without considering whether they light on the imagination or the fil ings; whether they elevate the fancy or only fire the passions.

The sublime has for its object the imagination only, and its influence is not so much to occasion any fervour of feeling, as the calmness of fixed astonishment. If we consider the sublime as thus distinguished from every other quality, Milton will appear to possess it in an unrivalled degree; and here indeed lies the secret of his power. The perusal of Homer inspires us with an ardent sensibility; Milton with the stillness of surprise. The one fills and delights the mind with the confluence of various emotions; the other amazes with the vastness of his ideas. The movements of Milton's mind are steady and progressive he carries the fancy through successive stages of elevation, and gradually increases the heat by addı ig fuel to the fire.

The flights of Homer are more sudden and transitory. Milton, whose mind was enlightened by science, ppears the most comprehensive; he shows more acuteness in his reflections, and more sublimity of thought. Homer, who lived more with men, and had perhaps a deeper tincture of the human passions, is by far the most vehement and picturesque. To the view of Milton the wide scenes of the universe seem to have been thrown open, which he regards with a cool and comprehensive survey, little agitated, and superior to those emotions which affect inferior mortals. Homer, when he rises the highest, goes not beyond the bounds of human nature; he still connects his descriptions with human passions, and though his ideas have less sublimity, they have more fire. The appetite for greatness-that appetite which always grasps at more than it can contain-is never so fully satisfied as in the perusal of "Paradise Lost." In following Milton we grow familiar with new worlds, we traverse the immensities of space, wandering in amazement, and finding no bounds. Homer confines the mind to a narrower circle, but that circle he brings nearer to the eye; he fills it with a quicker succession of objects, and makes it the scene of more interesting action.

FRAGMENT ON POPERY.

[Written about 1824. Not published before.]

WHEN two parties, each formidable for their numbers and the weight of their influence and property, are animated by an equal degree of zeal, it is natural to anticipate the final success of that which possesses the most inherent strength. But if one be torpid and inactive, and the other eager and enterprising,-if one reposes on its arms, while the other is incessantly on the alert,—such a difference in their spirit is sufficient to annihilate the greatest disparity of force, and to incline the balance to the side on which superior vigour is exerted. This, if I am not greatly mistaken, is pretty nearly the case at present between the Protestants and the papists, as far, at least, as respects their situation in these kingdoms. The papists appear to be stimulated by zeal and elevated by hope; the Protestants content themselves with being silent spectators of their progress, while many of them seem secretly to rejoice at their success. New popish chapels are rising on every side, in situations skilfully selected, with a view to attract the public attention. The consecration is announced with ostentatious publicity, and numerously attended by the most elegant and fashionable part of a Protestant population, by men of opulence, merchants, and magistrates, who are seen on no other occasions beyond the precincts of the established [church.]

Judging from the practice of a multitude in the higher classes, we are necessitated to infer, that if the popish doctrine is not true it is innocent and harmless; and if not entitled to an exclusive preference, it is only inferior to that particular form of the Protestant worship which they have adopted; and that, while they decline submission to its claims, it possesses a majesty which entitles it to their occasional homage and veneration. The honest fervour of indignation with which its pretensions were repelled and its impiety resented has disappeared: popery is now viewed by the greater part of the people with careless indifference or secret complacency.

But popery, it is alleged, is changed; its venom is exhaled; and, however erroneous in a speculative view, it is no longer fraught with the mischief and the danger which rendered it so formidable to our ancestors. An infallible religion changed is nearly a contradiction in

terms. A religion which is founded on the assumption of a supernatural exemption from error on the part of its adherents, may be confuted by argument, suppressed by force, or relinquished from conviction; but it is impossible to conceive of its susceptibility of change. If it undergoes any alteration, it can only [be] in consequence of its professors renouncing some one or more of the doctrines which formerly characterized it. But those doctrines are neither more nor less than the recorded decisions of the church, of a church affirmed by all Catholics to be infallible. The supposed infallibility of the church is the corner-stone of the whole system of popery, the centre of union amid all the animosities and disputes which may subsist on minor subjects; and the proper definition of a Catholic is one who professes to maintain the absolute infallibility of a certain community styling itself the church. For a person to dissent from a single decision of the church is to confess himself not a Catholic; because it is to affirm, not only that the church may err, but that it actually has erred, and is therefore not infallible. An infallibility extending to some points of religious belief and not to others is a ridiculous chimera, which, could it be reduced to an object of conception, would subvert every rational ground of confidence: for what assurance can we have that a community which has erred once will not fall into the same predicament again? Positive qualities may be conceived to subsist under [all] possible degrees of magnitude; they are susceptible, to an unlimited extent, of more or less: but infallibility is a negative idea, which admits of no degrees. Detect the smallest error in the individual, or the community, which makes this pretension, and you as effectually destroy it as by the discovery of a million. If a Catholic, then, professes to have changed his opinions on any subject on which the authority of the church has been interposed, so as to dissent from its decisions, he has relinquished Catholicism, and renounced the only principle which distinguished him.

