e to
which she has been, in times past, devoted. The two countries may thus
fall into a sympathetic correspondence on the mighty subjects of human
government and human learning, and the grand idea of liberty may be made
more manifest in the one, and disciplined and enriched in the other.

* * * * *

One great subject of observation and speculation remains--the objects
and form of Persecution for Opinion in each country. Persecution for
opinion is always going on among a people enlightened enough to
entertain any opinions at all. There must always be, in such a nation,
some who have gone further in research than others, and who, in making
such an advance, have overstepped the boundaries of popular sympathy.
The existence and sufferings of such are not to be denied because there
are no fires at the stake, and no organized and authorized Inquisition,
and because formal excommunication is gone out of fashion. Persecution
puts on other forms as ages elapse; but it is not extinct. It can be
inflicted out of the province of law, as well as through it; by a
neighbourhood as well as from the Vatican. A wise and honest man may be
wounded through his social affections, and in his domestic relations, as
effectually as by flames, fetters, and public ignominy. There are wise
and good persons in every civilized country, who are undergoing
persecution in one form or another every day.

Is it for precocity in science? or for certain opinions in politics? or
for a peculiar mode of belief in the Christian religion, or unbelief of
it? or for championship of an oppressed class? or for new views in
morals? or, for fresh inventions in the arts, apparently interfering
with old-established interests? or for bold philosophical speculation?
Who suffers arbitrary infliction, in short, and how, for any mode of
thinking, and of faithful action upon thought? An observer would reject
whatever he might be told of the paternal government of a prince, if he
saw upon a height a fortress in which men were suffering _carcere duro_
for political opinions. In like manner, whatever a nation may tell him
of its love of liberty should go for little if he sees a virtuous man's
children taken from him on the ground of his holding an unusual
religious belief; or citizens mobbed for asserting the rights of
negroes; or moralists treated with public scorn for carrying out allowed
principles to their ultimate issues; or scholars oppress