doption of
one or two particular doctrines, to the exclusion of all the rest, with
a total indifference to morality, and a sovereign contempt of prudence,
made up the character against which, I confess, I entertained a secret
disgust. Still, however, I loved _you_ too well, and had too high an
opinion of your understanding, to suspect that you would ever be drawn
into those practical errors, to which I had been told your theory
inevitably led. Yet I own I had an aversion to this dreaded enthusiasm
which drove me into the opposite extreme."

"How many men have I known," replied Mr. Stanley, smiling, "who, from
their dread of a burning zeal, have taken refuge in a freezing
indifference! As to the two extremes of heat and cold, neither of them
is the true climate of Christianity; yet the fear of each drives men of
opposite complexions into the other, instead of fixing them in the
temperate zone which lies between them, and which is the region of
genuine piety."

"The truth is, Sir John, _your_ society considers ardor in religion as
the fever of a distempered understanding, while in inferior concerns
they admire it as the indication of a powerful mind. Is zeal in politics
accounted the mark of a vulgar intellect? Did they consider the
unquenchable ardor of Pitt, did they regard the lofty enthusiasm of Fox,
as evidences of a feeble or a disordered mind? Yet I will venture to
assert, that ardor in religion is as much more noble than ardor in
politics, as the prize for which it contends is more exalted. It is
beyond all comparison superior to the highest human interests, the truth
and justice of which, after all, may possibly be mistaken, and the
objects of which, must infallibly have an end."

Dr. Barlow came in, and seeing us earnestly engaged, desired that he
might not interrupt the conversation. Sir John in a few words informed
him what had passed, and with a most graceful humility spoke of his own
share in it, and confessed how much he had been carried away by the
stream of popular prejudice, respecting men who had courage to make a
consistent profession of Christianity. "I now," added he, "begin to
think with Addison, that singularity in religion is heroic bravery,
'because it only leaves the species by soaring above it.'"

After some observations from Dr. Barlow, much in point, he went on to
remark that the difficulties of a clergyman were much increased by the
altered manners of the age. "The tone of religious writ