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    On Poetical Scepticism. No. IV.

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    maiuls , have&een able to present even a CJiri&tian clergy from every corruption which can grow upon the selfish passions , what are we to expect wifi be the £ a £ e ~ of institutions merely h uman , i f once abandoned to the " avarice , ambition , and insolence of

    those who have an equal interest to pervert them . *' It thus appears that Mr . Day was not only a political but also a Christian reformer , though * probably , he had never extended his enquiries into the corruptions of Christianity , like his friend Dr . Jebb , whom he survived

    only a very few years . His death was premature , as we inaccurately speak while we forget that " Before our birth , our funeral was decreed . " According to Mr . Keir ' s Account , ( p . 97 , ) " " On the 28 th day of December 178 & a » Mr . Day wasViding from his house in Surry , to his

    mother ' s seat at Barehill , [ Berks , ] an end was put to his valuable life at the age of forty-one years . His herse having taken fright ^ threw him to a considerable distance . By this fall his brain suffered such a concussion that he never afterwards spoke . " What Mr ,. Day ha 9 justly attributed to Dr . Jebb , may be recorded as his own praise , "a consistency of life and manners , the delicate colouring of private honesty and integrity , to fill up the flowing outline of public profusion ; arid to make it worthy of a

    people ' s admiration . " We scarcely know how to turn from the contemplation of such characters ; one sacrificing to the claims of conscience the fair prospects of early years , and devoting himself , for an honourable s ubsistence , to an arduous profession

    which would also afford nim the ipea ns of extensive benevolence ; the othe r , with an ample fortuna , sparing of personal gratifications , that he might abound in benefits to others—both Weased with consorts who cherished their memories , as they had encouraged and assisted their exertions , and

    postsssed and * deserved ' their tenderest anfectidn 3 . If the world is to improve , ™ time * inttst Cutely arrive when , as ^« uteh itiert— the people tbtll tell of n&Wudctii , and the congregation u ) z 7 v * . **"*? ' ' ™ ' IGNOTUS :

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    On Poetical Scepticism : No . IK 383

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    ( Seej > p . 157 , 217 , 276 . ^ " On horror ' s head , horrors accumulate- — " For thou canst nothing to Damnation

    ajjd " Greater than this . " Shaksfeare . Sir , I ^ HE doctrine of eternal torments has . more appearance of grandeur than any other article of the orthodox creed . Sometimes it is displayed in all the

    horrible minuteness and variety in which it is possible to contemplate pain ; at others more artfully veiled to heighten its effect , and expressed by distant hints and broken images which make even a sceptic shudder . It enables those who believe it < e to shake

    this world with the thunders of the next . ' * It rouses the most ignorant to energy if not to eloquence . Il * ' makes mad the guilty , and appals the free . ' * But admitting that it is attended with

    all these advantages , I think it may be argued that there is nothing in it essentially poetical—* -nothing wnich has , a tendency to purify or refinenothing which can elevate the mind above itself , and add to the stock of

    its sublime conceptions . There is , I apprehend , no poetry in the mere excitement of terror , or in the display of mental of bodily suffering . Fain and horror , considered in the abstract , can be objects only of pity and disgust ; and the more £ ney are realized to the mind , the more

    they tear or oppress it . It is a mistake to suppose that because they have been associated with magnificent and pleasing images , they have any thing in themselves on wnich our

    contemp lations can repose . No doubt sorrow has been made the source of some of the most delicious sensations , which we are capable of enjoying . But then it has been by associations not its own —by the tender and solemn images with which it has been encircled , and

    the sympathy we delight to indulge . Thus meditations on the instability of all earthly things derive their touching interest ffyxn our perceptions of a resting place that can never perish . We feel that our consciousness of mortality prov ^ 9 us to be Immortal . There is a melancholy " ill bartered for t ^ e gat ishBeBs ^ pf joy $ but we do npt J ove it bepau ^ e it is painful . The menWry 6 t buried friendship—the

    On Poetical Scepticism. No. Iv.

    On Poetical Scepticism . No . IV .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1816, page 383, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2454/page/11/