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    ture . All that constitutes the poetry of religion , all the images that cling to out most cherished conceptions of its peace and sanctity , its venerable edifices rising amidst scenes of quiet and rural beauty , their association in our memories with all that is most ancient and noble and revered in the chronicles of the neighbourhood , the prospects of learned ease , of domestic tranquillity and competence , of general respect , o ^ wide-spread influence , and of future advancement to more elevated stations as the reward of honourable

    and useful exertions , —all these imaginations , however vain and delusive , dazzle with a wonderful fascination the young and ardent mind , and blind it to a perception of the evils of a system with which all its fondest wishes and most reasonable hopes are entwined . The stern and uncompromising may deride such feelings as weaknesses , but they are weaknesses closely allied to

    some of the best feelings of the human heart ; for , the wish to rise in the scale of society , to command a liberal independence , to be admitted to a participation in the honourable distinctions of the world , and to win a virtuous fame , is the stimulus to all great and magnanimous exertions , * and an impulse which the most generous and elevated spirits — juvenes , quibus arte benigna

    E raeliore luto finxit praecordia Titanwill most keenly feel . In the objects held out by the honours of the establishment to a young ambition , there is a foroe of temptation which he , who is placed beyond its reach and early taught to direct his wishes to other objects , is hardly competent to appreciate , and which he is bound to take into consideration in estimating the character and conduct of those from whose communion he dissents .

    Imagine a young man of ingenuous spirit and distinguished abilities entering life , crowned with academic honours , full of generous purposes , and intent on the service of mankind . The soundness of his understanding and the candour of his temper lead him to entertain doubts of the truth of that religious system , with the profession of which all his hopes in life are closely connected . What a painful alternative awaits him ! He must either check the generous enthusiasm of youth , and make the love of truth and usefulness

    submit to prudence and expediency , or he must blight his fairest earthly prospects , and take his lot with those whom all the prejudices of his early education have taught him to view with dislike , and whose situation is associated in his eyes with contempt and poverty . Can we doubt , when we know how human nature is constituted , that , in the prospect of such an alternative , the merits of opposing systems and principles are never fairly weighed ; or hesitate to condemn a system which forces the convictions and sympathies of men into the current of their interests , blinds the learned and

    ingenious to the perception of truth , and sometimes arrays even the amiable and generous against the rights and liberties of mankind ? There are individuals who approve of establishments as the best means of teaching Christianity , but who would revolt at the idea of converting religion into a mere instrument of state policy ; who apply to the civil power for the benefit of Christianity , and do not establish Christianity for the sake of the civil power . The distinction , no doubt , is perfectly intelligible . Nevertheless it is impossible that such an amazing engine of power as religious influence puts into the hands of government should not be constantly perverted by

    * Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise ( That last infirmity of noble mind ) To scorn delights , and live laborious days . Lvcidas .

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    Spirit and Tendency of Religious Establishments . \ 7

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    VOL . II . C

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/17/