The first, it is well known, vacated his fellowship, and left himself
pennyless, rather than subscribe to the _Thirty-nine Articles_, from
which there is no doubt he conscientiously dissented; and when asked
to subscribe his belief in the notorious Shakspeare _forgery_ of the
Irelands, his reply was, "I subscribe to no articles of faith." When
Paley was solicited to sign his name to the supplication of the
petitioning clergy, for _relief from subscription_, he has the credit
of replying, he "_could not afford to keep a conscience_," a saying
that many have cherished to the prejudice of that great man's memory,
but which it is more than probable he said in his dry, humorous
manner, without suspicion it would be remembered at all, and merely to
rid himself of some importunate applicant. Paley, it is well known,
notwithstanding the conclusions to which some interested writers have
come, was strongly and conscientiously attached to the doctrines and
constitution of the Established Church; and it was impossible but
that, with his fine common-sense perception, he must have been well
aware, that no _Established Church_, such as is that of England, could
long exist as such, _if not fenced round by articles of faith_. And
here I am reminded of an