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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
latter end might be like theirs . Howmuch better is it to expire thus ia a blaze of glorv earned by virtue , and to go down to the gr ? ive followed by the acclamations and the tears of a nation , than to drag a worthless life beneath universal contempt and infamy ?*• P . I 3 »
Who would suspect that the preacher had so often " mused with the men of Galilee on mortality and immortality , '' or had ever looked into the world to
observe the moral organization of armies . He reminds me of Vicars , who , in his Jehovah Jireh ( p . 21 ) describes the Scots entering England in 1640 , as " a strong army of saints rather than of soldiers /'
Shakespeare appears to have entertained ideas on this subject more serious and just than many divines . He makes a common soldier , in his Henry Vth , thus address the king , who traversed the camp in disguise * 44 I am qfeard there are few die well , that die in
battle ; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing when blood is their argument ?> J If the life of a modern soldier is ill . represented by heroic fiction , " so has been his character even by the teachers of Christian truth .
Yet when stripped of the graceful drapery which poets and orators , the stage and , I am sorry to add , the pulpit , have thrown over him , what is a soldier , through all the gradations of a standing army , from a Wellington to a drummer boy ? Averse to the occupations
of peace , he devotes himself to the profession of war , for pay and pillage , or more honourable rewards . He is not to judge but to execute , and at the command of his government goes forth either to protect and save or to plunder and destroy , the inhabitants of any particular country , as a small ca-
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binet of courtiers , possibly by a casting vote , may determine . If a man of rank and science , he gives his nights and days to im * prove the methods of human annoyance and destruction , and may , " perhaps , become the Congrtve of
a more tragic drama . If a com * mon artizan , he employs himself ( excuse plainness of speech ) to cleave the skull , blow out the brains or pierce the heart of any opposing soldier whom his government has found or made an enemy * Such is now a British soldier , and
such , I apprehend , he was in the reign of George ^ II ., the glorious days of Wolfe and Amherst . Yet should this human machine , the puppet of a war . minister , perish . in his attempt to destroy , he has the requiem of a patriot , and a . Christian is invited to say , Let my last find be like his .
The preacher , hoivever , before the close of his sermon recollects himself , and recommends a 4 « regard to the common welfare of mankind and those equitable , re a *
9 onable , and pious dispositions , which are the best proofs of true magnanimity , and the best means of securing the continuance of the divine protection . ' ' P . 22 .
There is , at p . 18 * a proposal , very modestly expressed , lest it € t should offend any worthy men /* to review the religious establishment—in order to secure its safety and adapt it to a more improved and enlightened age - ** On thifc
subject the free and candid disquisitions are quoted in a ' note ' . Yet even here the preacher s nationality is discovered , for afteV such improvements in the ecclesiastical system , and a regard Id the spirit and precepts of reIigi 6 h , he thinks u nothing will be want-
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Loyal Piety . 017
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 617, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/29/
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