imposed upon them; but immediately dis|cover their error▪ and the fraud which had deceived them, and are distracted with horror, remorse, and resentment. Such as are our sentiments for the unhappy Seid and Palmira, such ought we to feel for every person who is in this manner misled by religion, when we are sure that it is really religion which misleads him, and not the pretence of it, which is made a cover to some of the worst of human passions.
As a person may act wrong by following a wrong sense of duty, so nature may some|times prevail, and lead him to act right in opposition to it. We cannot in this case be displeased to see that motive prevail, which we think ought to prevail, tho' the person himself is so weak as to think otherwise. As his conduct, however, is the effect of weak|ness, not principle, we are far from bestow|ing upon it any thing that approaches to compleat approbation. A bigotted Roman Catholic, who, during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, had been so overcome by compassion, as to save some unhappy pro|testants, whom he thought it his duty to destroy, would not seem to be entitled to
