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best of the heathens : this is an error , as the following extract from the writings of Sir \ Yilliam Jones , * who cannot be suspected of heresy , will prove : " Our divine religion , the truth of which ( if Any history be true ) is
abundantly proved by historical eviuence , has no need ot such aids , as many are willing to give it , by asserting that the wisest men of this world were ignorant of the two great maxims that ive must act in respect of
others , as we should wish them to act in respect of ourselves , and that , instead ofreturning evil for evil , we should confer dene / its even on those who injure us ; but the first rule is implied in a speech ofLysiAS , and expressed in distinct phrases by Thales and Pittacus and I have even seen it word for word
in the original of Confucius , which I carefully compared with the I ^ utin translation . It has been usual with zealous men to ridicule and abuse all those , who dare on this point to quote the Chinese philosopher ; but instead of supporting their cause , they would shake it , if it could be shaken ,
by their uncandid asperity \ for they ought to remember , that one great end of revelation , as it is most expressly declared , was not to instruct the wise and few , but the many and unenlightened . If the conversion
therefore , of the Paudits and Maulavis in this country shall ever be attempted by Protestant missionaries , they must beware of asserting , while they teach the gospel of truth , what those Pauf / i / s and Maulavis must know to be
false : the former would cite the beautiful Aryd couplet , which was written at least three centuries before our era , and which pronounces the duty of a good man , even in the moment of his destruction , to consist not only in forgiving , but even in a desire of benefiting his destroyer , as the sandal-tree in the instant of its overthrow
sheds perfume on the axe which Jells it ; and the latter would triumph in repeating the verse of Sadi , who represents a return of good for good as a alight reciprocity , but says to the virtuous man , ' Confer benefits on him , ivho has injured thee , * using an Arabic sentence , and a maxim apparently of the ancient Arabs . T ^ or would the Mnsseknaiis fail to recite four distichs ¦!¦» [ im « . ¦ ¦¦ ¦ i ¦ ' ' ' ¦ ¦ j . , .,.., —^_ •* Voi . III . pp . 242—4 . 8 vo . cd . 1807 .
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of HAFiZ p -f- who has illustrated that maxim with fanciful but elegante
aHuIsions : ' * Learn from yon orie » t shell tb low tialf foe , And store with pearls the band that brings thce woe \ Free , like von rock , from base vindictive
pride , Iinblaze with gems the wrist that renti ? thy side : Mark , where yon tree rewards the stony shower
With fruit nectareous , or the batnij flower ; All nature calls aloud ; Shall , man do less Than heal the sniiter , and the ratler bless r * These citations are not more in ^
teresting than Sir W . Jones ' s caution to missionaries is important ; for , as he observes , " as the cause of Christianity could never be promoted by falsehood or error , so it will never be obstructed by candour and veracity . E . RAINFORD .
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Sir , March 1 , 1817-YOUR Correspondent in the ) a $ t Number , p . 121 , animadverting on the Political Prayer now offered up weekly in the churches belong ! ng * . to the Establishment , notices the phrase " the madness of the people /^ He thinks it " not quite consistent ]
with gratitude , truth or decorum /* * for the servants of the public to charge * the people with madness . But . per- . " haps he was not aware of the high authority they had for so doing . If n « x > or your readers will consult that won- ' derful repository of fore-knowledge # * ' Moore ' s Almanack Improved , " for ;
the present year , it will be seen that that sagacious astrologer in his observations in p . ll , has prognosticated great troubles at this time from " the square aspect of Jupiter and Saturn * ** denoting " the madness qf JE 4 JJ& . people and the ambition of prin-1
ces . ' How our ecclesiastical teachers came to borrow the first of the astrologer ' s phrases , and to leave out tbc latter , is not for me to say . DEMOCRITtJS .
• f * " There is not a shadow of frfcasoti for believing that the poet of Shir at Und borrowod Vbis doctrine from tlwr CUriate ians . " Sir W . J . p . £ 4 * .
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162 The late Political Prayer . *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1817, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2462/page/34/
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