£796 J 
brates. I-had to write to ftern, di’ puta- 
tious, taftelefs men, to whom fich points 
of view had feemed profane. 
A. Why then addrefs them ? 
-S., They were altering the  efta- 
blifaments of their feveral countries. 
My reafons might have guided them to- 
ward a faith worthy to be bought at the 
price of anarchy and rancour. 
7. How extravagant a value you fect- 
chieftains fet upon your theories! 
S. Behold the effect thofe men 
have produced. Their pupils are, I 
perceive, at prefent, too un cultivated to 
value a {peculative opinion for its beauty. 
Superftition is , perhaps, ag yet, too ne-~ 
ceffary a ane among aN ore to ha- 
zard aa abdutfundamentals. Their 
cold unintelligible belicfs may fuit the 
uncivilized North, but will make no im- 
preffion on the aes mind ait 
AL And oil never call forth > fub- 
lime ase a Oa Phiggy or 2 Mi- 
chael Angelo? id a 
RVG Beings of {mall account in i eyes 
of thefe theofophifts.) T’o which, among 
their clafles of hi rarchy, is Socini a 
friend ? 
S. To any, which, fhall make the 
prieft a citizen, by reftoring him ‘to do- 
meftic relations; which fhali prevent the 
clergy from cohering into one body cor- 
porate ; and which hall maint gin, by the 
unopulence of the paftor, a permanent 
intercourfe between him and thofe he is 
to inftruct. a 
A, You would leave him, I fufpedt, to 
fubfift, like the frolling flamens of the 
ct goddefs, upon the alms of the 
eopl ez PB) 
S. The groveling fuperftitions being 
generally moft produftive, I fhould un- 
willingly abandon the prieft wholly to 
the contributions, of the multitude. He 
is to mftruct, he muft be educated, and 
the coft of his education fhould be reim- 
burfed. The village can ill afford a 
a flipend; the city could eafily fup- 
ply a tco boyntiful one.- A. part,:.'then, 
of their falary, at leait enough to fecure 
an informed clergy, the flate muft fur- 
nifh; but let it afk for this no requital, 
no given tenets, no power of promotion 
or expulfions Let the voice on the peo- 
ple name, remove. applaud, Cemiune, | 
am too proud to‘eonfent that I fhould 
owe fo an act of uniformity, a general 
acquiefcence 1 in my opinions. 
jupiter. Thou needeft not anticipate 
‘their fpeedy prevalence. ‘The age is, no 
doubt, to eee when Burope will a 
third tune be withing for a new reli- 
On Te cer opie) 
fir ifforys 454 
gion. Thine is not unlikely to fuit. It 
may even then have yet the attra¢tions 
of novelty. Governments in thine own 
country are in 4 natural tate, tolerably 
free, and in the hands of the wealthy 
and informed: no popular fanaticifms 
are wanting to bring about their diffolu- 
tion. Elfewhere, as thou hatt obferved, the 
people are not grown up to thy opinions. 
When une fhall begin to feel the con- 
temptible barbarifm of their new creeds, 
and ihall with to ally the tafte of the 
philofopher with the aoa of the Chrif- 
tian, they will, no doubt, look back to 
the inftruétions of the Sage of Sienna. 
c 
To the E ditor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, | : 
‘TOPOGRAPHICAL hiftory is fo in- 
tercfling a fubjeét, and yet fo fre- 
quentl ly: treated of ina fuperncial, if, not 
a dif{gufting manner, as to have excited, 
in many perfons, both wonder and pre- 
judice ; wonder at the want of judg- 
ment in the writers, and prejudice 
againft fimilar productions. 
Confidered as unfolding fcenes more 
immediately domeftic, tcopogra phical 
hifte ory may be reckoned pactial in its 
advantages, and confined as to its in- 
cidents; but in reference to the pro- 
erefs of the fine arts, and to events and 
improvements of general importance to a 
country, it takes a more ftriking cha- 
racter ; and its form fhould affume not ~ 
only an agreeable, but a dignified ap- 
pearance. 
Whence, then, hath-arifen the preju - 
dice againit this {pecies of literature ? 
Not merely, 4 a pp: sehend, from the 11- 
‘mited nature topoyraphical hiftory, 
but from the uninviting afpeét that it 
too often affumes, and the aukward ar- 
rangement in which it is difpofed.. In- 
ftead ofbcing carried over a landfcape, 
where every thing fhou!d be fcenery and 
defeription ; where agriculture and com- 
merce, the progrets of the arts, and the 
dmprovement of political fociety, thould 
delight us with their agrecable variety, 

weare detained by minute defcriptions of 
things, which, in themfelves. are of no’ 
conlecuence, or which can only amufe a 
particular clafs of readers, by dry nar- 
ratives, frequently erroneous, conveyed 
with taftelefs formality, from one com- 
piler. to another; with infipidities of 
private families, and tedious details of 
local antiquities, mufiv infcriptions and 
mouldy reliques, of as little confequence 
to fociety as a verfe called scolapa, in 
30 the 


