“That,” said the other, “is certainly a shrewd question, and one which, I am happy to say, we can none of us answer from experience; as we have never had, and I hope never shall have, any such among us. I can, therefore, only speak from conjecture as to what conclusions we might come to in such a case. Probably, a good deal might depend on the actual temper of the persons who should hold in theory persecuting principles; for as men are too often worse than their principles, so, as you must be well aware, they are sometimes better; and if men of such principles were content to let their right and duty of persecution remain by some humane subterfuge in abeyance and dormant, we should probably let them alone. Much might also depend on their strength of numbers, on their power, as well as their disposition to do mischief. The cat appears to be much the same kind of animal as the lions and tigers we have read of; but, being too small to be formidable, is allowed to go loose about the house. I suppose it would be unsafe to extend the same toleration to a tiger.
“But on one point I think I can answer you, though still from conjecture, pretty confidently: if there should be any sect or class of men in one of our states whom we found it impossible to place, with due regard to our safety, on the footing of citizens, we should undoubtedly part company; we should banish them all, or we should imprison them all; nay, I think we should even put them all to death at once, were there no better alternative, rather than tolerate among us a race of helots or Gibeonites,—a degraded and disfranchised caste, especially one degraded on account of religious differences. That is contrary to all the principles, political and religious, which we have imbibed, as it were, with our very mothers’ milk.
“There is, however, one point in which you were remarking, the other day, that our practice is more rigid than yours, and in which we might perhaps appear at the first glance to be, though in truth we are not, acting at variance with these principles. You were remarking that we are more prompt and daring than most Europeans in placing under restraint those who appear to be in a state of dangerous mental derangement. We hold it to be a benefit to the individual, as well as to the community, to confine and keep in order one who is palpably incapable of taking due care of himself; as, for instance, an habitual drunkard, who, though not otherwise mad, when sober cannot command himself so as to refrain from drinking, when liquor is within his reach, till he becomes no better than mad. Now, although no legal interference takes place to prevent a man from setting forth his own views of religion, or any other subject, and appealing to the judgment of his hearers, it is otherwise if he profess to have received a divine revelation and to be the bearer of an immediate message from the Deity. We do not pronounce such pretensions a crime; for the magistrate has no right to prejudge the question as to their truth, nor, for the same reason, are they considered as decisive evidence of insanity: but they do justify a certain degree of suspicion of it, and of such an insanity as may prove highly mischievous in various ways; and especially as being, above all other kinds of insanity, dreadfully infectious. Madmen of this particular class are, among persons of a nervous and excitable temperament, almost as dangerous as mad dogs.
“Now, any person professing, as the Apostles did, to have received an immediate divine commission to be special messengers of God, sent forth by his miraculous interposition with prophetic inspiration, must be either a true apostle, or an impious impostor, or else a man under mental alienation. That there can be but these three possible suppositions is evident; though it may not be evident, in any given case, which of the three is the true one. On the first supposition, the man is evidently entitled, as soon as he shall have exhibited his credentials, by displaying such miracles as are the ‘signs of an apostle,’ to high veneration, and diligent attention to what he is commissioned to declare. On the second supposition, he ought to be punished, on the same principle (only more severely) as pretended witches, conjurors, and other such cheats who practise on the credulity of the superstitious. On the third supposition, the man ought to be secluded and taken care of, and subjected to proper treatment for the cure of his disorder.
“In all cases, then, of professed inspiration and immediate divine commission, our laws enjoin solitary confinement, as perfectly suitable on any of the foregoing three suppositions. The person is subjected to no indignity or unnecessary pain; he is treated tenderly, and carefully provided for; but he is closely secluded from all but medical attendants and other official persons. We have a full trust that, if he be indeed a divine messenger, he will be miraculously liberated. We find in Scripture that this was done repeatedly; as in the case of the first imprisonment of the Apostles,—in that of Peter alone, afterwards,—and that of Paul and Silas. They were thus enabled both to execute their commission, and, by appeal to the miracle, to attest its truth. Nor do we consider that, as long as we abstain from all reproach or unnecessary violence, we should be doing any wrong even to real prophets, or presumptuously tempting the Deity; for it is contrary to all reason, and to all Scripture, to suppose that He ever did or can require implicit faith to be given to his ambassadors without furnishing them with testimonials; with credentials, to satisfy us that they really are sent by Him. To call upon a man pretending to inspiration to display a sensible miracle (as by a supernatural release from confinement) is no affront to God or man; it is only asking a professed ambassador for his credentials. But if, again, the man be either an impious impostor, or a lunatic, his confinement is, in the one case, a just, though very mild punishment, or, in the other, an act of kindness towards himself, as well as a removal of a nuisance to the public.
“Instances of the first class, I need hardly tell you, have not occurred; and there are not many of us, I believe, who expect that they ever will. But whatever may be thought of that last question, we all agree that it would imply want of faith, ignorance of Scripture, and folly, to doubt that God, if He did send us an inspired messenger, would fail to vindicate His own honour, and establish the prophet’s mission, by miraculous proof; or to suspect that it could be displeasing to Him that we should insist on such proof, and refuse to incur the risk of idolatry in paying divine homage to a human device or delusion.
“In respect of the second class—impostors, our law has operated chiefly (as might have been expected) in the way of prevention. In a few instances, however, such men (having, for the most part, secretly circulated their pretensions among the credulous) have been induced, by the correction thus administered, to confess their fraud, and submit to the penalties of the laws enacted against common cheats.
“Of the third class—those under delusion, there have been a good many instances; and, in a large proportion of them, quiet seclusion and proper medical treatment have effected the restoration of reason: but some cases, as in all other kinds of derangement, prove incurable. There are also, by your account, in Europe also, such patients in almost every lunatic asylum,—imaginary apostles, prophets, and even deities. The only difference between us is, that you allow several of such patients to go at large and do mischief in the world, because you think it necessary to have fully ascertained that a man is deranged before you confine him; whereas we think it right to confine him at once, as soon as it is made evident that he is either deranged, or an impostor, or able (as a divine messenger, and therefore under a miraculous dispensation,) to obtain immediate release. In all these cases (and there can be no other supposition) we hold it manifestly allowable, and consequently right, to confine him.”
It was in the course of this conversation, after the discussion of the foregoing and several kindred subjects, that one of the company made a remark respecting the views which had been presented to him of the history of Europe since their departure from it, as compared with its state at that time, and the general history of mankind.
“Our founders,” he said, “appear to have had peculiar advantages, from which we have, I trust, derived some fruit, in the particular time and circumstances of their change of abode. They left Europe at the exciting period of the Reformation, which had shaken the hold that ancient opinions, habits, and institutions had long maintained over the human mind; when men’s energies were roused, their imaginations kindled, and all their feelings highly stimulated.