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    enthusiasm , on one subject or another ; every body talks about it ; every body professes to have felt it , and very few dream of being ashamed of it . Here and there we meet with one who boasts of having divested himself of it entirely , while he uses the term as the expression of his scorn of all that is most venerable in human pursuit , and most congenial to the highest

    affections . Of all these persons , few , perhaps , take the trouble to ascertain what they mean by Enthusiasm , or use any pains to trace its origin , operation , and results . Tn the volume before us this useful labour is accomplished with a piety which warms the heart , a truth which convinces the judgment , and a grace which charms the taste . This is not a book which can be forgotten as soon as read , or allowed to be " profitable for correction , " and immediately laid aside .

    The work is declared by the writer to have originated in the expectation which he holds in common with many , " that a bright era of renovation , and union , and extension , presently awaits the Christian church . " As such changes are commonly attended by an extraordinary spread of Fictitious Piety , it is his aim " to present to the Christian reader , in as distinct a

    manner as possible , the characters of that perilous illusion which too often supplants genuine piety . " This object we deem him to have accomplished in a manner which could not fail to be salutary , were no change of prospects or revolution of circumstances to require extraordinary precautions against this besetting sin of ardent minds .

    The volume is divided into ten sections , which treat of Enthusiasm , Secular and Religious ; Enthusiasm in Devotion ; Enthusiastic perversions of the Doctrine of Divine Influence ; Enthusiasm the Source of Heresy ; Enthusiasm of Prophetical Interpretation ; Enthusiastical Abuses of the Doctrine of a Particular Providence ; Enthusiasm of Philanthropy ; Sketch of the Enthusiasm of the Ancient Church ; Ingredients of the Ancient Monachism ; and Hints on the probable Spread of Christianity , submitted to those who misuse the term Enthusiasm .

    As the larger proportion of those who adopt the term misuse it , the writer has endeavoured so > to fix its meaning as to wrest it from their grasp . The most common abuse of the term Enthusiasm is its application to an extraordinary degree of ardour in any pursuit ; but , as the author observes , " To apply an epithet which carries with it an idea of folly , of weakness , and of extravagance , to a vigorous mind , efficiently as well as ardently engaged in the pursuit of any substantial and important object , is not merely to

    misuse a word , but to introduce confusion among our notions , and to put contempt upon what is deserving of respect . Where there is no error of imagination , no misjudging of realities , no calculations which reason condemns , there is no enthusiasm , even though the soul may be on fire with the velocity of its movement in pursuit of its chosen object . If once we abandon this distinction , language will want a term for a well-known and very

    common vice of the mind ; and , from a wasteful perversion of phrases , we must be reduced to speak of qualities most noble and most base b y the very same designation . If the objects which excite the ardour of the mind are substantial , and if the mode of pursuit be truly conducive to their attainment ; if , in a word , all be real and genuine , then it is not one degree more , or even many degrees more , of intensity of feeling that can alter the character of the emotion . Enthusiasm is not a term of measurement , but of quality . " —Pp . 6 , 7-The vitiating quality is declared to be the transmutation of the emotions of the heart into the pleasures of the imagination . Man is endowed with a

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    Natural History of Enthusiasm . 419

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 419, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/51/