we are to remark, that they have, : Thus much concerning the origin, office and importance of crit cifm. Let us now confider the destination -between Tafte and Genius. Tofte and genius are two words fiequently joined together, and there. fore, by inaccurate thinkers, confounded. They fignify however, two quite different things. The dif ference between them can be clearly pointed out; and it is of importance to remember it. Tafte confifts in the power of judging: Genius, in the power of executing. One may have a confiderable degree of taste in poetry, eloquence, or any of the fine arts, who has little or hardly any genius for compofition or execution in any of thefe arts: But genius cannot be found without including tafte alfo. Genius, therefore, deferved to be confidered as a higher power of the mind than tafte. Genius always imports fomething inventive or creative; which does not reft in mere fenfibility to beauty, where it is perceived, but which can, moreover, produce new beauties, and exhibit them in fuch a manner, as Arongly to im prefs the minds of others. Refined tafte forms a good critic; but genus is farther necessary to form the poet or the orator. It is alfo proper to obferve, that genius is a word, which, in common acceptation, extends much farther than to the objects of taste. It is used to fignify that talent or aptitude, which we receive from nature, for excelling in any one thing whatever Thus we fpeak of a genius for mathe matics, as well as genius for poetry of a genius for war, for politics, or for any mechanical employment. This talent or aptitude for excellin in fome one particular, is, I have faid what we receive from nature. B art and fludy, no doubt, it may b greatly improved; but by them alon it cannot be acquired. As genius is higher faculty than tafte, it is eve according to the ufual frugality nature, more limited in the (phere its operations. It is not uncomm to meet with perfons, who have excellent tafte in feveral of the publ arts, fuch as mufic, poetry, paint and eloquence, all together; but find one, who is an excellent perform in all tuefe arts, is much more rar or rather, indeed, fuch an oue is r to be looked for. A fort of univ fal gen us, or one, who is equally a ind terently turned towards feve different profeffions and arts, is Althot likely to excel in any. there may be fome few exceptio yet in general it holds, that when bent of the mind is wholly directed wards fome one object, exclufive, a manner, of others, there is the f eft profpect of eminence in that, wh ever it be. The rays muft conve to a point, in order to glow inten This remark is of great importanc young people, in leading them to amine with care, and to purfue ardor, the current and pointin nature towards thofe exertions of nius, in which they are most likel excel. A genius for any of the fine art before obferved, always (up tafte; and it is clear, that the impr ment of tafle will ferve both to ward and correct the operation genius. In proportion as the of a poet, or orator, becomes. 1 re refined with respect to the beauties of compoftion, it will certainly affift him to produce the more fin fhed beaut es in his work Genius, however, in a poet or orator, may sometimes exift in higher degree than taffe; that is, genias may be bold and strong, when tafle is neither very delicate, nor very correct. This is often the cafe in the infancy of arts; a period, when genius frequently exerts itself with great vigour,aad executes with much warmth; while tafte, which requires experience, and improves by flower degrees, hath not yet attained its full growth. Homer and Shakespeare are proofs of what I now affert; in whofe admirable writings are found inflances of rudeness and indelicacy, which, the more refined taste of later writers, who had far inferior genius to them, would have taught them to avoid. As all human perfection is limited, this may very probably be the law of our na ture, that it is not given to one man to execute with vigour and fire, and, at the fame time, to attend to all the Jeffer and more refined graces, that belong to the exact perfection of his work: While, on the other hand, a thorough tafte for those inferior graces is, for the most part, accompanied with a diminution of fublimity and force. For the BOSTON MAGAZINE. An Ellay upon the right to a free Exercife of Confcience, in religious matters. of beftowed upon us the organs of fenfe, by which are communicated to the foul the ideas of external objects, that the mind may arrange,difpofe,and improve them, to the honour of our Creator, as well as to our own rational felicity. Confcience is that power of the mind, which decides upon the propriety, and fitnefs of this arrange meat, aud of all determinations and actions confequent to it. Whe the mind poffeffes power of volition fo perfectly independent, that it acts without the neceffity of impelling motives, as Clark, Price, and others fuppofe; or whether it is caly that piece of moral mecha nifm,that Priefly,and others imagine, is not the fubject of this investigation. But thus much may be proper to be faid, that if we conceive with Doctor Priefly, that the man, who commits murder, is no more a free agent in the crime, than the fword he commits it with, and that the perfecutor and perfecuted, are both alike employed in the fervice, and glorification of God, there remains no further fervice, or uíe for confcience; for there is no difference between right and wrong, morality or immorality, as they refpect the Deity. But if we go upon the common hy pothefis, that man is a free agent, accountable for his conduct, created with the powers of reflection, by which he can inquire, where is the Lord his Maker,as our own feelings, the common confent of mankind, and