Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/145

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
AND TOLERATION.
123

Had I the direction of the press, he should be welcome to my imprimatur for any thing he should please to favour the world with; and ready, if I know myself, should I be, to furnish him with every convenience in my power for that purpose. It is for the interest of truth that every thing be viewed in fair and open day light, and it can only be some sinister purpose that is favoured by darkness or concealment of any kind. My sentiments may be fallacious, but if no body were allowed to write against me, how could that fallacy be made to appear? Be the prayer of the magnanimous Ajax ever mine,

Ποιησον δ’ αιϑϱην, δος δ’ οφϑαλμοισιν ιδεσϑαι.
Εν δε φαει ϰαι ολεσσον Homer. Lib. 17. v. 646.

This writer artfully mentions only three opinions or principles, one under each class of religion, morals, and politics, as necessary to be guarded by civil penalties, and not to be tolerated; and, no doubt, he has chosen those principles which a friend to his country would most wish to have suppressed, and with