Page:A Collection of Essays and Tracts, Volume 1, Part 1.djvu/18

6 in the plan, but to the want of a proper disposition in the parties concerned.

As these testimonies would add little weight to the author's reasonings, in the estimation of the English reader, they have not been translated. Few persons at the present day, and especially in this country, will respond to the zeal manifested against Popery in the eighth chapter; yet we must remember, that the author wrote in other times, and under the influence of many exciting causes, of which we can at present have but an imperfect conception. We must, also, give credit to his own declaration, that principles and not men, were the objects of his remarks. But after all, it must be allowed, that it is not easy to reconcile some of the sentiments advanced in this chapter with the liberal and tolerant spirit, and rational views, which pervade all the other parts of this treatise.

The translation here published is the one mentioned above; and if it sometimes fails in elegance of style, it is seldom without the greater merit of being simple and perspicuous.