f people seem, by your account, no sooner to look on vice than they become vicious." "The next point at which they aim," continued M. "is to prepare the patient for the reception of their own drugs, by the removal of some impediments which his nature or his habits may have introduced. Such are, his prejudices about the character of God; his respect for virtue, and his hatred for vice, as such: in males, the spirit of charity; in females, love of modesty. We must separately examine the wards in which these se. veral operations are carried on." "Can there, then," said Gustavus, "be more than one conception of the character of God?" "Without doubt," answered M. "if every one consults his fancy instead of his Bible. The Greeks had sixty thousand gods, most of whom had qualities for which a man would, in modern days, have been hanged.-One ward then is employed to physic down those notions about God, which their ancestors and their Bibles had be-. queathed to the people of O.-Now mark the process.-A company of intellectual physicians is engaged, who make use of all the artifices of dress, gesture, action, and elocution, to instil the necessary doctrines." "Is it ever found," asked G. "that these lecturers become converts to the doctrines they deliver " "It is," replied M. "Their lives too commonly attest the sincerity of their conversion. Biographers record the virtues of any one of them, as they would the health of a man who, alone of hundreds, should have escaped the devastation of a plague. I am unacquainted with the history of an individual among them which proves him to be a devout man.. And, as to the mass, they are said to be among the most dissolute characters in O." Fit teachers, to be sure," said Gustavus, ❝for a School of Virtue.'-It is, however, plain, that, if the lecturers had souls, they would have too much regard for them to engage in such a profession; or, if the people had souls, they would have too much humanity to encourage them." "But let us return," said M.: "these lecturers violate the dignity of the Most High, by taking his name in vain, and by scoffing at his laws. Nor is this enough-they not only thus tear God from his throne, but they place an idol in it. Love is made the divinity of the place. One of them, for instance, thus addresses a procuress: Thou 6 * angel of light, let me fall down and adore thee.' re They demand the homage for should be rendered to Heaven. this idol which Men,' said one of these priests of Venus, are generally hy pocrites or infidels; they pretend to worship, • but have neither faith nor zeal how few, like he Valentine, would persevere unto martyrdom !'† Woman, indeed, according to this theology, is the real heaven of man. We find a worshipper of this altar, in a fit of devotion, thus addressing a female: There's in you all that we believe of Heaven- It has joys also so exquisite at its command, that the happiness of Heaven, in some concentrated or condensed shape, alone can equal them. It was of a single kiss, for example, one Bellamour pronounced, Eternity was in that moment.'§ 6 My soul,' says a very high authority among them; despairs to be forgiven, unpardoned, love, by 'thee.'ll "These physicians get their diplomas, I sup pose," said Gustavus, "from Paphos." "Let us go on," said M. "to another ward. In this it is intended to relieve the patient from any troublesome relic of the love of virtue, or hatred of vice, which may have survived the fall. In a world without souls ridicule is a natural test of truth. The first attempt, therefore, of the orators in this department is to make virtue ridiculous. For this purpose, they conjure up a parson who is a glutton, or a pedant, or a miser. The great object in these fictitious characters is to wed hypocrisy, meanness, and folly to religion. The eye of the patient, once familiarized with these shadows, ever afterwards identifies, or at least associates the qualities thus forcibly connected with each other." "Habit," said G. "had in like manner led me always to associate a human shape and soul, till you taught me better." "To lessen the hatred of vice," continued M. 66 an operation of the same ward, they adopt two methods. They make the most amiable qualities its inseparable allies; and they make it successful whenever it takes the field. If, for instance> at -ho ate the personage is debauched, they give him generosity; if a spendthrift, good humour; if a liar, good temper; if vindictive, successful courage. The spectators naturally both learn to value the bad qualities for the sake of the good ones associated with them; and to deem success an unequivocal proof of merit." "On this ground," said Gustavus, "men ought to embrace a carcass for the sake of the spices with which it is embalmed; and should acknowledge the religion of Mahomet to be the true religion, because it has more disciples than that of Christ. But you have yet to tell me how they attempt to destroy, in males, the spirit of charity, and in. females, the love of modesty." "They are the works of different divisions," answered M.; "but I can describe the process in a breath. A physician in buskins undertakes the first, and usually accomplishes it by exalting bold revenge into a virtue. As to Modesty, it common: ly falls a victim to a singular property of the place. The cause of it is as entirely concealed as the cause of gravitation-but as soon as the female patients enter the building, however much they blush at home, they rarely or never seem to blush. Here |