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    his wreathed horn , " and there the Fates in awful silence , regulate the variously-coloured thread of human existence . But will these imaginations diminish our anxiety for our own eternal condition ? Will they

    be less * assoiled from the grossness of present time , " because our reliance is fixed on the rock of ages and our hopes have their resting place in heaven ?

    But it is boldly asserted that a spirit of inquiry into religious truth is incompatible with all poetical feelingthat it tends to make those who indulge it hard-hearted—and degrade them from imaginative into mere

    reasoning beings . In answer to these assertions it is not necessary to contend for tlie superiority of truth over fancy , it is quite sufficient to shew that both may exist together without the least injury to either . Our opponents themselves would exercise their

    reason in all the concerns of life ; and would esteem those madmen who should refuse to apply it to any thing but religion . It is strange then that it should be debarred from the noblest of its uses , from the objects

    which are most worthy of its powers , and most nearly allied to the divinity which is stamped upon it . And surely it would be strange if heaven had endowed us with both intelligent and creative feculties , one of which must

    necessarily be left inactive , in order to the perfection of the other . And what luxury of imagination is there , which a Christian , whose belief is founded on understanding is unfitted to enjoy ? H § would no more allow reason to interfere with the delights

    of his fancy , than he will suffer poetry to take the place . of conviction . He can muse with as delicious a suspension of thought over the still fountain , and people every lovely scene With images as beautiful and unearth y as if he had never investigated th ©

    doctrines of scripture . As far as repects the contemplation of the superstitions and errors of mankind he will have * an advantage overths most poetical sceptic . For his religion teaches him to see a' * spirit of good" in them

    all- —to look at the dim glimpses of heaven which have shone through pompous ceremonials with gratitude T-to trace the sweet affections which » a ? e flourished beneath the shade of nstitutions in themselves unholy—

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    and to hail ihe dawniugs of imperfect light as the welcotne harbingers of an unclouded day . An Unitarian is the only sectary who makes charity an article of his creed . And yet he must be scornfully accused of scorn , abused for want of kind-heartedness ,

    arid reproached for believing too little , and having , therefore , no po ^ wer of enjoyment , by those who believe nothing in order to enjoy every thing . IV > etical fancies might have a better claim to take the place of religious conviction if , like it , they could last for ever . But alas 1 life cannot be all

    a holiday dream . Death must separate our dearest companions from us , and compel us to weep over their tomb . Will it then be enough to strew the grave with flowers , and vent our sorrows in the melody of woe ;—or will it not be some additional relief to be able to cherish a

    sure and certain hope of meeting them in happiness hereafter ? And even if we could pass along wrapt in one delicious vision through this vale of tears , we must awake to die I Surely in that awful moment when heart and flesh fail us , it will be some consolation to think that we are safe in th *

    arms of the Almighty—that our noblest faculties will revive to an immortal youth—that our loveliest visions will be more than realized—and that imagination will expatiate for ever in those glorious regions , to which , in its happiest moments , it delighted to aspire .

    S . N . D . P . S . With your permission , I propose in a few essays in your succeeding numbers , to expose the other dogma of modem sceptics—that Calvinism is a more poetical system than

    Unitarianism—by comparing the leading doctrines of both , not as it respects their truth , but the beautiful associations which may be thrown around them and the kind affections they cherish and mature .

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    Gleanings . —Heresy of Pope John XXII . 150

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    GLEANINGS \ OR , SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING .

    No . eCXLV . Self-election and Heresy of Pope John XXMI . Mezeray , an exact writer , describes the election of ih \ a < Popeitory pleasantly , ' arid saj > * that the Oar < ii * . .. ¦ ¦¦ , < ' ' •¦ ¦ i ? jI w ¦ " •! '*¦

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1816, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2450/page/31/