What Would Become Of History, Had We

There Is No Method Of Reasoning More Common, And Yet None More Blameable, Than, In Philosophical Disputes, To Endeavour The Refutation Of Any Hypothesis, By A Pretence Of Its Dangerous Consequences To Religion And Morality. When Any Opinion Leads To Absurdities, It Is Certainly False; But It Is Not Certain That An Opinion Is False, Because It Is Of Dangerous Consequence. Such Topics, Therefore, Ought Entirely To Be Forborne; As Serving Nothing To The Discovery Of Truth, But Only To Make The Person Of An Antagonist Odious.

The Stability Of Modern Governments Above The Ancient, And The Accuracy Of Modern Philosophy, Have Improved, And Probably Will Still Improve, By Similar Gradations.

Courage, Of All National Qualities, Is The Most Precarious; Because It Is Exerted Only At Intervals, And By A Few In Every Nation; Whereas Industry, Knowledge, Civility, May Be Of Constant And Universal Use, And For Several Ages, May Become Habitual To The Whole People.

Reason Is, And Ought Only To Be The Slave Of The Passions.

Liberty Of Thinking, And Of Expressing Our Thoughts, Is Always Fatal To Priestly Power, And To Those Pious Frauds On Which It Is Commonly Founded.