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in it calculated to make him and his Church feel, I believe he would as gladly have omitted all reference to it, as he feigns the professor of Berlin to have done. I do not take to my learning, or study, or any other quality, the credit of being formidable to the members of the Roman communion: but I well know, that nothing is more closely concealed, and more dreaded when exposed, than some of the vital documents of their own Church. Nothing which her enemies can say, carries so much terror to her heart as the echo of her own words. In the case of a work, then, which is hardly more than such an echo, the point with them (since compulsion as yet is out of the question) is, to obviate the curiosity, especially of their own people, as effectually as possible. And this is be done, not by violent or elaborate censure, which would disclose the feeling excited, but by an apparently dispassionate and passing remark, which shall impress upon the reader, that the work in question is entitled to no particular attention, and may be neglected without any loss of valuable information. The obnoxious author is not to be set upon with sword or pistol, but he is to be quietly smothered with a wet blanket. To do them
