Nay, nay, no compliments; I will not be interrupted--Dare I you think
that riches, rank, and power, are usurpations; and that wisdom and
virtue only can claim distinction? Dare you make it the business of
your whole life to overturn these prejudices, and to promote among
mankind that spirit of universal benevolence which shall render them
all equals, all brothers, all stripped of their artificial and false
wants, all participating the labour requisite to produce the
necessaries of life, and all combining in one universal effort of mind,
for the progress of knowledge, the destruction of error, and the
spreading of eternal truth?
There is such energy, madam, in all you say, that, while I listen to
you, I dare do any thing, dare promise any thing.
Nay, but the daring of which I speak, must be the energy of your own
mind, not of mine.
Do not distress yourself and me with doubts, madam. I have heard you
yourself say that truth ultimately must prevail. I may differ with you
in some points; but I am willing to hear, willing to discuss; and, if
truth be on your side, there can be no danger.
The only danger is in the feeble or false colouring which the defenders
of truth may give it, and not in truth itself.
I am too well convinced of your power to feel your doubts. You oblige
me to see with your eyes, hear with your ears, believe what you
believe, and reject what you think incredible. I am and must be
whatever you please to make me. You have but to prescribe your own
conditions.