Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-10-17

II. III
said he in 1865, in one of those moments
Of almost prophetic clairroyonce which
distinguished him, the world were ever
to be governed by Atheists, we nigh, as
well be under the empire Of those infer
nal beings who are represented to US as
savagely tormenting their victims
The GOSPEL OF Rou>sEAu-Irs CuARAc-
TER AND INFLUENCE.
With none of Vol,aire's advantages
low in origin, coarse in tastes. repulsins
The intimacy and ontraging the >eIfopn-
ION "f literary folks, way ward in heart and
understanding. t" degree which amount
ed to unqnes,ionable insanity - Rousseau
swayed the world BY two prevailing quail
tiles. He was the great poet of the uni.
versal passion love. He was the great
prophet OF the doctrine most universally
seductive TO the human intellect the per-
Reliability of man. He introduced man
to new guide-a guide who nigh. serve
either as a substitute for revelation or a
companion to il: teaching, that every man
was indeed law unto himself. If not
absolutely the first to proclaim ,hi. doc
'rlne, he was the first TO clothe it some
times with the seductive grace. of refined
volnp'uonsness, sometimes with the still
more powerful attractions of ascs,ici>m
aud seIt-denial, borrowed from ~eyrrer
creed; ottener still, with the charms OF,
philanthropy. This was, in truth. as has
been often observed, a consumnaton for
which the world had been lo.c preparing.
The practical sense of mans corruption
through original sin, the moving principle
"f so many religions reFormaiions. had
long been dy ing away. Rome had pre-
-~rvrvi 4 -riu""r'icsf.y; b'E, mfngTed as II
was in the view of Romanis,s with the
tenets Of denounced and unpopular
school, it was daily more and more los,
sight of in their general teaching. Polite
Calvanism was thru>,ing it into the back
ground as fanatical. the Church oi Eng
land as methodistical. The principles of
Rousseau had a, the utmost 10 break down.
or rather TO sap, the fence of few tradi-
dictionary doemas, and appeared to num-
bers oi un>uspicions believers tit to take
their place side by side with such diluted
Christianity as they possessed.
Accordingly, the influence of the Cos
pei of Rou>s-au,' as il has been called
with greater force than is often contained
IN mere sarcasm. spread with electric
rapidi'y over Europe and America. 1t
became at once the sole religion of multi
'nde>, the subsidiary religion of mu|,i,udes
more. Christianity itself-tha, is, the
Christianity of the world. seemed, as we
have said, to embrace and admi, il; much
as Christianity had in earl, times appear
ed 10 admit the popular infusion of Pla-
to"'sm, less. no doubt, in England than
elsewhere; but to an extent Ne seldom re-
"llse, even among our own insulated and
nnsrn'imental people. Ifit entered most
powerfully into the new Catholicism of
the Stolberes, Schlegel. and the rest on
'he Continent: If il penitrated among the
Pietists Of Frotestent Germany, where. as
Gothic himself says, 'as soon as the belief
in good works and their merit ceased.
>en'imen'slism took its place;' it wa. not
less distinctly y traceaale in the tendencies
OF many popular religionists among our
selves. II in>innated itself among the
Qnakers and Unitarians; it made way
even among the children of Knox and
Caner"n; nay, the very names Of our
Howards and Wilberforces, of which Re-
ligion is so justly proud, cannot be alto
gr'her disengaced from the tie. of partial
allegiance to that of Rousseau. Aneli-
canism alone strong in lis calmness, per-
haps its coldness IS seems to have rejected
the ~pecions importation almost wholly,
and from the beginning.
The time of that in,ermixture has near
ly passed by. The two streams, appa-
rently comminsled for period, have run
themselves clear again. The adherents
Of Revelation, tangh, by the brief duration
and shameful fall of that palace of self
righteousness and vain glory which Rous-
sea" and his followers raised. have re.
turned in great measure under the sever.
er discipline Of ancient belief. Among al
the conflicts Of modern religious schools
this, at least, seems to us di>cernible, not.
withs:and'ng some recent aud partial an
pearancrs to the contrary, that the sense
Of the corruption Of human nature, IN,
strong Anti Pelagian view of man and n,
world. however various the shapes which
its conclusions may assume among Ca,ho
l1n~ and ppNtx.