IX.] Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 187 



reverence of the Scotch people for their clergy, he 

 observes : " It is not surprising that the clergy, who 

 at no period, and in no nation, have been remarkable 

 for their meekness, or for a want of confidence in 

 themselves, should, under circumstances so eminently 

 favourable to their pretensions, have been somewhat 

 elated, and should have claimed an authority even 

 greater than that which was conceded to them, . . 

 It was generally believed that whoever gainsaid 

 the clergy would be visited, not only with temporal 

 penalties, but also with spiritual ones. For such 

 a crime, there was punishment here, and there 

 was punishment hereafter. TJie preachers willingly 

 fostered a delusion by which they benefited. . . . 

 T/iey did not scruple to affirm that, by their censures, 

 they could open and shut the kingdom of heaven. 

 . . . The clergy, intoxicated by the possession 

 of power, reached to such a pitch of arrogance, that 

 they did not scruple to declare, that whoever respected 

 Christ was bound, on that very account, to respect 

 them. . . . Such was their conceit, and so greedy 

 were they after applause, that they would not allow 

 even a stranger to remain in their parish, unless he, 

 too, came to listen to what they chose to say. . . . 

 How they laboured to corrupt the national intellect, and 

 how successful they were in that base vocation, has 



