Nor only so:  but I now reflected that the falsity of the prophecy in Dan. vii. (where the coming of “a Son of Man” to sit in universal judgment follows immediately upon the break-up of the Syrian monarchy,)—­to say nothing of the general proof of the spuriousness of the whole Book of Daniel,—­ought perhaps long ago to have been seen by me as of more cardinal importance.  For if we believe anything at all about the discourses of Christ, we cannot doubt that he selected “Son of Man” as his favourite title; which admits no interpretation so satisfactory, as, that he tacitly refers to the seventh chapter of Daniel, and virtually bases his pretensions upon it.  On the whole, it was no longer defect of proof Which presented itself, but positive disproof of the primitive and fundamental claim.

I could not for a moment allow weight to the topic, that “it is dangerous to disbelieve wrongly;” for I felt, and had always felt, that it gave a premium to the most boastful and tyrannizing superstition:—­as if it were not equally dangerous to believe wrongly!  Nevertheless, I tried to plead for farther delay, by asking:  Is not the subject too vast for me to decide upon?—­Think how many wise and good men have fully examined, and have come to a contrary conclusion.  What a grasp of knowledge and experience of the human mind it requires!  Perhaps too I have unawares been carried away by a love of novelty, which I have mistaken for a love of truth.

But the argument recoiled upon me.  Have I not been 25 years a reader of the Bible? have I not full 18 years been a student of Theology? have I not employed 7 of the best years of my life, with ample leisure, in this very investigation;—­without any intelligible earthly bribe to carry me to my present conclusion, against all my interests, all my prejudices and all my education?  There are many far more learned men than I,—­many men of greater power of mind; but there are also a hundred times as many who are my inferiors; and if I have been seven years labouring in vain to solve this vast literary problem, it is an extreme absurdity to imagine that the solving of it is imposed by God on the whole human race.  Let me renounce my little learning; let me be as the poor and simple:  what then follows?  Why, then, still the same thing follows, that difficult literary problems concerning distant history cannot afford any essential part of my religion.

It is with hundreds or thousands a favourite idea, that “they have an inward witness of the truth of (the historical and outward facts of) Christianity.”  Perhaps the statement would bring its own refutation to them, if they would express it clearly.  Suppose a biographer of Sir Isaac Newton, after narrating his sublime discoveries and ably stating some of his most remarkable doctrines, to add, that Sir Isaac was a great magician, and had been used to raise spirits by his arts, and finally was himself carried up to