the revelation of God in the gofpel feem to witness; then the power of deciding upon the fitnefs or unfitness of our actions is of great confequence to us. Confcience in matters of religion, is the power of deciding for ourselves, whether the devotion of our hearts, and the acts of religious worship, offered by us to the Deity, are fuch as he requires of us. A man may fubmit to give up his property, and life, to the controul of a monarchy, when he verily believes, that a democracy would better fecure the valuable de pofit. He may acquiefce in a fyftem of jurifprudence, which he conceives to be very imperfect, and perhaps dangerous in its tendency, because he cannot obtain a better: But when he comes to worship him, who being a fpirit is to be worth pped in spirit and truth, even him, before whall feeing eye,each thought ftands compleatly revealed, he dares not to worship with a form, which his confcience condemns as unfit. If confcience then is a principle, that can never be given up, while we realize the being of a God, the right to a free exercife of it exceeds the right to all other enjoyments, as much as the business of eternity, in its importance, exceeds that of time. The idea of the divine right to religious freedom has opened and expanded, and will continue to open and and expand, until religion fhall be acknowledged by all men to be a matter between each individual and his God, and fhall no longer be connected with, or be employed as an engine of ftate policy. In this effay, it is propofed to con fider the fecurity to be derived from our happy conftitutiou of government, in the great affair of religious freedom, to fhew the line between the magiftrate's authority, and the citizens right to the free exercife of confcience. But in order to do this in fuch a manner as to enlighten thofe, who have not made it their particular fudy, it will be neceffary to review the caufes of fome of the perfecutions which have taken place in the world, as well as to dilate upon the folly and madnefs of that intollerant fpirit, which hath heretofore deluged the world in blood. In a ftate of nature, before the fears and neceffities of mankind compelled them to civil fociety, each individual worth ped his God, in that manner, time and place, which his own confeience determined to be beft and moft fit. If he had no other revelation of the being a God, the contemplation of his exiflence, the earth which yielded him his daily nourishment, and the fun, the moon, and the stars, which he faw were ordained, gave fuch irrefift able demonftration of the wisdom and power of a great firft caufe, that he who attended to it, could not but bew in adoration; and GOD ALONE WAS TO PUNISH HIM, WHO BOWED NOT AT ALL. In th's fituation no one may could Call anothers mode of worship in quef. t on, because all men being born equal, no one could have any authority over another. When the human race were compelle, by their own weakness, to feek Thelter, from their own ferocity, in the aid of civil fociety, they did not, nor indeed could they, give up their freedom of confcience to the will of a ma ority, or the controul of the magiftrate; for, as Mr. Locke fays, as the rivate judgment of any one particular perfon, if enoneous, * does not exempt bum from the cbt g-tron of law, fo the private judgment of the magiftrate does "not give him any new right of impoling laws upon the rubject, which "neither was in the conflitution of government granted him, nor ever "was in the power of the people to "grant." The entire power of retaliation for injuries done, and repritals for property taken, as alfo fome part of the right of feif-defence is given up, when we join in civil community; but one great end of this ceffion is, that the rights of confcience, in religious matters, might remain facred and inviolable: From whence it follows, that no one man or body of men, can have in fuch fociety a right to diffurb an individual, in his way of worship, or to direct the creed of his profefsion: Nor fhall any individual under pretence of the obligation of conscience, obftruct the magiftrate in the business of civil matters, or injure the perfon or property of another: For while the civil compact fupports the magiftrate in the execution of the civil law, it protects each subject in his own mode of worship, and fecures him againft perfecution, for his particular creed. There is nothing more amiable than for a good man to lament and reprove the vices and follies of others. And there is nothing more truly contemptable, than for a narrow fouled bigot to bewail that others do not believe as he believes, and worthip as he worfhips. Thefe fentiments will not be condemned by thofe, who have realized the fweets of the liberty of confcience, and yet perhaps there is nothing more certan, than that a decided majority in any one nation, fupported by that bane of all religion, and temple for all hypocrify, a NATURAL CHURCH, would open the dreadful gates of perfecution, whenever theSupreme Magiftrate fhall direct. And it may not be without all foundation to fuggeft, that the excellency of our conftitution, with regard to the rights of confcience, arofe as much from the variety of fees in the flate, as from the acknowledged wifdom of its compilers. To have no religion at a!, that is, to feel no devotion in our hearts to the Supreme Being,or to offer no expreffions of gratitude to him, for the vari ety of bleflings flowing from the gift of life, We, cannot but be highly criminal in his eye; and will, as it commonly does, end in thofe actions, which ren der men proper objects, for the pains and penalties appointed by human laws. But that men fhould differ in their ideas relating to the incomprehenfible firft caufe, and in their