“Where there is a great deal of smoke and no clear flame, it argueth much moisture in the matter, and yet it witnesseth certainly that there is fire there; and therefore dubious questioning is a much better evidence than that senseless deadness which most men take for believing. Men that know nothing in sciences have no doubts.”—Leighton, cited by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, American edition, 1829, p. 64.
“He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own Sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.”—Coleridge, ubi sup. p. 64, 65.
“While everybody wishes to believe rather than examine and decide, a just judgment is never passed upon a matter of the greatest importance; our opinion thereof is taken on trust. The error of our fathers which has fallen into our hands whirls us round and drives us headlong. We are ruined by the example of others. We shall be healed if we separate from the rabble. Now the people, in hostility with Reason, stand up as the defence of what is their own mischief.”—Seneca, De Vita beata, Ch. I., a free translation.
