eeks or months that
elapsed between this passionate abhorrence and the Salisbury Register,
which is still extant. "Ego Gulielmus Chillingworth,... omnibus hisce
articulis....... et singulis in iisdem contentis volens, et ex animo
subscribo, et consensum meum iisdem praebeo. 20 die Julii 1638." But,
alas! the chancellor and prebendary of Sarum soon deviated from his own
subscription: as he more deeply scrutinized the article of the Trinity,
neither scripture nor the primitive fathers could long uphold his
orthodox belief; and he could not but confess, "that the doctrine of
Arius is either the truth, or at least no damnable heresy." From this
middle region of the air, the descent of his reason would naturally rest
on the firmer ground of the Socinians: and if we may credit a doubtful
story, and the popular opinion, his anxious inquiries at last subsided
in philosophic indifference. So conspicuous, however, were the candour
of his nature and the innocence of his heart, that this apparent levity
did not affect the reputation of Chillingworth. His frequent changes
proceeded from too nice an inquisition into truth. His doubts grew out
of himself; he assisted them with all the strength of his reason: he
was then too hard for himself; but finding as little quiet and repose
in those victories, he quickly recovered, by a new appeal to his own
judgment: so that in all his sallies and retreats, he was in fact his
own convert.

Bayle was the son of a Calvinist minister in a remote province of
France, at the foot of the Pyrenees. For the benefit of education,
the protestants were tempted to risk their children in the catholic
universities; and in the twenty-second year of his age, young Bayle
was seduced by the arts and arguments of the jesuits of Toulouse. He
remained about seventeen months (Mar. 19 1669--Aug. 19 1670) in their
hands, a voluntary captive: and a letter to his parents, which the new
convert composed or subscribed (April 15 1670), is darkly tinged
with the spirit of popery. But Nature had designed him to think as
he pleased, and to speak as he thought: his piety was offended by the
excessive worship of creatures; and the study of physics convinced him
of the impossibility of transubstantiation, which is abundantly refuted
by the testimony of our senses. His return to the communion of a falling
sect was a bold and disinterested step, that exposed him to the rigour
of the laws; and a speedy flight to Geneva protected him