_Mr. Anyside Antijack._ The church is in danger! _Mr. Forester._ I confess I do not see how the church is endangered by a simple request to prove the asserted necessary connection between the profession of moral philosophy and the practice of robbery. _Mr. Anyside Antijack._ For your satisfaction, sir, and from my disposition to oblige you, as you are a gentleman of family and fortune, I will prove it. Every moral philosopher discards the creed and commandments:[102] the sixth commandment says, Thou shalt not steal; therefore, every moral philosopher is a thief. _Mr. Feathernest, Mr. Killthedead, and Mr. Paperstamp._ Nothing can be more logical. The church is in danger! The church is in danger! _Mr. Vamp._ Keep up that. It is an infallible tocsin for rallying all the old women about us when everything else fails. _Mr. Vamp, Mr. Feathernest, Mr. Paperstamp, Mr. Killthedead, and Mr. Anyside Antijack._ The church is in danger! the church is in danger! _Mr. Forester._ I am very well aware that the time has been when the voice of reason could be drowned by clamour, and by rallying round the banners of corruption and delusion a mass of blind and bigoted prejudices, that had no real connection with the political question which it was the object to cry down: but I see with pleasure that those days are gone. The people read and think: their eyes are opened; they know that all their grievances arise from the pressure of taxation far beyond their means, from the fictitious circulation of paper-money, and from the corrupt and venal state of popular representation. These facts lie in a very small compass; and till you can reason them out of this knowledge, you may vociferate ‘The church is in danger’ for ever, without a single unpaid voice to join in the outcry. _Mr. Feathernest._ My friend Mr. Mystic holds that it is a very bad thing for the people to read: so it certainly is. Oh for the happy ignorance of former ages! when the people were dolts, and knew themselves to be so.[103] An ignorant man, judging from instinct, judges much better than a man who reads, and is consequently misinformed.[104] _Mr. Vamp._ Unless he reads the Legitimate Review. _Mr. Paperstamp._ Darkness! darkness! Jack the Giantkiller’s coat of darkness! That is your only wear. _Mr. Anyside Antijack._ There was a time when we could lead the people any way, and make them join with all their lungs in the yell of war: then they were people of sound judgment, and of honest and honourable feelings:[105] but when they pretend to feel the pressure of personal suffering, and to read and think about its causes and remedies—such impudence is intolerable. _Mr. Fax._ Are they not the same people still? If they were capable of judging then, are they not capable of judging now?