Be

The supposed dominion over the consciences of men assumed by the Roman pontiff, is sanctioned by the decision of general councils, and incorporated with their most solemn and public acts, and must consequently be allowed to constitute one of the fundamental tenets of the papal system; and though that usurpation, considered in itself, would be a mere annunciation of a doctrine which might be rejected with impunity, the interference of the civil magistrate to enforce the papal claims was countenanced and demanded by the same authority. yond the narrow precincts of their temporal domain the bishops of Rome were incapable of personally carrying their persecuting edicts into force; but princes and magistrates were diligently instructed that it was their indispensable duty to suppress and punish the heretics against whom the church had denounced its anathemas. Ecclesias tics, affecting a peculiar horror of blood, declined the office of executioners, which they devolved on the temporal authorities in each state; but it is equally certain, that in the violences which [civil magistrates] committed in the suppression of heresy and the support of the authority of the church, they acted not merely agreeably to her wishes, but in obe

dience to her dictates. If there was any difference in this respect between the ecclesiastical and temporal powers, it was that princes could with great difficulty, on many occasions, be induced to keep [pace] with the prompt and unrelenting fury of their spiritual directors. The grand lesson in which they [were] indoctrinated, with infinitely more care than any other, was the implicit obedience which they vowed to the pontiff and the church in the enactment and execution of penal laws against the abetters of heretical opinions,-an epithet bestowed upon all opinions not in accordance with the tenets of the papal community. When John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, was arrested, cast into prison, and publicly burnt alive at Constance, in spite of a "safe-conduct" given him by the Emperor Sigismund, merely because he refused to belie his conscience by abjuring his pretended heresy, all was executed under the eyes and by the express authority of the council, who solemnly decreed that the safe-conduct of the emperor ought to be considered as no impediment to the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; but, notwithstanding this, that it was perfectly competent for the ecclesiastical judge to take cognizance of his errors, and to punish them agreeable to the dictates of justice, although he presented himself before them in dependence upon that protection, but for which he would have declined appearing. Nor were they satisfied with this impious decision [alone.] Because murmurs were heard, on account of the violation of a legal protection, they had the audacity to add, that since the said John Huss had, by impugning the orthodox faith, forfeited every privilege, and since no promise or faith was binding, either by human or divine right, in prejudice of the Catholic faith, the said emperor had done as became his royal majesty in violating his "safe-conduct;" and that whoever, of any rank or sex, dares to impugn the justice of the holy council, or of his majesty, in relation to their proceedings with John Huss, shall be punished, without hope of pardon, as a favourer of heretical pravity, and guilty of the crime of hightreason.*

*

Though I have nearly translated the language of the holy council, as given by L'Enfant in his History of the Council of Constance, the reader will probably not be displeased to see the original. "Præsens sancta synodus ex quovis salvo-conductu per imperatorem, reges, et alios seculi principes hæreticis vel de hæresi diffamatis, putantes eosdem, sic à suis erroribus revocare, quo cunque vinculo se adstrinxerint, concesso, nullum fidei catholicæ vel jurisdictioni ecclesiastica præjudicium generari, vel impedimentum præstari posse seu debere, declarat ; quominus salvo dicto conductu nonobstante, liceat judici competenti ecclesiastico de ejusmodi personarum erroribus inquirere, et aliàs contra eas debite procedere, easdemque punire, quantum justitia suadebit, si suos pertinaciter recusaverint revocare errores, etiamsi de salvo-conductu confisi ad locum venerint judicii, alias non venturi.

