source flowed the courageous beneficence of HOWARD: and how delightful
it is to observe that the force, the extent, the utility, and the lustre
of the stream, has gloriously corresponded to the height and purity of
the fountain!

"The Sensualist and the Sceptic may, indeed, deride the conduct of a
man, who sacrificed all the common pleasures of life, and sought for no
recompence but in the favour of Heaven. It may be said that an illusive
fervor of mind has hurried men, in all periods of the world, into
singular and wild exertions, which excite the wonder of the passing
hour, and are afterwards either deservedly forgotten, or only recalled
to notice by Reason and Philosophy, to caution the restless and
impetuous spirit of man against all similar excesses.

"But the pursuits of Howard, though they had all that sublime energy
which so often distinguished the projects of Superstition, were so far
from being influenced by any superstitious propensity, that perhaps they
cannot appear to more advantage than by being brought into comparison,
or contrast, not with the sluggish piety of sequestered Monks, but with
the bold and splendid feats of the most active and enterprising
Fanaticism. Allow me, therefore, to recall to your thoughts those
distant ages, when every ardent spirit in Christendom was inflamed with
a passionate desire to deliver the Christian pilgrims of Palestine from
the oppression of Infidels! Figure to yourselves the whole force of
Europe collecting its violence, like a troubled sea, and preparing to
pour a terrific and destructive inundation over the Holy Land! Behold
the strong and the weak, the ambitious and the humble, pursuing the same
object! Behold assembled Kings and their People, Soldiers and Priests,
the servants of Earth and Heaven rushing, with equal ardour, to rescue
the Sepulchre of Christ, and to drown all the innumerable enemies of