Air is, however, most fortunately free; nor is opinion, however unfortunately, less so.

To coerce opinion has, nevertheless, been arbitrarily, mischievously and abortively attempted by every generation that History has recognized: And millions have fought and bled and died in a contest, of which children should have been ashamed.

Opinion being the inalienable property of every individual, the acquisition of which can never be dishonest, nor its possession dishonorable, should never be assailed, but by the kindest expressions that suc cessful invalidation will justify; nor attempted to be subverted; but with the commendable expectation of substituting a better.

Reason is the grand distinguishing characteristic of humanity; and is therefore appropriately subservient to its highest purposes: And the higher, and more abstract from mere propensity our objects are, the more is reason required in their examination: Whatever is above reason is above humanity; and whatever its influence upon the species, it can never become an object of consciousness. Nor is there a plausible proposition that suffers more from analysis, than a very popular one among the clergy; viz. "that revelation begins where reason ends; and yet, that reason clearly sees the need of such a revelation."

That the need of a circumstance should be clearly apprehended whilst its character is entirely unknown, is a proposition that cannot bear the slightest scrutiny. As well might the hungry be said to see the need of bread, before it was known to be nutritious.

But the world is full of this kind of sophistry, wherein sound is offered and accepted as a substitute for sense. Wherein unembelished Truth surrenders its rightful dominion to furbished and artful fallacy. Nor are men aware how easily they are deceived by highsounding, though unmeaning sentences; nor how much nor often, familiar terms are perverted from their original and genuine interpretation, in order to subserve the purposes of a sect.

However differently the case may stand with others; it is clearly my own conviction, that Reason unequivocally discharges me from all responsibility, for either the possession or propagation of opinion. For if any individual has a right to express an opinion, whose accuracy is not already acknowledged by the public, that right belongs, equally, to the rest of the population. And if such a right were not acknowledged, and its practical consequences permitted, where, allow me to ask, would be found the history of human improvement?

When was the public ever known to suggest an improvement? or, an occasional genius having made an ameliorating suggestion, when was the public ever known, promptly, to afford it a practical illustration? Have not the originators of important improvements of the various interests of their species, slept, long and soundly, with their fathers, before their stupid successors have been able to appreciate the value of their suggestions? Alas! this public, that arrogates to itself the attributes of a god, marches, nevertheless, in the rearward shadow of that adventurous, invent

ive Genius, to whom the world is irredeemably îndebted-and whose statue, if ever wrought, is erected upon a pyramid of antecedent reproaches.

Reason, however fallacious, is the only guardian of human actions; nor should propensity, in any case, digress its most fastidious prescriptions. Yet, how differently has been the case with all successive generations or history belies their character!

Man has been effectually shown up, as the creature of propensity, too indomitably obstinate for exhortation, or even experience, to improve. And still he rails, each against his neighbor, for the slightest scent of inconsistency, that the sensitive and obtrusive nose of suspicion is able to smell out, even, amongst the privacies of domestic life. Whilst he enviously and maliciously assails his neighbor's happiness, he ignorantly, though deservedly thwarts his own. His life is a succession of fears and disasters, that Reason, were her admonitions heeded, would enable him to evade: But, to her utter discouragement, man has superstitiously adopted a set of fictitious mysticisms, under the cognomen of Theology, by which she is nearly superceded in her highest vocation with hu manity.

Start not at a mere declaration, which is of no moment whatever, unless supported by satisfactory argument; and which, when thus supported, must rightfully supercede its antagonist: For Truth, however threatening in the distance, is always peaceful in pos

session!

意

For myself, I am not ashamed to own, that I am a

devout disciple of Reason; and an anxious, however successless, inquirer after truth, whose homeliest physiognomy, however often and grossly misappre bended, is really more beautiful than errer, with all Its paint and furbishing.

Opinions being always honestly acquired, their cor sequences, however disastrous, are chargeable only as misfortunes, not as crimes.

Opinions, it is true, should be always right, since arroneous ones possess, more or less, untoward tendencies, from which Ignorance has taken occasion to excuse the exercise of its malevolence, wherein nothing but the kindest sympathy is justifiable.

The most unfortunate individual is he, whose happiness is most marred by the inaccuracy of his opinions; and he the most fortunate, the accuracy of whose opinions, most successfully, provides for his welfare.

A common error with mankind, is the too precipitate formation of opinion, whereby his best exertions work out his worst discomfiture. As with the traveler who misses his road, and is therefore the farther from his way, the longer and more expeditiously he travels. Hence opinion, should be deliberately and carefully formed, and as far as possible, founded in a clear apprehension of all the truths concerned in its institution. Thus, Truth becomes the primary and paramount object of human inquiry; and should neis ther be mistaken nor contemned, by arbitrary, obstinate prejudice, scarcely less blind to truth than to itself..

Whatever is seriously proposed as truth, should be patiently and carefully examined before it is rejected. Who would not declare it preposterous for a chemist to throw away, unexamined, a specimen of precious ore, because he is not already acquainted with its eharacter? And opinions, with all their dependencies, deserve no less to be analyzed, than unexamined specimens of mineralogy. But superstitious prejudice, would crucify Innovation, though it were commissioned only to take from it the instruments of involuntary suicide.

Heterodoxy and Infidelity are terms scarcely less familiar than the names of our household goods. And yet, they ought never to have commanded the respect of an interpretation. They are epithets, that Ignorance, long ago, maliciously appended to imaginary offenses, against imaginary authority.

In the purest theological sense, the Grecian Socrates, the probable prototype of the reputed author of Christianity, was a heretic, in opposing, by the moss conclusive arguments, the settled superstitions of his time and country. And if it were well, that he was sacrificed to the eyeless, conceited and obstinate ge nius of stability, whilst attempting to eradicate a mischievous and senseless mythology; then it was justi fiable to crucify the reputed Son of God for attempting a similar innovation. Nor should a reproach rest upon the consistent obstinacy of the descendants of Abraham, though they had really murdered the Savior. of the world. For it matters not, by whom good or evil is perpetrated, whether by demigod or diabolist.