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CHAP. V.

ON ENTHUSIASM AND MODERATION.

ENTHUSIASM is a principle which stimulates mankind to great and uncommon actions; it arises from the passions rather than the judgment; it is useful for important occurrences, but it is not necessary for steady and uniform engagements: for enthusiasm is generally the result of excitation; if the mind, therefore, be strained on one occasion, it will be proportionably relaxed on another. If what has been related of Marcus Curtius be true, that he sacrificed himself to the gods for the good of his country, he must have been influenced by enthusiasm. Leonidas was excited by this principle, when he opposed himself with his little band against the countless multitude of Xerxes. Camillus was enthusiastic, when he begged the gods, during the prosperity of Rome, that if misfortunes must befal her as well as favours, they would be pleased to pour them on his shoulders and spare the city. It was a species of enthusiasm, and not less noble, though less important, that induced a young negress at Guadaloupe (as a missionary relates) to refuse marriage, because she would not bring others into misery. This principle may be directed to a good or a bad object; but in a good

object, if it be an engagement of a regular kind, we need not much enthusiasm, but a calm and steady attention to our duty. Socrates, Aristotle, or Pliny, had no occasion to be enthusiastic; nor should a great degree of enthusiasm be connected with religion. If any person, from ignorance or unusual circumstances, be affected by it, it should rather be mellowed down than increased; for all enthusiasm which carries a man out of the tract of reason and good order is fanaticism.

The health of the mind is something like the health of the body; but we do not improve the body by producing a fever-heat. Jacob Behmen, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Madame Bourignon, were fanatics and visionaries; but they perplexed the minds of men, and led their fellow creatures into error. The difference between fanaticism and moderation is like that between the boisterous gale and the temperate breeze, or the mountain_torrent rolling without control, and the calm and beautiful river.

A small degree of animation is sometimes termed enthusiasm; but enthusiasm generally signifies a powerful ebullition of feeling; and in this sense I shall now consider it. A sensation, even of this kind, may be sometimes harmless; but it becomes hurtful when a person's actions are dependent on it. Man seems to have been intended for a comparatively tranquil state of being. If he strains his mental powers, he injures his health and reason; if he suffers his passions to be greatly excited, he goes astray and becomes miserable. He may, like Sophocles, die of joy; or, like Artemisia, of grief.

He may finish his days in a paroxysm of anger, or draw out his existence in despair and madness. But a proper training of the mind will contribute to knowledge and wisdom; a proper treatment of the body, to health and vigour; and a proper regulation of the passions, to tranquillity and happiness. These subjects, however, have been already investigated; I shall, therefore, examine enthusiasm in reference to its influence on morality and religion.

As much religion as would show a man his dependence on the Almighty, and teach him to admire the beauties of creation; and induce him, in all his observations, to "look from nature up to nature's God;" to act justly to his fellow creatures; to worship the Almighty sincerely and decorously; - all this will be necessary and advantageous; but it will be granted that this is not enthusiasm. It would be enthusiasm, when the pulpit-orator, carried away with the vastness and interest of his subject, would seem to soar above this earthly sphere — to rise into the region of the stars to wing his way among the magnificent courts of heaven to describe the beauty, the dazzling lustre, the enchantments of that blessed place. And thus the poet will be sometimes enthusiastic, when his "eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from earth to heaven." But the former may be an exception to the usual feelings of the minister, or he will soon unnerve himself by high excitement; and the poet, if he be not careful, will wear out the delicate connection between soul and body, and destroy his earthly frame. How many

persons of great promise have actually worn themselves out, and opened the portal of the tomb for an early residence, from the effects of high excitement!

Enthusiasm, or, as I shall sometimes term it, fanaticism in religion, has not been confined to modern times; it has existed in the early ages. It has arisen among idolaters and Christians; among priests and people; indeed, wherever men of weak heads and powerful feelings have possessed any influence in religious matters. The Fakhirs of India work themselves to a high degree of ecstasy by trumpets, drums, and other instruments; and then they prophesy, and perform all kinds of incoherent actions. The Caunians raise themselves to a pitch of religious frenzy; and then they brandish their swords to drive away strange gods. The Malays act in a similar manner. The Egyptians used to celebrate feasts at Bubastis, in honour of Diana, at which two or three hundred thousand persons were sometimes present; they drank wine, and sang, and danced, and became almost frantic. The Nephes Ogli among the Turks (a company of virgins who generally live in the strictest retirement) sometimes go to the mosques at night, and there they remain for several hours, and during their prayers they practise all kinds of bodily contortions; they howl, and dance, and talk incoherently, and at last fall on the ground in a state of exhaustion. Some of the fancied worshippers of the Almighty, in the present day, practise similar

among barbarians and civilised, in the torrid and in the temperate zones!

But fanaticism is exceedingly deceptive and injurious; "it takes away," as Locke observes, "both reason and revelation; and substitutes in their room the ungrounded fancies of a man's own brain, and assumes them for a foundation both of opinion and conduct." It is a bane to society, to good manners, to virtue, to religion; it disorders worldly engagements, and destroys domestic comforts; it fills a person with fears and boldness, with presumption and despair. It frequently arises from affectation and pride. Locke observes, that feelings of this kind "so flatter men's laziness, ignorance, and vanity, that when once they are got into this way of immediate revelation, of illumination without search, and of certainty without proof and examination, it is a hard matter to get them out of it."

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Almost every thing which a fanatic examines whether it be practice or theory is dressed up in deceptive colours. He goes too far in some things, and not far enough in others. Sometimes he will draw clouds and shadows around his fellow creatures; and sometimes he will darken the character of the Most High ; — instead of brightening human prospects, agreeably with the rules of Scripture; and making the character of the Deity luminous and attractive, according to the declarations of the Bible. On some occasions, he will talk incoherently of his own importance, of the beatific influence which is shed upon him, of the mighty actions which he has to perform. He is sometimes sin

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