I do not know that
it is in any degree true that the influence of religion is the greatest
where there are the fewest dissenters.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONCLUSION,
In religion, as in every other subject of human reasoning, much depends
upon the order in which we dispose our inquiries. A man who takes up a
system of divinity with a previous opinion that either every part must
be true or the whole false, approaches the discussion with great
disadvantage. No other system, which is founded upon moral evidence,
would bear to be treated in the same manner. Nevertheless, in a certain
degree, we are all introduced to our religious studies under this
prejudication. And it cannot be avoided. The weakness of the human
judgment in the early part of youth, yet its extreme susceptibility of
impression, renders it necessary to furnish it with some opinions, and
with some principles or other. Or indeed, without much express care, or
much endeavour for this purpose, the tendency of the mind of man to
assimilate itself to the habits of thinking and speaking which prevail
around him, produces the same effect.
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