of foolish and profligate characters formerly known upon earth, and now in the abodes of departed fpirits, converfing to gether with great feverity of recrimination : nor is it probable, that the fcenes introduced by thofe authors would be productive of the lively impreffions received from them by readers of the foundeft judgement and the best taste, were the faith of futurity, on which they are. founded, not the genuine perfuafion of the human heart. If the perfonages in question address each other in a style less paffionate or violent than that which we believe to be employed by the forlorn inhabitants of the infernal manfions, it is no objection to our doctrine. The genius of fuch compofitions did not lead fo directly to shake the mind with folemn terrors, as to place before it a fober, though ftriking picture of the sentiments which the characters they draw may be readily fuppofed to exprefs of themselves, and of one another, when the illufions of vanity, and the temptations to flattery, are no more. Then indeed it were fome alleviation of wretchednefs, if the profligate and the foolish in general were fuffered to fly each other's hated fociety, and to mantle themselves up in impenetrable darkness. But what reafon is there to hope, that those double offenders, who, not satisfied with their own undoing, perfift in feducing and hardening others at prefent, fhall escape so natural a punishment as their future accufations and bittereft curfes? Let me conjure you, my beloved hearers, not to venture on the dreadful experiment; and let us quit a confideration fo big with horror, ON A MANLY SPIRIT, AS OPPOSED то EFFEMINA C Y. E that, in times like thefe, when a masculine virtue and deportment are become fo unfashionable, attempts to recommend them, may lay his account with being deemed by the greater part sufficiently aukward, or at best romantic, in his notions. Even of the few, whose minds and manners are not yet enervated by the furrounding contagion, fome will probably apprehend that he takes the subject on too high a key. They are willing, for their own share, to be as good and wife as they can in private, and perhaps fecretly to cultivate the feeds of internal greatness: |