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guided and governed by its influence; one who is even an abomination among men, and who, having cast off the fear of God, and obtained the highest degree of daring, has become a monster of iniquity, without a single restraint to preserve him from the fell influence of that demoniacal possession, under which he appears to brave the danger of hereafter, and deliberately to prefer the pleasures of the moment, while he sneers at the idea of a future day of punishment. Surely he scorneth the scorners; but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools." "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools." Proverbs iii. 34, 35. ix. 12. xix. 29. So constantly is scorn placed in apposition with the folly of the Scriptures, which is intended for the absence of that wisdom which is from above, and for the influence of that which is from below, and which is earthly, sensual, devilish. Parents have to guard against the first risings of this evil principle, and then will they be saved from witnessing the misery of its development: their line of duty is obvious, and needs no comment to explain,—no argument to enforce its observance.

SECTION XIV. Of Patriotism.

In the present age of insubordination, and when the love of country is so frequently supplanted by the dislike of constraint, and the impulse of lawless desire on the one hand, or when it is contracted into a doating fondness for the merely exterior apparatus of civil government, it is highly necessary to cultivate and educate this passion upon just principles, and with consistent views. The existence of civil government-of a provision for the maintenance of individual right, and safety, and comfort; and the arrangements which have been made for religious instruction, must be contemplated as a great boon, in exchange for which we are called upon to sacrifice some portion of selfish inclination, as well as some pecuniary contributions towards its support.

Patriotism does not consist in the love of country, because it is our own; but in a well founded attachment to those laws, and those civil and religious institutions, which are congenial with the better spirit of the people, and calculated to make them happy, and wise, and good. Different countries possess varying advantages; their forms of government; their moral and religious institutions differ; and it is not for us to say, ours is the very best, or that it is not so good as another; that will be found to be the best which is best suited to the genius of the people, and which will

secure to them the largest portion of advantage with the smallest possible privation; provided only that it be consistent with their individual habits of thought, and feeling, and action; and compatible with their happiness and welfare.

Patriotism does not consist in being blind to the faults, and errors, and corruptions which are inseparable from long-established governments; nor in the defence of the most flagrant abuses, merely because they have been engrafted upon that which is good, and have been sanctified by time and custom; but it does consist in acknowledging the principle of obedience, and of love too, in spite of blemishes which it discovers tenderly, which it cannot cherish, and which it dares not remove with a rude unskilful hand; and it does consist in recollecting that national errors are made up of individual conduct, and in setting a good example of uprightness and fidelity, and disinterestedness. A government should be paternal; and the love and obedience of subjects should be analogous to that of children for their parents. Now we know, that although children will be influenced by the example of their parents, yet the situation of the former implies a deference to the authority of the latter; submission to superior judgment, confidence in their integrity, and the ready yielding of a wish to be acquainted with the reason of every part of their conduct. And so it is with a paternal government; we cannot see the reason and ground for

every minute arrangement; but we are not thence to infer, that it is unreasonable or corrupt; on the contrary, we are to assume that it is right, because such is the general character of its conduct. Again, patriotism does not consist in turgid declamation on the advantages of our own government, accompanied, as it frequently is, by the studied desire to evade its imposts in every possible way but it does consist in a steady support of its principles, and in an adherence to its laws, and to those pecuniary sacrifices which it asks for its support. Selfishness too commonly exists as the motive to action, and is only thinly veiled by empty professions. Neither does the love of our country consist in finding out all her corruptions, all her symptoms of decay, all the fungi which have grown upon her surface, as the marks and evidence of a venerable old age; all the tangible points on which she might be improved; but it does consist in loving her still, notwithstanding all her faults, and in affording the best possible support to her institutions.

That is not patriotism, but bigotry, which invests our own country with every excellence, and allows of none to any other form of government; but it is right to esteem our own country more highly, because its institutions are better suited to the genius of the people than any other.

Patriotism consists farther in doing all we can to promote the interests, and welfare, and happiness of our country and its inhabitants; in

diffusing that righteousness which exalteth a nation, and in opposing that sin which is the reproach of any people; in augmenting the moral value of the nation at large; in diffusing knowledge as the best antidote of irreligion, and infidelity, and that disaffection which has assailed us at every point, from the mistaken senator, the popular orator, the pulpit, and the press; and in every form from the goodly quarto to the small, but not inoperative ballad or penny book. The patriot has the work of a life before him: every day will bring its duty; for every day he should be himself better; he should be trying to make others so; and in so doing, he will be promoting the welfare, honour, respectability, and real worth of his country. Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Psalm cxliv. 15. A principled attachment, not a blind impulse, is genuine patriotism; neither is it a vehement passion, though it may be sometimes found to exist as such; and the evils attendant upon this sightless impetus, are to be traced in its ungoverned influence, producing that form of insanity termed Nostalgia, particularly prevalent among the Swiss; during the paroxysms of which they have been known to leap from their vessels into the sea, under the impression that they were plunging into the green fields of their native vallies. A moral nostalgia may be frequently observed; an unconquerable desire for the realization of utopian plans