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Transcriber's Note.
There are minor differences between the titles of sections and thosegiven in the Table of Contents. A reference to two notes, at the end ofthe book, has been inserted in the table.
BY ISAAC TAYLOR
… δύο ἐστὶ, τὸ μὲν ἀρετὴ φυσικὴ, τὸ δ' ἡ κυρία.
FROM THE NINTH LONDON EDITION.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS
No. 530 BROADWAY
1859.
The belief that a bright era of renovation, union, andextension, presently awaits the Christian Church, seemsto be very generally entertained. The writer of thisvolume participates in the cheering hope; and it hasimpelled him to undertake the difficult task of describing,under its various forms, that FICTITIOUS PIETY whichhitherto has never failed to appear in times of unusualreligious excitement, and which may be anticipated asthe probable attendant of a new development of thepowers of Christianity.
But while it has been the writer's principal aim to presentto the Christian reader, in as distinct a manner aspossible, the characters of that specious illusion whichtoo often supplants genuine piety, he has also endeavoredso to fix the sense of the term Enthusiasm as to wrest itfrom those who misuse it to their own infinite damage.
The author would say a word in explanation of hischoice of a term in this instance; and of the extent ofmeaning he has assigned to it. The best that can bedone, when matters of mind are under discussion, is toselect, from the stores of familiar language, a word which,{iv}in its usual sense, approximates more nearly than anyother to the abstraction spoken of. To require from anethical writer more than this, would be to demand that,before he enters upon his subject, he should both renovatethe science of mind, and reform his mother tongue: forwhen things not yet scientifically defined are to be spokenof, it must needs happen that, in proportion to the accuracywith which they are described, there will be apparentoccasion for taking exception against the sense imputedto the term employed.
The author proposed it to himself, as his task, to depict,under its principal forms, FICTITIOUS SENTIMENT in mattersof religion, including, of course, a consideration of thoseopinions which seem to be either the parents or the offspringof such artificial sentiments. Having this objectbefore him, he would have thought it a very inauspicious,as well as cumbrous method,