Many of our men of speculation, instead
of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the
latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and
they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice,
with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and
to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its
reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection
which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application to the
emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom
and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of
decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's
virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just
prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
LITERARY ATHEISTS.
The literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular
plan for the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they
pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only
in the propagators of some system of piety. They were possessed with
a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree; and from
thence, by an easy progress, with the spirit of persecution according
to their means. What was not to be done towards their great end by
any direct or immediate act, might be wrought by a longer process
through the medium of opinion.
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