kind; fince I am perfuaded, what they want in philofophy, they make up by a much better thing; for there is almost always a fenfe of religion accompanying thefe village legends: a perfon who fees, or feems to fee, thefe fights, or hear thefe founds, is too fenfibly affected by his imaginations to mix immediately in worfe weakneffes; the invifible voice will never argue in favour of a guilty deed, nor the vifionary candle conduct the man it attends to fcenes of debauchery. On the contrary, the former will more furely fuggeft repentance to the erring fwain, and the other light him on his way to at least harmless thoughts and actions. Could we, therefore, fay to fuperftition, "thus far fhalt thou go, and no farther," the fimple of life and of heart might enjoy those little wanderings uncontrouled." But Superftition like Power is amongst the encroachers we dare not truft. Indulgence makes her bold and unfeafonable, till in the end The becomes the parent of the worft diforders to which the human foul is incident. You will hardly fuppofe that the most foaming fectaries infeft the innermoft receffes of this country; that method ifts of all denominations make the mountains reverberate with their fulminations, louder than the anathemas of Rome, and that there VOL. I. K there is fcarce a village, or a dozen fcattered hamlets, which receive not twice or thrice a week the effufions of a strolling preacher. Something more affecting than curiofity, has made me several times an auditor of these flaming discourses, which are held in barns, ftables, or the open fields. It feems incredible that half the congregation should be contained in the villages; but the fact is, that on the preaching days, the people come pouring in from all quarters, within the diftrict, and vales and mountains give up their inhabitants. I fhall not speak to you of the doctrine, which is pretty much the fame every where; and England is fufficiently over-run by these itinerants, to make its jargon familiar to every one, except that both the doctrine, and the way of delivering it, is more vehement and vociferous in Wales than I ever remember to have witneffed elsewhere. In fpeaking of the Lamb of God, the preacher affured his hearers, that if they were fincere believers, they would feel it move, and hear it bleat within their hearts; that, if lifted up by the Holy Spirit, they might fee it; that if they folded up their hands they might reach it, touch it, and embrace it, as he did, under divine affistance, at that mo Previous to this laft round in the ladder of fanaticifm being gained, like the Delphic God" his voice enlarged, and his form was more than ruffled;" but, on mounting the climax, his bellowings could be equalled in horror only by his contortions. No bull, driven into madness by the annoying dogs, and more distracting men, fo flounced or fo fhifted his attitudes, or roared with fo much mingled rage and agony: but if the phrenzy of the preacher could have been furpaffed, it would have yielded to that of the congregation; the tears, fighs, and yellings of which, accompanied by the extravaganza's of action, really threw at fober distance all that I ever saw, all that I ever heard of human or of beastial violence. I do not know whether this intemperate zeal obftructs or promotes the industry of these poor creatures; whether they return to their feveral occupations with more or less affiduity, after thefe ebullitions; but as the preachings begin about noon, and continue fome hours, it must absorb a great deal of that time, which might be paft in more useful, though less violent labour; for I dare venture to say, the hardest work they were ever put to for a day together, never fo wafted their animal fpirits, ftrained their muscles, or wearied limbs, as two hours paft in this religious fury. But even this is better than the oppofite extreme of fitting arrogantly loose to all religions; or, what is worse, fcoffing at the faith of others, and affecting to have none oncfelf. This is amongst the errors into which the fons and daughters of fimplicity rarely fall. It is referved for the children of refinement, to fpurn at all things holy, with them religion is a mighty convenient, well-contrived bugbear, to keep the flaves of the world in order, just as birds are scared by a maukin; but that more enlightened fouls cannot be expected to give into the illufion fo that the rich, the profperous, and all thofe who have received the greatest bounties and indulgencies at the hands of Providence, are the only persons who think themselves exempt from the duty or neceffity of acknowledging it. My friend, I have lived in the world, and travelled over it, long enough to be convinced, that what fuperficial pretenders call philofophy, has done more mifchief a thoufand times a thousand than either ignorance or fu perftition. Every conceited fpark that has courage enough to avow himself an Atheift, and juft wit enough to fport the old threadbare arguments in fupport of it, is now a philofopher; that is, he can laugh at the jest he breaks on religion, and repeat, with vivacity, the blafphemous bon-mots that others have made against the author of it, not reflecting, that indecency in wit, like immodesty in beauty, is a base proftitution of those facred gifts which are truly delightful only in the proportion that they are innocently exercifed. But this irreverence of things holy, is by no means the effect, either of true philosophy, or true courage: for both these are friends to piety; and there is as much difference betwixt a common-place Atheift, and a Christian philofopher, as betwixt an hero and a coward. Pretenders to infidelity are, indeed, always cowards: they are afraid of their own confciences, the "compunctious vifitings" of which they attempt to escape by a loud laugh, as children and common country people endeavour to dif guife their terrors in paffing through a churchyard in the dark, by making a noife, or whiftling as they run. No, my friend, philofophy is what our poet of nature, the Virgilian Thomfon, has described it: "Effufive fource of evidence and truth, |