PHILO 
fcribed how much mifchief has been done in the world, 
not merely by a fpurious falfe enlightenment, but even 
by an abufe of that which is true, and an application of 
it to injurious purpofes. The misfortune is, that en¬ 
lightenment is fometimes connected with a bad will; 
that it is partial and defeflive ; in fhort, a mere enlight¬ 
ened felfilhnefs. 
If the cunning egotift, who is only enlightened with 
regard to his earthly advantages, were enlightened in the 
fame degree on his higher deffination, worth, and duties ; 
if, confequently, his enlightenment were not partial, but 
univerfal and complete ; if it were not the enlightenment 
of a merely felfilh prudence limited to a narrow fphere, 
but of a wifdom elevated above all fenfuality;—it is indeed 
poflible that he might not always follow the light of his 
clear underftanding, but be fometimes milled to do evil 
by felfilh paflions; yet his will would be gradually im¬ 
proved by fuch a true and complete enlightenment, and 
liis charadter elevated and ennobled. As the merely 
partial enlightenment of prudence eafily degenerates into 
moral depravity, fo the univerfal enlightenment of wifdom, 
though not always fufficiently powerful for the determi¬ 
nation of the will, is incapable of abufe, always effedlive 
in a greater or lefs degree, and upon the whole highly 
advantageous to morality and to happinefs. 
We may now' reflect upon the happy ftate of a people 
who could boaft of an univerfal enlightenment; where 
the majority, at leaft, have attained to the full ufe of their 
intellectual powers, and no longer allow others to think 
for them, or give themfelves up to an irregular play of 
obfcure reprefentations and feelings, but examine for 
themfelves what it is incumbent upon them to do as men 
and as citizens ; and diftindtly perceive the Rights and the 
Duties which flow from their focial relations, and how it 
behoves them to fubordinate every other end to the 
higheft end of humanity, that of a progreflive increafe in 
moral perfection. In fuch a ftate, all true mental culti¬ 
vation, all arts and fciences, muff ftand in great and uni¬ 
verfal efteem ; fuperltition would hardly be known but by 
name, bigotry and fanaticifm having fled before the light 
of a purified philofophy. True Moral Religion, on the 
other hand,is received by every individual with convidlion; 
its improving and confoling power is felt by every heart, 
and its facred law's followed by all. Contrafted with fuch 
a ftate, the picture of a people might be given with whom 
an ancient belief and ancient manners, with which many 
generations have been fatisfied, has been rendered fuf- 
picious or ridiculous by a new wifdom, that affords, how¬ 
ever, nothing to fupply the power of thofe feelings which 
accompanied manners venerable from age, and a belief 
long held facred, a ftate of fociety in which a partial or 
even a fpurious and falfe enlightenment entirely difturbs 
the true judgment of human affairs; in which the nobleft 
feelings are paralized, the heart chilled to every thing 
good; where a vain fancy of wifdom has diflolved the 
moft facred bonds that unite man to man, leaving the 
mind fufceptible of nothing but a narrow felf-intereft, and 
difpofed to ridicule every thing that does not flatter this 
idol of a perverfely-enlightened world, as the virtue of the 
citizens, patriotifm, piety towards God, the magiftrates, 
and the country, refpeCl for the law's, even where they do 
not threaten with the fword, and all internal feeling of 
efteem for the ancient faith, treating them as the vain 
offspring of an unenlightened fuperltition. 
The reproach caft on enlightenment by its enemies, 
that it may endanger the peace of fociety, religion, mo¬ 
rality, and the welfare of mankind, is by no means an 
unfounded calumny. We cannot fay that thefe hard ac- 
cufations affeft merely a falfe enlightenment; for even 
the moft correCt: conceptions, when they have fupplanted 
the obfcure but powerful reprefentations and feelings 
that preceded them, without being able to fupply their 
intenfive efficacy, frequently do injury inftead of the 
hoped-for good. An univerfal and complete enlighten¬ 
ment, embracing every intereft of mankind, is alone ele- 
Vol.XX. No. 1360. 
