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    ripening for liberal religious instruction . Popular education is the steady ally of popular Unitarian preaching . The plans of that great benefactor to mankind , Joseph Lancaster , are preparing our way and doing half our work . He has invented a royal road to education , the road to

    just sentiments and good conduct . It is happy for us and for the world that Mr . Lancaster himself is not , as a teacher , a decided religionist . His honourable enthusiasm is all spent upon the great object of giving the poor the elements and the means of

    knowledge . But who can say , how far the influence of his measures will extend ? who can fix a boundary to the blessings of his system of tuition ? Knowledge

    m any degree begets the desire of knowledge * Give a poor man knowledge , and you take from his condition all that is pitiable and degrading . The mere taste of Icnowledge "will excite a thirst for

    larger and still larger draughty ; the capacity will increase with the enjoyment ; and the result may be the perfection of the human mind in its sentiments with regard to civil institutions and to divine

    truth . Another circumstance of the times which augurs well for the success of a Society formed for the promotion of pure Christianity

    3 s that , infidelity and enthusiasm are losing their hold of the public mind . The triumphs of infidelity have been cut short ; and enthusiasm , though lively at the

    present moment , gives many symptomsjof being short-lived . But the feature of the age which ahove all others encourages our efforts is the growing liberality of

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    the Christian world . Bigotry and intolerance are out of date . On occasions where the happiness of society and the rights of conscience are at stake , Christians of the widest and most discordant senti - ments can unite , heart and hand , in support of charity and in defence of freedom . Bigots there still are ; persecutors in disposi . tipn there may still be ; but they are not the majority , they are not the leaders ., of any sect ; they are

    the lowest of every party ( not as to worldly condition , for by that scale religious men are not to be measured , but as to talents and importance , ) who do not possess influence over , and give the tone to , the body to which they belong . The course of events has made the most superstitious communities liberal . Even the catholics stand

    forward as advocates of the rights of conscience . Their forefathers , it is true were intolerant ; but whose forefathers were not intolerant ? Away with all stale and vulgar calumnies ! Let us judge equitably and candidly of one

    another . Of Popery no one will suspect me . From its tenets I ever wish to be at the greatest possible distance ; but , judging from what I have lately seen and heard , with Papists , I can never esteem myself too closely united in heart and affection . The Roman Catholic ,

    instructed by experience and partaking , according to his full share , of the improved spirit of the age , pleads for the privileges not merely of himself , but of all his fellow

    Christians ! Treat him as a chnstian , go to him with rational and persuasive Christian teaching , he will drop the Roman and retain only the Catholic , which will bt to become an Unitarian .

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    365 Intelligenct—Unitatian Fun dm -

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/46/