e the obliged and the obliger happy; should he conceal this great
eternal truth, or should he divulge it with all the authority he
possessed, conscious, that in whatever degree it became the rule of
human life, in the same degree would it tend to the advantage of all the
world?"

"There cannot be a doubt upon the subject."

"But, should he know, either by the spirit of prophecy, or by intuitive
penetration, that the majority of mankind would never observe these
rules to any great degree, but would be blindly precipitated by their
passions into every excess against which he so benevolently cautioned
them; should this be a reason for his withdrawing his precepts and
admonitions, or for seeming to approve what was in its own nature most
pernicious?

"As prudent would it be to pull off the bridle when we mounted an
impetuous horse, because we doubted of our power to hold him in; or to
increase his madness by the spur, when it was clearly too great before.
Thus, sir, you will perceive, that the precepts of the Christian
religion are founded upon the most perfect knowledge of the human heart,
as they furnish a continual barrier against the most destructive
passions, and the most subversive of human happiness. Your own
concessions sufficiently prove, that it would have been equally
derogatory to truth, and the common interests of the species, to have
made the slightest concessions in favour either of human pride or
sensuality. Your extensive acquaintance with mankind will sufficiently
convince you, how prone the generality are to give an unbounded loose to
these two passions; neither the continual experience of their own
weakness, nor of the fatal effects which are produced by vicious
indulgences, has yet been capable of teaching them either humility or
moderation. What then could the wisest legislator do, more useful, more
benevolent, more necessary, than to establish general rules of conduct,
which have a continual tendency to restore moral and natural order, and
to diminish the wide inequality produced by pride and avarice? Nor is
there any greater danger that these precepts should be too rigidly
observed, than that the bulk of mankind should injure themselves by too
abstemious a temperance. All that can be expected from human weakness,
even after working from the most perfect model, is barely to arrive at
mediocrity; and, were the model less perfect, or the duties less severe,
there is the greatest reason to think, that