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    question . At present , we .. will Consider only one , part of the paragraph , which the learned professor has given to the public . " To dissent therefore in this country , he says , from the doctrines of the Established Church , is to dissentwithout a real cause . "

    Now , we may observe here , that these words might be used as logically in a mosque at Constanti - nople , as in the Church or Kirk of an English or Scotch university . The argument of the professor runs thus : the doctrines of the Established Church are in all respects conformable with the sacred

    writings ; therefore , to dissent from them , is to dissent without a real cause * The mufti in the mosque at Constantinople , using the same language , means by the sacred

    writings , the Koran ; and he assuredly has as great a right , as we shall see in the sequel , to assert , that the doctrines of his

    established church agree with the Koran , as the Scotch or English professor to ascribe a conformity between each of their doctrines and their

    holy scriptures . But may we not suppose a Mahometan dissenter to address the mufti in these words ? You have

    the advantage of a learned education , and are here in authority . I was educated in Persia , by a

    mufti , in as great repute for learning as yourself , and in that kingdom he was of equal authority . Now , my Persian instructor assured me , that the doctrines of the established church in Persia , are in all respects conformable with the divine Koran . 1 have

    therefore a real cause for dissenting from the established church of

    Constantinople , because 1 am not learned enough to judge between

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    you learned gentlemen , who tkfk maintain with equal pertinacity your respective opinions . The argument between you , whose doctrine is really in all respects conformable to the divine Koran ,

    who is to decide ? Both of you were educated in the opinions you now profess to believe : it is the interest of each of you to main ,-, tain them : your rank , your cohsequerice , your wealth , "depends

    on your respective opinions remaining established in each of your kingdoms . Now there are upwards of seventy-two different sects professing Islamism ; and , as it is seventy-one to one against your being right , surely it does not argue much in favour of your

    discretion to use an argument , which each of these seventy-one sects may retort against you ; and when probably no one will decide in your favour , except those of your own sect , and who will be considered by the others to have imbibed similar prejudices *

    If the case of the two muftis , the Turkish and the Persian , wcjre laid before our learned professor , I have not the least doubt that he would dismiss the pretensions of both withstrictimpartiality .

    Neither of you , he would say , can be allowed to be a judge in his own cause . What each of you asserts in his own mosque before men of his own persuasion , whose applause fie will obtain for the warmth of his sentiments in unison

    with theirs , cannot pass with the impartial and unbiassed . Since each of you ascribes the want of reason to the other , the probability is , that both of you have

    sacrificed that faculty of your mind to your prejudices . You cannot both be right : and , as so irt % fty 6

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    16 RcmarJcs On tlit Vtopositiori of a Teamed Tfoftsnoti

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1810, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2400/page/16/