466 
ward, the confidence and efteem of men, 
what fhall animate its perfeverance but a 
belief in the approbation of a beholding 
‘and remunerating Godhead? By har 
bouring fuch hopes, excellent men have 
ever been wont to allure themielves to 
virtue. 
N. So foon as. moralifts. fprang up 
among us, they inculcated a fimilar 
notion amid the multitude. 
S. But what with you was accidental, 
was with us Hignog Tt has always been 
the ftone of mora! philofophers tofind a 
perfeét motive for, perfect conduét. The 
love of the beautiful or the ufeful is ob- 
vioufly infufficient. A man in coneeiv- 
able circumftances would aét abfurdly, 
Imitation of Wieland’s Dialogues. 

[July 
crificés happinefs 
futurity. 
S. I frankly own, that the fathers of 
our faith were, many of them, impro- 
perly auftere, frowning down the plea- 
fures, moft of which are innocent, and. 
which humanity fhould always deter us 
from forbidding, unlets they are demon- 
ftrably hurtful to f{eciety. 
A. What is no lefs unfavourable to 
human happinefs, they moft abfurdly en- 
ef the mortifications— 
Miftaking fome,paffages of our 
notin oks, which, by a more liberal 
interpretation—— 
F. Ever thyfelf— 
S. Would be found to conciliate the 
much _ prefent te 
if, for the fake of thefe taftes, he pre-)— happinefs of yon world, and of the fu- 
fred the good of others to his own. 
Revelation alone fupplies this perfecto - 
tive; it alone can incline the balanee in, 
cates ‘of collifion between private and 
public intereft, where equitably it ought 
to lean, in favour of the general welfare. 
N. Revelation of what ? 
§. Of the moral attributes of an om- 
nipotent Godhead. 
N. Our philofophers had difcovered 
thefe— 
S. Imagined them rather. Can argu- 
ments of decifive weight be offered in 
behalf of thefe pe without firft 
proving the certainty of a future fate of 
retribution ? Do the appearances of na- 
‘ture even intimate fuch a ftate? We 
mutt enquire, then, for its annunciation 
by works, in Aes fhe heated not the 
iron, nor ftrack the anvil. 
N. Come, with me td yon myztle- 
grove, and there converfe. 
S. I, have through their 
converlaas I 
writifigs, with the inmates of Ely fiunt 
They may perfuade, but 
convince like fupernatural 
And even you mutt allow, that all hu- 
torical evidence for the revelata of this 
effential truth, will operate as fo much 
additional proof ; anda proof, which 
at a future pe ‘riod —— 
NN. to Fup: rer. 
recollection, 
I have alwa 
think of it. / 
A. I thal) comprehend your w a 
Socini, rather better after my conve 
fion. - Your nip ired moralifts do not ap- 
pear to me to have taught man to be 
happy. And as he mut naturally be 
more perfuaded of the reality of his firkt 
life than of his fecond, I cannot thin 
t at all abfurd to hefitate, het ore he fa. 
f 
y 
they 
. : ets ant 
INTE TICFENCE. 
ture one. 
F. This intermediate tat a very 
fit place ‘which to acéOmmodate 
wine ee en them. Nor will it be 
vhnw - enlightened benevolence’ 
ftill farther mpare the religions.of 
the ee and rhodet world, and ta 
endeavour at preparue for the reftlefs. 
and mutable fons of éart rth, fome ecleétic 
fyftem of belief, and ritual lefs hoftile to 
reafon and to pleafure, than the four 
‘dogmas which ay wir Reformers 
are arrogantly inculcating from the 
blood- {prent ruins of the civil conftitu- 
tions, upon their ignorant, gloomy, tur- 
ee md deftroying followers. 
faét, I think the prieft yet 
wa ating, an fhould reprefent the hero 
of your fyftem as the philofopher of the 
graces, welcoming, ug the feaft of Cana, 
he focia! goblet ; proud of the attache 
ment of lovely feniales! who hung upon 
his fteps, emptied their precious ey 
fumes upon his garments, and learned 
to love virtue, becaufe he was vittade * 
ardents fer his‘ country’s freedom, and 
when difappointed of the general ac- 
quiefcence he hoped, at the annual/af- 
fembly of Fis nation, in the referms he 
had recommended, forbidding his fol- 
lowers to ufe the arm of syiolence, and 
fuffering only the aftiruelen of an anni- 
verfary ‘feftival, to drink a commemo.~ 
rating cup of re cer et to the immortal me- 
mory of his bent cyolent, but unavailing, . 
patriotifm ! 
N. Ts this. ion Ati Apollo? 
¥. Gr poetical ideMfization 3 
S$. It would not diminifh the utility 
of ee to affociate what it needs 
of awful with the one Being w orfhipped, 
and what it indulges of amiable with the 
character of the prophet whom it cele- 
. brates, 
e ; 
