What mainly does the following passage reveal about the author's beliefs
(paragraph 3)?
If I should only give a few pulls at the parish bell-rope, as for a fire, that is,
without setting the bell, there is hardly a man on his farm in the outskirts of
Concord, notwithstanding that press of engagements which was his excuse
so many times this morning, nor a boy, nor a woman, I might almost say, but
would forsake all and follow that sound, not mainly to save property from the
flames, but, if we will confess the truth, much more to see it burn, since burn it
must, and we, be it known, did not set it on fire--or to see it put out, and have
a hand in it, if that is done as handsomely; yes, even if it were the parish
church itself.