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    truth * . These are the products of the general experience of mankind ; the froper acquisition , the true inheritance and the unalienable property of man , and to refuse him the use of them is like an attempt to rob him of

    one of his senses , " and knowledge at one entrance quite shut out ; " it is to cheat him of his birth-right on the pretence that it will save his virtue from starving . If the suppression of such truths is sanctioned by utility ,

    man is placed by nature in a school where he is in danger of learning too much for his moral improvement , and art , instead of being the docile pupil of nature , will be wejl employed as her wary antagonist , devising means to prevent the mischief of her illumination . Should it be said , and with

    truth , that what we distinguish by the terms nature and art are both to be referred to the same great source , still we shall be driven upon a new species of Mamcheism , in which the principles of darkness and light will be opposed , but with this remarkable

    novelty , that the operation of darkness shall on many occasions be friendly , and that of Hght inimical to the virtue and happiness of man . To think with the wise and speak with the vulgar has , indeed , long been held a maxim of prudence by timid or interested men : but it is now advanced

    to the highest order of moral maxims . Should any man be so unfortunate as to discern and acknowledge the evidence of some truth of pernicious tendency , it behaves him , as he loves virtue and loves his kind , after the

    aaauer of the East , to seclude from toe eye of day , what could be revealed od yto the hurt of himself and his ^ ghbours . Thus the silence which tytfcagoras imposed upon his disciples ®** t be extended , and that with Social obligationto the whole bod ?

    , onsstructon * , and like the silence of "fc grav ^ it mus t be uninterrupted ^ perpe ^ L The lovers of phiio-* W must again be bandied into Nubs of free-masonry ; the light wnich is in them must be darkness—• ffcwr j udgrnnenta mncf v >*» i ^ a ^^ J lik <*

    to u of * court of Areopagus , * mid J shades of night , not for the sake inJrn ' ** <* uth * hould go forth iii ^ L- minate ^ corrupt the vulgar ^ bitants of the ^ artfeu Philosophy blT * ° ^«^ ^ the ^ mdeof opinion , ^ fraudu lent reserve a jesuistioai

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    caution and a n ew species of holy disr aimulation must set bounds to the progress of knowledge , and consecrate ignorance , prejudice-and error to the end of time . The tree of knowledge is still defended from the children of Adam by him who planted it , and

    the penalty of moral extinction decreed against them who freely eat of itj it stands , like the upas , breathing poison and extending moral desolation on every side , surrounded with the dead carcases of ' * the purest

    pleasures and best affections of the uncorrupted heart , " which have been blasted by its mortal influence . If $ uch pollution and destruction can proceed from the contemplation of truth , if , like the Gorgon , it can convert the beholder into a moral

    petrefaction , freeze the warm current of virtuous affection , and present tlje man , spoiled and exhausted of all the best feelings and attributes of man , — the literary guardian has done well to raise the warning voice , and exhort the simple to beware of the fatal vision : but if these destructive

    consequences are but the creation xof his own disordered fancy , he has published a libel upon the name and nature of truth , scandalous though not malicious .

    JOHN MORELL .

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    Specimens of Dean Kirwan ' s Elaqnence . S 43

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    Specimens of Dean Kirwarts Eloquence * fFrom Carr e s Stranger in Ireland , 4 to , pp . 441—448 . ^ T HlHE very recent death of Dean JL Kirwan , * one of the greatest

    devotional orators that ever appeared since the days of Massillon , did not fail to engage the most sympathizing attention . This great man , from the cradle , laboured under a weakness of constitution , which conducted him to the grave in the prime of life , and in

    the full zenith of those powers which the Divine Author of his being had bestowed upon him for the purpose of unfolding his glorious attributes , a » d unlocking the copious streams of charity . —This enlightened minister raised

    nearly sixty thousand pounds by the influence of his sermons alone : a sin gle discourse has frequently been followed by a collection of one thousand pounds . In pleading the cause of the wretched he spoke as with the tongue

    . - ———— — ¦ r —¦ ¦ - ' * For an account < rf the death of t ^ U dbtinguisbed )? rancher , see M . Repos , YOl . i . p . 51 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 343, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/15/