OF MR. ABERNETHY. S 



different to your approbation or blame, and therefore un- 

 worthy of the office which I now hold. 



I am not going to drag you again over the field of con- 

 troversy : — my opinions are published : — they were not 

 brought forward secretly; they have never shunned the 

 light; and they never shall be concealed nor compromised. 

 Without this freedom of inquiry and speech, the duty of 

 your professors would be irksome and humiliating : they 

 would be dishonoured in their own eyes, and in the esti- 

 mation of the public. These privileges. Gentlemen ! shall 

 never be surrendered by me : I will not be set down nor 

 cried down by any person, in any place, or under any pre- 

 text. However flattering it may be to my vanity to wear 

 this gown, if it involves any sacrifice of independence, the 

 smallest dereliction of the right to examine freely the sub- 

 jects on which I address you, and to express fearlessly the 

 result of my investigations, I would strip it off instantly. 



I willingly concede to every man what I claim for my- 

 self — the freest range of thought and expression ; and am 

 perfectly indifferent whether the sentiments of others on 

 speculative subjects coincide with or differ from my own. 

 Instead of wishing or expecting that uniformity of opinion 

 should be established, I am convinced that it is neither 

 practicable nor desirable ; that varieties of thought are as 

 numerous, and as strongly marked, and as irreducible to 

 one standard, as those of bodily form ; and that to quarrel 

 with one, who thinks differently from ourselves, would be 

 no less unreasonable than to be angry with him for having 

 features unlike our own. 



To fair argument and free discussion I shall never ob- 

 ject, even if they should completely destroy my own opi- 

 nions ; for my object is truth, not victory. But when ar- 

 gument is abandoned, and its place supplied by an inquiry 

 into motives, designs, and tendencies, the case is altered. 

 If vanquished in fair discussion, 1 should have yielded 

 quietly; but it cannot have been expected that I would 

 lie still, and be trampled on, lecture after lecture ; cut and 

 mangled with every weapon fair and foul ; assailed with 

 appeals to the passions and prejudices, to the fears of the 



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