VISIT TO EUROPE: RESIDENCE IN EDINBURGH. 157 



ambition is worthy of him, and merits every aid which I 

 can furnish ; and the particular wish which he indulges of 

 knowing Prof. Robison is highly agreeable to me. When 

 you have become acquainted with him, I am confident that 

 this introduction will need no further apology. 



The letter which you were so good as to direct to me, in 

 answer to one from me to our good friend Doctor Erskine, 

 was by some means or other left in the Custom- House, 

 whither it was carried by some accident, and did not come 

 to hand until six or seven months after I received Doctor 

 Erskine's answer. I had given it up for lost when it ar- 

 rived. The controversy which it respected was given up by 

 your enemies, if those may be called such who opposed 

 you because you opposed vice and falsehood, and opposed 

 you without even a disadvantageous thought of your real 

 character. The reason why they gave it up was their ina- 

 bility to maintain it against the continually accumulating 

 evidence of the unstained respectability of your character, 

 and of the substantial foundations of your book. Multi- 

 tudes of my countrymen, and among them the wisest and 

 best, feel deeply indebted to you for your efforts in the 

 cause of truth and righteousness, efforts, in their opinion, 

 able, upright, and indispensably demanded by the time. I 

 have the satisfaction to inform you that beyond all doubt, 

 you have contributed largely and effectually to the erection 

 of an immovable standard against the miserable scheme 

 of profligacy formed by Weishaupt, and then spreading 

 through this country as well as through Europe. Around 

 this standard a great number of wise and good men have 

 rallied, and have presented a body of opposers too formi- 

 dable to be hopefully resisted. I am sure this information 

 will give you pleasure. It is to be deeply regretted that 

 mathematical philosophy and chemistry, so honorable to 

 the present age, and so calculated to advance our views of 

 the divine wisdom, should be prostrated to the miserable 

 purpose of dishonoring God and corrupting man. We 



