On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
part ; \ Bitttfle ^ ttectiaae ure invented between H > pcHr «/ it au 4 criminal &lse hoo 4 s j privileged Hep are established , because they serve as a safeguard against tyranny ; customary perj uries aad faJse signatures are considered as
siftiple forms . But , in the midst of these subtleties , the respect for truth becomes impaired $ the limits of good and evil are confounded ; and a train of ieps pardonable falsehoods introduce themselves under favour of the first :
the tribunal of opinion is divided ; the judges which compose it , no longer follow the same law 9 they a © longer know with precision , what degree of dissimulation they ought to condenui , and what other degree to excuse ; the suffrages become divided and contradictory , and the naoral
sanction having no uniform regulator , is enfeebled and depraved . Thus the legislator who requires declarations of faith , becomes the corrupter of the nation ; he sacrifices virtue to religion , altfpough religion herself is of no value any further than she is the auxiliary of virtue .
The third class to be eK&vnined , is that of those persons who , at the establishment of the penal law , have not as yet formed any opinion Neither on the one side or the other . With respect to those , it is probable that the law may influence the formation of their opinion : seeing the dangers
of the one part , and tbe safety of the other , it is natural that they should contemplate Abe arguments for a condemned opinion , with a degree of fear and aversion , which they do not feel for the arguments of the favoured opinion .
Arguments which we wish to find true , make a much more lively impression than those we wish to find false ; and thus a man comes to believe , or rather not to disbelieve ; not to reject a proposition which he would not have adopted , if his inclinations
had been left free . In the last case , the evil , though not so great as in the two first , does not cease to be an evil . It may happen , but it does not always happen , that the judgment gives way entirely to Ahe affections j and even
when this is the case , that is to Bay , when tlie pereuasion has every possible degree of strength ^ * till , if fear enters at all intailhemotiTe ^ df thiKpereuaiion , the mind is nttwr perfectly tranquil *
Untitled Article
That which a zwm believes to-A * y he m { rfraid he may riot ; believe tomorrow : a clear moral truth can never be shaken , but tfte fcelief of a doctrine is more or lees « n * teady : from this arises that inquietude with respect to those who attack it . Examination
-and discussion are dreaded , because it is felt that there is no solid ground on which to rest . Nothing must be removed in an edifice vrhich Is » ot fihnly fixed : th € understanding becomes enfeebled ; the mind seeks for
complete repose ^ only in a etafe of blind credulity ; it seeks out all errors which have some affinity with its own ; it fears to explain itself clearly 00 the possible and the impossible and wishes to co « found their boundaries ; it loves
every thing which supports sophistry , which shackles the human intellect , — every thing which persuades it that it is impossible to reason with entire certainty ; it acquires a disposition , an 4 i » happy dexterity , to reject e ^ Wence .
to give force to half proofs , to listen but to one party , to subtilize against reason : in a word , in this system it js necessary to put a bandage on tlie eyes , not to be inj ured by the light tit day .
Thus every penal means employed to augment the influence of religion , tends indirectly to lessen that respect for truth and for public opinion , which forms so essential a part of morals . All the enlightened friends of religion , at the present day , are of this opinion ; but how few states are there whuih
have acted on this principle ? Persecutions have ceased to be violent ; but silent persecutions , civil penalties , threatening laws , a precarious toleration , still exist . Humiliating . situ ation for classes of men who awe their
tranquillity only to a tacit indulgence , a continual pardon ! * ¦ * ¦ * 0 * J h ^ ve explained myself elsewhere on the utility of religion , bat 1 cannot omit to observe here , that in ou ** da JS she has acquired a salutary tendency to disengage herself from futile avid pernicious dogmas , and again to mate
approaches towards sound morals and sound policy . Irrettgion , ^> ii * he-c 6 t » - trary , ( I am unwilling to pronounce the word Atlieisni , ) has ' mahiftbted herself in our days , under tins most hideousYwnie of ftbeurdity , immorality a * id t > erseG » tion . This efxp ^ rifehLe is safficieut to Jshew aH good minds in
Untitled Article
On the d&w * r * £ Pemi LaW 9 in , Mutter 1 affteli gion . £ &l
Untitled Article
vol . xi 11 . 3 a
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 361, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/17/
-