I do not believe
that discourses of this kind are held, or that anything like them will
be held, by any who walk about without a keeper. Yet I confess, that, on
occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of the weakest
reasonings, because they discover the strongest passions. These things
will never be brought out in definite propositions. They would not
prevent pity towards any persons; they would only cause it for those who
were capable of talking in such a strain. But I know, and am sure, that
such ideas as no man will distinctly produce to another, or hardly
venture to bring in any plain shape to his own mind, he will utter in
obscure, ill-explained doubts, jealousies, surmises, fears, and
apprehensions, and that in such a fog they will appear to have a good
deal of size, and will make an impression, when, if they were clearly
brought forth and defined, they would meet with nothing but scorn and
derision.
There is another way of taking an objection to this concession, which I
admit to be something more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
examination.
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