FREE-THINKERS. 225 



Plato, Seneca, and some of the other ancient philosophers, 

 profess a belief in the mythologic fables of Greece and 

 Rome. I was myself an imitator of these men, and I 

 looked upon the professed atheist or deist, not perhaps 

 with as much abhorrence as the serious believer would 

 regard him with, but with a much higher contempt ; for 

 it seemed to me a thing childishly imprudent for any 

 one to assume the character of a free-thinker, when all 

 to be acquired by opposing the current of what I re- 

 garded as popular prejudice was the unqualified hatred 

 and detestation of nineteen-twentieths of one's country- 

 men and relations. I therefore professed, as you will 

 perhaps remember, a great respect for religion, though 

 always ready to confess to any one who was seriously a 

 Christian, that I had no experimental knowledge of its 

 truth. I found the doctrine of predestination very 

 serviceable as a kind of shield to protect me against the 

 advices (you may smile at the term) of such. You may 

 see from what I have written what it was made me 

 think it possible that your profession of respect for re- 

 ligion was insincere : but you will pardon me, as you 

 know how natural it is for a man to judge his neighbour 

 by himself. 



'But though misled for once by this method of 

 judging, I shall yet avail myself of it in forming an 

 opinion of that formidable body, the men of the world, 

 so far as their regards for religion are concerned. My 

 present self takes my former self as a specimen of these 

 men ; ay, and conceit goes so far as to say that former 

 self may be regarded as no unfavourable specimen 

 neither. 'Tis true I was not one of the most acute 

 though one of the most prudent of freethinkers. I will 

 not arrogate to myself the powers of a Paine or a 

 Hobbes, yet setting conceit apart, I think I may say 



VOL. I. 15 



