OF MR. ABERNETHY. ^ 



ill eating an egg. 'Tis a pity we cannot find some conve- 

 nient way of settling these important controversies ; sucii 

 as occurred to the traveller, wlio met with a people divided 

 into two parties on the question whether they should walk 

 into the temple of their deity with the right or the left leg 

 foremost. Each side conceived the practice of the other 

 to be impious : the traveller recommended the obvious ex- 

 pedient, wJiich in the heat of their quarrel they had over- 

 looked, of jumping in with both legs together. 



The peculiar virulence of controversy, in all cases in 

 which religion is supposed to be concerned, is so remark- 

 able, as to have become proverbial ; the odium theologicum 

 is the most concentrated essence of animosity and rancour. 

 Let us not then open the fair garden of Science to this ugly 

 fiend ; let not her sweet cup be tainted by the most distant 

 approach of his venomous breath. 



Is the cause of truth to be promoted by affixing injurious 

 and party names to those who differ from us in these points 

 of nice and curious speculation — who cannot pursue the 

 same track with ourselves through the airy regions of im- 

 material being, of which tlie only utility seems to consist in 

 affording occupation to the organs of ideality and mysticism ? 

 Is not this kind of abuse more likel}', by moving the pas- 

 sions, to disturb the operation of the judgment ? 



The practice of calling names in argument has been 

 chiefly resorted to by the fair sex, and in religious discus- 

 sions ; in both cases, apparently, from a common cause — 

 the weakness of the other means of attack and defence. 

 The priests of former times used to rain a torrent of abusive 

 epithets, as heretic, infidel, atheist, and the Lord knows 

 what, on all who had the audacity to differ from them in 

 opinion. This ecclesiastical artillery has been so much 

 used, as to have become, in a great measure, unserviceable : 

 it is now found more noisy than destructive ; and the gene- 

 ral discovery of its harmlessness has assisted, with the pro- 

 gress of liberal ideas, to discountenance its employment in 

 controversy, as poisoned weapons and other unfair advan- 

 tages have been banished from honourable warfare. Some- 

 times, however, it frightens and stuns, if it does not dan- 



