606 
dulity, and by no means the inferences of 
legitimate fufpicion. LUNE 
The Jefuits certainly have-deferved 
much gratitude for the geographical in- 
formation which their miffionaries colle&- 
ed, and much admiration for the claffical 
learning which their erudits difplayed. 
This reproach, however. (obferves Hume, 
Vv. 238) they muft bear from pofterity, 
that by the very nature of their inftitu- 
tion they were engaged to pervert learn- 
ing, the only effectual remedy againft fu. 
peritition, into a novrifhment of that in- 
firmity. Nor have they merely been the 
fophifts of error and credulity: wherever 
patronifed by the government, they were 
alfo fophifts of fervility and defpotifm. 
Order is no doubt of more value than li- 
berty; but thefe high doétrines, however 
tranquilliing in appearance, have never 
contributed eventually to public quiet ; 
either, under queen Mary, under Alva in 
the Netherlands, under Charles I. or 
James I], They provoke a vexaticus 
vigilance in the magiftrate, and a jealous 
diitemper in the people: they fupply a 
lax cafuifiry to the oppreffor, which is 
{peedily learned by the revolter; and thus 
untwift thofe bands ef mutual confidence 
which alone are reallydurable. A fyfiem 
of ncn-azlarm, an affected flumber of the 
magiftrate, has in all times of public fer- 
ment moft conduced to allay ‘animofity. 
fA new recognition of this ichool of prin. 
ciples, whether its teachers are to be em- 
bodied as doéters of anti-jacobinifin, or 
“as a foctety of faith, cught to be depre- 
cated by every friend to pacific fecurity. 
The proje&t of Broglio is a ftab at Euro- 
pean repote. : 
Since the hofpitable circulation among 
the courts of the Continent of this projeét 
of reftoration, it will not be contended, 
that the perpetuity of the jefuitical order 
is lefs real and effential, its concert lefs 
-extenfive and complete, or ‘its influence 
Jefs entire and formidable, than Nicolai, 
Gedike, and Biefter (affifted perhaps by 
_the private intelligence of a literary 1aini- 
fer now deceafed) had ventured, in 1785, 
to affert. If their honeft hoftility to its 
cangeious * chara&ter led them to favour 
a counter-confederacy, alfo.exceptionable 
for oppofite extremes of do@trine, for fimi- 
-Jar imtevior fecrecy, and for its devoted 
fubferviency to unknown chiéefs—let it be 

oy 
= 
* The Encyclopédie, article ‘cfuites, de- 
icribes them when perfecuted, as fophifts of 
tyrannicide ; when patronifed, as fophifts of 
tyranny. It isa very bitter, but‘a very hif- 
torical article. 
Modern Fefuitifin. 
[ Sept. 
recollected, that the order of Illuminees 
went to work only with the weapons of 
oral and written inftruction, difpenfed in 
lodges befcre judges not inadequate, or 
difplayed in books and journals in a form 
ftill more open to criticifm and refutation: 
and that their obedience was promifed 
only to chofen fuperiors, concealed rather 
from the jealouly of the prince, than from 
the curicfity of the afpirant. Whereas 
the Jefuits go to work with the armed 
force of rulers naturally ambitious to ex- 
tend their power, and irritated by mif- 
truft; with regulations which infringe 
all liberty of the prefs, and which abolifh 
all meetings of the people; with an auto- 
cratic, not an autonomous, conftitution. 
Were the idea wholly laid afide as un- 
fupportable, that the Jefuits continue to 
exift-as a formal and confederated order, 
it wouid ftill be convenient, for the elafii- 
fication of various moral, literary, and 
focial phenomena, to employ fome appel- 
lation analogous to that of Jefuits (which 
itfelf does not neceflarily. imply any thing 
exceptionable or vituperative), with re- 
{pect to fuch perions as have inherited the 
like views and purfuits, as are motived 
‘by fimilar confiderations, and employed 
‘in imitated purpofes. _ If the jefuitic fac- 
tion does not exift, the jefuitic {chool of 
pinion is no unreal or extinét academy. 
Their erudition has not ceafed to operate ; 
their maxims furvive in an imperifhable 
library. . Jefuitifm, whether taught by 
the books of the dead, or the voices of the © 
living, is a fyftem of opinion ftill honoured 
by a-long proceffion of feftators, and muft 
continue as indeftruétible as the love of 
unrefifted fway in the bofom of priefts and 
Kings. Jefuitifm, therefore, muft ftill be 
endeavouring to urge religion to the ze- 
plus-ultra ot docile credulity, and govern- 
ment to the we-pius-ultra of implicit im- 
perioufnefs ; it profefledly tolerates in the 
ruling cla{fs, for purpofes of influence and 
aicendency, the laxeft outrages of liber- 
tinifm ; it impofes on the obeying clafs, 
for- purpofes of difpiritude and fubjuga- 
tion, the fevereft privations of afceticifm. 
And jefuitifm thus defined is become the 
critical danger of Europe. The juftly 
-offenfive phenomena of the Revolution of 
France have produced in every other 
country a mighty re-aétion. From a fear 
of the do&trines of atheifm and infubordi: 
nation, the people are every where flying 
to the oppoiite extreme ground; and are 
embracing with eagernefs the more mif- 
chievous, becaufe more permanent, princi- 
ples of gloomy myfticifm and paflive obe- 
dience, Like the returning firoke of an 
electric 
