The Sun.
London, England, 1821-08-04 00:00:00

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

(No. XXXI.)

• COURS DE MORALE, &c. i.e. A COURSE of MORALS
taken from the Sacred Writings, for the use of Youth, by J.
B. CHAUD, author of the Gl Morality of the Bible," Biro.
Paris, 1821.
The author of this work is one of those few
writers who have escaped from the 'double con-
tagion of the age and theirown. times, who have
successfully engaged in devout studies, and have
dedicated to the sacred cause of religion and
morals, talents which other learned men of mature
years have employed in a less noble pursuit.—
, Whilst some revolutionary politicians are endea-
vouring to mislead, by the illusions of liberty
and independence,an inexperienced youth which
has. sometimes shewn itself too easily carried away
by the language of seduction and falsehood, -we
see, on the other hand, several young men, who
have received the benefit of better counsels, seek
elsewhere their inspirations and their guides ;
and, instead of deviating. from those principles
which have formed the glory and happiness of
their ancestors, display a noble zeal in preserving
and transmitting to their descendants this pre-
cious inheritance. The Sacred Writings, that
fruitful mine, the riches of which have been
demonstrated by the works of our great
authors, are the source from which some
excellent productions have emanated in the
present day—the works of writers eltering on
the career of letters, which reflect equal honour
on their discernment and
_their principles, and
hold out consolatory prospects to the friends
of order, sound morals, and good taste. There
exists, thank God, a young generation- of zealous
defenders of the hOly doctrines, as skilful in se-
lecting the arms which will protect us from dan-
gerous innovations, as they are capable of wield-
ing them in such an excellent cause.
The Sacred Writings have given birth to chefs
d'ieurre alike the boast of eloquence and poetry;
but they are equally admirable and sublime when
they are employed in directing and encouraging
the heart of man. Then, indeed, they display
their richest treasures, and become to weak and
erring mortals the most valuable gift they can
receive from the Author of all things ; for it is
from. this divine book that man obtains a know-
ledge of his relations with the Being of beings ;
and from this source that he learns, what he would
never have otherwise known, his origin, his end,
his duties and hopes.
Several writers have extracted precepts and
sentences from the Bible, which-they have form-
ed into collections for youth. They thought that
in an age when 'taste was already depraved, anti
genius extinct, the simplicity of the morality of
the Bible was no longer suited 'to adults, vpd
that the refinements introduced in this kind of
lessons, and the success of authors of maxims,
might, notwithstanding their little merit, be ini-
mical to the authority of the Supreme Legislator
of men and Kings. Enlightened- by fatal expe-
rience, and tired with all the little subtleties of
the moralists of ,the last century, all the good
spirits of our times have acknowledged that the
language of morality should be clear and simple,
that it can only be what it really is in the Holy
Scriptures, and that 'it would he absurd to seek
elsewhere for sentiments and rules of conduct.
From this book have the great moralists of reli-
gion derived all their stores, and to it are they
indebted for the exalted station they hold above
those thinkers who are occupied in giving us an
analysis of the moral man. M. Chau% has there-
fore exhibited morality in its just light, by she w-
ing her such as she exists in our sacred books.—
Superior to the prejudices of the last age, and of
some mediocre' moralists in the present, he has

not devoted his time to a collection of short
maxims from the Bible, 'for the use of chil-
dren, bnt he has published the morality oI
the Bible adopted to all ages; and this first ‘r ork,
remarkable for its choice selections, and by an in-

troduction, which is an excellent treatise on re-
ligion, has been so successful as to induce the
author to compose a course of morals taken from
the Holy Scriptures for the use of youth. The
attributes of the Deity, the general knowledge
of man, the establishment of Christianity, religi-
ous worship, the dignity of the priesthood, the
duty of man towards his neighbour, towards those
especially whom nature and religion render still
dearer to us, towards old age and towards
princes; the vices which degrade man, the virtues
which reflect honour on him, the different situa-
tions of man, life, death, the resurrection, the
day of judgment, and eternity : such are the im-
portant subjects to which the judicious and learn-
ed author of the course of morals has drawn the
attention of youth at that season when it is more
susceptible of receiving and retaining impressions
productive of all that is truly good and noble.
When I reflect on the pains taken by the
author in extracting from the Bible, so well ar-
ranged a collection, in bringing together the
maxims scattered about in the Holy Scrip-
tures, so as to form, on each point of mo-
rality, and the dogmata on which each is
founded, a body of doctrines in which the
truths follow one another in lucid connec-

tion without altering the sacred text in the
slightest degree ; when, in consequence of this
happy concatenation, I trace in each page the
cbncord which subsists between all the inspira-
tions of the Divine Spirit, so that the text of one
Sacred Writer is often only the continuation of
that of another writer, placed in other circum-
stances and livipg in another age, but equally in-
spired from on High ; when I examine this work,

. _
bOth as a wliole and in its details, I cannot help
forming a high idea of the knowledge and
•

ciples of the Author, and at the same time look
with pity at those modern moralists who, with