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the human mind. In these unsophisticated records I can discover the clearest analogies, both of thought and expression, by which much that superstition makes mysterious may be satisfactorily explained.

Having ventured so far to speak of what I conceive to be John Woolman's weaknesses, I am now about to enter upon the more satisfactory employment of bearing witness to the high qualities of his head and heart. The great characteristic of his mind is practical reason; that of his heart, true benevolence and its necessary consequence, rational self-denial. It is a most remarkable fact, that if the substance of Woolman's book was divested of the peculiar phraseology of the Quakers, and if, instead of the name Christ, Conscience or the Leading Divine Principle was employed, you might pass it as a work of the later Stoics. I will only quote one passage.

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There is a Principle, which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God.-It is deep, and inward, confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root, and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren, in the best sense of the expression. Using ourselves to take ways which appear most easy to us, when inconsistent with that purity, which is without beginning, we thereby set up a government of our own, and deny obedience to him, whose service is true liberty."-Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, p. 323.

This and similar passages, which one might take as translated from Marcus Aurelius himself, are to me of the deepest interest. When I find a man totally deficient in learning, and even in common education, rising to this

moral sublimity merely by giving himself up conscientiously to the guidance of the principle proclaimed to the world by Jesus, I have a more convincing proof of the divine origin of his mission than any related miracle could furnish me with. Many, I am aware, will condemn such a view as totally opposed to Christianity. Unfortunately, the Jewish notion of a privileged religion, a peculiar address from God, a secret disclosed to a certain set of people, is very commonly attached to the idea of the Gospel. Whatever, therefore, identifies its spirit with what in all ages and nations has sanctified the souls of such men, as through the darkness of heathenism, shine still as stars of the first magnitude in virtue, is rejected as totally unchristian, as Deistical.

I recommend you to read John Woolman's book before you return it to the worthy lady who had the goodness to lend it to me-one * whom I consider to be admirably prepared by nature and moral training to enter fully into the spirit of the book. As you allow me to address you somewhat in the tone of a father, I will add, that you should avail yourself of the opportunity offered by John Woolman's Journal, to carry on that most useful study which teaches us to translate minds, just as, by means of Grammars and Dictionaries, we become able to translate languages. For such moral translations as I recommend, we are sure to find the key in our own hearts and minds, provided they are not in bondage to any man. The truth is one; and the Source of it One, accessible to all rational beings.

Adieu till next Sunday.

The late Mrs. Rathbone.

II.

My dear Friend,

July 17, 1836.

The Established Clergy of this town have most distinctly asserted a right to make their authority the basis of National Education. It is true that they hide themselves behind the Bible. So have all Priesthoods concealed themselves behind some idol or oracle; but whose voice will be heard? Will it not be the voice of the managers of the Oracle ? The Bible (it is too well known from experience) can be made to say any thing; if uninterpreted by the Spirit of Christ, its authority will justify every thing most injurious to mankind. I will not appeal to the history of remote times, or of barbarous and totally depraved periods. I wish I had at hand a work of the celebrated Bossuet, which I read in my youth, but which I have had no opportunity of seeing again for many years.

The title, if I mis

take not the words, is, La Politique de l'Ecriture; that

Now that work is a

such is the meaning I am certain. most able digest of what may be called, by antiphrasis, the Law of Despotism. The whole system of government under which France groaned in the reign of Louis XIV. is systematically deduced from the Bible; the usurpations of the Clergy are exhibited in the character of privileges directly flowing from the revelation of God's will.-Believe me, my dear friend, whoever grants the right of interpreting a divine Oracle to any man or set of men, surrenders himself, helpless, into the interpreter's hands. What is a priest-ridden nation, but a nation which allows an Established Clergy (call them as you will) to declare what is the unquestionable will of God? Yet a populous, refined, and independent town, like Liverpool, allows in silence,

which might appear acquiescence, large placards to cover its walls, in which it is expressly declared that National Education must be based on the Bible, and that the Clergy of the Established Church have a right to superintend and direct the earliest study of the Sacred Books.

There are certain errors which, having been transmitted for many ages in a settled form of words, preserve still the appearance of unquestionable axioms. These are the main foundations of the most formidable opposition with which mental light has to contend amongst us. "Religion must be the basis of all good Education." At the high sound of this declaration all, more or less, bow consent. Yet what is the practical meaning of this pretended first principle? How does it happen that the word religion is, in this case, taken as a term incapable of any but one sense? In countries where, to the shame of civilization, the power of the government is engaged to prevent the expression of doubt in regard to the exclusive truth of the doctrines and practices maintained by a favoured priesthood, the proposition in question can have but one meaning, however false it may be. Religion means, in such countries, a definite thing. But what does it mean in the British empire? Can any one acquaint me with that sense of the word religion which produces this wonderful consent among sects who mutually and fiercely condemn each other, as propagators of the most mischievous errors? I believe not. Perhaps, however, I shall be able to discover that mysterious sense-the cause of this singular unanimity.

Since the contending parties cannot be supposed to approve the opposite dogmas which struggle for diffusion by means of education, and none but ourselves (allow me this expression, though it might appear presumptuous in so

recent and inactive a Unitarian as myself,) separate for the instruction of children the uncontested from the disputed parts of Christianity-the words religious instruction or religion can have but one sense capable of obtaining assent from all. By religion they must mean clerical or priestly instruction. In this sense it is, I am sure, that all agree in the proposition, "religious instruction must be the basis of all good education." Religious instruction, by the tacit consent of parties, each of which has despaired of obtaining the mastery to the exclusion of all others, means instruction according to the opinions of some priesthood—some set of men claiming a more direct communication with the Deity than all the rest of mankind :-some combination of mana

gers of the common oracle-the Bible. Despairing, at least for the present, of that extended and exclusive empire which all dogmatical sects aim at, these rivals for spiritual power have instinctively perceived that it is the interest even of the most opposite clergies or ministries, to unite against that growing spirit which rejects at once the claims of all priesthoods, or would-be priesthoods, whatever. At the head of this temporary coalition stand naturally the members of the priesthood by law; for owing to the enormous privileges which the Church enjoys, and the abundant means it possesses to purchase proselytes, especially among the indigent classes, they have grounds to hope that this consent in favour of clergies in general, will turn to their own advantage in particular; and they look forward to some future period when the Church shall reign, if not exclusively, so prominently, at least, as to cast all other denominations into perfect shade.

It is unquestionably with this view that the present zeal for Scriptural education (meaning, of course, that sense of

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