least no damnable heresy." From this middle region of the air, the
descent of his reason would naturally rest on the firmer ground of
the Socinians: and if we may credit a doubtful story, and the
popular opinion, his anxious inquiries at last subsided in
philosophic indifference. So conspicuous, however, were the candour
of his nature and the innocence of his heart, that this apparent
levity did not affect the reputation of Chillingworth. His frequent
changes proceeded from too nice an inquisition into truth. His
doubts grew out of himself; he assisted them with all the strength
of his reason: he was then too hard for himself; but finding as
little quiet and repose in those victories, he quickly recovered, by
a new appeal to his own judgment: so that in all his sallies and
retreats, he was in fact his own convert.

Bayle was the son of a Calvinist minister in a remote province of
France, at the foot of the Pyrenees. For the benefit of education,
the protestants were tempted to risk their children in the catholic
universities; and in the twenty-second year of his age, young Bayle
was seduced by the arts and arguments of the jesuits of Toulouse.
He remained about seventeen months (Mar. 19 1669--Aug. 19 1670) in
their hands, a voluntary captive: and a letter to his parents, which
the new convert composed or subscribed (April 15 1670), is darkly
tinged with the spirit of popery. But Nature had designed him to
think as he pleased, and to speak as he thought: his piety was
offended by the excessive worship of creatures; and the study of
physics convinced him of the impossibility of transubstantiation,
which is abundantly refuted by the testimony of our senses. His
return to the communion of a falling sect was a bold and
disinterested step, that exposed him to the rigour of the laws; and
a speedy flight to Geneva protected him from the resentment of his