self-righteousness, were to come up to receive their eternal doom. Here then they are, all arrayed now on the left hand of the great Judge, and plentifully amongst them are scattered earthly judges, magistrates, long files of policemen—all of them possibly quite respectable in this world's view. These had it all their own way upon the earth, and a merciless way too. But now the judges of this world are to be themselves judged. On the right hand, again, is arrayed another group, equal to the first, but, in the world's view, of a very different quality—burglars, wife-smashers, murderers, but who had sought and obtained that mercy and pardon from Heaven, which the inferior authorities of earth had denied them. Those on the left are passed downwards into everlasting fire; while those on the right move upwards into eternal bliss, singing as they go, out of lovely angels' bosoms, their alleluiahs of holy triumph and sanctified revenge.
Another of Reed's religious questions concerned the hereafter of our many eminent but sceptical philosophers. What was to befall this legion of able, useful, and otherwise excellent men, after their busy life here below was ended? Not a few of them might fairly dispute the high palm awarded to David Hume, after his death, by his sorrowing friend, Adam Smith, "as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit." Reed was guided in this contentious question by the moral and equitable spirit
