AN ESSAY ON CONCILIATION IN MATTERS OF RELIGION, AND ON THE PROPER ADAPTATION OF INSTRUCTION TO THE CHARACTER OF THE PERSONS TAUGHT, WITH SOME APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT ΤΟ [Reprinted from the Church of England Quarterly Review, revised, with BY A BENGAL CIVILIAN. Calcutta: R. C. LEPAGE AND CO., BRITISH LIBRARY; W. THACKER 1849. -Wer sich Den Menschen nützlich machen will, muss doch Schiller, Don Carlos, Act IV. Scene 3. He who wishes to make himself useful to men, must first seek to assimilate himself to them. CALCUTTA: PRINTED BY W. H. HAYCOCK, Bishop's College Press. ESSAY ON CONCILIATION IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. To study the most probable means of recommending truth, both human and divine, to the minds of men, is a task worthy of the highest wisdom, and a duty imperatively binding on all who assume the office of instructing others. It is but too evident that there are many persons in whose souls the beauty of moral truth awakens no love or admiration. The main reason of this, no doubt, is, because, while pointing to some vice which they must renounce, or to some present sacrifice which they must undergo, truth necessarily appears to wear an aspect of sternness and severity. But is it not also undeniable, that she is made, by some of her advocates, to assume a forbidding expression, which is not her own? It is, indeed, generally confessed, that the obstacles to the reception of truth, arising from the inattention, the prejudices, and the pas sions of men, are manifold, and difficult to surmount. But, after all, those prejudices and passions are not sufficiently regarded, with the practical purpose of overcoming their resistance or eluding their force. It is not duly remembered that their action may be either aggravated by abrupt and injudicious assaults, or neutralized by avoiding all direct collision. Men who are convinced, and justly so, that they are in the right, are apt to be too easily satisfied that they have done their duty, if they have stated the truth plainly and faithfully. If it is rejected, they are content to set this to the account of their opponent's perverseness, without considering whether they themselves may not be chargeable with some error or defect, which has interfered with the natural effect of their teaching. Zeal and honesty in a disputant are not alone sufficient to justify a reasonable hope of success. By themselves these virtues will prompt him to the eager and direct pursuit of his end, without adequate reflection on the means by which it is most likely to be attained. It is necessary that the impulsive force of zeal should be regulated by wisdom, which will regard not only the importance of the object to be gained, but also the prospects of success, and the course of action by which it is most likely to be ensured; and will exact from the teacher of truth, not merely a knowledge of his subject, but a careful study of human nature, and a discreet adaptation of the style and matter of his address to the particular character of the parties with whom he may be dealing, united to a calm and kindly spirit. The advocate of truth will then only fulfil his vocation when he has taken pains to examine how his subject may be presented in the most convincing point of view, and in the most attractive aspect. As his professed object is not the mere statement of truth in that abstract form in which it would approve itself to the calm and unperturbed intellect, but the persuasion of impassioned beings, whose judgments are liable to be warped by manifold influences, he is bound to consider how, without losing anything of its essence, the truth he would enforce may be moulded into the form most likely to find its way into the minds of others without encountering resistance. Putting out of view the arguments which prove the wisdom of such a course of procedure, it is one to which we are instinctively led by that desire to conciliate, which is one of the principles of our constitution. We naturally seek to stand well with our neighbours, and shrink from doing anything by which we may forfeit their good-will. And this is a |