INTRODUCTION:

CONTAINING

AN ACCOUNT

OF

THE FIRST DEBATE.

AMONG the various Societies instituted by private persons in this metropolis, for amusement, instruction, or debate, there is one of which I, A. M. have the honour to be an official member. This society is numerous, and, as we ourselves imagine, respectable. It consists of persons in various situations of life, and of very different modes of thinking. We were one evening, not long ago, assembled as usual, and discoursing in our common desultory way, some on Religion, and some on politics. The opinions were more various than I had observed them on former occasions, and were delivered with less reserve. In politics, many of the members seemed to lean towards democracy, or, to what they termed, a state of nature; and for Christianity there was only one who dared to be a strenuous advocate. The others who thought as he did, were ei

A

ther too shy to defend their opinions so publicly, or they were awed into silence by the ridicule and effrontery of its bolder oppo

nents.

One young gentleman, (Mr GOODWILL) whose speech commanded universal attention, and seemed to meet, from some of the members, with much applause, descanted, with peculiar warmth, on Prejudice, which he declared to be the only support, either of our Politics or Religion. He claimed universal liberty, not only in thinking but in action; and he confidently asserted, that all systems of civil and ecclesiastical restraint were the genuine effects of local prejudices; "And accordingly," says he, "we find that they vary exactly with our situation and circumstances. Actions which our education leads us to consider as criminal, are, in other portions of the globe, where the people are nearer a state of nature, looked upon as indifferent, and even praise-worthy. It is well known that, in some states, when the people are so far advanced in years as to be unable, from the infirmities of age, to procure for themselves the necessaries of life, they are removed from the world by their own children. There is, therefore," continued our youthful orator, "no necessary distinction between virtue and vice; and the restraints of law and religion, which subsist in the several nations of Europe, are, of consequence, direct and absurd infringements

of our liberty, and of the rights of enjoyment, to which, as men, we are all equally entitled, and from which it is consequently criminal to withhold us, and pusilanimous in us to be withheld,"

Mr CHRISTIAN, a gentleman more advanced in life, who displayed strong marks of disapprobation, and sometimes of pity, at the sentiments thus confidently expressed, and at the person who expressed them, said, that, he was never more astonished in his life, than he had been by the speech he had just heard. He did not think it possible, that, by any society of persons in this country at least, pretending to philosophical im-. provement and refined thinking, such opinions would be borne, much less approved, as he was sorry to observe thèse had been by many of the gentlemen present. He remarked, that he had bestowed much pa-. tient attention on the various branches of philosophy, not for any professional purpose, but for the sake of improvement, and as an elegant and useful employment for his leisure time. But, he declared, that if philosophy had the smallest tendency to reduce us to the deplorable situation which the gentleman was pleased to call liberty, he would gladly, were it possible, drink copiously of the stream of Lethe, and forget all that he had endeavoured to acquire with so much anxious labour. "If freedom from preju- . dice, and the rights of enjoyment," conti

nued he, "can only be procured by our having it in our power to commit murder, or any other crime, when it suits, or we think it suits, our convenience, it will be the interest of every one of us, for our own sakes, if nobler motives shall have no influence, to hug prejudice as the guardian of all that is dear to us, and to spurn the rights of man, if such be the consequences of those rights, as our deadliest foe. Learning and philosophy have generally been considered, and I am still disposed to consider them, as, next to religion, conducing the most to the encrease of human happiness, and to the alleviation of human misery.

"I foresee, from the apparent sentiments of some who now hear me, that I shall be accused of prejudice and bigotry, for having thus given the first place to religion? But I beseech such persons to have so much candour and common honesty, whatever their individual sentiments may be, as to bring the matter to a fair issue. Independent of the world, as much as external circumstances can make me, and free from the influence of professional prejudice, I am yet not ashamed to acknowledge myself a Christian; not because I was born one, but from conviction and mature deliberation. I have never been under the controul of irksome authority, nor obliged for a livelihood to make profession of a faith I do not entertain. Left to my own government at an

early age, and indebted to my parents for an ample independence, and for,-what I consider as of much more importance,-the elements of a good education, my inquiries, as far as I am able to judge, have been candid, liberal, and free. But my investigations, both with respect to religion, philosphy, and politics, have produced in my mind convictions very different from those of the young gentleman who introduced this subject;-convictions, however, which have afforded me, in every stage and vicissitude of life, more real enjoyment and heart-felt satisfaction, than I am perhaps able to express, or you to conceive. I am ready, therefore, since no other person seems disposed for the task, (if, since the subject has been suggested, the society be inclined to give it a fair hearing) to defend Christianity against the young gentleman and his friends, who seem to consider Savagism as the natural and philosophical state of man, and licentiousness as his truest happiness. Nor shall I be at all staggered in my purpose by the words prejudice and bigotry, so often and so unjustly applied to men of my sentiments, being convinced, from a very extensive, and, as I think, just observation, both of men and things, that religion may be professed and practised, without the smallest tendency to either, and that men professing no religion, and ridiculing all who do, are as often liable to the influence of