66 LIBERTY OF REASONING 



favage fury. To our happinefs, the world on the" whole 

 (how little foever it may have that appearance in par- 

 ticular) is governed by better and difcreeter perfonages, 

 and the wife man tolerates the fools, becaufe he is wife, 

 the weak becaufe he is ftrong, the wicked becaufe he 

 is good. And thus, when the queftion is about the 

 greateft evils that urge the human race, we always re- 

 turn to the truth of truths : mankind cannot be helped, 

 unlefs they become better ; they can never become bet- 

 ter, unlefs they become wifer ; but they can never be- 

 come wifer, unlefs they rightly think of every thing 

 whereon their weal or woe depends ; and they will ne- 

 ver, learn to think rightly, fo long as they may not 

 think freely, or, which is the fame thing, fo long as 

 reafon is not eftablifhed in all her rights, and all is 

 forced to difappear which cannot ftand her light. 



Thoufands, who in life act againft thefe principles, 

 will yet, upon reading this paper, themfelves confefs 

 their truth. Unfortunately, it does not always depend 

 on their good will to act upon them. The application 

 of the cleareft refult of the Ampler! and moil undenia- 

 ble truths, under given circumftances, and through 

 the influence of a number of powers acting in oppofite 

 directions, will often become an infinitely perplexed 

 and probably an indiffoluble problem. — The fplendid 

 prifon in which reafon is ftill kept in confinement by 

 the greateft part of Europe is the work of a great fkill, 

 and of many centuries ; thoufands of minds of no or- 

 dinary ft amp , and millions of enterpriling hands, have 

 laboured at the itructure, and it is fo firmly founded on 

 the rock of prieftly authority and prieftly profit, and fa 

 artificially connected, by its numerous wings and conti- 

 guous 



