es deserve this praise, it cannot be refused
to the Jesuits. Nothing, in fact, can be more laudable than such a zeal,
and all that can be objected to it is foreign to its real nature. The
treasons and crimes, which have been imputed to the Jesuits, Hume himself
has shown were falsely charged to them. Vice is not inherent in any
profession of faith; it is inherent in the corrupted nature of man. Compare
a Knox with a Bordaloue, a Prynne with a Beauregard or a Bossuet, and we
shall be blind if we do not perceive the difference between the zeal which
actuates the Christian, and that which leads to treason and to crime. {59}

Hume's other objection to the Jesuits was, "their cultivation of learning
for the nourishment of superstition." Now we very well know how far his
idea of superstition extended, and that it did not fall short of the whole
system of revealed religion. It is not necessary to dwell long upon this
objection. The superstition which is injurious to mankind, must be the
offspring of ignorance; and, no one denies, that ignorance and superstition
were very prevalent in the dark ages of the world, and even long after the
revival of letters; no one denies, that weak and illiterate minds, of
whatever persuasion, are yet prone to it. What is meant by the superstition
_nourished by learning_ can only be the impression of mysteries, which the
understanding, however puzzled, finds sufficient grounds to entertain, and
on which to build hopes of an immaterial and immortal connexion with the
Supreme Being. This kind of superstition, or rather this religious
impression, has ever been cherished by the noblest minds, and forms a
prominent part of the character of learned {60} men of all persuasions.
Attached, myself, to the church of England, it is, nevertheless, clear to
me, that the Reformation has generated the most absurd superstitions; and I
cannot conceive that there is a man, of unbiassed mind and good sense, who
would not rather embrace all that has been retrenched from the catholic
creed, than adopt the spurious abominations and blasphemies which, every
where, under the screen of toleration, disgrace the world. But I am not
here entering into a defence of the Roman church, or into a derision of the
vagaries which have sprung from imaginary rationality, or misapplied
enthusiasm; my only purpose was to speak of Hume's authority; and I shall
quit the subject of superstition to turn to that of casuistry, to which he
also