Page:The Scourge - Volume 5.djvu/36

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24 Duties of scepticism*


policy of his punishment. The work of Paine had teen in a course of long and extensive circulation; its sophistries were of a description neither calculated to satisfy the learned, nor to mislead the illiterate; and while many dangerous works had been openly and widely circulated, Mr. Eaton appeared to have been selected from among the number of offending publishers to satisfy the supposed demands of insulted justice. By his friends the selection was regarded as peculiarly cruel and oppressive; his age alone gave him a powerful claim on the compassion of the ministers of the law, his circumstances were by no means affluent, and his conduct for many years preceding the commission of the offence, had been such as to obliterate the 'remembrance of his early indiscretions; a subscription, therefore, was proposed at Cobbett's dinner, and it was supposed that proper measures would be taken to carry it into effect. Whether any effectual means have been taken to relieve his necessities or to remunerate his losses I have not been' informed; but his recent publication of a work for which no apology can be advanced, under the circumstance's incident to his peculiar situation, has rendered it doubtful even to the most partial of his friends, whether the donation of the most trifling sum, would deserve the praise of rational benevolence.

It is the first duty of the sceptic to enquire whether, even admitting his opinions on religious subjects to be true, their diffusion would contribute to the happiness of the * community. He may believe our faith in Jesus Christ to be a delusion, but if he be influenced only by his ostensible motives, he will examine in what degree that belief contributes to the peace or the misery of the world: he will enquire^ with the utmost scrupulosity, whether the pleasure that may arrive to himself from the promulgation of his opinions, is not likely to be more than counterbalanced by their influence on the minds of the simple and illiterate; he will not, m

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