globe, such as it is seen among the Alps or Andes, imposes awe, as if those stupendous piles of primeval rock, capped with the snows of thousands of winters, were the very symbols of protracted unchanging duration-or of eternity itself; and yet is it not true that the huge masses owe their stern grandeur and their lofty pride to terrible powers of commotion ?-these mountains were upheaved when our world was in her fit of boisterous frenzy-when convulsions shook her centre. Instead then of regarding the now motionless forms as emblems of repose, we should deem them rather the relics and the portents too of confusion.

Nothing, or nothing favorable, should be inferred on the behalf of any system or constitution of things from its present tranquillity, or from the moderation and the wisdom that invest it; or from the accidental benefits which it may claim to have produced. The blackest superstitions have shewn an exterior mildly magnificent-the extravagances of personal torture have worn the garb of seraphic piety:- the Fanaticism of intolerance has shone in combination with great qualities; and the zeal of military proselytism has made alliance with substantial virtues. There is nothing, then, to wonder at if even genuine piety and the brightest personal excellence are found to exist under a state of things which owes its origin to an impulse essentially fanatical. The question

is always, not whether accomplishments and virtues and piety exist within this or that system; but simply-whether the system itself be good or evil.

The Fanaticism of the Symbol-or a malign and turbulent zeal for the honour of a creed, supposes of course, the possession of a written and authoritative canon of faith. But then this Rule has to be interpreted; and the interpretation, in each instance, insensibly draws to itself those profound emotions which the sacred importance of the canon calls into play.

It does not appear that sectarian rancour, in any distinct form, had shewn itself before the time when the Jewish prophetic economy having been sealed, and the written Testimony of God consigned, in a defunct dialect, to Interpreters, a field was opened to diversities of opinion, each of which challenged to itself entire, the prerogatives that attach of right to the original document. From the period when Exposition of Scripture became the business of a class of men, the Jewish community parted into sects which, in an exasperated condition, were the main causes of the ruin of the state, the destruction of the city, and the dispersion of the race.

In this instance what we assume to have been new in the history of human nature, was not the existence or the breaking forth of diversities of opinion; for these have disturbed

all countries in all ages; nor was it the alliance of certain modes of thinking on abstract subjects with temporary and political interests; for nothing has been more common than such associations. But the novelty was precisely thisThat the tremendous weight of God's sanction -truly believed to belong to the Canon of Faith, was claimed by each party in behalf of its special exposition of the rule. So fatal an assumption effected a firm coalescence of every religious sentiment with the passionate workings of self-love, pride, jealousy, and the sense of personal and corporate welfare.

Within the circle of these feelings every proper element of Fanaticism finds room, and no species of Fanaticism has been altogether so compact or so permanent. The other kinds (as we have seen) have had their hour and have vanished; this has settled down upon Religiondocumentary religion, as well in Europe as in Asia, and now in America, and has become the inseparable condition of all forms of Worship.

We say every proper element of Fanaticism displays itself in the Fanaticism of the Symbol.As for example:-The Divine Being, when so outraged as to be made the patron of a virulent faction, appears to the votary altogether under a malign aspect, and can no more be thought of such as He is. Again, the irritation excited by opposition in matters of opinion, when heightened by a vindictive forethought of future

judgment, brings with it the most peculiar species of misanthropy known to the human bosom; and an arrogance too, that far transcends other kinds of aristocratic pride. With an anathematizing Deity-an anathematized world, and himself safe in the heart of the only Church, the zealot wants nothing that can render him malign and insolent.

Mere diversities of opinion by no means necessarily involve virulent or acrimonious sentiments. Sad indeed would it be if Christian amity, and that true unison of hearts and hands which the church should exhibit, could not be hoped for until an absolute uniformity of notions and practices is brought about; for it is plain that so long as one mind possesses more native power and more accomplishments than another, there must be inequalities of knowledge, and varieties of apprehension. Nothing less than the imparting of omniscience to every human being could remedy the inconveniences that arise from this source. Nor in fact are such differences ever found to throw a cloud over private friendships, or to disturb the harmony of general society, while angry exaggerations and the swellings of wounded pride are avoided.

There can therefore be no need whatever that, as a resource against the evils of sectarian virulence, we should either throw ourselves into the arms of Church despotism, and renounce the liberty of reason; or give way to the

relaxation and the apathy which would render us altogether indifferent to truth and error. This indeed were miserably to degrade human nature, and to quash its noblest ambition. We subtract the premium from mental industry, we remove the crown from the goal on the course of knowledge, when we discourage the zeal with which vigorous minds pursue Truth. How should mankind ever emerge from barbarism, or how free themselves from the tyranny of superstition, if the first lesson we are to teach them is, that error has no noxious quality, and truth no prerogative?

To affirm or to insinuate that a just and accurate knowledge of Religion avails little to our welfare, is not only a rank absurdity, but must be regarded as a pernicious tampering with that fatal insensibility which, alas, envelopes human nature. Instead of teaching the indifferency of opinion, rather let every man's anxiety to obtain for himself the inestimable pearl of genuine knowledge be stimulated to the utmost; and then, not only will this jewel be individually secured, but the strange illusion will be broken up whence fanatical zeal takes its rise.— Strange illusion indeed, which impels a man who has bestowed little or no industry upon the business of seeking truth for himself, to use efforts so prodigious for forcing it upon others! An anomaly surely is this in the common law of selflove. But the temper and conduct of the zealot are made up of inconsistencies. It is, he says,