FOREIGN ASSOCIATION. they have ever been, and they are now more than ever, unrivalled for learning and ability of everykind ; if churches be as readily attended, as they will be cheer- fully provided ; if there be the same ho- nourable attention paid to filling the pul- pits as to raising the buildings ; if the Bible be as generally read by the giver, as it is liberally bestowed on the receiver; if the good old practice of family-prayer should be revived, and public worship more carefully attended by those who give the law to fashion ; if those who are the makers of manners" will adopt none but such as deserve to be imi- tated : -if all these improvements should take place, and which of them, let me ask, is impossible ?- then, though we laugh to scorn the preposterous notion of human perfectibility, we shall yet have a right to expect that England, so far from being satisfied to excel other nations, will not only excel her present self; but be continually advancing in the scale of Christian perfection.
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