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A | geatjtei »^ whpmv I hai ^ ^ iiKJe had the htaiottilof knowing , a # ^ llo > v of the Royal Society , and \ vlvbse high acienjtiip ^ attainments ha , ve often ( poafribtrted to the yolumes of the >
Philosophical Transactions , resided a considerable ^ rae at Geneva , wi $ h his ; most accomplished lady , a little before the Freji ^ h Re volutipn . They : ^ fre not Calvinists nor JV 1 ethodists . They
moved in the first circles , anji .. were very . far from being rigid censors .: But their ; testimony , for the faithful report of which I pledge myself , was most strong and painful with respect to the ewtreme dissoluteness of
manners wliich th ^ n prevailed-atgeneva . . To the sources of personal information , I : add two evidences from printed books . The first is , indeed , taken from a translation , as I have no access to either of the originals : but the character of the translator is above
suspicion . It is an extract from the volume for 1785 of Dr . G . F . Seller ' s Literary Journal , in which the Editor reviews Meiner s Letters on Switzernal . " —— At Lausanne , neither »• w « r m ¦ * fc ^ w db ^* wv » V |«««»« 3 V- »» v * 4 V *
^^ infidelity nor profligacy of manners dare to appear openly , or to attempt gaining proselytes . —Far different is Geneva , —The civil war [ in 1782 ] was less owing to , a defective legislation ,
than to growing depravity of manners both among high and low ; for even to the lower ranks has this corrup | £ on spread . The works of Voltaire and Kousseau are read in shops , manufactories and workhouses . " This
German traveller , describing what he witnessed at church , says , " Even when communicating [ at the Lord ' s Supper ] , they could not so far govern themselves as to suppress the appearances of profanity and scoffing . —Certainly Rousseau , perhaps even Voltaire , would have witnessed with
indignation this unnatural impiety , in ladies proud of their excellent education . Formerly , adultery was considered at Geneva as a most shocking crime ; and divorce was rendered as difficult as possible . Now , the first is laughed at , and the second more
easily and frequently obtained than at London or Paris . '' Dr . Seiler ( President of the University of Erlangen , ot whom a high character . is given in Saxii Onomasticorh Literarium , Vol . yill . .-ft ,. 279 ) ,.. a < j < ls the . foWowipg . reworks of his own : " I have hud cer-
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on the late Theotegical Controversies dt Geneva . G 7 #
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tafa acpdiitrtsj ? hy pri ^ te JeCfcers p that , in inany families of distia ^ ioii ^ nj $ ia £ city , i Christianity is dAM ^ 00 M& neglected % && $ , * by . modish % anct % fe <* essive refinement , the chil ^ ea are formed to levity , and r ^ jndiere 4 h * & h re
pable of serious reli ^ oua fle ! pt | Qn * r Hence , j Soiidi and edifying pre ^ cBfera are despised by this fbw of i | jeijj Only they who bring to the ; i ? fllpit irtksterpieces of eloquence , are sometimes attended ; whose discourses are blamed or praised Just as dram ^ ic performances would be , and heacer can have little or no influence on the
heart / ' ( From the late Dr . JSrskine's Sketched and . Hints of Church History , &c . VoL I . p . 232 . 5 ; It is with much pleaaure that Iadd > from my own observation ^ thirty years
after Meiner wrote , that the visible decorums of public , worship , so far as \ could perceive , were maintained in a becoming manner .
The other evidence I take from a work in four volumes , full of seriousness , zeal and piety , published at Geneva in 1803 and 1804 , by M . de Joux , then one of the Venerable Company of Pastors , a gentleman of distinguished talents , and , as is the
laudable character of the Genevese iu general , warmly attached to his native city . The following are some of his pathetic mournings . — " The cause to which our present and deplorable
calamities must be attributed are , a total forgetfulness of religion and morals , a forgetfulness of the God whose existence we acknowledge , but whom—we have too long renounced . — -It is to the unbridled love of the
world , to the dereliction of religious worship , to the contempt of the Holy Scriptures , to an absolute indifference for religion , that we must attribute all our miseries and all our viqes . Their true source is the almost entire
oblivion of religion , the abandonment of our holy assemblies , and the immorality which is the direct consequence . —Is it not the fact that the scorp of religious reading , of holy conversation , of private and family worship , is daily increasing in the midst of us ? O city formerly so renowned for the religious character of its inhabitants , how
qouldst thou become so quickly changed ? Plow hast thou suffered thy crown to be ravished from thee , the precious ornament which was thy db-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1824, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2530/page/37/
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