egulated piety confounded with the follies of
the fanatic, and his temperate zeal blended with the ravings of the
insane. He must submit to be involved in the absurdities of the
extravagant, in the duplicity of the designing, and in the mischiefs of
the dangerous; to be reckoned among the disturbers of that church which
he would defend with his blood, and of that government which he is
perhaps supporting in every possible direction. Every means is devised
to shake his credit. From such determined assailants no prudence can
protect his character, no private integrity can defend it, no public
service rescue it."

"I have often wondered," said Sir John, "at the success of attacks which
seemed to have nothing but the badness of the cause to recommend them.
But the assailant, whose object it is to make good men ridiculous, well
knows that he has secured to himself a large patronage in the hearts of
all the envious, the malignant, and the irreligious, who, like other
levelers, find it more easy to establish the equality of mankind by
abasing the lofty, than by elevating the low."

"In my short experience of life," said I, when Sir John had done
speaking, "I have often observed it as a hardship, that a man must not
only submit to be condemned for doctrines he disowns, but also for
consequences which others may draw from the doctrines he maintains,
though he himself, both practically and speculatively, disavows any such
consequences."

"There is another class of enemies," resumed Mr. Stanley. "To do them
justice, it is not so much the individual Christian as Christianity
itself, which _they_ hope to discredit; _that_ Christianity which would
not only restrain the conduct, but would humble the heart; which strips
them of the pride of philosophy, and the arrogant plea of merit; which
would save, but will not flatter them. In this enlightened period,
however, for men who would preserve any character, it would be too gross
to attack religion itself, and they find they can wound her more deeply
and more creditably through the sides of her professors."

"I have observed," said I, "that the uncandid censurer always picks out
the worst man of a class, and then confidently produces him as being a
fair specimen of it."

"From our more thoughtless, but less uncharitable acquaintance, the gay
and the busy," resumed Mr. Stanley, "we have to sustain a gentler
warfare. A little reproach, a good deal of ridicule, a little suspicion
of ou