gress of human improvement is like the hourhand of a clock; we do not perceive it move, tho' we perceive that it has moved, and yet like the clock its progress is limited; there is a point beyond which it cannot extend; to that limit it has not yet arrived, when it has, it must be retrograde, for a certain portion of evil is requisite to keep down population to a level with the means of subsistence.

The happy effect of reason, in regulating the ebullitions of the passions, may be easily perceived by coolly surveying the progress of society. When individuals govern a nation,, without any control from the general sentiments of the public, their whole life and administration will present a series of inconsistencies. Such is the history of arbitrary monarchies. In proportion as public opinion becomes enlightened and refined, the conduct of governments, whether monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, becomes regular and steady; and tho' the force of time and prejudice sanctions many follies, yet they are not like those which are to be found in the infancy of the world when public and private reason were unformed. The inconsistencies which marked the great characters of former times, were those of passion and caprice, arising from the licence

of arbitrary power, but as ambition is more under the restraint of regulated government, she is forced to submit to accomplish her purposes by various, and sometimes opposite, means, and to pretend at least in her most daring projects to consult the public good. The difference is striking, and shews an improvement in the state of society, which is yet, indeed, capable of being still further improved.

The inconsistencies of human opinions and conduct are of two sorts, those which are public, and those which mark the characters of individuals in private. The former of these arise from a defective knowledge of the principles of truth and justice, which are uniform and consistent; the latter from the defects of education and the strength of the passions, for people who are guided solely by their passions, or their feelings, must for ever be guilty of inconsistencies.

The greatest inconsistency in public opinions which I mean to notice, is to be found in a generally received system of faith, which proclaims the mercy of the Deity, and the eternity of future punishments. Another striking inconsistency in received opinions is, a belief in the foreknowledge of God and the freewill of man, a belief which arises from a desire to

reconcile a particular system of faith with the appearances of things. Not less inconsistent is the profession of christianity with the practice of war, yet we have seen these go hand in hand ever since the establishment of the church of Christ under Constanstine; nay, the sword has even been unsheathed in the name of christianity, an inconsistency so striking, as nothing but long experience could have compelled us to believe.--That men, forgetting their christian profession, and engrossed by the thoughts of ambition, should for a time have ceased to remember the meekness of their great Master, and plunged themselves and others into war, may perhaps, from the weakness of human nature, be palliated or excused; but that they should professedly draw the sword, for the sake of propagating and supporting a religion which refuses all such support, and appeals only to spiritual weapons, is an inconsistency which, however it may find an explanation in the perverseness of our nature, is certainly not very favorable to a belief in it's divine origin. The whole system of popery, and much of the protestant establishment, are utterly inconsistent with christianity, which they profess to believe, tho' they have been received and supported for many hundred

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years, and yet find some defenders; but the influence of both is on the decline, and the force of truth and consistency is daily prevailing against all their adversaries.

Another inconsistency in the human character, not less striking than any of the former, is the difference frequently to be found between the public and private characters of men; and this is only to be accounted for, by proving that many public establishments, being founded, and consequently administered, on principles of iniquity and injustice, require from individuals of the best private morality the sacrifice of their honour and consistency to promote their temporal interest. Hence it is, that men, who in their private capacity abhor every thing cruel, tyrannical, or dishonest, not only sanction, but take a part in any thing, however disgraceful, which can forward their schemes of interest or ambition. Have we not daily instances of men, who, tho' the best friends, fathers, and husbands, will yet sign or execute commands which destroy the peace and happiness of thousands; and tho' they turn with horror from an act of cruelty, or weep with sympathy over a tale of woe, yet as statesmen or soldiers, never hesitate to embrue their pen

or their hands in the blood of innocent and un

known victims. And what is their motive or excuse? They must do their duty. To what enormities and inconsistencies may not men be reconciled by custom and interest? The man who will one day stretch out his hand to give alms to a sturdy beggar, may perhaps the next draw his sword against the life of a fellowcreature who has never offended nor injured him; and yet he will do all this without thinking he acts unjustly or inconsistently; he has been taught to do both, and he never thinks he can be doing wrong; so difficult a thing is self-knowledge, and so little consistency is there in actions which are the result of custom rather than of reflection.

Another striking inconsistency, of considerable moment, deserves also to be noticed, it is that which exists between the precepts of the gospel and the lives of the clergy; they either cannot or will not see it themselves, but it is evident to all those who are not blinded by interest or prejudice. The life and the precepts of Jesus Christ inculcated the most rigid self-denial, the utmost contempt for those good things of the world, which belong to the body rather than the soul, the strongest abhorrence of wealth, power, and dignity; and yet his modern successors, the christian clergy,