titled, Numa Pompilius, in which he has introduced the Nymph Egeria, inftructing the hero in the sciences of politics and legiflation.

ART. XI.

De l'Importance des Opinions Religieufes. i. e. Concerning the Importance of Religious Sentiments. By M. NECKER. 8vo. Paris. 1788.

T

HE offering here made at the fhrine of religion, by a man of bufinefs, a man of true political wifdom, and a man of the world, in the city of Paris, is a curious phenomenon: It is alfo a noble one, and gives M. NECKER, who has been long efteemed for his great capacity, literary merit, and eminent virtues, a new and diftinguished title to the veneration of the Public. It has been this virtuous man's deftiny to arrive at eminence in every line that he has purfued, from the countinghoufe to the threshold of the cabinet; and it is impoffible, if we read the work before us with candour and attention, not to fee that both his head and his heart make a diftinguifhed and affecting appearance in the caufe of religion.

When Ciccro was exhaufted with bufinefs, and diftreffed by malignant oppofition, in his zealous labours for the good of his country, he had recourfe to philofophy, not only for his own confolation, but as adapted to furnish him with means of being ufeful to his fellow-citizens, which the malice of his adveríaries could not defeat. Similar to that of the illuftrious Roman is the cafe of M. NECKER, with this advantageous difference, that the latter has found in the doctrines, views, and precepts of Chriftianity, better lights by which he might improve his philofophy, than the former could derive from the ambiguous tenets and clouded profpects of heathen wifdom.

One of the great principles that runs through M. NECKER'S excellent book, is the old principle of Solomon, that righteouf nefs exalteth a nation, which will ftand its ground notwithstanding all the attempts of vicious politics, and a licentious philofophy, to invalidate its immutable truth and importance. This maxim is confirmed by the radical causes, recorded in hiftory, of the decline of nations in all parts and periods of the world. But if the principle be old, the manner of its operation on public as well as private felicity, and the detail of reafons, drawn from the characters and paffions of men, and the state of civil fociety, which demonftrate its importance, admit of illuf

A work under the fame title has been published by M. de Florian. See Rev. Vol. lxxv. P. 513.

trations

trations that are inftructive, affecting, and adapted to difpel the errors which are too generally entertained on this fubject. Our Author's manner of viewing it, in the introduction to his work, is truly philofophical. I have remarked, fays he, with pleafure, that there is a natural connection between the various truths which contribute to human felicity. Our prejudices and paffions endeavour to difunite them, but, to the eye of an attentive obferver, they have all one common origin.' In confequence of this affinity, the truths and maxims that belong to the feveral spheres of government, legiflation, morals, and religion, must be confidered as mutually connected in the clofeft alliance; and it is only by ftrengthening this natural coalition that fuccefs can be infured to all thofe projects and efforts that have for their objects the peace and profperity of nations.

The fhare which M. NECKER had for a confiderable time in the management of public affairs, gave him many opportunities. of obferving how much the wifeft fy items of adminiftration ftand in need of the influence of an invifible fpring, which acts in fecret upon the confciences of men. It was after ftudying the intereft of a great nation, after taking an attentive view of the political bodies that compofe its government, that he was naturally led to thofe elevated ideas and truths which connect the general state of humanity with an almighty and infinite Being, the author and ruler of the univerfe. Thefe truths, which are but fuperficially perceived amidst the tumults of courts and the hurry of bufinefs, were the objects of his attentive and profound meditation in his retirement from both; and of thefe meditations, the work before us is the fruit.

It is divided into eighteen chapters. In the firft, the Author treats of the connexion between religious fentiments and public order. - The ancient historics of all nations bear teftimony to the influence of religion on civil order, military difcipline, and, in many cafes, on conduct and manners; and it was reierved for our times, fays M. NECKER (he might have added, more efpecially for the country in which I live), to furnish examples of attempts made to conteft the utility of religion, and to fubftitute, in the place of its active influence, the inanimate inftructions of a political philofophy. Our Author, in this and in the fecond chapter, examines fucceffively the principles of this political philofophy, and the fprings of actions which it puts in the place of religious motives, fuch as, the connexion between private and public good, the empire of law, and the fear of punishment, the effect of public opinion, and the ambition which thould animate each individual to obtain the efteem and confidence of his fellow-citi

zens.

M. NECKER fhews, with great fagacity and ftrength of reason-1 ing, the infufficiency of the fe principles to anfwer the purposes they

S14

are

are defigned to ferve. As to the firft, he obferves, that the abftract and complicated idea of a connexion between private virtue and public order is not adapted to ftrike the generality of mankind, who cannot embrace fuch an extenfive and diverfified object, nor perceive the reciprocal influence of public and private intereft on each other, and in whom, did they perceive it in fpeculation, fuch a general idea would not be powerful enough to counteract the impulfe of paffions, and the allurements of present objects of enjoyment. He farther obferves, that the public order of fociety, as it is at prefent established and fecured by civil inftitutions, exhibits fuch contrafts of power and weakness, fervitude and authority, opulence and poverty, luxury and wretchedness, that it is, in itfelf, more adapted to excite an habitual fentiment of envy and jealousy, than to inte reft felf-love in its fupport, any farther than as it is ftill preferable, with all its imperfections, to defpotism or anarchy. The multitude of individuals in civil fociety, who pass their days in the inferior claffes without property, refources, or hopes, can have little notion of a connexion between its general intereft and their personal well-being, nor can they ever admire the beauty of a WHOLE, in which there is nothing for them but deformity, poverty, and contempt. Befide, allowing all the admiration to the ftructure of civil fociety which it juftly deferves, the mutual connexion of its various parts is not fo close and intimate, but that irregular motions in fome of those parts will neceffarily produce a palpable and ftriking diforder in the whole; at leaft, the private tranfgreffor of focial duty and order does not difcover immediately the influence of his actions upon the general interefts of fociety: he acts from the impulfe of the prefent moment, and not from the remote view of the confequences of his conduct on the general fyftem. And, after all, what is the real good of the whole but the fum of the particular portions of good enjoyed by individuals? Religion, therefore, which extends its inAuence diftributively to each individual, in fources of confolation, in incentives to hope, in motives to all the virtues that promote order and yield fatisfaction in every sphere, age, and fituation, tends not in a vague, but in a direct and effectual manner, to the advancement of public and private felicity. This most important truth is prefented by M. NECKER to the underftanding and to the heart of his reader in various points of view, which give us high and pleafing ideas of his own intellect and feelings.

