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*DAMP BEDS AND SHEETS.

The mortal stabs which have been given to many excellent constitutions, by this species of secret murder; and the widows and fatherless children which have been produced by it, as well as the subjects of which the king has been deprived, are far beyond the conception of any private individual-In the course of my travels for the last eighteen months, I have heard of so many deaths and disorders, produced by this kind of injury, that I have censured myself for not preserving regular documents of the facts- The legislature has (I understand) condescended to prescribe rules for the regulation of public coaches-but if it could be made appear by the publication of facts, that more lives have been lost, and more constitutions injured, by damp beds and sheets, than by the overloading of coaches; would it be an object beneath the attention of parliament ?

If the latter in its parental attention to public health, would impose such regulations upon Inn-keepers, as would oblige them in their own defence to pay due attention to this part of their economy, it would be truly a public benefit-nor would legislators themselves have reason to repent it, since they also are personally interested, in the prevention of this evil; an evil the more to be dreaded because it is in silent, secret; and sometimes unsuspected by the unhappy victim, until the seeds of death sown in his constitution, apprize him of the fact, when no remedy remains, but that of resignation to his grave,

REVIEW

OF SOME PASSAGES IN

VOLTAIRE'S PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.

HIS ACCUSATION OF ABRAHAM-AUTHOR'S DEFENCE OF THE CHARACTER OF THAT PATRIARCH.

I shall pass over Voltaire's learned observations on the celebrity of the name of Abraham in Asia Minor, &c.his humorous observations on the youth of Sarah, the patriarch Abraham's wife, and his critical disquisition of the chronology of the book of Genesis, as relative to Abraham and his father; of which things I am as ignorant as uninterested, and shall proceed to notice his conclusive accusation of Abraham's character, in the following words.

The Father of the faithful here (that is in the wilderness of Kadesh) enjoined her (Sarah) the same lie as in Egypt; and thus his wife passing for his sister, got more cattle and servants, so that Sarah turned out no inconsiderable fortune to him."

The former part of this sentence, charges Abraham with a lie-the text however informs us, that she was his sister by the father's side-the suppression therefore of part of the truth-or the non-communication of a circumstance, which he was under no moral obligation to reveal, was not a lie-Voltaire's charge of falsehood therefore falls to the ground-it speaks the language of a prejudiced advocate, who determinately took the wrong side of a question, against a character which he wished to destroy-His insinuation against Abraham's honor, relative to profiting by the beauty of his wife, seems to have no foundation in sacred history-for there we are informed, that Abraham said, Gen. xi. 12, 13-" Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake-and yet indeed she is my sister-she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became wife-And it came to pass, that when God caused me

my

to wander from my father's house, that I said unto herthis is thy kindness, which thou shalt shew unto me: at every place whither we shall come, say of ine, he is my brother"The ground therefore for giving her this charge, is obvious-his apprehension of a conspiracy against his life, for the purpose of obtaining the sole possession of Sarak who was beautiful-any other interpretation does violence to the passage-it does injustice to Abraham's own account, who was certainly the best judge of the motives which inspired his conduct

Voltaire who pleaded so much and so well for candor and good nature, evidently violated both, in pursuing the bent of his prejudiced mind in this relation.

ANGEL,-from p. 4, to p. 7.

"Angel in Greek," says Voltaire," is a messenger"I like this explanation of Voltaire-it agrees with St. Paul, and it is particularly gratifying to the heart of a poor christian, to meet with the philosopher at any time in such good company-but he proceeds" It matters little to be informed, that the Persians had their Peries-the Hebrews their Malacs-and the Greeks their Demonoi but what may perhaps be more interesting to know isthat the supposition of intermediate beings between the Deity and us, prevailed among the first men"-Voltaire in the next page informs us, that the History of the fall of Angels, is not to be met with in the books of Moses; that the first word of it, is in the prophet Isaiah"-but not to say any thing about the inconsistency of endeavouring to invalidate this doctrine, by the silence of Moses on the subject, who he labors to prove in another place, never wrote the books attributed to him; I should think it sufficient to the christian purpose to know, that the Apostolic account of these things, together with the notice taken of the actual existence of good and evil angels by Jesus Christ, are greatly confirmed (if confirmation be necessary) by Voltaire's acknowledged antiquity of the tradition; for if their existence was held by the first men-Voltaire's burlesque of the subject (in parts of his essay not here quoted) falls to the groundseeing if he admitted a first man, which I infer from his apparent rejection of the eternity of matter-or at least his admission of its organization by the hand of the

