श्न्यूि अथवा ८०निष्ठली कहलाखन देडिझुख । १७ them pert and ignorant dogmatists by permitting them to know what could be said upon only one side of grave questions ? setting aside the narrowness of mind which such a course might have evinced, it would have been injurious to the mental energies and acquirements of the young men themselves. And (whatever may be said to the contrary) I can vindicate my procedure by quoting no less orthodox an authority than Lord Bacon. "If a man' says this philosopher (and no one ever had a better right to pronounco an opinion upon such matters than he) “will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts." This I need scarcely observe is always the case with contented ignoranco, when it is roused too late to thought. One doubt suggests another and universal scepticism is the consequence. I therefore thought it my duty to acquaint several of the college students with the substance of Hume's celebrated dialogue between Cleanthes and Philo in which the most subtle and refined arguments against theism are adduced. But I have also furnished them with Dr. Reid's and Dugald Stewart's more acute replies to Hume-replies which to this day continue unrefuted. This is the head and front of my ofnding. If tho religious opinions of the studenis have become unhinged in consequence of the course I have pursued, the fault is not mine. To produce conviction was not within my power and if I am to be condemned for the atheism of somelet me receive credit for the theism of others. Believe me, my deir sir, I am too thoroughly imbued with a deep sense of human ignorance and of the perpetual vicissitudes of орі nions to speak with confidence even of the most unimportant Re
