108 
reafons on which this opinion is founded, 
might, perhaps, be oe in fome 
fuch terms as the followin 
ee “After jalli the fine-fpun theories 
ef morals which have been advanced 
by ingenious men, it is now pretty 
generally agreed, that there is no 
other iatisfaCtory criterion of mural ac- 
tion than its tendency to produce hap- 
pinefs. No aétion, therefore, which has 
this tendency ought to be pronounced 
Immoral. If, by any means, I create in 
the mind of another a judgment, or opi- 
nion, which I know, or believe, to be 
falfe, [ am, it is true, impofing upon 
him error in the fhape T os but if 
ZT am,iat the fame time, refi ng his 
mind with a convidtion ase Ww ab pro- 
bably have a beneficial influence upon 
his conduct, I am doing him good, or 
performing towards him a benevolent 
and virtuous aétion. ‘The beneficial ef- 
fect is the fame, whether my words, 
which roduced it, corref{pond to the ab- 
fira&t truth of things or not 
me te truth, or falfehood, mutt, 
Itis granted, always exitt with ref{peét tor 
every poilible propofition , for every 
fuppofable thing either is, or is not: 
but univerfal experience has fhown, that 
the knowledge of truth is an attainment 
of extreme difficulty. The depth at 
vehich truth lies is proverbial. Who is 
certain, after all his labour, that he has 
brought it up from the well? What ap- 
pears truth to me, appears error to 
another. Why, cas follow fo un- 
certain a guide as my own judgment 
of what is true, when I can fo much 
more eafily determine, from obfervation, 
what is ufetul? If 1 am fatisfied that 
my inftruétions are, oa the whole, uierul, 
why difturb miyfelf becaufe they have in 
them, unavoidably, a mixture of appa- 
rent error ? 
“We neceffirily imbibe error with 
eur infant breath. Errors innumerable 
are’ forced upon ovr judgment by the 
_ report of others, by our own fenfes, by 
the cuftoms and habits of’ fociety, and 
éven by its wifeft inititttions. Why 
Should we attempt to avoid’ that which 
is Bacal a part of the great plaa of 
nature Why not co-operate with its 
deneralt laws, by rendering men’s un- 
avoidable errors produdtive Of good ? 
‘© Whether it be pofnble for human 
nature to become altogether the pupil of 
truth ;—whether it be poffible to put all 
men in poffeifion of a fufficient ftock of 
certain knowledge, to become the bafis 
of indiv idual and fucial oe ape kde ay 
¥ 
The Enquirer. Wo. XI. 
[Feb, 
but, in the prefent 
it can fcarcely be 
admit of doubt; 
ftate of the world, 
queftioned, 
conduct its affairs without giving en- 
couragement and fupport “to error. 
Whenever rhe magiftrate has made him- 
felf the judge of abftraét truth, and pro- 
feffed to take it under his patronage, by 
giving.a formal efablithment to one fet 
of opinions in preference to another, he 
has adopted a fyftem produétive of incal- 
culable mifchiets. This is equa'ly true, 
whether the fyltem has been pat eis in 
a Romifh conclave, a Britifh council, 
a French convention ; and the man fe 
projects or fupports this fyitem, whe 
her he be a Bonner or a Robelpierre ; 
whether he be a Burke or a Condorcet, _ 
Is, ee a perfecutor. The 
es whofe fole objet is the pub- 
lic good 1 in order to preferve the public 
tranquillity, and fecure to-every indivi- 
dual the frft right ‘of a rational being, 
that of exercifing his reafon without re- 
ftraint, ought to afford equal patronage, 
or at leaft equal proteétion, toall public 
inftructors, although it may be very evi- 
dent that, in doing this, he mutt, in 
many cafes, give countenance and en- 
couragement to the propagation of error; 
his bufinefs is to confider not what is 
true, but what is ufeful; and even error 
may, in certain circumftances, be ufeful. 
* This ufefuluefs of error has, in many 
inftances, been experimentally proved. 
In all ages, the multitude have been kept 
in awe by fidtions addrefied to the ima- 
gination and pafiions. What effect would 
the ancient metaphyfical philofophers of 
India have produced on the minds of the 
people by their abitraét fpeculations, con- 
cerning the divine nature and at tributes, 
if they “had not perfonified the operations 
of Deity under the names of Brahma, 
Vifhnou, and Sheva, and exhibited them 
to the fancy in fables and images ? 
Among the Greeks and Romans, what 
would Plato’s beauty and good, or Tully’s 
bonefium have done to keep the worid in 
order, without the fables and ceremontes 
of the Pagan ee he | priefts 
and augurs—without the Elyfan Fields 
and the Shades of Tartarus ? 
* In fine, let the moft correé philo- 
fopher afk himéel’, Whether, in his or- 
dinary intercourfe with mankind, he does 
not find himfelf under the neceflity of 
accommodating himfelf to their habits of 
thinking, and, by the terms which he 
ufes, to encourage opinions which he 
thinks erroneous ?* Is there'a difciple of 
oe of ie or r of Hume, who, 
Te: while: 
that it is unpracticable to 
