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virtue can never be found in opposition . Darkness and error may befriend vice , but can never be favourable to virtue . " The inquirer after truth has hitherto been animated in
his search , by the assurance that his labours , if successful , will reward him with the possession of inestimable treasure ; could he have suspected that . the object of his pursuit might prove ia the possession and communication , a curse to himself and to
society ,, his assiduity must soon have appeared to him in the light of folly , or of something worse than folly . Attainments which are merely ornamental ( thus he has argued ) have a doubtful tendency ; they may honourably adorn the possessor , and they
may prove the garland on the head of th « victim of seduction and of flattery , bat the acquisition of truth is that of protection as well as lustre , " prcesidium et dulce decus , " which , if it fcannot avert misfortune , will raise a barrier against guilt and remorse ; it
n the only currency among men which en riches the * nind of the owner , and gives it an elevation that wealth tod grandeur could never confer . It i * worth purchasing at any price , and maintaining at any risk . Such are the generous sentiments which have ,
hitherto , stimulated research ; but , by the oracles of error , these are now degraded into the rant of folly , or the enthusiasm of romance . It may , according to them , be affirmed with touch more justice , of " truths that
ipre of most importance in human life , " than of the precious metals , that they were best concealed in night , ( tlygiisque admo < verat nmbris ) % not to h& explored fey Hie eye of man Without losfc » "not of innocence , T > ut of virtue . With such a , creed the friend
< w ^ itt « ie win fear explore the natare of tilings , lest he should be the tirihappy discoverer of a truth , which , Kke the opening of Pandora ' s box , ftkall give ^ entrance to incalculable evil iafto the moral world . It has often
befell remarked , that the philosophical gfceptic , when placed on tlie seat of p * yVver , lias appeared txot less intoterant than the religious zealot ; and the fafcfc is not surprising : lie who
believes nothing can have no reason for tolerating the circulation of any optorion , the belief oT \ tfhich he may cttitftifler ttrjrnriou * to his interests or hostile to km witfies . To him i ) fcrse-
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cution may ; seem prudence , for h , scepticism excludes every consider tion of truth and falsehood , and leaves but the simple question , what promises most of private gratification ; for tliat is the soundest policy . That toleration
and freedom of discussion should not find advocates in the ranks eith er of scepticism or of superstition , \ s no more than was to be expected : but the sober philosopher , the man whose days and energies are spent in accurate d iscrirninat ion and laborious research , the child of reason and the
votary of science , was thought to be , by system and by habit , the advocate of truth ; an advocate who , though he might possibly be intimidated or corrupted into the desertion of hi > client , would never abandon her on principle , from conviction of unworthiness . In this opinion , however , we have been lamentably mistaken .
Intolerance has found , if not its ablest , certainly its most unblushing supporters in the very school of philosophy . The el eve of science has impiously raised his hand against his great patroness and instructress , and furnished her enemies , who before
were armed witji power alone , not , indeed , with reason , but with the shew and mask of reason , for carrying on their unrighteous warfare . If the tendency of truth may be to immorality , it may and probably will become the duty of the magistrate to seal up her lips in silence , by whatever means shall appear most efficacious ,
confiscation , imprisonment , banishment or death . If the memory of Locke , the great apologist of toleration , were held in veneration or in much respect whire this defence of error was probably conceived , we should hardly refrain from coup li ng his authority
with that of Reid , as alike opposed io the artifices and sleights of this unhallowed sophistry . But where truth is held in no veneration , what is there human or divine that will long appear venerable > Should it even be gran ted , and moralists of eminence have
granted it , that there are extreme cases which a concealment , or a contradiction of truth is justifiable and pejW commendable , such instances respet particular facts of local , partial a » transient interest : but w _ f \ hil ttiaxhn , that Hie tendency of * ruw to virtue , is maintained , itl 5 JJ ™^ view to propositions involving « & "
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S 42 Dr . Morell , on the Connexion between Truth and Morality .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/14/
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