CHAP. XXXIX.] UNITARIANS. 347 



illness from officiating, and his place was supplied by 

 a self-satisfied young man, who, having talked dog 

 matically on points contested by many a rationalist, 

 made it clear that he commiserated the weak minds 

 of those who adhered to articles of faith rejected by 

 his church. If this too common method of treating 

 theological subjects be ill calculated to convince or 

 conciliate dissentients, it is equally reprehensible from 

 its tendency to engender, in the minds of those who 

 assent, a Pharisaical feeling of self-gratulation that 

 they are not as other sectarians are. 



I can only account for the power which the Unita 

 rians have exerted, and are now exerting, in forward 

 ing the great educational movement in America, in the 

 face of that almost superstitious prejudice with which 

 their theology is regarded by nineteen-twentieths 

 of the population, by attributing it to the love of in 

 tellectual progress which animates both their clergy 

 and laity, and the deep conviction they are known to 

 feel that public morality and happiness can only be 

 ensured by spreading an elevated standard of popular 

 education throughout the masses. In their enthusi 

 astic pursuit of this great end, they are acknowledged 

 to have no thought of making proselytes to any system 

 of religious doctrines, and are therefore trusted in 

 the management of schools by the parents of children 

 of the most opposite persuasions. In regard to their 

 own faith, some misapprehension has arisen in conse 

 quence of the name they bear, which was not chosen 

 by themselves, but to which, on the contrary, they 

 have objections such as members of the Anglican 

 Church might feel if some such name as Anti-tran- 



Q 6 



