They keep their
opinions, however, greatly to themselves, inasmuch as most of their
countrymen feel strongly about the gods, and they hold it wrong to give
pain, unless for some greater good than seems likely to arise from their
plain speaking.
On the other hand, surely those whose own minds are clear about any given
matter (even though it be only that there is little certainty) should go
so far towards imparting that clearness to others, as to say openly what
they think and why they think it, whenever they can properly do so; for
they may be sure that they owe their own clearness almost entirely to the
fact that others have done this by them: after all, they may be mistaken,
and if so, it is for their own and the general well-being that they
should let their error be seen as distinctly as possible, so that it may
be more easily refuted. I own, therefore, that on this one point I
disapproved of the practice even of the highest Ydgrunites, and objected
to it all the more because I knew that I should find my own future task
more easy if the high Ydgrunites had already undermined the belief which
is supposed to prevail at present.
In other respects they were more like the best class of Englishmen than
any whom I have seen in other countries.
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