of Virtue, become but a deceitful meteor to him who kindled
it for the aid of Religion, and in an eternal cause? Could it be
perilous to task our reason, even to the utmost, in the investigation of
the true utility and hidden wisdom of the works of God, when God himself
had ordained that only through some exertion of our reason should we
know either from Nature or Revelation that He himself existed? 'But,'
cried the Zealot again, 'but mere mortal wisdom teaches men presumption,
and presumption doubt.' 'Pardon me,' I answered; 'it is not Wisdom,
but Ignorance, which teaches men presumption: Genius may be sometimes
arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as Knowledge.' 'But,' resumed
the Zealot, 'those accustomed to subtle inquiries may dwell only on the
minutiae of faith,--inexplicable, because useless to explain, and argue
from those minutiae against the grand and universal truth.' Pardon me
again: it is the petty not the enlarged mind which prefers casuistry
to conviction; it is the confined and short sight of Ignorance which,
unable to comprehend the great bearings of truth, pries only into its
narrow and obscure corners, occupying itself in scrutinizing the atoms
of a part, while the eagle eye of Wisdom contemplates, in its widest
scale, the luminous majesty of the whole. Survey our faults, our errors,
our vices,--fearful and fertile field! Trace them to their causes: all
those causes resolve themselves into one,--Ignorance! For as we have
already seen that from this source flow the abuses of Religion, so also
from this source flow the abuses of all other blessings,--of talents, of
riches, of power; for we abuse things, either because we know not their
real use, or because, with an equal blindness, we imagine the abuse more
adapted to our happiness. But as ignorance, then, is the sole spring
of evil, so, as the antidote to ignorance is knowledge, it necessarily
follows that, were we consummate in knowledge, we should be perfect in
good. He, therefore, who retards the progress of intellect countenances
crime,--nay, to a State, is the greatest of criminals; while he who
circulates that mental light more precious than the visual is the
holiest improver and the surest benefactor of his race. Nor let us
believe, with the dupes, of a shallow policy, that there exists upon the
earth one prejudice that can be called salutary or one error beneficial
to perpetrate. As the petty fish which is fabled to possess the property
of arres