132 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



to the evil of sin, and the malignancy of pride, 

 covctousuess, ambition, and revenge. We think 

 nothing, in th^e common intercourse oflife, of,in- 

 dulgirig a selh&h disposition, of feeling proud and 

 indignant at a real or supposed affront, of looking 

 with a covetous eye at the possessions of our 

 neighbours, of viewing the success and prosperity 

 of our rivals with discontentment and jealousy, 

 or of feeling a secret satisfaction at the distress 

 or humiliation of our enemies ; and we seldom 

 reflect on the malignant effects which such pas 

 sions and dispositions would produce, were they 

 suffered to rage without control. But, in the 

 scenes and contentions of warfare which have 

 been realized on the great theatre of the world, 

 we contemplate the nature and effects of such 

 malignant dispositions in their true light ; we 

 perceive the ultimate tendency of every malevo 

 lent affection, when no physical obstruction im 

 pedes its progress ; we discern that it is only the 

 same dispositions which we daily indulge, ope- 

 ^ rating on a more extensive scale; and we learn 

 the necessity of mortifying such dispositions, and 

 counteracting their influence, if we expect to en 

 joy substantial felicity either here or hereafter; 

 and if we wish to see the world restored to order, 

 to happiness and repose. 



I shall only observe farther on this part of my 

 subject, that, besides the atrocities already no 

 ticed, war has been the nurse of every vicious dis 

 position, and of every immoral practice. The 

 Carthaginians, who were almost incessantly en 

 gaged in war, were knavish, vicious, cruel, and 

 superstitious ; distinguished for craft and cunning, 

 lying and hypocrisy, and for the basest frauds and 

 the most perfidious actions. The Goths and 

 Vandals are uniformly characterized, as not only 

 barbarous and cruel, but avaricious, perfidious, 

 and disregardful of the most solemn promises. It 

 was ever a sufficient reason for them to make an 

 attack, that they thought their enemies could not 

 resist them. Their only reason for making 

 peace, or for keeping it, was because their ene 

 mies were too strong ; and their only reason for 

 committing the most horrible massacres, rapes, 

 and all manner of crimes, was because they had 

 gained a victory. The Greeks and Romans, it 

 is well known, notwithstanding their superior 

 civilization, were distinguished for the most de- 

 griding and immoral practices. They gloried in 

 being proud, haughty, and revengeful ; and ever. 

 their amusements were characterized by a spirit 

 of ferocity, and by the barbarisms of war. It is 

 almost needless to say that war blunts the finer 

 feelings of humanity, and engenders a spirit of 

 selfishness, and of indifference even towards 

 friends and companions. Ofthis many shocking 

 instances could be given. 



Miot in his Memoirs of the War in Egypt, 

 relates the case of a soldier who was seized with 

 the plague, and with the delirium which some 

 times accompanies the disease. He took up his 



knapsack, upon which his head was resting, and 

 placing it upon his shoulders, made an effort ta 

 rise, and to follow the army. The venom of the 

 dreadful malady deprived him of strength, and 

 after three steps, he fell again upon the sand, 

 headlong. The fall increased his terror of being 

 left by the regiment, and he rose a second time, 

 but with no better fortune. In his third effort, 

 he sunk, and, falling near the sea, remained upon 

 that spot which fate had destined for his grave. 

 The sight of this soldier was frightful: the dis 

 order which reigned in his senseless speech his 

 figure, which represented whatever is mournful 

 his eyes staring and fixed his clothes in rags 

 presented whatever is most hideous in death. 

 The reader may perhaps believe that his com 

 rades would be concerned for him ; that they 

 would stop to help him ; that they would hasten 

 to support him, and direct his tottering steps. 

 Far from it : the poor wretch was only an object 

 of horror and derision. They ran from him, anu 

 they burst into loud laughter at his motions, 

 which resembled those of a drunken man, &quot; Ho 

 has got his account,&quot; cried one; &quot; He will not 

 march far,&quot;. said another ; and, when the wretch 

 fell for the last time, some of them added, &quot; See, 

 he has taken up his quarters !&quot; This terrible 

 truth, says the narrator, which I cannot help re 

 peating, must be acknowledged Indifference 

 and se{fishness are the predominant feelings of an 

 army. 



Rocca, in his &quot; Memoirs of the War in Spain,&quot; 

 remarks, &quot; The habit of danger made us look 

 upon death as one of the most ordinary cir 

 cumstances of life ; when our comrades had once 

 ceased to live, the indifference which was shown 

 them amounted almost to irony. When the 

 soldiers, as they passed by, recognised one ol 

 their companions stretched among the dead, they 

 just said, He is in want of nothing, he will not 

 have his horse to abuse again, he has got drunk 

 for the last time, or something similar, which 

 only worked, in the speaker, a sloical contempt 

 of existence. Such were the funeral orations 

 pronounced in honour of those who fell in our 

 battles.&quot; Simpson, in his &quot; Visit to Flanders,&quot; 

 in 1815, remarks, &quot;Nothing is more frightful 

 than the want of feeling which characterizes the 

 French soldiery. Their prisoners who were 

 lying wounded in the hospitals of Antwerp, were 

 often seen mimicking the contortions of counte 

 nance which were produced by the agonies of death, 

 in one of their own comrades in the next bed. 

 There is no ^u. ~e to be compared with the power 

 of fiends r . .ve these.&quot; 



Thus, it appears, that wars have prevailed in 

 every period, during the ages that are past, and 

 have almost extirpated the principle of benei-olenct 

 from the world ; and, therefore, it is obvious, that, 

 before the prevailing propensity to *varfare bo 

 counteracted and destroyed, the happiness which 

 flows from the operation of the benevolent affec 



