men like myself, free and happy, and superstition and freedom cannot go
together. Where do you find an enslaved and yet a happy people?"

"You wish, then, to see the people sovereign?"

"God forbid! There must be a sovereign to govern the masses."

"In that case you must have superstition, for without it the masses will
never obey a mere man decked with the name of monarch."

"I will have no monarch; the word expresses despotism, which I hate as I
do slavery."

"What do you mean, then? If you wish to put the government in the hands
of one man, such a man, I maintain, will be a monarch."

"I would have a sovereign ruler of a free people, of which he is the
chief by an agreement which binds them both, which would prevent him from
becoming a tyrant."

"Addison will tell you that such a sovereign is a sheer impossibility. I
agree with Hobbes, of two evils choose the least. A nation without
superstition would be a nation of philosophers, and philosophers would
never obey. The people will only be happy when they are crushed and
down-trodden, and bound in chains."

"This is horrible; and you are of the people yourself. If you have read
my works you must have seen how I shew that superstition is the enemy of
kings."