226 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



that my natural acuteness and acquired knowledge at 

 the time I deemed the historical part of the Bible a col- 

 lection of fables and its doctrinal a mass of absurdities, 

 were far superior to the acuteness or knowledge of the 

 generality of such men as harbour similar opinions. I 

 mean such of them as think for themselves ; and it 

 is proper to make this distinction ; for I can assure 

 you, however much the men who arrogate a faculty 

 of detecting impostures the rest of the world are 

 deceived by, may boast of the superior power of mind 

 lavished on their sept, that there are blockheads who are 

 sceptics as well as weak men who are Christians, nay 

 more, that there are men who profess themselves free- 

 thinkers who were not born to be thinkers at all. 



' The few intelligent sceptics I have been acquainted 

 with, I have invariably found as ignorant of religion as 

 I myself was four years ago, and from my present know- 

 ledge of it I conclude (and it would be difficult to prove 

 my conclusion false) that all its enemies, even the most 

 acute, are thus ignorant. I have perused the Essays of 

 Hume, one of the best reasoners, perhaps, the world 

 ever produced, and on rising from that perusal this 

 estimate appeared to me juster than ever. Holding this 

 opinion, I can pity these men, but I feel little disposed 

 to fear their arguments, having experience of their 

 futility ; nor yet do I feel uneasy at the thought of 

 being the object of the contempt of such ; for my 

 memory must altogether fail me before I forget that with 

 a contempt similar to theirs I once regarded men well 

 skilled in that wisdom the beginning of which is the fear 

 of God. 



'With the second class, the non -thinkers, it is not so 

 easy to deal. They are so numerous as to compose 

 nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants of our large towns, 



