156 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



tas not produced a sufficient variety of interest 

 ing objects for the contemplation, the instruction, 

 and the entertainment of the human race and 

 that the system of the moral and physical world 

 must be distorted and deranged, and its economy 

 misrepresented and blended with the creations of 

 human folly, before its scenery be rendered fit 

 to gratify the depraved and fastidious tastes of 

 mankind.* And is it indeed true, that there is 

 not a sufficient variety to gratify a rational mind 

 in the existing scenes of creation and providence? 

 If we survey the Alpine scenes of nature ; if we 

 explore the wonders of the ocean ; if we pene 

 trate into the subterraneous recesses of the globe ; 

 if we direct our view to the numerous objects of 

 sublimity and of beauty to ne found in every 

 country ; if we investigate the structure and 

 economy of the animal and the vegetable tribes ; 

 if we raise our eyes to the rolling orbs of heaven ; 

 if we look back to the generations of old, and 

 trace the history of ancient nations ; if we con 

 template the present state of civili/ed and of 

 savage tribes, and the moral scenery which is 

 every where displayed around us shall we not 

 find a sufficient variety of every thing which is 

 calculated to interest, to instruct, and to entertain 

 a rational mind ? I am bold to affirm, that were 

 a proper selection made of the facts connected 

 with the system of nature, and with the history 

 and the present slate of human society, and were 

 the sketches of such facts executed by the hand 

 of a master, and interspersed with rational and 

 moral reflections volumes might be presented to 

 the public, no less entertaining, and certainly far 

 more instructive, than all the novels and roman 

 ces which the human imagination has ever pro 

 duced ; and that, too, without distorting a single 

 fact in the system of nature or of human society, 

 or exciting a sentiment of admiration or of ap 

 probation of the exploits of warriors. If we wish 

 to be amused with entertaining narrations and 

 novel scenes, the narratives of adventurous voy 

 agers and travellers, when written with spirit 



The following sketch of Sir Walter Scott, the 

 supposed author of some of the works alluded to, is 

 given in Hazlitt s &quot;Spirit of the A ire, or Contempo 

 rary Portraits &quot; &quot; His mind receives and treasures 

 up every thin? brought to it by tradition or custom- 

 it does not project itself beyond this into the world 

 unknown, but mechanically shrinks back as from 

 the edge of a precipice. The land of pure reason is 

 to his apprehension like Van Dieman s Land, bar 

 ren, miserable, distant, a place of exile, the dreary 

 abode of savages, convicts, and adventurers. Sir 

 Walter would make a bad hand of a description of 

 the millennium, unless he would lay the scene in 

 Scotland 500 years ago; and then he would want 

 acts and worm-eaten parchments to support his 

 drooping style. Our historical novelist firmly 

 thinks, that nothing is but what has been that the 

 moral world stands still, as the material one was 

 supposed to do of old and that we can never get 

 beyond the point where we actually are, with 

 out utter destruction, though every thing changes 

 and will change, from what it was 300 years ago 

 and what it is now ; from whut it is now, to all 

 that the bigoted admirer of the good old times most 

 Ireads and hates &quot; 



and animation, will supply us with entertain 

 ment scarcely inferior to that of the best writen 

 novel ; and it is the reader s own fault, if he do 

 not, from such sources, derive moral instruction. 

 Such adventures as those of Mungo Park in 

 Africa, and Captain Cochrane in Siberia, and 

 such narratives as those of Byron, Brisson, 

 Pierre Viaud, Anson, Cook, Bligh, Perouse, 

 and others, abound with so many striking and 

 affecting incidents, that the reader s attention is 

 kept alive, and he feels as lively an interest in 

 the fate of the adventurers, as is usually felt in 

 that of the fictitious hero of a novel, or a ro 

 mance. 



If man were only the creature of a day,, whose 

 whole existence was confined within the limits 

 of this sublunary scene, he might amuse himself 

 either with facts or with fictions, or with any 

 toys or gewgaws that happened to strike his 

 fancy while he glided down the stream of time to 

 the gulf of oblivion. But if he is a being destin 

 ed for eternity, the train of his thoughts ought 

 to be directed to objects corresponding to his 

 high destination, and all his amusements blended 

 with those moral instructions which have an ul 

 timate reference to the scene of his immortal 

 existence. When I read one of our modern 

 novels, I enjoy, for a few hours, a transitory 

 amusement, in contemplating the scenes of fancy 

 it displays, and in following the hero through 

 his numerous adventures ; I admire the force 

 and brilliancy of the imagination of the writer 

 (for I am by no means disposed to underrate the 

 intellectual talent which has produced some ol 

 the works to which I allude,) but when I have 

 finished the perusal, and reflect, that all the 

 scenes which passed before my mental eye, were 

 only so many unsubstantial images, the fictions 

 of a lively imagination I cannot indulge in ra 

 tional or religious reflections on the subject, nor 

 derive a single moral instruction, any more than 

 I can do from a dream or a vision of the night. 

 When I survey the scenes of creation ; when I 

 read the history of ancient nations ; when I pe 

 ruse the authentic narratives of the voyager and 

 traveller ; when I search the records of revela 

 tion ; and when I contemplate the present state 

 of society around me, I learn something of the 

 character, the attributes, and the providence ol 

 God, and of the moral and physical state of man 

 kind. From almost every scene, and every in 

 cident, I can deduce instructions calculated to 

 promote the exercise of humility, meekness, grati 

 tude, and resignation to lead the mind to 

 God as the source of felicity, and as the righte 

 ous governor of the world and to impress the 

 heart with a sense of the folly and depravity o, 

 man. But it is obvious, that no distinct mora. 

 instructions can be fairly deduced from scenes, 

 circumstances, and events &quot; which never did nor 

 can take place.&quot; Such however is, at present 

 the tide of public opinion on this subject that we 



