CHAPTER XIV. ROMANISTS AND RATIONALISTS. THE want of a regular pursuit is, to a well educated man, a very great evil. The stupid, and the purely indolent, can get on pretty well without a regular pursuit, but exactly in proportion to a man's intellect and activity, is the necessity for his devotion to some regular occupation. A clever and idle. man is almost sure to get into mischief. With fortune sufficient to live at ease in the best company, and without any urgent motive to labour, it was no wonder that I should loiter on the road of life, and dally with the profession in which I embarked. Although very ambitious, and most desirous of political eminence, I found so many ways in London society of finding amusement and pleasure, that I gradually acquired a habit of sauntering, instead of stripping manfully to the toil of legal and political study. But the worst part of my case was, that my religious faith had been completely unhinged, and that owing to the lectures of the gaudy and glittering deist-Foss, I was little better than an infidel. When transferred to the care of my uncle, Parker, I was a Church of England man. He was a latitudinarian; a sober quiet deist; averse to all desire of propagandism, because he saw too clearly the political consequences of infidelity. Under his influence, my religious opinions were quietly sapped; and, after his death, I embarked upon the sea of London life, with hardly a rule of conduct to guide, beyond a sentimental feeling of right and wrong; referring conduct entirely to the standard of "honour," and scarcely caring to inquire whether the Almighty had ever made a revelation or not. Was it any wonder that in such a state of my heart and feelings that I should have become a worse man? Yet early impressions, and early training, would ever and anon exert their influence over me. The system of Foss failed to fill the void in my heart. Often I asked myself "And is it really all false? Has the world been blundering in a Christian belief for two thousand years? Have all the saints and martyrs of so many Christian churches been so many enthusiasts? Is it all a de lusion?" "The Enthusiasm of some sort seems natural to society. Foss, though a cold and contemptuous critic when dealing with venerable systems of opinion, yet would himself affect the part of a rapt seer, and occasionally excite himself into a tirade of sentiment. perfectability of man," was his favourite topic, when he wished that his mind should be roused into enthusiasm. I became more or less infected with the delusive doctrine of the perfectability of man. 66 Aye! to be sure," said Gabriel Cleveland, one day; "the grand secret of modern times is, that man is perfectible! The doctrine that men are all born in sin is one of those monstrous absurdities which are carefully inculcated for the purpose of making us the supple slaves of priestcraft." 66 By education most have been misled, So we believe because we so were bred; The priest continues what the nurse began, "I am glad to hear you quoting a papist poet," said Hugh Cleveland. "Ah! glorious John Dryden; I wonder when you rationalists will have such a poet amongst you?" "Pooh, my dear brother, do not sneer at rationalists, for you are one yourself, though you go to mass, and are a conforming Catholic." "I am no rationalist, though I may not be able to tell my exact opinion-Hugh, but I know that mere reason will never guide man into a consistent scheme of religion, so I'll support the good old church. "Without unspotted-innocent within, It fears no danger-for it knows no sin." Look to the state of the world, and even as a |