what Johnson goes on to say it is clear
that George II. was in Germany at the time of the Prince's secret visit.
He was there the greater part of 1750, but not in 1753 or 1759. In 1750,
moreover, 'the great army of the King of Prussia overawed Hanover.'
Smollett's _England_, iii. 297. This explains what Johnson says about
the King of Prussia stopping the army in Germany.

[564] See _ante_, iv. 165, 170.

[565] COMMENTARIES on the laws of England, book 1. chap. 3. BOSWELL.

[566] B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon one
subject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, a
distinguished passage in support of the Christian Revelation.--After
shewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the _indirect_
attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and perplex religious
principles, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whom
he politely calls 'an eloquent historian,' the archdeacon thus expresses
himself:--

'Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every
mind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most
important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as
violating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency.
There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to be
tolerable. I mean that class of reasoners who can see _little_ in
christianity even supposing it to be true. To such adversaries we
address this reflection.--Had _Jesus Christ_ delivered no other
declaration than the following, "The hour is coming in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,--they
that have done well [good] unto the resurrection of life, and they that
have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," [_St. John_ v. 25]
he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy
of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his
mission was introduced and attested:--a message in which the wisest of
mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to
their inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had been
discovered already.--It had been discovered as the Copernican System
was;--it was one guess amongst many. He alone discovers who _proves_,
and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies by
miracles that his doctrine comes from GOD.'--Book V. chap. 9.

If infidelity be disingenuously dispersed in every