When unchristianised, man becomes a sort of demon: he riots in the licentiousness of his assumed freedom from obligations Divine and human; and if leagued in a diabolical conspiracy against religion, laws, and property,—against all that is virtuous, noble, and praiseworthy,—he is involved as he advances, deeper and deeper in danger and guilt; as the crisis approaches, he is impelled forward in his headlong career, with a rapidity which allows no time for reflection, with a force which defies resistance, until at last he is swallowed up in the wide ruin of universal tumult and disorder: like one who commits himself to the guidance of a stream, ignorant or regardless of the distant cataract, towards which it is flowing: borne along by its powerful current, he is, at first, delighted with his swift and unchecked progress, but as he proceeds, the rapidity and force of the stream fearfully increase, until at last, drawn within the full influence of the fall, he is swept along with tremendous violence towards the verge of precipitation, whence he shoots into the boiling gulf below—a gulf which is no unfit emblem of society, heaving, foaming, and roaring, under the domination of physical force. Let not, however, the useful and awful lesson which the French revolution teaches be thus hastily dismissed: human nature is always the same, and similar causes will produce similar results, however modified by circumstances. A length of time was required in that country to sow the seeds of infidelity, but as soon as they had taken deep root in the public mind, their effects were apparent; their growth was as rapid as it was luxuriant, and they bore such a deadly crop as fills the mind with disgust and horror. Nor was the field of operation of the antichristian conspiracy confined to France, the great object of which was, every where to accomplish the defamation and discredit of the Christian religion, where it could not effect its entire overthrow. Let the portrait, therefore, be examined which Bishop Horsley has supplied us with of those times, which must be still fresh in the recollection of some; it is drawn with the power and effect of a master in his art; would it were only interesting as a vivid sketch by a contemporary, of dangers passed away! it speaks even now with a warning voice to this country.