MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 413 Phronimus, a considerable East -land merchant, happened upon a copy of these advices about the time when he permitted his son to commence a partnership with him in his trade ; he transcribed them with his own hand, and made a present of them to the youth, together with the articles of partnership. Here, young man, said he, is a paper of more worth than these articles. Read it over once a month, till it is wrought in your very soul and temper. Walk by these Rules, and I can trust my estate in your hands. Copy out these counsels in your life, and you will make me and yourself easy and happy. LVII. Souls in .Fetters. WHAT a sore unhappiness is it to the christian world, that men are confined in parties ! There are some noble souls impri- soned from their infancy within the pales of a particular clan, or narrow tribe, and they must never dare to think beyond those limits. What shameful bars are laid in the way to obstruct the progress of knowledge, and the growth of the intellectual world ! Generous sentiments are stifled and forbid to be born, lest the parent of them, who belongs perhaps to one sect, should be suspected of too much intimacy with another : and a thousand brave and free thoughts are crushed to death in the very bud, lest they should look like the offspring of a foreign tribe, when they appear in open light. What a wretched influence, names, and sects, and parties have upon the commonwealth of Christi- anity ! We hardly dare believe ourselves when we have found out a truth, if our ancestors did not believe it too. A few days ago Aleutherus told me, that when he was a boy, he firmly believed the mystery of the mass, and thought the priest could turn bread into flesh and blood, for all his relations were of that mind ; but when I began to think formyself a little, said he, my faith staggered, the falsehood seemed too big for my belief ; and yet I- know not what strange secret attachment to the religion of my fathers forbid me to deny what they had pro. fessed. So I shut my eyes, and laid all my rising doubts to sleep ; I stretched my faith to its former size, and swallowed the old doctrine again. Without thinking whether it were pos- sible, I called it divine; for I could not bear the thoughts of being a heretic. Clerico would gladly have heard Euphonus preach, if he durst have ventured the censure of his friends, and been seen in a meeting - house. He could willingly have let his soul loose from all human forms and inventions, if he had not!lately subscribed the twentieth article of the church among the rest, and declared that she has power to ordain rites and ceremonies. But since he has subscribed, he does not dare to indulge his thoughts in so much freedom. Phileuchus happened to lodge a week at the house of nd3 0
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=