opinion of the manner, in which he ought to be worshipped, is neither inconffteat with his will, or the rational nature of man. We know but little of the religion of the world before the deluge of Noah; but fince that time the nations have agreed in the worship, by divers forms, of a Supreme author and preferver of the universe. The rfymbols have been indeed various, and thofe fymbols fometimes for purpofes of fate, and fomet.mes, through mere. ignorance, have been adored, inftead of the being they were intended to lead to; the Perfians worshipped the fun, fire, &c. merely as fymbols of the great Oram fes, they had Mythra as a lefs, and Mythras as a middle deity. The Egyptians worth ppea Ofiris, Ifs and Orus,and the Greeks Jupiter, Minerva and Apollo. Whether thefe nations obtained ideas of a trinity from Noah or Abraham; or whether they worshipped the one God, nder three diftinct characters, let thofe decide, who think it of importance. It is enough for the prefent purpofe, to fay, that the feelings of religion in the people of thefe nations were not ftrong enough to compel its proklors to act independently, and i oppofition to the power of any ty rast, who would dictate to them. The horrid fcenes of perfecutions were generally left to fhew the force, and exhibit extraordinary proots of the truth of chriftiansty. The doctrines taught in this benevolent fyftem is all condefcenfion, and meeknefs. No right of controul Can be lodged in the bofom of a chrif tian, however learned, great or dignifed be ye not called of men Rabbi, faid our Lord To fay that another is wrong in his religion, is perfeCution in Embrio, to wish to correct Lim by force, is perfecution begun, to attempt to do it is perfecution in perfethed. (To be continued.) To the Printers of the Bofton Maga zine. ONE of the happieft effects of the peace must be the advancement of letters; and every undertaking, which is inftrumental in a measure the thanks and encouragement of fo beneficial, will always meet with ingenious and 'well difpofed people. It is evident to me, that your Magazine is thought to be of this nature, from the exertions, which I have feen ufed by all ranks of people in its favour; and which has afforded me not a little amufement. Some of my acquaintance have a great mind to hazard the reputation of their pens in lend it their fulleft affiflance, and to its fupport. From this clafs, I affure you much is to be expected. One of them fhewed me a common place book, of his own collecting, containing ancedotes, aphorifms and wife fayings of all the great men both in he declared to me would be at ancient and modern times. This your fervice with an index to all the beft writers upon the choiceft subjects. He has also a compilation of mottos fuitable for any theme whatever, and roim and gallantry from the feats of has got together every inftance of heAmadis de Gaul down to the prefent day. Another gentleman lefs advenfame of his grandfather; and has acturous chufes rather to rifque the tually overlooked a large closet of papers to furnish you with materials: Nor has he been altogether unfuccessful in the fearch, having ftumbled upon a very pretty effay and feveral feems, the old gentleman wrote, when peces of poetry on love, which, it he was addreffing his third wife. I never fhould have known this circumftance had it not been minuted in the compofition gives it the virility of margin, as the fpirit and fire of the being cleared from another shelf, on twenty one. The duft is now about which the writer having got over the immediate infpiration of this paffion, treatife upon repentance, or other we may expect to find an excellent fubject of that nature. I yefterday over heard two young men in very clofe converfatiou, the subject of which was, a grievous complaint of ill treatment from a fcornful mistress, and and a confultation upon a proper re- abused lady, the wife of Mr. SNAP DRAGON. She wishes to know whe ther you will publish for her, what the calls certain meteorological obfer vations on his temper, which the af fures me are founded on truth, and taken with critical exactnefs. Sh thinks, that when he comes to fee the whole fummer months marked wit high winds and tempestuous weather and the mercury fet at every degre in the barometer in the courfe of os hour, he shall experience fome f vourable change in her climate. To the Printers of the BOSTO T HAT this earth, fince its cre tion, has at various times fuffe ed great alterations of its furface leaft, and that the land, which is no covered with the moft venerable oa or smiling under the highest cultiva on, was once but the bed of ocean, feems at this day to be beyo the reach of difpute. How, or wh thefe various changes have been eff ted, has as yet been but the fubjec mere conjecture. Hiftory facred a profane are filent on the mat From the prefent appearance of earth's furface, the texture of dif ent terraqueous fubftances, and various teftaceous bodies found in bowels of the earth, De Maillet, ingenious conjecturer, is of opin that this globe was originally cove with waters, and that the land formed at firft, and has been cont ally forming from the retiremen them. The hiftory of Mofes, this author, favours his conje "In the beginning God created "Heavens and the earth, and "earth was without form and v "and darkness was upon the fac "the DEEP and the fpirit of "moved upon the face of the WAT I«And God faid,let the WATERS U FACETUS. P. S. I have one enquiry to make in behalf of a worthy, but much "the Heaven be gathered toge "unto one place, and let the "LAND appear." Whether De A let's fentiments be founded on t or not, can never be reduced to tainty; yet as nothing affords gre pleasure to the human mind, tha attention to thofe events, which |