hen he was an
old man, in 1790, President Stiles of Yale College took the freedom of
interrogating him as to his religious faith. It was the first time that
any one had ever thus ventured. His reply[3] is interesting: "As to
Jesus of Nazareth," he says, "I think his system of morals and his
religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like
to see." But he thinks they have been corrupted. "I have, with most of
the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity;
though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied
it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon
an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm,
however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good
consequences, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more
respected and more observed; especially as I do not see that the Supreme
takes it amiss by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of
the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure." His God was
substantially the God of Christianity; but concerning Christ he was
generally reticent and non-committal.

[Note 3: _Works_, x. 192.]

Whatever were his own opinions, which undoubtedly underwent some changes
during his life, as is the case with most of us, he never introduced
Christianity, as a faith, into any of his moral writings. A broad human
creature, with a marvelous knowledge of mankind, with a tolerance as
far-reaching as his knowledge, with a kindly liking for all men and
women; withal a prudent, shrewd, cool-headed observer in affairs, he was
content to insist that goodness and wisdom were valuable, as means,
towards good repute and well-being, as ends. He urges upon his nephew,
about to start in business as a goldsmith, "_perfect honesty_;" and the
reason he gives for his emphasis is, that the business is peculiarly
liable to suspicion, and if a man is "once detected in the smallest
fraud ... at once he is ruined." The character of his argument was
always simple. He usually began with some such axiom as the desirability
of success in one's enterprises, or of health, or of comfort, or of ease
of mind, or a sufficiency of money; and then he showed that some virtue,
or collection of virtues, would promote this result. He advocated
honesty upon the same principle upon which he advocated that women
should learn to keep accounts, or that one should hold one's self in the
background in