We
thought that they were capable of receiving and meliorating, and above
all of preserving, the accessions of science and literature, as the
order of Providence should successively produce them. And after all,
with this Gothic and monkish education (for such it is in the
groundwork) we may put in our claim to as ample and as early a share
in all the improvements in science, in arts, and in literature which
have illuminated and adorned the modern world, as any other nation
in Europe. We think one main cause of this improvement was our not
despising the patrimony of knowledge which was left us by our
forefathers.
It is from our attachment to a church establishment that the
English nation did not think it wise to entrust that great,
fundamental interest of the whole to what they trust no part of
their civil or military public service, that is, to the unsteady and
precarious contribution of individuals. They go further. They
certainly never have suffered, and never will suffer, the fixed estate
of the church to be converted into a pension, to depend on the
treasury and to be delayed, withheld, or perhaps to be extinguished by
fiscal difficulties, which difficulties may sometimes be pretended for
political purposes, and are in fact often brought on by the
extravagance, negligence, and rapacity of politicians. The people of
England think that they have constitutional motives, as well as
religious, against any project of turning their independent clergy
into ecclesiastical pensioners of state.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162