are not providing for mad people; there are places for them in the neighbourhood.’ (meaning moorfields.) Mayo.  ’But, Sir, is it not very hard that I should not be allowed to teach my children what I really believe to be the truth?’ Johnson.  ’Why, Sir, you might contrive to teach your children extra scandalum; but, Sir, the magistrate, if he knows it, has a right to restrain you.  Suppose you teach your children to be thieves?’ Mayo.  ‘This is making a joke of the subject.’  Johnson.  ’Nay, Sir, take it thus:—­that you teach them the community of goods; for which there are as many plausible arguments as for most erroneous doctrines.  You teach them that all things at first were in common, and that no man had a right to any thing but as he laid his hands upon it; and that this still is, or ought to be, the rule amongst mankind.  Here, Sir, you sap a great principle in society,—­property.  And don’t you think the magistrate would have a right to prevent you?  Or, suppose you should teach your children the notion of the Adamites, and they should run naked into the streets, would not the magistrate have a right to flog ’em into their doublets?’ Mayo.  ’I think the magistrate has no right to interfere till there is some overt act.’  Boswell.  ’So, Sir, though he sees an enemy to the state charging a blunderbuss, he is not to interfere till it is fired off?’ Mayo.  ‘He must be sure of its direction against the state.’  Johnson.  ’The magistrate is to judge of that.—­He has no right to restrain your thinking, because the evil centers in yourself.  If a man were sitting at this table, and chopping off his fingers, the magistrate, as guardian of the community, has no authority to restrain him, however he might do it from kindness as a parent.—­Though, indeed, upon more consideration, I think he may; as it is probable, that he who is chopping off his own fingers, may soon proceed to chop off those of other people.  If I think it right to steal Mr. Dilly’s plate, I am a bad man; but he can say nothing to me.  If I make an open declaration that I think so, he will keep me out of his house.  If I put forth my hand, I shall be sent to Newgate.  This is the gradation of thinking, preaching, and acting:  if a man thinks erroneously, he may keep his thoughts to himself, and nobody will trouble him; if he preaches erroneous doctrine, society may expel him; if he acts in consequence of it, the law takes place, and he is hanged.’  Mayo.  ’But, Sir, ought not Christians to have liberty of conscience?’ Johnson.  ’I have already told you so, Sir.  You are coming back to where you were.’  Boswell.  ’Dr. Mayo is always taking a return post-chaise, and going the stage over again.  He has it at half price.’  Johnson.  ’Dr. Mayo, like other champions for unlimited toleration, has got a set of words.  Sir, it is no matter, politically, whether the magistrate be right or wrong.  Suppose a club were to be formed,