1796. ] 
ental learning, a race of wife men, un- 
der the name of Brachmans, appear to 
have engroffed all the fcience of their 
country : and fince their time, effectual 
care has been taken to prevent the dif- 
fufion of knowledge, by keeping the 
Bramins, the depofitaries of learning, a 
diftinct caft, and giving them the exclu- 
five right of reading the facred books, 
the Vedas and Shafters, and communi- 
cating their contents to the people, 
Among the Egyptians, we find, from 
the earlieft times, a regular fyftem of 
concealment. ‘he mytteries of philo- 
fophy and religion were written in hie- 
roglyphic characters, underftood cnly by 
the initiated ; and thefe facerdoral writ- 
ings were depofited in the inmoft re- 
ceffes of the temples, where they could be 
examined only by the fuperior claffes of 
the priefthood. Hence arofe the diftinc- 
tion between the exoteric and etfoteric 
doétrine; the former addreffed to the 
vulgar, the latter contined to the priefts, 
and afeleét number of other perfons ad- 
mitted to the holy myfteries. A fimilar 
diftinétion between fecret and public 
doétrine, was known among the Per- 
fians,.and in moft of the fchools of, the 
Grecian philofophers; andthe prac- 
tice of facred myfteries, begun in the 
moft remote ages, made a diftinguifhed 
part of the religions ceremonials of 
Greece and Rome. : 
If the ancient philofophers, with few 
exceptions, thus kept their knowledge 
Within the precinéts of their own 
{chools, and left the general mafs of 
mankind under the bondage of igno- 
rance and fuperftition, it may, perhaps, 
be fairly pleaded as fome excufe for 
their conduct, that their enquiries com- 
monly turned upon fubjeéts too abfirufe 
for vulgar comprehenfion, and little ca- 
pable of praétical application, When, 
however, a new fect arofe, under a 
Maiter who taught fimple truth, and 
who was eminently the inftruétor and 
friend of the poor, it might have been 
expected that the preceptors in this 
{chool, would, after the example of their 
Founder, have fatd to all the world, 
otteam and: tunderttand, «) Yet. Chr - 
tian teachers, though they preached to 
the people, very early addreffed them 
on fubjeéts, and in terms, to an unlet- 
tered multitude as unintelligible, as if 
their difcourfes had been in an un- 
known tongue. In order to check the 
daring fpirit of enquiry, creeds were 
iffued from their councils, which the 
people were required, on pain of eternal 
Lhe Enquirer. No. I. 2 
damnation, to believe. The ufe of a 
vernacular verfion of the Scriptures was 
afterwards prohibited, and public devo- 
tions were in every Chriftian country 
performed inthe Latin language. Theft 
latter abfurdities were, it is true, re= 
moyed at the Reformation ; but tree en- 
quiry has ever fince, in almoft all Pro- 
teftant churches, been difcouraged, and, 
as far as was poifible, without the inflic- 
tion of bodily pains and penalties, for- 
bidden, by making the recital of certain 
formularies of belief a part of the or- 
dinary fervice, and by loading all devia- 
tions from the Inftituted faith, with the 
odium and hazard of herefy. 
The fame difpofition te difcourage and 
reftrain the freedom of enquiry has ap- 
peared with refpeét to fubjeéts of civil 
policy. The brilhant pages of hiitory 
in w&'ch the people appear as agents in 
forming and conducting their own fyf- 
tem of government, are few. We al- 
moit every where find them merely paf- 
five machines in the hands-cf arbitrary 
power, without any opportunity of judg- 
ing and choofing for themfelves, and, 
confeguently without any inducement to 
enquire into the general grounds of civil 
fociety, or to inform themfelves concern 
ing the particular interefts of their own 
community. Over affairs of government, 
as well as of religion, a veil of myftery 
has been artfully thrown; and the pec- 
ple have been trained to an implicit 
acquiefcence in the proceedings of their 
governors, under the notion that fecrets 
of ftate were far above their compre- 
henfion. Even in coun‘ries moft cele- 
brated for liberty, the ruling powers 
have always kept a jealous eye upon the 
progrefs of opinion, and have commonly 
adopted the narrow policy cf throwing 
difficulties and difcouragements in the 
way of free enquiry. lew ftates have 
had the: magnanimity to permit, much 
lefs, the wifdom to encourage, the un- 
referved difcullion. of all political quef- 
tions: almoft all exifting governments 
have preferred ftability to improvement. 
England, the boafted land of freedom, 
has had its tefts, and its refirictive laws; 
and even the new Republic of France 
has, with glaring inconfiftency, reflrain- 
ed the freedom of the prefs. 
Has the fyftem of reftri€tion, thus 
eftablifhed by univerfal precedent, had 
any better origin than the ambition or 
avarice of men in power? Have they 
difcouraged the free fearch after truth 
and the univerfal diflemination of know- 
ledge, merely through a- timid and 
; B2 iclf- 
