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a common benefit, an inalienable right: the free governments of Holland and England introduced the practice of toleration; and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by the prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind has understood the limits of its powers, and the words and shadows that might amuse the child can no longer satisfy his manly reason. The volumes of controversy are overspread with cobwebs: the doctrine of a Protestant church is far removed from the knowledge or belief of its private members; and the forms of orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh, or a smile, by the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism. The predictions of the Catholics are accomplished: the web of mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose number must not be computed from their separate congregations; and the pillars of Revelation are shaken by those men who preserve the name without the substance of religion, who indulge the license without the temper of philosophy. *
Chapter LV:
The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.
Part I. The Bulgarians. -- Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The Hungarians. -- Their Inroads In The East And West. -- The Monarchy Of Russia. -- Geography And Trade. -- Wars Of The Russians Against The Greek Empire. -- Conversion Of The Barbarians. Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the ancient barrier of the Danube, so often