o really
believe in a Deity out of such as pretend to do so. It is impossible
for an intellectual being to believe firmly in that of which he can
give no account, or of which he can form no conception. I hold the
Deity, the fancied Deity, at least, of whom with all his attributes
such pompous descriptions are set forth to the great terror of old
women and the amusement of young children, to be an object of which we
form (as appears when we scrutinise into our ideas) no conception and
therefore can give no account. It is said, after all this, that men do
still believe in such a Deity, I then do say in return, they do not
make use of their intellects. The moment we go into a belief beyond
what we feel, see and understand, we might as well believe in
will-with-a-whisp as in God. But I would fix morality upon a better
basis than belief in a Deity. If it has indeed at present no other
basis, it is not morality, it is selfishness, it is timidity; it is the
hope of reward, it is the dread of punishment. For a great and good
man, shew me one who loves virtue because he finds a pleasure in it,
who has acquired a taste for that pleasure by considering what and
where happiness is, who is not such a fool as to seek misery in
preference to happiness, whose honour is his Deity, whose conscience
is his judge. Put such a man in combat against the superstitious son
of Spain or Portugal, it were easy to say who would shew the truest
courage. The question might be more voluminously discussed, but I feel
already proof of conviction; if you, Dr. Priestley, do not, perhaps
some other readers may. I have nothing to do with men of low minds.
They will always have their religion or pretence of it, but I am
mistaken if it is not the gallows or the pillory that more govern
their morals than the gospel or the pulpit.

After all, atheism may be a system only for the learned. The ignorant of
all ages have believed in God. The answer of a Philosophical Unbeliever
though written in the vulgar tongue may probably not reach the vulgar.
If argument had prevailed they were long converted from their
superstitious belief. The sentiments of atheistical philosophers have
long been published. If mischief therefore could ensue to society from
such free discussions, that mischief society must long have felt. I
think truth should never be hid, but few are those who mind it. I will
therefore take upon myself but little importance though I have presumed
to preface