obiter et in transitu
sentences, and, above all, his anthropological reflections and experiences — (for example, the inimitable account of a religious dispute, from the first collision to the spark, and from the spark to the world in flames, in his
Dissuasive from Popery
), — these are the costly gems which glitter, loosely set, on the chain armour of his polemic Pegasus, that expands his wings chiefly to fly off from the field of battle, the stroke of whose hoof the very rock cannot resist, but beneath the stroke of which the opening rock sends forth a Hippocrene. The work in which all his powers are confluent, in which deep, yet gentle, the full stream of his genius winds onward, and still forming peninsulas in its winding course — distinct parts that are only not each a perfect whole — or in less figurative style — (yet what language that does not partake of poetic eloquence can convey the characteristics of a poet and an orator?) — the work which I read with most admiration, but likewise with most apprehension and regret, is the
Liberty of Prophesying
.
If indeed, like some Thessalian drug, or the strong herb of Anticyra,
— — that helps and harms,
Which life and death have sealed with counter charms —
it could be administered by special prescription, it might do good service as a narcotic for zealotry, or a solvent for bigotry.
The substance of the preceding tract may be comprised as follows: