A writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ [15:1] assures us 'the majority of
every nation consists of rude uneducated masses, ignorant, intolerant,
suspicious, unjust, and uncandid, without the sagacity which discovers
what is right, or the intelligence which comprehends it when pointed
out, or the morality which requires it to be done.' And yet religious
philosophers are fond of quoting the all but universal horror of Atheism
as a formidable argument against that much misunderstood creed.
The least reflection will suffice to satisfy any reasonable man that the
speculative notions of rude, uneducated masses, so faithfully described
by the Scotch Reviewer, are for the most part grossly absurd and
consequently the reverse of true. If the masses of all nations are
ignorant, intolerant, suspicions, unjust, and uncandid, without the
sagacity which discovers what is right, or the intelligence which
comprehends it when pointed out, or the morality which requires it to be
done; who with the least shadow of claim to be accounted reasonable will
assert that a speculative heresy is the worse for being unpopular, or
that Atheism is false, and must be demoralising in its influence because
the majority of mankind declare it so.
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