SOPHY. 181 
vated above the reproach of leading to bad confe- 
quences. 
But how muft we arrive at this univerfal and complete 
enlightenment ? Doubtlefs by a gradual change of ob¬ 
fcure reprefentations and feelings into clear and diftinCt 
ones. Confequently, before an individual or a people 
can arrive at a complete enlightenment, they muft go 
through a partial and incomplete enlightenment. In this 
ftate, the earlier dark reprefentations, once effedtive, but 
now grown fufpicious, if not contemptible, have loft the 
power of influencing the heart and the will, without 
having been yet replaced by clearer conceptions. The 
minds which we endeavour to enlighten may not be yet 
ripe for a more diftinCt infight; we muft gradually fa¬ 
miliarize them with it; and endeavour to fill their hearts 
and underftandings with a lively intereft for truth. In 
the interim between the ftate of obfcure reprefentations 
and an enlightenment that has attained a certain com- 
pletenefs, vve ftand in need of the guidance and the im- 
pulfe afforded by the obfcure reprefentations that have 
been fupplanted, although the more enlightened concep¬ 
tions, which perhaps fcarcely yet exift, but require to be 
awakened and developed, are infufficient for this purpofe. 
We endeavour to free an individual, towards whom we 
have the bell intentions, of his fuperftitious belief, and to 
prove to him, on the other hand, the truth of religion 
from its internal excellence, and its fitnefs for the wants 
of our rational, moral, nature. In the former we may 
eafily fucceed, but not fo in the latter. The man whom 
we would inftruCt is perhaps unprepared; he knows not 
what is meant by the wants and ends of human nature : 
this muft be explained to him, and he muft be made fen- 
fible of it, which requires time. But, in the mean time, 
what will afford him the tranquillity and the impulfe for 
the fulfilment of his duties, which his fuperftitious belief 
formerly gave him ? Nothing; and perhaps the lofs he 
has fuflained will never be fupplied. At any rate we 
fhould have done better to let him remain in his old be¬ 
lief, at leaft till he had been clearly convinced by rational 
proofs of the truth of the religion it contained. Still 
more ftriking is the injury, never to be repaired, that a 
nation ufually fuffers from fo perverfe and partial an en¬ 
lightenment. The cold indifference which infallibly 
feizes the minds of a people when their belief in fome- 
thing fupernatural vaniflies; the unbridled demoraliza¬ 
tion that takes place when the threat in the bible of the 
eternal punifhment of the wicked is removed ; and fitnilar 
bad confequences of a partial enlightenment; may not fo 
eafily be removed as many conceive by higher and more 
rational ideas of religion which can neither be underftood 
nor felt by the multitude. 
In politics, a partial enlightenment is attended with 
fimilar evils. The old opinion, for inftance, founded in 
a great meafure on fcriptural authority, that magiftrates 
are the fervants and reprefentatives of God on earth ; 
that majefty has in it fomething facred, &c. may be c6n- 
fidered as a fuperltition, and eafily rendered fo ridiculous 
as to be univerfally looked upon as a foolifh prejudice, a 
remnant of the dark ages. The injury that might arife 
from a too-hafty extirpation of this prejudice we might 
perhaps endeavour to prevent, by proving, very concifely, 
the duties of efteem and obedience towards our fuperiors. 
But are we fure that the people will comprehend our 
concife proofs? If they do not, our imprudent and un- 
neceffary meddling with the enlightenment of others may 
be the firft link of a chain not unlikely to terminate in 
revolution, regicide, and anarchy, particularly if cunning 
feducers interfere. Among the ill-famed preachers of 
Libert]] and Equality, and the Rights of Man, there were 
doubtlefs many villains who endeavoured to deceive the 
multitude by thefe flattering but unintelligible words, in 
order that they themfelves might rule over them with a 
rod of iron. However, there were among them men of 
more honeft intentions, who, far from all interefted 
motives, made it their bufinefs to diffufe true enlighten- 
3 A ment 
