WHOSOEVER designs the change of religion in a country or government, by any other means than that of a general conversion of the people, or the greatest part of them, designs all the mischiefs to a nation that use to usher in or attend the two greatest distempers of a state, civil war or tyranny; which are violence, oppression, cruelty, rapine, intemperance, injustice; and, in short, the iniserable effusion of human blood, and the confusion of all laws, orders, and virtues among men. Such consequences as these, I doubt, are something more than the disputed opinions of any man, or any particular assembly of men, can be worth.

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.
Works, vol. i. p. 171

CHARLES the Fifth, they say, repented of Eaving persecuted the Lutherans. He said to himself, I have thirty watches on my table, and no two of them mark precisely the same time: how could! then imagine, that in matters of religion I could make all men think alike ? What folly and pride!

HELVETIUS.

De l'Homme, vol. i. sect. iv. ch.17

To subdue th' unconquerable mind,

Το make one reason have the same effect

Upon
all apprehensions; to force this,
Or that man, just to think, as thou and I do;
Impossible! unless souls were alike

In all, which differ now like human faces.

Rowe.

Tamerlane, act iv.
LI-

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

WITHOUT freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech: which is the right of every man, as far as by it he does not hurt and controul the right of another; and this is the only check which it ought to suffer, and the only bounds which it ought to know.

Whoever would overturn the liberty of the nation must begin by subduing freedom of speech.

To do public mischief without hearing of it is the prerogative and felicity of tyranny.

All ministers therefore who were oppressors, or intended to be oppressors, have been loud in their complaints against freedom of speech, and the license of the press; and always restrained or endeavoured to restrain both. In consequence of this they have brow-beaten writers, punished them violently and against law, and burnt their works, By all which they showed how much truth alarmed them, and how much they were at enmity

with truth.

Freedom of speech produces. excellent writers, and encourages men of fine genius. Tacitus tells us, that the Roman commonwealth bred great and numerous authors, but when it was enslaved those great wits were no more. Tyranny had usurped, the place of equality, which is the soul of liberty

མཔས7,

and

and destroyed public courage. The minds of men, terrified by unjust power, degenerated into all the vileness and methods of servitude: abject sycophancy and blind submission grew the only means. of preferment, and indeed of safety; men durst not open their mouths but to flatter.

Pliny the younger observes that this dread of tyranny had such effect, that the senate, the great Ronan senate, became at last stupid and dumb. And in one of his Epistles, speaking of the works of his uncle, he makes an apology for eight of them, as not written with the same vigour which was to be found in the rest; for that these eight were writ ten in the reign of Nero, when the spirit of writing was cramped by fear.

GORDON.

Cato's Letters, vol. i. No. 15.

As long as there are such things as printing and writing, there will be libels: it is an evil arising out of a much greater good. However it does not follow that the press is to be sunk for the errors of the press-for it is certainly of much less consequence that an innocent man should now and then be aspersed than that all men should be enslaved.

Many methods have been tried to remedy this evil. In Turkey and the Eastern monarchies, all printing is forbid; which does it with a witness; for if there can be no printing at all there can be no libels printed; and by the same reason there ought to be no talking, lest people should talk reason, blasphemy, or nonsense; and for a stronger

reason yet no preaching, because the orator has an opportunity of haranguing often to a larger auditory than he can persuade to read his lucubrations: but I desire it may be remembered, that there is neither liberty, arts, sciences, learning, or knowledge in

these countries.

But another method has been thought on in these Western parts of the world, much less effectual, and yet more mischievous than the former, namely, to put the press under the protection of the prevailing party, and authorise libels on one side only, and deny the other side the opportunity of defending themselves.

What mischief is done by libels to balance all these evils? They seldom or never annoy an innocent man, or promote any considerable error. Wise and honest men laugh at them, and despise them, and such arrows always fly over their heads, or fall at their feet. Most of the world take part with a virtuous man, and punish calumny by their detestation of it. The best way to prevent libels is not to deserve them. Guilty men alone fear them, or are hurt by them, whose actions will not bear examination, and therefore must not be examined. 'Tis fact alone which annoys them; for if you tell no truth, I dare say you may have their leave to tell as many lies as you please.

The same is true in speculative opinions. You may write nonsense and folly as long as you think fit, and no one complains of it but the bookseller. But if a bold, honest, and wise book sallies forth, and attacks those who think themselves secure in

their

their trenches, then their camp is in danger, and they call out all hands to arms, and their enemy is to be destroyed by fire, sword, or fraud. But 'tis senseless to think that any truth can suffer by being thoroughly searched, or examined into; or that the discovery of it can prejudice right religion, equal government, or the happiness of society in any respect: she has so many advantages above error, that she wants only to be shown to gain admiration and esteem; and we see every day that she breaks the bonds of tyranny and fraud, and shines through the mists of superstition and ignorance: and what then would she do, if these barriers were removed, and her fetters taken off?

IDEM.

Vol. i. No. 32, and vol. ii.

ONE of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the greatest blessings a people can enjoy, is liberty; but every good in this life has its alloy of evil; licentiousness is the alloy of liberty; it is an ebullition, and excrescence; it is a speck upon the eye of the political body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I destroy the .body, lest I injure the eye upon which it is apt to appear. There is such a connection between licentiousness and liberty, that it is not easy to correct the one, without dangerously wounding the other;

* Every man has liberty to speak what he pleases against the people, but against a prince no man can talk without a thousand apprehensions and dangers.

MACHIAVEL.

Discourses, b. i. cb. lviii.