Darkness Instead of Light

The faculties of man ought to be
circumscribed only by that extensive circle which embraces the full
extent of their native and accumulated activity. When religious
prejudices are permitted to mingle their gloomy effects with the
exalted conceptions of enlightened reason, the important cause of
truth and the dearest interests of humanity become perceptibly
retrograde, and darkness instead of light pervades the moral world.

 --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

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