THE LONDON ENCYCLOPÆDIA, OR UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE, ART, LITERATURE, AND PRACTICAL MECHANICS, COMPRISING A POPULAR VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, A GENERAL ATLAS, AND APPROPRIATE DIAGRAMS. Sic oportet ad librum, presertim miscellanei generis, legendum accedere lectorem, ut solet ad convivium conviva civilis. Erasmus. A reader should sit down to a book, especially of the miscellaneous kind, as a well-behaved visitor does to a banquet. The BY THE ORIGINAL EDITOR OF THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA METROPOLITANA, ASSISTED BY EMINENT PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER GENTLEMEN, IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES. VOL. XII. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE; R. GRIFFIN & Co., GLASGOW; TEGG AND CO., DUBLIN; ALSO J. & S. A. TEGG, 1839. THE LONDON ENCYCLOPEDIA. THE Subscribers to the London Encyclopædia cannot but be gratified by the introduction of the following Article on INFIDELITY, from the pen of the late Rev. ROBERT HALL; and its importance; the publishers hope, will be a sufficient apology for giving it prominence, by placing it at the beginning of this Part. INFIDELITY is the joint offspring of an irreligious temper and unholy speculation, employed, not in examining the evidences of Christianity, but in detecting the vices and imperfections of professing Christians. It has passed through various stages, each distinguished by higher gradations of impiety; for when men arrogantly abandon their guide, and wilfully shut their eyes on the light of heaven, it is wisely ordained that their errors shall multiply at every step, until their extravagance confutes itself, and the mischief of their principles works its own antidote. That such has been the progress of infidelity will be obvious from a slight survey of its history. Lord Herbert, the first and purest of our English free-thinkers, who flourished in the beginning of the reign of Charles I., did not so much impugn the doctrine or the morality of the Scriptures, as attempt to supersede their necessity, by endeavouring to show that the great principles of the unity of God, a moral government, and a future world, are taught with sufficient clearness by the light of nature. lingbroke, and others of his successors, advanced Bomuch farther, and attempted to invalidate the proofs of the moral character of the Deity, and, consequently, all expectations of rewards and punishments; leaving the Supreme Being no other perfections than those which belong to a first cause, or Almighty contriver. After him, at a considerable distance, followed Hume, the most subtle, if not the most philosophical, of the Deists; who, by perplexing the relations of cause and effect, boldly aimed to introduce an universal scepticism, and to pour more than Egyptian darkness into the whole region of morals. Since his time sceptical writers have sprung up in abundance, and infidelity has allured multitudes to its standard: the young and superficial by its dextrous sophistry, the vain by the literary fame of its champions, and the profligate by the licentiousness of its principles. Atheism, the most undisguised, has at length began to make its appearance. Animated by numbers, and emboldened by success at the commencement of the French revolution, infidels gave a new direction to their efforts, and impressed a new character on the ever-growing mass of their impious speculations. By uniting more closely with each other, by giving a sprinkling of irreligion to all their literaly productions, they aimed to engross the formation of the public mind; and, amidst the warmest professions of attachment to virtue, to effect an entire disruption of morality from religion. Pretending to be the teachers of virtue, VOL. XII-PART 1. and the guides of life, they proposed to revoluworld, by a process entirely new; and to rear tionize the morals of mankind; to regenerate the the temple of virtue, not merely without the aid of religion, but on the renunciation of its principles, and the derision of its sanctions. systems, the inquiry at present is not so much With respect to the sceptical and religious which is the truest in speculation, as which is the most useful in practice; or, in other words, whether morality will be best promoted by considering it as a part of a great and comprehensive law, emanating from the will of a supreme, omnipotent legislator, or as a mere expedient, other motives than those which arise from the adapted to our present situation, enforced by no prospects and interests of the present state. sidered under two aspects; the influence of the The subject, viewed in this light, may be conopposite systems on the principles of morals, and on the formation of character. The first may be styled their direct, the latter their equally important, but indirect consequence and tendency. verts the whole foundation of morals. It may 1. The sceptical, or irreligious, system subbe assumed as a maxim that no person can be required to act contrary to his greatest good, or his highest interest, comprehensively viewed in relation to the whole duration of his being. It is often our duty to forego our own interest partially, to sacrifice a smaller pleasure for the sake of a greater, to incur a present evil in pursuit of a distant good of more consequence. In of inclination is the moral arithmetic of human a word, to arbitrate amongst interfering claims life. But, to risk the happiness of the whole duration of our being in any case whatever, admitting it to be possible, would be foolish; because the sacrifice must, by the nature of it, be so great as to preclude the possibility of compensation. is the only place of recompeuse, whenever the As the present world, on sceptical principles, sum of present good, cases which often occur in practice of virtue fails to promise the greatest reality, and much oftener in appearance, every motive to virtuous conduct is superseded; a deviation from rectitude becomes the part of wisdom; and should the path of virtue, in addition to this, be obstructed by disgrace, torment, or death, to persevere would be madness and folly, and a violation of the first and most essential law of nature. being in numberless instances at war with selfVirtue, on these principles, preservation, never can or ought to become a fixed habit of the mind. B |