Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/584

 doubts many men, of all parties, may consistently concur; but it was painful to me to see how, even in so well exercised a mind as that of Dr. Darwall, these habits of thinking, not calmly indulged, led, by almost imperceptible degrees, to the renunciation of any cheering belief in the progressive improvement of well-governed communities, and to melancholy doubts whether arts, letters, free forms of government, and popular education, ever had conduced, or ever would add, to the positive happiness of mankind. The unhappy tendency of these views was, latterly, very observable in Dr. Darwall's letters and conversation; his reflections on what he thought the impending fate of; his country filled him with dejection and distress; insomuch that, for the last year or two of his life, he saw the propriety of diverting his thoughts from politics; and, even, discontinued his attendance at the news-room, that he might not read the newspapers. There were few subjects, on which we differed, in which I was not inclined to respect his opinions more than my own: and on these great subjects of religion and of politics, if I cannot deny that he was open to the charge of intolerance, I may, with solemn truth, aver that he was most sincere in his own belief. And, indeed, when I recollect some memorable occasions on which I have seen him in the society of those who totally differed from him in religious faith, and, above all, when I recollect our unbroken friendship, which his dying hour only terminated, I feel that I am almost guilty of harshness in admitting that to be intolerance which, principally observable in his animated discourse, imparted no asperity to