100 



Indiana University Studies 



self; and if told that such and such works are exquisitely fine, and 

 that everyone admires them, and that they are composed according to 

 the very best of rules, then suspect a party spirit, and say not to your- 

 self of your opponent in politics, "Now has mine enemy written a book." 

 This is so decidedly the case in the present day that no criticism what- 

 ever is the least to be depended on. Why not, like a man of honour 

 and candour, judge of the book solely by the effect it produces on 

 yourself? and then you will rarely be wrong. . . . Your taste and 

 imagination are exclusively your own, and therefore you should be 

 ashamed either to laugh or cry, to abuse or to command, at the fiat 

 of any save your own taste and judgement. . . . 



If the author be but of their party in politics, and adhere a little to 

 their dogmatic rules, there is nothing more required; they will point 

 out to you, in perfect raptures, the finest and most brilliant passages. 

 But if he be but of the adverse party, then "their enemy has written 

 a book" and on him they fall tooth and nail. Of all the canting in the 

 world there is none like the canting of criticism. 



I speak not here of the delightful employment of giving up the mind 

 and spirit to our Heavenly Father, of the soothing consolation of de- 

 pending on superior strength, or of the rapturous heart; but I main- 

 tain that the worship of God by direct adoration, by reverence, or by 

 devout meditation on His power, goodness and compassion is the natural 

 result of our acquaintance with these divine perfections; and that if 

 our reforming deists do not worship in sincerity as their Christian 

 brethren do, what can we think but that their pretended knowledge is 

 affectation, love of singularity, and pride of heart, and that they are 

 in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. 



