— S 
1804.) 
For fome time, indeed, the name of a 
thing raifes a vague idea, the child not 
being able to modify his expectations ac- 
cording to the adjunéts and limitations 
with which it is combined: but, as foon 
as it is capable of doing this; as foon as 
the young pupil of nature underftands the 
force of ** The moon will thine at night 5” 
“© You fhall goabroad when papa comes ;”’ 
“* Come hither, and you fhall have a fugar- 
plum ;” his experience enlarges, and 
his expeftations are more definite; he af- 
fociates founds, not only with the things 
he defires to poffefs, but with perfons and, 
ations, which muft be combined to pro- 
cure them, He is rarely difappointed ; 
he comes, and he receives the fugar- 
plum ; he touches the fteaming urn, and 
he burns his fingers, as his mother had 
told him he would; and thus, by flow de. 
grees, arid from an accumulation of ex- 
perience, he forms the propofition in his 
little brain, that things will happen as 
thofe about him fay they will. 
Nor is it any objection to this account 
of the rife of the principle, that our cre- 
dulity leffons in after years ; for it is ac- 
cording to the ufual order of inveftiga- 
tions, that we firft eftablifh the general rule, 
and afterwards attend to the exceptions, 
which indeed we may not at firft have 
had an opportunity to obferve. © Thus 
a child receives the general propofition 
that the fun fhines during thofe hours in 
which he is above the horizon. He after. 
wards notices an eclipfe, and is obliged 
to admit the circum{tance as an excep- 
tion; nor is he at all the flower to receive 
the exception from the courfe of years 
that have firengthened his belief in the 
general propofition.—I beg leave alfo to 
obferve, that, though the principle of cre- 
dulity is certainly ftronger in children 
than in young people who have begun to 
converfe with the world in general, it is a 
miltake to imagine it is ftrongeft in early 
infancy. In this refpe&t, the principle 
fhows its origin, becaule it does grow up 
and gather ftrength in the fame manner 
as reafon and experience do. It is a work 
of time to gain the confidence of a young 
child. It is timid and fulpicious ; obferves 
in filence how it is dealt with ; and-por- 
tions out its reliance accordingly. It 
early and accurately diftinguifhes jeit from 
earneft, affumed opinions from real, and 
ives no more of its confidence than it 
finds you deferve. You may eafily de- 
ceive itin particular inftances ; but if you 
do fo habitually, its habit will be not 
Remarks on the Principles of Credulity. 
505 
that of credulity, but the contrary. Oa 
the other hand, with a wife parent, the 
reliance on his veracity increafes as the 
child grows older. In a child well edu- 
cated, the principle or habit of credulity 
is perhaps at its height at the age of fix or 
feven. At that age the pewer and {kill 
and forefight txhibsted by the parent, fo 
far beyond the capacity of the child'ta 
conceive of, joined to the continued expe- 
rience it has had of his affeétion and ve- 
racity, makes him a kind of God to his 
child; and woe to the parent who does _ 
not improve to the advantage of his off- 
spring this fhort but golden opportunity, 
But I am flepping beyond my purpofe, 
which was only to fhew that our _propen- 
fity to belief may be fairly accounted for 
without fuppofing it an inftinét; and, 
though it be true, as Mr. Stewart ob- 
ferves, that philofophers have been forme- 
times mifled by a defire of fimpliiying, T 
am fure he will not deny that where an 
effeét can be explained by an exifting 
caufe, it is unphilofophical to aflume a 
fuppofed one, or to multiply without ne- 
ceffity thofe ultimate caufes, which fland 
as bounds to our refearches, and beyond 
which we cannot inveftigate. 
Suffer me, Mr, Editor, to add, to what 
we are told of the life of the amiable and 
ingenious Dr. Reid, an anecdote told me 
by my father, who was acquainted with 
him, which may perbaps emule your rea- 
ders, though to relate it might not accord 
with the dignity of a profefled biogra- 
pher. When Dr. Reid was prefented, fo 
much againit the will of the parifhioners, 
to his living of New.Machar, the firit 
time he attempted to afcend the pulpi:, 
tie whole church was in a tumult of op- 
pofition ; and two of the good women of 
his flock laid hold of him by his neck~- 
cloth, to which it was then the cuftom te 
wear very long ends, and pulled them 
each a different way, till they had like 
to have itrangled the young clerical ad- 
venturer, ) Tam, Sir, &c. 
% He 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. — 
SIR, . 
MONG the various publications 
which the prefent emergency has 
given rife to, no one has a higher claim on 
the notice of the public than the intended 
Speech of the Bifoep of Landaff. From the 
knowa character of his Lordfhip we 
€ 
