system; and to institute in the place of all that formed the delight of a higher philosophy, a spirit of lazy deliberation conducted by apathy, and ending therefore in meanness and dishonour. It was this philosophy that taught that those ideas of excellence have no antitypes in nature; it was this philosoply- that taught that it is not only more prudent >ut more conformable to our being, for every man in tine of danger, to reason before he followed the promp'ngs of true courage; to make it a matter of calculatii-1. whether his country be worth saving before he dr^s his sword in her defence; to reduce it to a questic1 of algebra, or a problem in geometry, whether he s^mld resist the efforts of tyranny or bow before the'yo^' I* must be confessed that the history of the past age^ and especially the sleep which seemed to have Sp,.ad over Europe, gave too much countenance to these .jrnicious maxims; but the hour is at length come which has exposed the fallacy of these speculations, and rescued human nature from these dishonourable calumnies. The experience of the few last years has abolished, I trust for ever, that heartless and bloodless system, the miserable abortion of a cold heart and depraved imagination, which never waked one noble thought, nor inspired one generous action. The experience of the few last years has proved, that those high sentiments which we were taught to respect, were not false and visionary; but that they are founded upon whatever is deepest and purest in the human character. It has proved, that true reason is never at war with just feeling; that man is now what he was in those distant ages, a creature born indeed
