Monongalia Mirror

Thorough-Paced Doctrine.
An anecdote in Coke's Life of Bolingbroke, is probably little known, but suggests a highly profitable lesson.
Dr. Yalden was arrested upon suspicion of being concerned in the affair, which was at the time called Bishop Atterbury's plot. His papers were seized and strictly examined; but the only circumstance which could countenance the suspicion that was entertained of him, was a mysterious memorandum found in an old pocket-book.
It consisted of two cabalistic words "thorough-paced doctrine." This memorandum the examiners could not understand, and they therefore, of course, concluded that it was pregnant with treason. Dr. Yalden's explanation removed the difficulty. It was an old memorandum, he said, which he had made in the reign of Queen Anne. He was then at the University; and during one of the vacations, he paid a visit to the metropolis. While there, he had been induced by curiosity to hear the famous Daniel Burgess, and a passage in his sermon had occasioned the suspected entry. The preacher had been inveighing against pernicious doctrines; and after enumerating many kinds, continued, "But above all other pernicious doctrines, beware, my beloved, of the thorough-paced doctrine that doctrine, I mean, which, coming in at one ear, passes straight through the head and out at the other ear."

Yours, Mr. Editor,
FRATER.