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SPECIAL PUBLIC EVILS.

[Part VI.

and the fierce and unmitigated struggle for superiority. This isbut a faint sketch of the incalculable calamities and horrors wemust expect, should we be so unfortunate as ever to witness thetriumph of modern infidelity.

2. This system is a soil as barren of great and sublime virtues,as it is prolific in crimes. By great and sublime virtues, aremeant those, which are called into action on great and trying oc-casions, which demand the sacrifice of the dearest interests andprospects of human life, and sometimes of life itself; the virtuesin a word, which, by their rarity and splendor, draw admiration,and have rendered illustrious the character of patriots, martyrs,and confessors. It requires but little reflection to perceive,that whatever veils a future world, and contracts the limits of exist-ence within the present life, must tend, in a proportionable degree,to diminish the grandeur and narrow the sphere of human agency.

As well might we expect exalted sentiments of justice from aprofessed gamester, as look for noble principles in the man whosehopes and fears are all suspended on the present moment, andwho stakes the whole happiness of his being on the events ofthis vain and fleeting life. If he be ever impelled to the per-formance of great achievements in a good cause, it must besolely by the hope of fame ; a motive, which, besides that itmakes virtue the servant of opinion, usually grows weaker at theapproach of death ; and which, however it may surmount thelove of existence in the heat of battle, or in the midst of publicobservation, can seldom be expected to operate with much forceon the retired duties of a private station.

In affirming that infidelity is unfavorable to the higher class ofvirtues, we are supported as well by facts, as by reasoning. Itis not my wish to load infidels with unmerited reproach ; but towhat history, to what record, will they appeal for the traits ofmoral greatness exhibited by their disciples ? Where shall welook for the trophies of infidel magnanimity or atheistical virtue ?Not that it is intended to accuse them of inactivity ; they have,during the last and present century, filled the world with thefame of their exploits ; exploits of a different kind, indeed, butof imperishable memory and disastrous lustre.

It is very true, that great and splendid actions are not the