ON MATTERS OF BELIEF. 8l 



have been interefting and ever will be fo. The man 

 will always be readily liftened to, who difcourfes with 

 us freely and frankly on them, as matters wherein him- 

 felf and we are intimately concerned, and although he 

 reveal to us nothing new, tells us, at leaft nothing but 

 what he himfelf has frequently confldered or felt. 



With all this, it makes a man rather feel uncomfort- 

 ably, when he cannot help faying to himfelf : that 

 with all one's good will to contribute fomething to the 

 general welfare of mankind, it is at laft only threfhing 

 of empty ftraw, fetching water with a fieve, writing in 

 the fand, milking a he-goat, and warning a blackamoor 

 white. — What has been omitted, to mention only the 

 prefent century, what has been left undone by the 

 clearer! and founder!: heads in Europe for removing the 

 baneful and infamous relics of antient barbarifm, at 

 leaft among the moft civilized nations of our quarter 

 of the world ? To give but one example of it : Who 

 will ever compofe a better and more generally read 

 book on toleration, than Voltaire has done ? Who 

 will ever more truely reprefent its advantages, more fo- 

 lidly refute the objections that are brought againft it, 

 more irre'fragably ftate the obligations thereto, more 

 forcibly difplay the horrible confequences of intolerance 

 and religious conftraint, by finking and dreadful ex- 

 amples ? Would not one think that truths demon- 

 strated with fo much evidence and fo much energy to 

 be truths; and that the welfare of ftates and of the 

 whole human race is dependent upon them, fhould 

 now be generally confelfed, at leaft by ajl who have 

 not an evident intereft in refilling them ; and that they 

 fliould bring forth fruit a thoufand fold ? And yet, 



VOL. II. G but 



