In answer to this I say, that religion like light is imparted without being diminished. That whatever is done abroad, can be no hindrance or lett to the conversion of infidels or others at home. That those who engage in this affair, imagine they will not be missed, where there is no want of schools or clergy; but that they may be of singular service in countries but thinly supplied with either, or altogether deprived of both: That our colonies being of the same blood, language, and religion with ourselves, are in effect our countrymen. But that christian charity, not being limited by those regards, doth extend to all mankind. And this may serve for an answer to the first point, that our design is against duty. To the second point I answer; That ignorance is not so incurable as error; that you must pull down as well as build, erase as well as imprint, in order to make proselytes at home: Whereas, the savage Americans, if they are in a state purely natural, and unimproved by education, they are also unincumbred with all that rubbish of superstition and prejudice, which is the effect of a wrong one. As they are less instructed, they are withal less conceited, and more teachable. And not being violently attached to any false system of their own, are so much the fitter to receive that which is true. Hence it is evident, that success abroad ought not to be measured by that which we observe at home, and that the inference, which was made from the difficulty of the one to the impossibility of the other, is altogether groundless. It hath more the appearance of reason to object (what will possibly be objected by some) that this scheme hath been already tried to no purpose, several Indians having returned to their savage manners after they had been taught to write and read, and instructed in the Christian religion; a clear proof that their natural stupidity is not to be overcome by education. In answer to this, I say, that the scheme now proposed hath never been tried, forasmuch as a thorough education in religion and morality, in divine and humane learning, doth not appear to have been ever given to any savage American; that much is to be hoped from a man ripe in years, and well grounded in religion and useful knowledge, while little or nothing can be expected from a youth but slightly instructed in the elements of either: that from the miscarriage or gross stupidity of some, a general incapacity of all Americans cannot be fairly inferred: that they shew as much natural sense as other uncultivated nations: that the empires of Mexico and Peru were evident proofs of their capacity, in which there appeared a reach of politics, and a degree of art and politeness, which no European people were ever known to have arrived at without the use of letters or of iron, and which some perhaps have fallen short of with both those advantages.