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with its sooty sides on my aunt's chintz gown. Many were the apologies on both sides; and deep the sorrow expressed; and I need not say, that all the wit in the waggon, as we rode home that evening, was at my aunt's expense.

O scenes of simplicity and comparative innocence ! How can they regret the chandelier of the midnight dance, who can enjoy our rural moon; or wish for the music or floor of a ball-room, who can hear the melody of our cat-birds as they pursue their simple pleasures on the carpet of nature? Why should those manners be thought despicable, in our fathers, which Goldsmith has commended in verse?

Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play,

The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway;
Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind,
Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined.

But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade,
With all the freaks of wanton wealth arrayed,
In these, ere triflers half their wish obtain,
The toiling pleasure sickens into pain;
And even while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy?

THE PURITAN.

No. 25.

Many talk of truth, which never sounded the depths from whence it springeth.

Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.

By the peculiar form in which I have published these papers, I have precluded myself from the adoption of some of those agreeable fictions, with which periodical writers have relieved the reader's weariness, and diversified their speculations; particularly, I can feign no correspondent, who, by remarking on a past paper, can give opportunity of limiting propositions which are too general, or explaining what is obscure. However, I shall adopt somewhat a similar expedient in the following letter, which I hope the reader will be good natured enough to imagine to come from some inquisitive correspondent, who had seen my manuscripts; or, if he is of a more suspicious temperament, he may say, and prove, if he can, that I wrote it to myself.

To the Puritan.

Sir, I observe in one of your numbers, that you advance the proposition, that the end of every analysis respecting religious duty, must end in reference to the law of God. Obedience to his will, you seem to consider as the best reason which can be assigned, why any action is right. In this observation, you seem to be guided by a very curious observation of Calvin, in which he designs to carry the sheet anchor of his system, a great ways to the windward; or, in other words, he lays his foundation deep; and, however paradoxical or absurd his conclusions may be, his whole arch, from bottom to keystone, is well compacted and consistent. He says, when we assign the will of God as the proof of any truth, or the foundation of any duty, we assign a combination of the best of all possible reasons, even all that were present to an omniscient mind, when that truth was revealed, or that duty enjoined. Mark the object! It was to place human reason infinitely lower than the Scriptures, and prepare the way for the reception of some of his doctrines, against which, simple reason would otherwise reluctate. In a fine writer* of our own time, (and one whom I believe to be an excellent man,) I find a sentence of the following import, which I also believe to be an anchor to the windward. "That subjection to the Deity, which, we fear, is too common, in

* Dr. Channing.

which the mind surrenders itself to mere power and WILL, is anything but virtue." Now, Sir, I do not pretend to decide when doctors disagree. But do you not go too far, when you make all virtue consist in obedience to law, or in other words revealed will? May we not ask the reasons of that will? Cannot we sometimes see them? It seems to me, in your anxiety to cast off the jargon of a mass of metaphysics, you would preclude the inquiring mind from one of its noblest exercises. If God has a reason for his will, why may we not seek it, and thus join in the wise employment of justifying the ways of God to man. Please to explain.

Yours,

HOPEFUL.

The questions of my correspondent are natural, and I had anticipated them when I penned the remarks. I think I shall satisfy him when I am understood. Be it known, then, that it is not the design of that paper to debar minds, qualified for the work, and conscious of their own weakness, from modestly inquiring into the reasons of the divine commands. This is an office favorable to piety, and to which we are prompted by the curiosity of true wisdom. But then, let a man be conscious what he is doing. As my correspondent says, he is justifying the ways of God to man, and not finding out the foundations of virtue. These lie too deep for any mortal to be sure he has seen them. Obligation rests not upon such uncertain speculations. Such stars, are suns too distant to warm us. Obligation rests on the authority of our infinite King, and in our confidence in his unerring wisdom. For as Calvin has hinted, all the reasons which can be present to an infinite mind, must be more satisfactory than the few which occur

to our own.

We might illustrate this subject by a comparison. Suppose I am walking in the field, and pick up a little flower, whose colors are new to me, and whose fragrance I have never smelt before. I ask myself, what is the use of this flower? The first thing which occurs, is its beauty and scent, and I pronounce, without hesitation, that it was made to gratify the two senses, to which it yields so much delight. But there comes along a companion, and tells me of some medical property of the plant; and if we are asked why God made it, we answer, it is probably for all the three purposes which we have discovered. It was to regale the eye, exhilarate the nostrils, and restore the body languishing with disease. But surely no man, with the least insight into nature, would venture to say that these were all the reasons the Creator of the world had in view, when he called into being that kind of plant. These are some of the probable reasons which lie on the surface; but millions and millions may lie concealed, to be known to other beings according to their elevation, and fully known to Him alone, who created and comprehends all. Now if

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