744 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

or three hundred, or perhaps into as many thousand smallsects, of which no one could be considerable enough to dis-turb the public tranquillity. The teachers of each sect, see-ing themselves surrounded on all sides with more adversariesthan friends, would be obliged to learn that candour andmoderation which are so seldom to be found among theteachers of those great sects, whose tenets, being supportedby the civil magistrate, are held in veneration by almost allthe inhabitants of extensive kingdoms and empires, and whotherefore, see nothing round them but followers, disciples,and humble admirers. The teachers of each little sect, find-ing themselves almost alone, would be obliged to respectthose of almost every other sect, and the concessions whichthey would mutually find it both convenient and agreeableto make to one another, might in time probably reduce thedoctrine of the greater part of them to that pure and rationalreligion, free from every mixture of absurdity, imposture, orfanaticism, such as wise men have in all ages of the worldwished to see established ; but such as positive law has per-haps never yet established, and probably never will establishin any country : because with regard to religion, positive lawalways has been, and probably always will be, more or lessinfluenced by popular superstition and enthusiasm. Thisplan of ecclesiastical government, or more properly of noecclesiastical government, was what the sect called Inde-pendents, a sect no doubt of very wild enthusiasts, proposedto establish in England towards the end of the civil war. Ifit had been established, though of a very unphilosophicalorigin, it would probably by this time have been productiveof the most philosophical good temper and moderation withregard to every sort of religious principle. It has been esta-blished in Pennsylvania, where, though the Quakers happento be the most numerous, the law in reality favours no one sectmore than another, and it is there said to have been productiveof this philosophical good temper and moderation.

But though this equality of treatment should not be pro-ductive of this good temper and moderation in all, or evenin the greater part of the religious sects of a particular coun-try ; yet provided those sects were sufficiently numerous, andeach of them consequently too small to disturb the publictranquillity, the excessive zeal of each for its particular tenetscould not well be productive of any very hurtful effects, but,on the contrary, of several good ones : and if the government