Creator-it proves a strong confirmation of the doctrine of good and evil angels-The first man whoever he was, may reasonably be supposed to be without prejudices— for I suppose that Voltaire himself, if living, would admit, that they are usually imbibed from others-this, however, could not be the first man's case-his relation therefore of any such circumstance to his posterity, may reasonably be supposed to be the relation of facts, as he could have no interest in deceiving them, and according to our hypothesis. could have no prejudices The general consent of mankind to this doctrine in one form or another, both in savage and civilized nations; almost amounts to a proof of its being derived from some person, who was prior to them all; and however corrupted by the ignorance of after ages, strongly militates against the Sadducean doctrine, that no such beings exist in the universe.

As I have noticed the sentiments of the Sadducees on this subject-I shall quote another sentence of Voltaire's, under the same head-make a few remarks upon it, and conclude with a reply to his observations in the words of our Saviour Christ.

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Page 5. In the Jewish laws, that is in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, not the least mention is made of the existence of angels, much less of worshipping themaccordingly," says Voltaire, "the Sadducees believed in no such thing."

As to worshipping them, that was as strictly forbidden, by the Jewish, as by the christian religion; but as to their existence, if no mention is made of them in those books which Voltaire has quoted; their existence, or the existence of separate spirits, is inferred in that part of the history of Moses, where the Deity is represented calling himself in the present tense," The God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob," who as to the flesh being dead long before, must then have existed in a separate state-for their dust being incorporated with the earth from which it was taken, long before this voice was uttered; would hardly be recognized by the Deity as distinct from the common mass-nor would it reflect an adequate degree of glory on the attributes of God, that this dust had been once animated by an immortal principle, and had performed feats of virtue on the theatre of time, but was now with the spirit which animated it,

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fallen into ruinThis indeed might be a subject for the historian's praise, who can see no farther than the bounds of time, but falls far beneath our ideas of the greatness of the Eternal, who calling himself the God of beings; must allude to those who shew forth his praises, in a living and animated state-for the extinction of the rational and immortal principle, (even if consistent with reason,) would not honor him in the same manner, as its improvement and perfection-while the destruction of the individuality of accountable beings, not only tears up by the roots the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, the only sure foundation of morality, but renders suspected the very existence and attributes of God-Hence our Saviour in the refutation of that absurd and brutish notion of the Sadducees, that neither Angel nor Spirit existed in the universe, most justly refers to the very books, which Voltaire drags in to assist him in the revival of that antiquated doctrine-"Ye do err," said he, "not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God in heaven-but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob-God is not a God of the dead but of the living."

ANTHROPOPHAGI OR MAN-EATERS.

As I do not suppose there are any of these in civilized countries, and as I do not expect my little book will visit any other-I shall bid this part of Voltaire's Philosophical dictionary farewell, after making one or two judicious extracts from it.

In 1725 he informs us that four Mississippi savages were brought to Fontainbleau, where he had the honor of conversing with them-One being a lady of the country, he took the liberty of asking her if she had ever eaten men? to which with an unconcerned frankness, she answered in the affirmative-On appearing something shocked, she excused herself, saying-that it was better after killing an ene my to eat him, than to leave him to be devoured by beasts, and that conquerors deserved a preference-"We in pitched battles or encounters," continues Voltaire "kill our neighbors, and for a most scanty hire, prepare a most plentiful meal for ravens and worms-herein it is that lies

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