310 Recapitulation, 



predecessors in no respect so decidec^ly as in uni- 

 form correctness, polish, and taste. In a word, 

 the Master Builders in the temple of knowledge, 

 during this period, have been perhaps fewer in 

 number than in several preceding centuries ; 

 but neither the number nor the success of those 

 who busied themselves in extending, polishing, 

 and adorning the fabric, was ever so great. 



This feature of the last age remarkably appears 

 in the state of what may be called the mechanical 

 part of literature. The refined, elegant, and ex- 

 pensive manner in which books have been for 

 some time printed and decorated, more especially 

 within the last ten or fifteen years of the century, 

 as it marks a period of luxury and taste, so we 

 may question whether it has not been carried to 

 an injurious length. If this system of sacrificing 

 the useful to the ornamental be pursued much 

 further, it must contract the circulation of books, 

 and of course diminish the number both of au- 

 thors and of readers. Some have even pronounced, 

 that it must operate to produce a " counterrevo- 

 lution in the republic of letters, and introduce all 

 the misfortunes of a manuscript age." 



11. The century under consideration maybe 

 denominated THE AGE OF INFIDEL philosophy. 

 There have been in every age " profane and vain 

 babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so 

 called." But it may be confidently pronounced, 

 that there never was an age in which so many Ae- 

 liberate and systematic attacks were made on Re- 

 vealed Religion, through the medium of pretend- 

 ed science, as in the last. A few truly learned 

 and ingenious men made such attacks the main 