"Quo statuto, sive ordinatione lecto, idem statutum fuit approbatum per dictos dominos, episcopos nomine quatuor nationum, ac Reverendissimum Patrem Dominum Cardinalem Vivariensem, nomine Collegii Cardinalium, per verbum, Placet.

DE SALVO-CONDUCTU HUSSONIS.

"Sacrosancta, &c. Quia nonnulli nimis intelligentes aut sinistræ intentionis, vel forsan solentes sapere plus quàm oportet, nedum regiæ majestati, sed etiam sacro, ut fertur, concilio, linguis maledictis detrahunt publicè et occulte dicentes, vel innuentes, quod salvus-conductus per invictissimum principem Dominum Sigismundum Romanorum et Ungariæ, &c., Regem quondam Johanni Hus, heresiarchæ damnatæ memoriæ datus, fuit contra justitiam aut honestatem indebitè violatus: cumtamen dictus Johannes Hus fidem orthodoxam pertinaciter impugnans se ab omni conductu et privilegio reddiderit alienum, nec aliqua sibi fides aut promissio, de jure naturali, divino, vel humano, fuerit in præjudicium Catholicæ fidei observanda: idcirco dicta sancta synodus præsentium tencré declarat dictum invictissimum principem.circa prædictum quondam Johannem Hus, nonobstante memorato salvo-conductu, ex juris debito fecisse quod licuit, et quod decuit regiam majestatem: statuens et ordinans omnibus et singulis Christi fidelibus, cujuscunque dignitatis, gradus, præ

Here, then, we have the decision of a general council, that a dissent from the Catholic faith, persisted in, exposes the offender to the forfeiture of all his rights, not excepting such as he may claim from express solemn stipulations. If there ever was an assembly fairly entitled to the epithet of œcumenical, or universal, it was certainly the Council of Constance; composed of delegates from every kingdom and country of Europe; held in the presence of an emperor, and many other sovereign princes; called by the order of a pope, and signalized by the absolute deposition of two pontiffs, a forced abdication of a third, and the creation of a fourth; which extinguished a schism of forty years, and reunited the obedience of Christendom under one head. If the boasted infallibility of the church is to be found anywhere, it is undoubtedly in the acts and decrees of such an assembly.

Nor is it easy to conceive of any thing more absurd than the supposition that it was guided by inspiration in respect to some of its decisions, and not of others. Such a partial and capricious inspiration would completely frustrate the purpose for which it was introduced, and expose us to all the perplexity and uncertainty which it was designed to prevent; since, on this supposition, nothing short of another inspiration could enable us to distinguish and select the suggestions of the first.

I am aware, that when Catholics are pressed with the consequences resulting from the pretended infallibility of general councils, summoned by the authority of the pope, they take refuge in the subtile and slippery distinction between the doctrines which are, and those which are not, points of faith. Thus, in the present instance, to serve a turn, they will probably assert, or insinuate, that although the most cruel intolerance has obtained the sanction and support of general councils, their proper infallibility is not impaired, because the principle which authorizes persecution is not a point of faith.

Without entering into the mazes of a frivolous and unintelligible dispute about words, it is sufficient to remark, that the supernatural and infallible guidance of a church which leaves it to stumble on the threshold of morality, to confound the essential distinctions of right and wrong, to recommend the violation of the most solemn compacts, and the murder of men against whom not a shadow of criminality is alleged, except a dissent from its dogmas, is nothing worth; but must ever ensure the ridicule and abhorrence of those who judge the tree by its fruits, and who will not be easily persuaded that the eternal fountain of love and purity inhabits the breast which "breathes out cruelty and slaughter." If persecution for conscience' sake is contrary to the principles of justice and the genius of Christianity, then I say, this holy and infallible church was so abandoned of God as to be permitted to legitimate the foulest crimes,-to substitute murders for sacrifice, and

eminentiæ, conditionis, status, aut sexus existant, quod nullus deinceps sacro concilio aut regiæ majestati de gestis circa prædictum quondam Johannem Hus detrahat sive quomodolibet obloquatur, Qui verò contrarium fecerit, tamquam fautor hereticæ pravitatis et reus criminis læsæ majestatis irremissibiliter puniatur."-L'En ant's History of the Council of Constance, vol. ii. p. 491, English

edit. 1730.