Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/234

220 In fact, the vortices have been explored, and the Newtonian principle of gravitation is now more firmly eſtabliſhed, on the baſis of reaſon, than it would be were the government to ſtep in, and make it an article of neceſſary faith. Reaſon and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the ſupport of government. Truth can ſtand by itſelf. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquiſitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad paſſions, by private as well as public reaſons. And why ſubject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion deſirable? No more than of face and ſtature. Introduce the bed of Procruſtes then, and as there is danger that the great men may beat the ſmall, make us all of a ſize, by lopping the former and ſtretching the latter. Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The ſeveral ſects perform the office of a cenſor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, ſince the introduction of Chriſtianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, impriſoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? to make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To ſupport roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thouſand millions of people. That theſe profeſs probably a thouſand different ſyſtems of religion. That ours is but one of that thouſand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we ſhould wiſh to ſee the 999 wandering ſects gathered into the fold of truth. But againſt ſuch a majority we cannot effect this by force.