THE BORDERERS. 261 little danger, with equally little benefit to them. To the devotee of pleasure there is something harsh and repulsive in doe. trines and dogmas ; to take part with them would be going out of the way while to those who can contrive to make right opinions live on friendly terms with wrong practices, it would be a gratuitous folly to add to the faults of conduct the errors of speculation. In this affectionate remonstrance, we allude not to what might be called pal- pable and tangible offences ; these the decorums of their condition set them above any temptation to commit. We speak not of any disbelief or contempt of religion ; these are not the immediate perils of their position : it is not infidelity but indifference -a disinclination to Christianity, not as opposed to unbelief, but as it contradicts the maxims, the manners, the habits of their associates. Their danger consists in a supreme at- tachment topresent objects, and a neglect
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