be in the wrong? Here, surely, is a place where some
correct principle is greatly needed.

Is every man to sit in judgment upon his fellow-man, and decide what are
his intellectual capacities, and what the measure of his judgment? Is
every man to take the office of the Searcher of Hearts, to try the
feelings and motives of his fellow-man? Is that most difficult of all
analysis, the estimating of the feelings, purposes, and motives, which
every man, who examines his own secret thoughts, finds to be so complex,
so recondite, so intricate; is this to be the basis, not only of
individual opinion, but of public reward and censure? Is every man to
constitute himself a judge of the amount of time and interest given to
the proper investigation of truth by his fellow-man? Surely, this cannot
be a correct principle.

Though there may be single cases in which we can know that our
fellow-men are weak in intellect, or erring in judgment, or perverse in
feeling, or misled by passion, or biased by selfish interest, as a
general fact we are not competent to decide these matters, in regard to
those who differ from us in opinion.

For this reason it is manifestly wrong and irrelevant, when discussing
questions of duty or expediency, to bring before the public the
character or the motives of the individual advocates of opinions.

But, it may be urged, how can the evil tendencies of opinions or of
practices be investigated, without involving a consideration of the
character and conduct of those who advocate them? To this it may be
replied, that the tendencies of opinions and practices can never be
ascertained by discussing individual character. It is _classes_ of
persons, or large _communities_, embracing persons of all varieties of
character and circumstances, that are the only proper subjects of
investigation for this object. For example, a community of Catholics,
and a community of Protestants, may be compared, for the purpose of
learning the moral tendencies of their different opinions. Scotland and
New England, where the principles opposite to Catholicism have most
prevailed, may properly be compared with Spain and Italy, where the
Catholic system has been most fairly tried. But to select certain
individuals who are defenders of these two different systems, as
examples to illustrate their tendencies, would be as improper as it
would be to select a kernel of grain to prove the good or bad character
of a whole crop.

To illustrate