13 



to forgotten disputes in the Greek church.* 

 Since you have condescended to smile so often 

 at priests, and to anticipate <c the destruction 

 <c of all creeds and articles of faith, "f it would 

 not have been much out of your way, to have 

 interspersed a few remarks on the dangers, 

 whether real or imaginary, which are generally 

 supposed to belong to the doctrines of materia- 

 lism. 



I am strongly disposed to think that you have 

 not as yet made up your mind on these interest- 

 ing topics, but that you indulge in that philoso- 

 phical WW which is at once the pride and 

 torture of its possessor. And what leads me to 

 this supposition is, the great uncertainty which 

 I find in the statement of your opinions, and the 

 impossibility of arriving at any fixed conclu- 

 sions respecting them. Thus, in p. 13, whilst 

 you assert in the text, " that the foundations of 

 " morality and religion are secure, by their natu- 

 " ral and firm establishment in the feelings and 

 <c propensities, in the common sense and mutual 

 <c wants of mankind," you give the authority 

 of Pascal, in a note, for maintaining them 

 merely on the grounds of revealed religion, and 

 assert, " that the immortality of the soul, the 

 " great truths of religion, and the fundamental 

 " principles of morals, cannot be demonstrably 

 " proved by mere reason," &c. Surely, Sir, be- 

 fore you attempt to direct the opinions of others, 



* P. 10. t P- 96. 



