5* 



of craft and folly. When the general mind is thus inflamed, when all the 

 furious emotions are brought into aft, the moral and phyfical power of 

 our nature are in arms ; all the metes and bounds of civil order are vio- 

 lated ; the people under fuch circumftances exhibit a curious but a tre- 

 mendous fpeftacle ; they rufli on, like an impetuous torrent of ignited 

 lava; and every thing they touch is deftroyed, or affimilated. In faft, 

 there is no power, in the whole mechanifm of moral exiftence, which has 

 fuch momentum, as fanatic credulity ; all things feems poffible to him 

 who firmly believes, and where all things feem poffible, there is in reality 

 a kind of omnipotency. For often it is only neceffary to make the at- 

 tempt, in order to fucceed ; and the very difficulty and wildnefs of the 

 attempt prove the caufe of fuccefs. Fanatic credulity becomes the fruit- 

 ful parent of every crime ; inafmuch as it is the mufl prevailing engine, 

 by which the fpirit of faftion is raifed. It is no wonder, that faftion is 

 fo produftive of vices and crimes of every kind ; for it not only inflames 

 the paffions, and particularly the worfl: paffions, but it alfo tends to re- 

 move the care of reputation, and the great reflraints of honor and ffiame ; 

 while men find, that no iniquities or atrocities can lofe them, the coun- 

 tenance and applaufe of their own party : and that no innocency of in- 

 tention or reftitude of conduft can fecure them againft the calumnies of 

 their opponents. The feelings and opinions of men in a gregarious (late, 

 are not their own ; they borrow them, by a fort of eleftric impulfe, fud- 

 denly, and in fpite of themfelves; and they find them roufed and aug- 

 mented, by a continued contaft and communication, with their fellow 

 men. 



Yet, were it poffible to do fo, we fliould not wifli wholly to eradicate 

 this difpofition. There was a wife reafon, for implanting in our nature a 

 principle of credulity, producing a pronenefs to believe, and a ready dif- 

 pofition to aft upon belief: fuch a difpofition is abfolutely neceflary to 

 the conduft of focial life, and to the very prefervation of our exiflence. — 

 So imperfeft are the lights, which we receive from our fenfes, from rea- 

 fon, and from analogy ; that, were we to wait for certainty, or even for 

 ftrong probability, we fliould, on many occafions, be left without any 



motives 



