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SECT.
iv.]
TN
REGARD
TO
OURSELVES.
491
no criterions
of
truth:
Nor
are
they
always
the result
of
a
sincere and unbiassed
examination, but
the
fruit of our
own
conceit and
of
the high esteem
of our
own
understand-
ings
:
We
are
sure
we
have been
in
the
right
even from
our early
years,
or
at
least
from
the day
of
manhood, and
we
desire to
be
no wiser,
nor
can any man make
us so.
It
is
granted there
may be some
subjects
that
we
have
searched
to
the
bottom,
we
have seen them
through and
through
and
by
much
labour
and
argument
we
are
able
to
pronounce
upon them with
just
assurance. This
may
be
allowed sometimes even
to
a
wise
and
a
modest
speaker
:
But
what
is
it, my
friends,
that
emboldens
the
bulk
of
mankind,
to
talk
with such
a
decisive
air
upon all
planner of
themes
as
they
do, when
they have
read or
studied almost nothing
of
the
matter
?
Hast
thou
found
out, O
man,
every
truth
in
the heights
and
the depths,
and
known every
secret thing
so well as
to
be
incapable
of
mistaking
?
What
inspires thee
to
dictate
as
though
thou
only'wert
the man
of
knowledge, and wisdom
must
die
with
thee
?
What
is
it
but
vanity
and
fulness
of
self
that
gives
any man such
assuming
airs,
and
such
an over-
bearing manner in
conversation,
that
others must not
be
suffered
to
speak,
while he
must
be
heard
with
silence
and
attention?
Nor
is
silence and
attention
enough without
a
submissive faith.
If
you
dare
to
doubt of
what
the
tongue of pride pronounces,
you
dare
to
be
impudent
in
his
opinion,
and
he
is
ready
to tell
you
so to
your
face,
What
is
it
else
but
this inward
arrogance
that
casts
a
scornful
eye
on any one in the company
who
dares
to
offer
at
an
argument
against
his
positions
?
And
a
con-
temptuous
scoff
is
thought
sufficient to
refute the
noblest
reasoning..
What
is
it
but
pride
and a
domineering
spi-
rit
that
tempts any
man to oblige
others to bind their
understandings and
their
consciences for ever
down to
every
punctilio of
his
own opinions,
and
reverence
every
sentence
as
though the
pen
of
divine
truth
had written
them.?
Happy
had it
been for the -uhristian world
if
this
assuming and imposing
spirit
had
never
been found,
but
only
and
always on
the heretical
side
!
Then
we
should
have
had a
more
evident and
distinguished token, where
to
seek for
truth,
_that is,
where this
pride
and tyranny
of
souls
had
no
place.
But
alas,
this
is
a vain
and a
fruit-
less
wish
!
Every nation ofchristendom
has felt the
infer-
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