in religion.

[Footnote 54: It must however be acknowledged, that, amidst beautiful
sentiments, such as are indelicate are occasionally interspersed. But
the quakers might remedy this objection by procuring a new edition of
the purest classics only, in which particular passages might be omitted.
They might also add new Latin notes, founded on Christian principles,
where any ideas were found to be incorrect, and thus make Heathenism
itself useful, as a literal teacher of a moral system. The world, I
believe, would be obliged to the Quakers for such an edition, and it
would soon obtain in most of the schools of the kingdom.]

The principal argument against a philosophical education, which is the
next subject for consideration, is, that men, who cultivate such
studies, require often more proofs of things than can always be had, and
that, if these are wanting, they suspend their belief. And as this is
true in philosophy, so it may be true in religion. Hence persons
accustomed to such pursuits, are likely to become sceptics or infidels.
To this I answer, that the general tendency of philosophy is favourable
to religion. Its natural tendency is to give the mind grand and sublime
ideas, and to produce in it a belief of the existence of one great
cause, which is not visible among men. Thus, for example, I find that
the planets perform a certain round! They perform it with a certain
velocity. They do not wander at random, but they are kept to their
orbits. I find the forces which act upon them for this purpose. I find,
in short, that they are subject to certain laws. Now, if the planets
were living agents, they might have prescribed these laws to themselves.
But I know that this, when I believe them to consist of material
substances, is impossible. If then, as material substances, they are
subject to laws, such laws must have been given them. There must have
been some lawgiver. In this manner then I am led to some other great,
and powerful, and invisible Agent or Cause. And here it may be observed,
that if philosophers were ever baffled in their attempts at discovery,
or in their attempts after knowledge, as they frequently are, they would
not, on this account, have any doubt with respect to the being of a God.
If they had found, after repeated discoveries, that the ideas acquired
from thence were repeatedly or progressively sublime, and that they led
repeatedly or progressively to a belief of the existence of a superior
Power,