T° 
MAGAZINE. 
MONTHLY 



NOVEMBER 1, 


[No. 4, of Vox. 10. 

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
S you have given a place in your Ma- 
gazine to two articles which contain 
Awmadverfions, upon my examination of 
Mr. Hail’s fermons, you will perhaps al- 
low me the fame privilege for afew words 
in explanation. Your correfpondent M. 
H. inthe number publifhed in Septem- 
ber, appears to doubt the truth of my af- 
fertion, that a change in the faith of a 
country would little affect the morality of 
it. Now this affertion muit undoubtedly 
be underftood to apply exclufively to the 
conduct of the million. The conduc of 
many individuals of every country is 
formed of thofe inftitutions in which fuch 
individuals fubfit. An interefted afpir- 
ing, reftlefs corporation, formed by the 
clergy of every country, will be iafuenced, 
and moft injurioufly influenced, by the in- 
ititutions which it fupports, and which 
fupport it. .The influence of this corpo- 
ration arifing from various caufes, of 
which a tacit belief in the divine authori- 
ty of the faith it defends is zot the mot 
powerful, will fometimes occafion confi- 
derable movements, like thofe of the Cru- 
fades, and thus affeét the condu& of the 
great body of the people. It mutt alfo 
be admitted, as it certainly is admitted in 
the trifling publication to which your cor- 
refpondents have done me the honour cf 
alluding, that there are certain minds in 
every country, of a make fo ex'raordina- 
ry and a temperament fo fanzuine, as to 
be much influenced, efpecially on great 
eccations, by religious enthufafm, and 
motives which point to a future life; yet 
the or tinary condu&t even of fuch indivi- 
duals is but faintly influenced by fuch mo- 
tives ; and after the lap{e of fome confider- 
able time, when the charm and power of 
novelty are gone, the enthufiaft ends inthe 
hypocrite or the fceptic. Minds of this 
-clafs, if peculiarly great and vigorous, go 
to the one fide or the other, and form for 
the hiftorian his Gibbons or his Crom- 
wells. Thefe exceptions form no folid 
ovjection to the general affertion, which 
contemplates the condu& of the mats of 
every nation.acting in ordinary life, and 
fubjeét to the influences of daily and habi- 
-tual occurrence. It isnot furely too much 
-to affirm, that the mafs of the Englith na- 
tion are practical atheitts at this moment, 
Monruiy¥ Mac. No, 65¢ 
and no change that timidity itfelf can 
dread, can make them lefS believers than 
they are. | i Ss 
Will any one fay that the condu% of 
one in fifty of our whole population is de- 
termined in any ordinary cafe of perfonal 
or focial morals by religious confidera- 
tions? Nay, I would gladly put the quef- 
tion even to any religious man, if he can 
fay, after the performance of any act of 
humanity or mercy: I would not have 
done th:s ¢ if I had not expected a reward 
in heaven.” 
It is true in fact, that the fame vices do 
prevail in the fame country after,a change 
in its faith, however oppofite to that which 
it has laft adopted ; of which the fhamesul 
debaucheries of Italy are a {ufficient proof. 
Not only the character of a country, but 
that of an individual, will remain marked 
by the fame propenfities after a change of 
faith. Paul the Jew purfued the Chrif- 
tians to death; and Paul the Chriftian 
withed that thefe who differed from him in 
his new faith were cut off; but he had 
ceated to be the agent of thofe who had 
authority. 
I think that your correfpordent, when 
he reconfiders his queries re{pecting the 
fepiration of moral from religious ideas, 
with which they happen to have been af- 
fociated, will perceive that it mult be ad 
mitted that nothing is more eafy than this 
divorce; for we know in faét that this .is 
often proved by the purity of the conduct 
of {uch as once had but have no longer reli- 
gious motives of action. Neither ought we 
to forget, whén meditating upon this fub- 
ject, that all the prefent motives to morality 
have a real and obvious exiftence in the 
nature of things, which the imagination, as 
it has not ereated them, cannot annihilate. 
Religious motives fometimes favour the 
interelts of morality, but they too often 
favour vice. The fuper(titious and the 
enthufiafiic have been remarkable for in- 
humanity, and rarely, very rarely, have 
fuch charaflers been merciful and kind. 
Perhaps even we may have heard of fome_ 
methodiftical legiflators in our days, whole 
conduct has betrayed few fymptoms of hu- 
manity and charity. 
Your correfpondent M. H. feems ‘to 
think that our fympathies are factitious, 
like.the prejudices of fuperftition, and tbat, 
therefore, they are equally liable to be 
over- 
