiety, who murdered many of his subjects 

 with his own hand, and caused thousands who 

 were guilty of no crimes to be cruelly butchered, 

 Antiochus Epiphanes, who butchered forty 

 thousand of the inhabitants of Jerusalem in cold 

 blood, and rushed forward, like an infernal de 

 mon, with the intention of destroying every in 

 habitant of Judea, Hamilcar, who threw all 

 the prisoners that came into his hand, to be de 

 voured by wild beasts, Atdrubal, who put out 

 the eyes of all the Roman captives he had 

 taken during two years, cut off their noses, 

 fingers, legs, and arms, tore their skin to pieces 

 with iron rakes and harrows, and threw them 

 headlong from the top of his battlements, 

 Jenghiz Khan, who caused seventy chiefs to be 

 thrown into as many caldrons of boiling water, 

 and took pleasure in beholding his army behead 

 ing a hundred thousand prisoners at once, Ta 

 merlane, who displayed his sportive cruelty in 

 pounding three or four thousand people in large 

 mortars, or building them among bricks and 

 mortar into a wall, Mustapha, who treache 

 rously murdered the Venetian officers, after hav 

 ing entered into a treaty with them, and who 

 beheld with delight the noble-minded Bragadino, 

 whom he had cruelly tortured, flayed alive, 

 Buonaparte, whose mad ambition sacrificed so 

 many millions of human beings, and Lord By 

 ron,* in whose breast &quot; resentment, anger, and 

 hatred,&quot; raged with violence, and who made his 

 gall flow out &quot; against individuals, his country, 

 the world, the universe, creation, and the Crea 

 tor ;&quot; let us suppose such characters associated 

 together in a world where no pleasing objects 

 meet the eye, or cheer the heart and imagination ; 

 and let us likewise suppose, that the malignant 

 principles and boisterous passions which reigned 

 in their minds during the present state, still con 

 tinue to rage with uncontrolled and perpetual 



The Author trusts, that none of his readers will 

 for a moment suppose, that, in bringm? forward 

 the above-mentioned characters as examples of ma 

 lignity, he presumes to decide on their eternal des 

 tiny. His object merely is to show, that such ma 

 lignant principles and passions as they displayed in 

 the general tenor of their conduct, if resolutely 

 persisted in, necessarily led to misery. With regard 

 to Buonaparte and Lord Byron, he is disposed to 

 indulge a hope, that their malevolent dispositions 

 were in some measure counteracted, before they 

 passed into the eternal world. The grounds of his 

 hope, on this point, are stated in the Appendix. 



violence against all surrounding associates; it 

 is evident, that, in such a case, a scene of misery 

 would be produced, beyond the power of the 

 human mind either to conceive or to describe. 

 If so dreadful effects have been produced, by 

 such diabolical passions, even in the present 

 world, where Providence &quot; sets restraining 

 bounds to the wrath of man,&quot; and where be 

 nignant dispositions are blended with the evil 

 principles which so generally prevail, what 

 must be the effects where pure malignity, with 

 out any mixture of benevolent feelings, reigns 

 universally, is perpetually tormenting its objects, 

 is ever increasing in its fury, and is never con 

 trolled by physical obstructions or by moral con 

 siderations ! This is the society of hell : this 

 is the essence of future misery : this is &quot; the 

 worm that never dies, and the fire that is never 

 quenched ;&quot; and the natural effects produced by 

 it is universal anguish and despair, &quot; weeping, 

 and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.&quot; If such 

 be the end of the ungodly, and the malignant 

 despiser of God s law, and the riches of his 

 mercy as manifested in Christ Jesus, how 

 careful should we be to counteract every evil 

 propensity and passion, and how fervently ought 

 we to join in the prayer of the Psalmist, and 

 in the resolution of Jacob: &quot; Gather not my 

 soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.&quot; 

 &quot; O my soul, corne not thou into their secret; 

 unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou 

 united !&quot; 



Let none imagine, because I have selected 

 some of the more atrocious characters recorded 

 in history, as illustrations of the effects of de 

 pravity that only such are &quot; vessels of wrath, 

 fitted for destruction.&quot; The principle of malevo 

 lence is substantially the same in every heart 

 where it is predominant, however much it may 

 be varnished over by hypocrisy, dissimulation, 

 and the various forms of politeness which pre 

 vail in the world ; and it requires only a certain 

 stimulus to excite it to action, and full scope to 

 exert its energies, in order to produce the most 

 horrible and extensive effects. Several of tho 

 atrocioas characters to which I have alluded, 

 appeared, in the commencement of their career, 

 to be possessed of a certain portion of benevo 

 lence, and of other amiable qualities. Nero, in the 

 beginning of his reign, showed several marks O; 

 the greatest kindness and condescension, affa 

 bility, complaisance, and popularity. When he 

 was desired to sign his name to a list of male 

 factors that were to he executed, he exclaimed, 

 &quot; Would to Heaven I could not write !&quot; 

 Caligula began his reign with every promising 

 appearance of becoming the real father of his 

 people. Tiberius at first concealed his thoughts 

 under the mask of an impenetrable dissimulation. 

 He governed with moderation, and even appear 

 ed to excel in modesty. But afterwards, whe 

 these individuals became intoxicated with power, 





