'He that should record _my_ idle talk, to the prejudice of the most paltry law, opinion, or custom of his parish, would do himself a great deal of wrong, and me too; for, in what I say, I warrant no other certainty, but 'tis what I _had then in my thought, a thought tumultuous and wavering_. ["I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet," says the offended king. "These words are not mine." _Hamlet_: "Nor mine _now_."] All I say is by way of discourse. _I should not speak so boldly, if it were my due to be believed, and so I told a great man, who complained to me of the tartness and contention of my advice_.' And, indeed, he would not, in this instance, that is very certain;--for he has been speaking on the subject of RELIGIOUS TOLERATION, and among other remarks, somewhat too far in advance of his time, he has let fall, by chance, such passages as these, which, of course, he stands ready to recall again in case any one is offended. ('These words are not mine, Hamlet.' 'Nor mine now.') 'To _kill men_, a clear and shining light is required, and our life is too real and essential, to warrant these supernatural and fantastic accidents.' 'After all 'tis setting a _man's conjectures_ at a very high price to _cause a man to be roasted alive upon them_.' He does not look up at all, after making this accidental remark; for he is too much occupied with a very curious story, which happens to come into his head at that moment, of certain men, who being more profoundly asleep than _men usually are_, became, according to certain grave authorities, what in their dreams they fancied they were; and having mentioned one case sufficiently ludicrous to remove any unpleasant sensation or inquiry which his preceding allusion might have occasioned, he resumes, 'If _dreams can sometimes so incorporate themselves with effects of life_, I cannot believe that therefore our will should be accountable to justice. _Which I say, as a man_, who am neither _judge nor privy counsellor_, nor think myself, by many degrees, worthy so to be, but a _man of the common sort_, born and vowed to the obedience of the public realm, both in _words_ and _acts_. '_Thought_ is free;--_thought_ is free.' _Ariel_.