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    " tumbled over , " to pass away an idle hour , or to trace out the wanderings of an enthusiastic , mind ; but surely they ought not to supersede that volume on the declarations of which our hopes of eternal happiness are founded : surely , if they are read at all , they ought only to be cousidered as religious romances , as tales of the imagination , or trifles to amuse those who have no more serious

    occupation . But such works are not merely useless . They have even a baneful influence on the miud . They appeal to the feelings rather than the judgment ; they lead the thoughtless Christian astray ; they tend to confirm those opinions of the character and government of God which are the source of so

    much unhappiness ; they are composed in a style which is but little calculated to improve the understanding ; they abound in vulgar expressions and low , degrading sentiments ; and , what is worst of all , they tend to weaken that love and reverence for the pages of Scripture which is the best criterion of a genuine affection for Christian truth .

    There is , in fact , nothiug to be found in such works that can please and edify the sincere , reflecting and consistent professor of the gospel . No doubt , much ingenuity and invention are displayed by the writer of the volumes in question ; and . no doubt he deserves -the credit of being regarded as an author of considerable spirit and fancy : but his

    compositions are entitled to little respect , in a moral and religious point of view ; and as to language and style , scarcely any writer , ancient or modern , can be placed below him . Of the same class , and calculated to produce similar effects , but in a higher circle , and to a more dangerous extent , are some productions of German authors , translated into English ; and the " Meditations" of one of our own

    countrymen , with innumerable other compositions which it is unnecessary to particularize . Works of the nature here alluded to may he written by any one who is tolerably conversant ^ jth his native language , and who possesses a sufficient degree of fancy and enthusiasm :

    but one simple , moral observation , extracted from the pages of the Bible , is of more real value than whole libraries of declamation and sentiment , such as we discover in writers of this class . They strike at the very root of genuine religion ; and , under the erroneous idea that they are advancing the cause of piety and virtue , make Christianity consist in mere fancies , and feelings , and ejaculations . They . who would be truly religious must

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    not wander among tombs , and sigh over the degeneracy of the age , and lament the fallen condition of man , and shed tears of sorrow that the world is so abandoned to vice , and so lost to a sense of moral obligation : they must be instructed to go and bind up the wounds

    which sin and folly have inflicted , and to pour in the " oil and wine' * of spiritual consolation ; they must strive to benefit society by active exertion ; they must " visit the widow and the fatherless in

    their affliction ; " they must set an example of practical piety ; they must endeavour to redress the grievances they lament ; they must learn to act and to suffer , and to display energy of conduct as well as delicacy of sentiment . But even the passive virtue alluded to above is

    not the general effect of the works now alluded to : they , also , are replete with unfounded views of the character and government of God , of the nature and the doctrines of Christ Jesus , of the preaching of the apostles , and of the general strain of argument pursued in that better book whose doctrines and whose

    morality are neglected to peruse them . They contain , in effect , little more than the aberrations of a mistaken and melancholy mind ; and their general tendency is to cast a gloom over the prospects of futurity , and lead mankind to indulge that spirit of dejection which is so directly at variance with the pure and animating declarations of the volume of eternal truth . For these , for all such

    works , let the pages of scripture be substituted ; or , if such productions must be read , let them not entirely supersede that volume which contains the revelation of God ' s holy will , and on which our dearest and highest hopes are reposed , as on " a rock , sure and steadfast . " If amusement be the object with which they are perused , other works , better adapted for the purpose , may be readily selected : if religious instruction , they ought to be esteemed only so far as the observations

    they contain correspond with the declarations of the Holy Scriptures , or so far as they are intended honestly and fairly to explain its less simple passages . But surely no apology can be made for those professing Christians who entirely or generally neglect the study of the sacred volume for the perusal of such works ; and it is only the prevalence of such a habit , among the most rigid sects of Christians , tfaat has given rise to these imperfect remarks . . . ; i ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ -. ¦ TV . i f »*¦ in .. - . ' ; i >

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    716 Occasional Correspondence . .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 716, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/60/