But the fear of innovation, in this country, extends to every
thing. -- This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive timidity
of indolent slugs, who guard, by sliming it over, the snug place,
which they consider in the light of an hereditary estate; and
eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, instead of fulfilling the
duties, excepting a few empty forms, for which it was endowed.
These are the people who most strenuously insist on the will of
the founder being observed, crying out against all reformation,
as if it were a violation of justice. I am now alluding
particularly to the relicks of popery retained in our colleges,
when the protestant members seem to be such sticklers for the
established church; but their zeal never makes them lose sight of
the spoil of ignorance, which rapacious priests of superstitious
memory have scraped together. No, wise in
their generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of
possession, as a strong hold, and still let the sluggish bell
tinkle to prayers, as during the days when the elevation of the
host was supposed to atone for the sins of the people, lest one
reformation should lead to another, and the spirit kill the
letter. These Romish customs have the most baneful effect on the
morals of our clergy; for the idle vermin who two or three times
a day perform in the most slovenly manner a service which they
think useless, but call their duty, soon lose a sense of duty. At
college, forced to attend or evade public worship, they acquire
an habitual contempt for the very service, the performance of
which is to enable them to live in idleness. It is mumbled over
as an affair of business, as a stupid boy repeats his task, and
frequently the college cant escapes from the preacher the moment
after he has left the pulpit, and even whilst he is eating the
dinner which he earned in such a dishonest manner.
