6724. POLITICS, Bigotry in.—
What an
effort of bigotry in politics * * * have
we gone through! The barbarians really flattered
themselves they should be able to bring
back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance
put everything into the hands of power
and priestcraft. All advances in science were
proscribed as innovations. They pretended
to praise and encourage education, but it
was to be the education of our ancestors.
We were to look backwards, not forwards,
for improvement; the President himself
[John Adams] declaring in one of his
answers to addresses, that we were never to
expect to go beyond them in real science.—
To Dr. Joseph Priestley. Washington ed. iv, 373.
Ford ed., viii, 21.
(W.
1801)
