The Sun.
London, England, 1823-12-27 00:00:00

THE REV. MR. COLTON.

INTERESTING EXTRACTS FROM THE REV. MR.,
COLTON'S WORK " LACON."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE (Cork) CONSTITUTION.
SlR—The Rev. Mr. COLTON having made a
great noise lately in the world; as being in some
way connected with the late Air. Weare, I send
a few- extracts from his work entitled " Macon,"
and which if you think worth inserting in your
valuable Paper, are at your service.
Vox.. I, No. CCCL.
" The policy of drawing a public revenue from the private
vices of drinking, and of gaming, is as purblind as it is perni-
cious; for temperate men drink the most, because they drink
the longest ; and a gamester contributes much less to the reve-
nue thin the industrious, because be is much sooner ruined.—
When Mandeville maintained that private vices were pub.
lie benefits, he did not calculate the widely destruc-
tive influence of bad example. To affirm that a vicious
man is only his own enemy, is about as wise as to affirm that
a virtuous man is only his own friend.
No. CCCXC I.
" The Martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both
in endurance and in number. So blinded are we by our pas.
sions, that we suffer more to he darned than to be saved.
No. DLXV.
"Warcitur a Soots" is a proverb that does not invariably ap.
ply ; for men of the highest talent have not always culled their
familiar society from' minds of a similar calibre of their own.
There are moments of relaxation, when they prefer friendship
to philosophy, and comfort to counsel. Fatigued by confuting
the coxcombs, or exhausted by coping with giants of litera-
ture, there are moments when the brightest minds prefer the
soothings of sympathy to all the brilliance of wit, as he that is
in need of repose, selects a bed of feathers, rather than of flints.
CC.

" The Gamester, it he die a martyr to his profession, is
doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by
the act of suicide, renounces earth, to forfeit heaven.
Nox.. 11, No. CCXLVI.

" Some men commence life in a career of honesty, but meet
with so many disappointments that they are obliged to disrobe
themselves of their conscience, for fear it should grow as thread-
bare as their coat, Declinant cur:us, aurum 'pc volubile
tollunt.' This is a degradation that will happen to most men,
whose principles are rooted only on earth, unrefreshed by the
dews of heaven. Such men begin well, but end ill; like a
certain lawyer, who, on being asked why he defended so many
bad causes, replied that be did' so, becaust he hid lost so many
good ones." •
'Vol.. I, No. IX.

"An upright Minister, what recommends a man asks a car.
rapt Minister, who.
No. LVIII.

" If all second* were as averse to duels as their principals,
very little blood would be shed in that way.

No. XIV.

" When Mahomet forbids his followers' the use of wine, when
the Grand Sultan discourages learning, and when the Pope de-
nies the Scriptures to the laity, what are we to infer from hence ?
not the danger of the things forbidden, but the fears of those
that forbid. 111abotnet knew that his was a faith strictly mili-
tary , and to be propagated by the sword ; he also knew that
nothing is so destructive to discipline as wine ; therefore—Ma-
hornet interdicted wine. The Grand Sultan knows that despo-
tism is founded on the blindness and weakness of the govern-
ed; but that learning is light and power ; and that the power-
ful and the enlightened make very troublesome slaves, there-
fore the Sultan discourages learning. Leo the Xth knew that
the pontifical hierarchy did support, ane was reciprocally sup-
port by a superstition that was false; but he also knew that the
Scriptures are true, and that truth and falsehood assimilate
not ;, therefore Leo withheld the use of the Scriptures from the
laity.
No. CLX-XV.

" Imperial ltome governed that the bodies of men, but dial
not extend her empire fattier. Papal Rome improved upon
imperial ; she made the tiara stronger than the Diadem
Pontiffs more powerful than Praetors ; and the Crozier more
victorious than the Sword. She devised a system so complete
in all its parts, for the subjugation both of body and of mind,
that like Archimedes, she asked but one thing, and that Luther
denied her; a fulcrum of ignorance on which to rest that lever
by which she could have balanced the world."

No. LXXIV.

" Hurry and Cunning are the two apprentices of Dispatch
and Skill; but neither of them ever learn their master's trade.

No. LXXVI.

" The excesses of our youth, axe drafts upon our old age
payable with interest, about thirty years after date."
I am, &c. °OPFER' B. POEY.
(The Constitution, or Cork Morning Post.)