Additional Istoies. S3S 



usually attached to mere matters of taste and criticism. May 

 not these be among the elements of feverish agitation and 

 mighty change, afloat, by the permission of Providence, for 

 purposes, to us inscrutable, in the moral system ? May not 

 this revolution in taste be a prelude to other revolutions — a 

 small skirt of the cloud, like a man's hand, ushering in the 

 blackening tempest ? Are not the German writings calcu- 

 lated to generate in both sexes a ferocious hardihood and in- 

 dependence of mind ; a dangerous contempt of established 

 forms; a promptitude to suffer and to dare; an enthusiasm, 

 of character, fitting them for seasons of energy, of exertions, 

 of privations, dangers, and calamities ? It is natural for hu- 

 man blindness and Inattention to overlook the instruments 

 and operations by Avhich Providence prepares and fashions 

 great and surprising events. It is the folly of man to ascribe 

 too little weight and importance to moral causes ; while it is 

 the course of Providence (as it were on purpose to humble 

 human pride) to act by seemingly minute and inefficient 

 causes. Who knows, then, but this preternatural appetite for 

 the irregular, the indecorous, the boisterous, the sanguinary, 

 and the terrific, may be the precursor of some strange moral 

 or political convulsion?" — Transactions of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, vol. viii ; Reflections on the Style and Manner of some 

 late German Writers, and on the Tendency of their Productions. 

 By William Preston, esq., M. R. I. A. 



Note (M),page 235. — xVs Dr. Samuel Seabury was the first 

 episcopal bishop that ever resided in the United States, it is 

 thought proper to present the following additional informa- 

 tion respecting him, which has been communicated to the 

 author since the account in the above mentioned page was 

 printed. 



He was born in 1728, and passed through the regukvr 

 course of education in Yale college, where he graduated in 

 175 1. In 1752 he went to Scotland for the purpose of study- 

 ing medicine; but soon afterwards turning his attention to 



