he bosoms of human kind. For mankind, before personal self depravation, are not only capable of diserning these moral qualities, but also, of delighting n, and approbating them. How far the following exracts may accord with the foregoing observations, and vith the above ideas of a moral taste in man, is left to he readers own judgment finally to decide.

"The conclusion in which I wish to rest is, that the beauty and sublimity which is felt, in the various appearances of matter, are finally to be ascribed to their being the signs of those qualities of mind, which are fitted by the constitution of our nature, to affect us with pleasing or interesting emotion." Had organick enjoyment been the only object of our formation, it would have been sufficient to establish senses for the reception of these enjoyments. But if the promises of our nature are greater, if it is enabled to look to the author of being himself, and to feel its relation to him; then nature, in all its aspects around us, ought only to be felt, as signs of his providence, and as conducting us, by the universal language of these signs, to the throne of the deity." "And perhaps it is chiefly for this fine issue, that the heart of man is thus finely touched, (or endued with a moral taste,) that devotion may spring from delight; and that all the noblest convictions, and confidences of religion, may be acquired in the simple school of nature."* "It calls forth the hymn

• This sentence seems to border on the extravagancies of .Ierbert, by unduly exalting the light of natural religion, to a Dar with that of revelation.

"of the infant bard, as well as the anthem of the poet "of classic times. And there is no era so barbarous "in which man has existed, in which the traces are "not to be seen, of the alliance which he has felt be"tween earth and heaven; or, of the conviction he "has acquired, of the mind which created nature. "The rude altar of the savage, every where marks the "emotions that swelled in his bosom, when he erect"ed it to the awful, or the beneficent deities, whose "imaginary presence it records."

"It is on this account, that it is of so much conse"quence in the education of the young, to encourage "their instinctive taste, for the beauty and sublimity "of nature. While it opens to the years of infancy "or youth, a source of pure and permanent enjoy"ment, it has consequences on the character and happiness of future life, which they are unable to fore"see. It is to provide them, amid all the agitations "and trials of society, with one gentle and unreproach

ing friend,† whose voice is ever in alliance with goodness and virtue, and which, when once understood, is able, both to sooth misfortune, and to re"claim from folly. It is to identify them with the "happiness of that nature to which they belong, to "give them an interest in every species of being which

† As Christ above all others, is the "Gentle unreproaching friend, who reclaims from folly;" it is not mere nature, but the gospel, that best reveals this "supporter under misfortune." Alison on Taste, however flowery, entertaining, or instructive, seems to require a cautious and circumspect perusal.

**surrounds them; and amid the hours of curiosity "and delight, to awaken those latent feelings of be "nevolence and of sympathy, from which, all the mor"al or intellectual greatness of man finally arises. "(Intellectual, and moral, are not synonymous, al"though so used in this place.) It is to lay the found"ation of an early and a manly piety; amid the mag"nificent system of material signs, in which they re"side. To give them the mighty key which can in"terpret them, and to make them look upon the uni"verse which they inhabit, not as the abode only of “human cares, or human joys, but as the temple of "the living God, in which praise is due, and where service is to be performed." (Alison on Taste.)

NOTE II.

This note refers to Letter XVI, page 263.

On Campbell's translation of Matthew xxiv, 22.

1 THE present reading is, "Except those

days should be shortened, there should be no flesh "saved: but for the elect's sake, those days shall be "shortened."

The translation is, "For if the time were protract"ed, no soul could survive; but for the sake of the "elect, the time shall be short."

PP

Under the head of remarks, he offers the following reason, why he altered his version from the common translation, viz. "To shorten any thing, means al

ways to make it shorter than it was; or, at least, to "make it shorter than was intended. Neither of "these meanings is applicable here."

This reason he endeavours to sustain by a critical reference to Matthew xxIII, 5. Its present reading is, " They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the border of their garments."

His translation of the same part of this verse, reads, "For they wear broader phylacteries than others, and "longer tufts on their mantles."

Not being qualified to reply to this criticism, I shall remark concisely on the primary one only; and on its appendant argument.

In respect to his substitution of "if the time were protracted," for "those days should be shortened;" and his adoption of "the time shall be short," in place of "those days shall be shortened;" I have to observe, that if the present version in common use, is, in this verse, incorrect, and incompatible with the true and genuine sense and meaning of this same verse, as originally written, whether in Greek or Hebrew, then it is truly unaccountable how so glaring and pernicious an errour, could have wholly escaped the discernment of two of the most learned and acute cotemporary criticks of the age; and that, whilst in the very act of commenting on this self same verse.

The former thus comments thereon, (but connects therewith Mark X111, 20, it being of similar significa