The patriarch of Ferney wrote in favor of toleration; some friends of religious indifference have pleaded the cause of liberty of conscience:  the fact is certain.  But other writers, animated by a living faith, have also demanded liberty for all:  the fact is not less certain.  Some years ago, at nearly the same epoch, the Pere Lacordaire and our own Alexander Vinet consecrated to this noble cause, the former the attractive brilliancy of his eloquence, the latter all the fineness of his delicate analyses.  The friends of Lacordaire are gathering up the vibrations of that striking utterance which proclaimed:  “Liberty slays not God."[33] Let us gather up also the good words, which, uttered on the borders of our lake, have gained entrance far and near into many hearts.  I should like to take such and such a Parisian journalist, bring him into our midst, and get him to acquaint himself thoroughly with the results of our experience; I should like to conduct him to the cemetery of Clarens, place him by the tomb of Vinet, and tell him what that man was.—­If, as he returned to his home, my journalist did not leave behind him at the French frontier, as contraband merchandise, all that he would have seen and learnt in our country, he would perhaps understand that the surest road by which to arrive at respect for the consciences of others is not indifference, but firmness of faith, in humility of heart, and largeness of thought.  All the writers who have devoted their pen to the defence of the rights of the human soul have not therefore been sceptics.  Without continuing this discussion of proper names, let us settle what is here the true place of writers.  Before there are men who demand liberty and digest the theory of it, there must be other men who take it, and who suffer for having taken it.  If liberty is consolidated with speech and pen, it is founded with tears and blood; and the sceptical apostles of toleration conveniently usurp the place of the martyrs of conviction.  “What we want,” rightly observes a revolutionary writer, “is free men, rather than liberators of humanity."[34]

In fact, liberty comes to us above all from those who have suffered for it.  Its living springs are in the spirit of faith, and not, as they teach us, in the spirit of indifference.  It is easy to understand, that where no one believes, the liberty to believe would not be claimed by any one.

Let us now endeavor to penetrate below facts, in order to bring back the discussion to sure principles.  Let us ask what, in regard to liberty of conscience, are the natural consequences of faith, and the natural consequences of scepticism.