The infufficiency of civil laws to promote moral improvement and focial happiness without religious principle has been repeatedly demonftrated. The vices and paffions that poifon the fources of both domeftic and public felicity, may be practited with impunity under the empire of civil laws, even where there

laws

laws are executed with impartiality and vigilance. We fhall not follow our ingenious and refpectable Author in his difcuffions on this head. Befide crimes committed in fecret, he prefents to us a prodigious lift of errors and vices, which civil laws can neither define nor purfue, and which have already done unfpeakable mischief in fociety, even before they have become the objects of public cenfure. The details here are fingularly ingegious and folid, and fhew a deep and extenfive knowlege of human nature and human life. The parallel, moreover, drawn by M. NECKER between the influence of religious fentiments and that of laws and public opinion, is interefting in the higheft degree. There are, indeed, now and then, in these details of reasoning and obfervation, fome shades of obfcurity, feveral inftances of fubtilty and refinement both in argument and expreffion, that will embarrass the generality of readers, and interrupt the pleafing feelings, which the warmth of the Author's eloquence, and his perfuafive reafoning, excite and nourish in the general tenor of this work. The cate is truly this; the greateft part of the obfcurity of which fome will perhaps complain, arifes from the multitude of ideas, which are here crowded into a fmall space, the new points of view which the writer has opened upon this fubject, and not perhaps fufficiently developed, and a phrafeology which is fometimes chargeable with the want of fimplicity and precifion. But fhame be to the reader who will reject or difcredit the book on account of a few imperfections of this kind! we would compare him to a perfon who made no account of the light and warmth of the fun, because it has some spots.

In the third and fourth chapters, our Author removes the objections that are made againft the neceffity or importance of religious principles, and which are founded on our natural propenfity to virtue, and on the regular conduct of many who are not religious. The first of these objections fcarcely deferves any other answer than a modeft counlel to the objector, to rub his eyes, and look about him, and we think M. NECKER has deviated from the high road of fimplicity in his reply. He had no occafion to queftion the reality of a moral fenfe, or (what he calls improperly enough) innate moral beauty, nor to tell us, that its exiftence cannot be demonftrated by reafoning, for who ever affirmed that the exiftence of a fenfe or perceptive faculty was to be so demonstrated? He would alío have done better, not to have alleged that it cannot be proved by experience, for this his own heart and the univerfal voice of mankind will deny. All this is nothing to the purpose, and takes up too much room in a chapter of five pages, where it, moreover, appears with very little advantage on the fide of perfpicuity and precifion. By confining himself to the intellectual faculties of man, which he

confiders

confiders as the principles of his perfection, and remarking the paffions and low propenfities that counteract them in the prefent ftate of infancy and probation, it was an easy matter to fhew how neceffarily the natural propenfity to virtue needs the direction and fupport of religious principles. With refpect to the honeft and regular man without religion, our enquirer analyzes this gilded object, this man of ftraw, with fagacity and judgment, and fhews his weak fides in their true points of light.

In the fifth and fixth chapters, our Author treats of the influence of religious ideas upon happiness. Religion, from its connexion with morals, is effentially connected with public felicity; but the circumftance that renders religious fentiments fuperior (as he expreffes himfelf) to all other kinds of fcience and legiflation, is their influence on the private happiness of the individual, as well as on that of the community. In the proof and illuftration of this affertion, M. NECKER takes a phi- . lofophical view of human nature, and traces back our pleasures and our pains, our enjoyments and anxieties, to their first causes. He obferves, that it is principally by memory and forefight that man is happy or unhappy, that all his pleafures and pains, excepting those which are merely physical and corporeal, have always a relation, more or less perceived, with fomething yet to come; and that all is profpect in our moral existence. Hence he takes occafion to fhew how delightful this natural tendency of the mind to anticipation and forecaft is rendered by religious fentiments, which connect the feries of our expectations and hopes with the government of an all-wife, benevolent, and eternal Being. The details into which he enters on this noble fubject are beautiful and affecting. He points out with precifion the various kinds of happiness of which mankind are deprived by that difmal philofophy, which derives intelligence, reafon, mind, and all the fublime harmony of nature, from (chole words without a meaning) a fortuitous combination of mechanical principles. He enlarges on the various fources of pleasure, improvement, and contolation, that religious fentiments open to man in all the different ftates and circumstances of human life. A generous mind will feel affliction for those who are capable of reading thefe details without fenfibility and emotion, and contempt for the profligate libertine who shall ftigmatize them with the reproach of enthufiafm, and treat them with derition. There is, indeed, a kind of enthufiafm that animates the Author in many paffages of thefe excellent chapters, and which, affociated with fober and folid argument, is diffufed in a proper measure through the whole of this work; but it is that kind of enthufiafm which an elevated and enlightened mind must feel in the contemplation of what is great, beautiful, and happy.

The