animated by the spirit of justice; and that they will judge uprightly in all matters submitted to them?”
“Such,” replied Nicolas, himself a notarius and well learned in all the judicature of his country, “has ever been the pretense whereby men have been persuaded to surrender their own self-government; and intrusted their lives and fortunes to the hands of men who thus attempt to substitute their own fancies for the law of the land. That law is supreme even over those commissioned to administer it. It commands them to obey the procedure it prescribes.”
“There are principles and subjects over which your law can exercise no control,” replied Tobias. “Matters of conscience and of secret motive can not be reached by law passed ky the states. Such law can only affect outward and coarse things. The law divine, interpreted by the ministers of God, is alone applicable to unavowed motives and opinions. The sacredness of morality falls not within the domain of your law. Only God’s law can reach it.”
“An extremely narrow and uninspired notion of morality,” rejoined Nicolas. “All truth falls within the empire of morality. The man who testifies truly and expresses his full knowledge out of regard for truth, on the simplest subject of evidence, obeys the law of morals as fully as the man who pretends to propound mysteries.
“All truth is perfect; and the element of sincere truthfulness in a matter of slight moment is as pure and as heavenly, to its extent, as in a subject of the largest importance. The man who expresses the
