at large; and although a prolonged discrepancy is more likely under present circumstances to terminate in the surrender of the disputed points by than to the Government,-yet our phases of transition in this world occupy no small space upon the tract of national history; and it may often happen, at particular points of place and time, either,

1, that the convictions of the sovereign or governing body are actually weaker, according to the enumeration of social forces which I have recently made, in the entire body politic, than some competing system; or,

2, that, though not actually weaker in the aggregate of their social power, yet they are apparently weaker, because a majority of voices may refuse and resist them; or,

3, that, though not actually weaker in the sheer

amount of numerical adhesion, yet by reason of the tardy action of those who dislike change, and of the proverbial sedulity of those who desire it, the creed sanctioned by the State may seem to be repudiated by a majority of the people; or, 4, that without any just pretension to represent even a numerical superiority, nevertheless a minority dissentient from the State religion may, by restlessness, produce such a feverish irritation throughout the nation as to tempt the governing body to abandon that creed which is the occasion, and is put forward as the cause, of discord. 9. In all those perplexing combinations which I

have just enumerated, the State, represented in the law and in the governing body (both executive and, more especially, legislative), possesses a powerfully assimilating moral influence upon the people; and can do much to relieve itself from its dilemma by giving fair scope to its own qualifications as one of their habitual and appointed guides. This may not indeed be the case where there are no wise constitutional provisions for opening and holding open to the great interests of a country a way into the places of authority and public counsel; but where there is a real unity, a profound and energetic national life, it absolutely requires, as a pre-condition, this facility of circulation, this reciprocating influence between the members and the heart. Without this the State may be a fabric, but is not a growth: it may be elaborated by art, but the deeper wisdom of Nature and Providence disowns it.

10. It was the abuse of some former periods, that no legitimate influences were admitted to pass upwards in the social body: it is the fault of the present day to doubt the correlative truths, that legitimate influences of a moral and a religious description may be exercised by the State upon the people, as well as by the people on the State. Against this I argue that the State, when rightly constituted, is eminently competent by intrinsic as well as extrinsic attributes to lead, and to solicit, the mind of the people; to exercise the function, modified indeed, but yet real, of an instructor and even of a parent; and that the denial of the presump

tive title of the State, in virtue of these qualifications, to prompt and to advise even the numerical mass of the people, and much more its fractional and minor parts, in the matter of religion, is a manifest prelude both to the general degradation of its functions, and to the dissolution of the social bond.

11. That the State, then, must enact whatever is to take legal effect, it is not required to contend here, nor is it disputed elsewhere. In this technical sense, of course, the State must choose the national religion. The true question is, by what rule should it regulate this function of choice? Now if my arguments be sound, then, in order to a healthful state of society, the conscience of the ruling body should be the measure of the national religion; not only because in rigid theory this is required by the idea of its moral personality, but also because it is presumably nearer to the truth than the average of individual impressions or conclusions.

12. It does not follow from the fact that any given agent possesses the external means of promoting an object, as for example wealth and influence, that therefore universally he ought to set about it, or even to select those who shall set about it, or to lay down rules for their selection, if he have not the internal qualifications of mind which will enable him rightly to discharge that office; but if he have these internal along with those external qualifications, then the evidence is complete, and we read his duty in the simple possession of them, just as we are enabled to

infer the habits of creatures from their structure; as for example from the specific conformation of the teeth or the digestive organs in man, and in the inferior animals, we learn by what kind of food they were providentially ordained to be supported. Now the true moral right of pre-eminence, as Burke has observed,* essentially resides in talent and virtue, not in a limited but in the largest acceptation of the words; in talent, having reference to men as well as things, to practice as well as study; in virtue of a personal kind, or according to a social standard; but most of all, and with a transcendent sense, in that which flows out of religious principles of God's appointment. These qualities are found to pervade the masses of men in very varying degrees. Wherever there is a tendency towards equalisation of talent and virtue, the relation of governor to governed should become one regulated more by opinion, and less by coercion. But there always has been inequality enough to make it obvious that some men are better fitted to command than others, and therefore that their being in places of authority is a benefit, not merely to themselves, which is a secondary question, but likewise to the community at large.

13. We have seen, then, that there are in governments generally certain external means of a nature calculated for the propagation of religion. We have seen that the mere possession of those external means is not enough to prove the obligation, unless there be Thoughts on the French Revolution.

in governments intrinsically a competency of character, such as shall enable them to use those means aright and effectually for their purpose. Further, we find that there are dispersed through the mass of the nation men so far endowed with qualifications superior to the average, that they are by nature marked out as empowered to lead in civil society, and to discharge political functions. Now if there be a tendency in the institutions of a country to draw such men to such duties, then surely we find in the governors a competency to choose in matter of religion better than the average of the people will do it for themselves, and, commensurate exactly with that superiority, an obligation to exercise that choice, and, as it were, to advise or predispose the people to accept and follow that religion which the governing body has adopted as the best.

14. I do not say that individual convictions in an opposite direction are to give way to such an influence, or to follow the course of the patronage of the government; but simply this, that if the judgment of the legislature be upon the average better qualified to find and attest the truth in such a matter than that of the people, then, to that very same extent, it is entitled and therefore bound to be the instructor of the people. And I think this may be proved almost from the mouth of the opponent; for he will surely admit that, in a case where the people are wholly uninstructed, and the government emanates from the bosom of a Christian and an enlightened nation, this duty of instruction exists. Now suppose the people advanced