cessarily kindled in due course of moral fermentation by the fiery spirit of pride and vanity, which are the moral phosphorus, and hydrogen of man, when it comes in contact with the oxygenous principle of truth; which pervades all Volcanoes nature for wise and beneficent purposes; but is perverted by such combustible and carbonic enthusiasts to purposes of destruction; whether by taking fire at wholesome advice, `or rebuke, or by kindling at the sight of apparent advantages to be derived from unjust aggressions. This principle is just and true in itself, but operates in all things according to the nature and tendency of those things, because it is truth and proportion. Thus David says of the Holy Spirit of Truth, "With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, with the upright thou wilt show thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward, thou wilt show thyself froward." Psalm xviii.

We observe, that natural volcanoes, are generally the most fertile in rich fruits, and the most beautiful in vegetable productions, until they reach the crisis of irruption. The reason is this, they abound in the fermentative principles, which act like manures, and render them so productive and attractive. Hence the more they abound in pleasant fruits and flowers, the greater is the destruction which they cause, by

seducing so many people to inhabit their neighbourhood, and to repose in their shade.

Thus do ambitious characters, who meditate conquest and carnage, prepare the way for their future devastations, by seducing the hearts, and deluding the minds of the people with the sweet fruits of an insidious generosity and a simulated benevolence, disinterestedness and urbanity. Thus we read that Absalom previous to his irruption "stole the hearts of the men of Israel," 2 Samuel, chap. xv. Julius Cæsar also was a very popular libertine, of whom Scylla is reported to have said, there are many Marius's in that youth. Alexander the Great, though so full of ambition, and whose life was one continued series of irruptions, was the most generous and seductive of men! Among the volcanoes of the church, those popes, cardinals and bishops, who were most tyrannical, ambitious, and mischievous when in power, were sometimes the most apparently meek, humble, devout and charitable, until they at tained their object; and then their disguise was laid aside! Our own St. Thomas à Becket was a star of this fiery description. Carnal wisdom, pride, and evil concupiscence, are the volcanic principles of the soul, and they occasion the political sacerdotal irruptions of moral volcanoes. Thus St. James says, "From whence

come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your LUSTS that war in your members?"

In general, all the lesser risings or eminencies on the surface of the earth, are emblematic of genius, of vanity, and of every kind of excentric singularity, both good and bad (perhaps) in human nature. If any man has in his moral estate or temperament of heart and mind any such eminent spots, they are generally selected for the purpose of building temples to some heathen god or goddess, some muse or grace. All works of genius, whether poetical, historical, mathematical, or scientific, are such temples, built partly for our own amusement or emolument, and partly for the public eye; and they are generally dedicated to Plutus, to Venus, Mars, Juno, Mercury, or even to Bacchus, but very seldom expressly to JEHOVAH. Among the few exceptions to the above general rule, stands the TASK of Cowper, which together with the rest of his serious poems, is dedicated to the God of the GOSPEL.*

All vallies, plains, and low places, on the vallies. other hand, are symbolical, generally, of the common run and level of mankind; also of humble, meek, and modest, as well as of mean, abject, cunning, and sordid temperaments; the first bearing plentiful crops of fruit and corn,

*Mrs. Hannah More is another of these "Rara Avises."

Cultiva

tion.

according to their cultivation, and the latter swamped with stagnant and putrid waters of a polluted mind, which corrupt the soil of the heart, and are also corrupted by it; as Cowper says:

"Faults in the life, breed errors in the brain,

And these reciprocally those again;

Each sire and dam of an infernal race,

Begetting and conceiving all that's base."

Viz. in the natural scale, toads, frogs, snakes, lizards, flies, worms, &c. &c.; which are emblematic of all that is evil in manners and morals!

Cultivation, however, or education, both in the terraqueous and in the moral worlds, does much, as well as nature; for we find that the best soils, if uncultivated, will soon abound with weeds and spontaneous thorns; that is to say, the innate evil of our fallen nature will soon discover itself, and overrun the heart, if not continually repressed by moral weeding, hoeing, and harrowing; and the barren soil, by dint of labour and manure, will produce fruit or vegetables more or less perfect and valuable according to the original temperament, compounded with the kind and degree of cultivation.

the

The course of this world, and of "the prince of power of the air," or the manners of society at large, does indeed continually reduce these

different soils or temperaments as it were to one common level and denomination of the MODE OF FASHION, by one general, common, and superficial scratch of similar cultivation among those of nearly equal rank. This brings them all to a medium plane, to a common pitch of external semblance and polish, in which both the good and the evil are equally concealed from our knowledge by common consent, for the sake of peace; lest an obvious and declared opposition of principles should induce continual and open war. But yet there is a great and essential difference, inasmuch as the best part of the bad soils, (which is always the superficies, or the external manners,) is that which brings them on a level with what is often Good and the worst part of a good soil, or heart, from too much negligence in external cultivation, and is also the superficies, or outward appearance. But still the secret centres of the heart are opposite and irreconcileable principles of truth and error, plus and minus. Thus incessant cultivation will bring even a bad soil to appear as pleasant in certain green shrubs, flowers, and even some common fruits of inferior kind, as a naturally fertile, but neglected soil; and the latter will often be disgraced by many weeds and disorders, which continual inspection and cultivation do suppress in the other so soon as they are perceived: yet still the origi

bad soils.