her teacher in philosophy, who had conceived designs upon her virtue, when a young married woman; finding he could not obtain his purposes. by an application to her passions, had recourse to artful reasoning for the perversion of her principles, and succeeded-the unfortunate man however met with severe punishment for his perfidy, for those latetudinarian sentiments with which he had inspired his pupil, and which had completely dethroned the gospel doctrine of chastity from her mind, opened a door to further licentiousness, and he had the misery to find himself supplanted in his turn-Rosseau remarks that he became the prey of a "consuming jealousy," ," when treated, as he had taught her to treat her husband.

I have heard it remarked that superstition is the parent. of licentiousness-it may be so,-but satisfied I am that it is not so exclusively-for there are not wanting proofs of persons, whose education has been according to the purest principles and forms of christianity, who nevertheless hold these latitudes as perfectly harmless, when they can be exercised without detection-for my own part I will say, and in sincerity, that I hope the good old gospel shall be for ever my pole star-I hope I shall with the divine assistance ever steer my course toward it; and if through the force of temptation or the weakness of nature, (as has been too often the case) I should have the misfortune to deviate from its heavenly path; may a defection of principle be the last occasion of my apostacy.

EXTRACTS

FROM

THE SOLITARY WALKER.

Page 150." When all my private enemies are dead, doctors and orators will still live-and although I had but those two bodies of men, as persecutors, I might be certain they would grant no more peace to my memory after my death, than they have granted my person during my lifetime."

P. 151.-" All is at an end for me in this world-no one can do me good or harm--I have nothing more to hope or to fear, and here I am tranquil in the midst of an abyss, poor unfortunate mortal, but impassable as God himself."

P. 153.-" My heart has been purified at the test of adversity, and I can scarcely find on sounding it with care, any remains of reprehensible propensity-what can I have more to confess when every terrestrial affection is wrung away-I have no more to thank than blame myself for-I am nothing for ever amongst men, and it is all I can be, having no farther real relation or actual society with them--Being no longer able to do any good that does not turn out bad, being no longer able to act without prejudicing myself or some one, to abstain is

* Are not these observations equally applicable to any other prejudiced bodies of men.

become my sole duty, and I fulfil it as far as I am able. But in this inactivity of body, my soul remains active; it still produces sentiments; thoughts; and internal and moral life, seem to grow out of the death of all terrestrial and temporal interests."

P. 161.—“ I felt all over my frame a ravishing calm, to which each time I call it to my remembrance, I never felt any thing comparable, in the greatest activity of known pleasures."

P. 151. Every thing external is in future foreign to me. I have no longer neighbour, friend or brother alive. I am on the earth, as in a foreign planet, into which I fell from that I inhabited."

P. 167. The heap of so many fortuitous circumstances, the elevation of all my most cruel affected enemies; all those who govern the state, all those who direct public opinion-all those in place. Every one who has credit, all to concur in one common plot-so striking a combination which resembles a prodigy, leaves me without a doubt, that its whole success was written down. in the decrees of eternity. This idea far from striking me as cruel and afflicting; comforts me, eases me, assists me in my resignation. I do not go so far as St. Agustine who comforted himself in damnation if such were the will of God-my resignation proceeds from a source less disinterested it is true, but as pure and as worthy in my opinion of the perfect Being I adore Heaven is just, its will is that I should suffer, and it knows that I am innocent. This is the motive of my confidence, my heart and my reason tell me I am not mistaken-Let therefore

men and fate work on; let me learn to suffer without a murmur, all must at last return to its course, and my turn will come some time or other."

I do not wonder that my heart finds an echo in the soul and experience of Rosseau-for independent of a strong similiarity of temper and constitution, our lots in life have been extremely similar-he is now dead and gone; and if happy, is beyond the breath of calumny— if upright, he is where his character cannot be mistaken, a fact that is often reversed on this side eternity—if we see at all in this life, it is through a "glass darkly," so hard it is for any man to comprehend the degree of merit or demerit that attaches to the actions of his fellowcreatures to ascertain which, their knowledge of good and evil must be understood, their fidelity to this knowledge, and their temptations to deviate from it-how applicable to this subject is that passage of Doctor Young

"A covered heart his character defends

A covered heart denies him half his praise.'

For although the distinctions of right and wrong, remain eternally the same-yet they have not equal force upon all persons; nor upon the same persons at all times-but these are calculations that are seldom made, by forward, rash, judging human nature-As partaking of its infirmi ties I groan-as suffering and causing others to suffer, I groan also-but as being placed here and in this state by the will of God, I strive to submit.

From the above extracts, and from other passages in

E

the writings of the philosopher we have been treating of, it seems reasonable to conclude, that he did not feel that consciousness of guilt, which has been attributed to him by his ememies-on the contrary it appears that toward the middle of life, he became much weaned from certain pomps and pleasures to which he had been addicted; he informs us that he put away all ornaments of dress, and devoted himself to reflection-he appears to have been conscious of a happiness to be enjoyed superior to the senses, and to have attained it—I have heard of one production of his in particular which has had a very pernicious effect, and from the display of similar principles in his confessions, I believe it to be the duty of parents and guardians of youth, to withhold from their inspection these productions of Rosseau; I abhor the loose sentiments which are to be met with in those pieces; but I cannot on this account unite in the general outcry against the aggregate of his character..

A due sense of the awful authority of the gospel, does not seem to have been properly inculcated upon him in early life, nor had its weight of influence upon his principles in maturer age he had French manners, and French religion before his eyes-the latter his good sense rejected-but alas! although he had light sufficient to steer his bark out of this port; yet destitute of the gos pel quadrant, he seems not to have known by what instrument to direct it-In this dilemma, he made choice of what is commonly called natural religion-he thought it, a fairer copy of the divine mind, than that motley system, by which a self interested priesthood obtains its wealth,