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C 858 )
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MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE.
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On the Retrospective Faculty * To the Ed...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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C 858 )
C 858 )
Miscellaneous Correspondence.
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE .
On The Retrospective Faculty * To The Ed...
On the Retrospective Faculty * To the Editor , Sir , The various objections to the iS Essay oai the proper Use of the Retrospective Faculty , " whiclli are stated by your correspondent Ovftsi ; , appear to me to originate in a single misconception , which might be easily rectified by a reference to some passages of the Essay itself , but which 1 will , however , answer in another form , in the hope that my meaning may not again be misapprehended . Your correspondent appears to adopt the motion , which it was the principal design of the Essay to subvert ; viz . that sorrow and remorse are either the same thing , or emotions indissolubly connected . He ( Could not otherwise have supposed that in advocating repentance im opposition to remorse , it was my design to exclude sorrow for sin from the number of salutary emotions by which the soul is to be regenerated ; or that the degree of sorrow was to be determined by human judgment and will- In p . 618 my words are , " As deep a feeling of shame as is consistent with a due independence of other men ' s opinions , as large a measure of sorrow as cam consist with a sensibility to surrounding blessings , as awfuL am emotion of fear as is compatible , with filial trust , are the proper constituents of repentance . " How will Qu 5 ei <; justify more ? In answer to his reply tu > the notion , ii that no shame or sorrow for sin should be indulged , except precisely the quantity necessary or useful ! to the future progress of the sinner , " II have only todiselaim the . supposition till at man can b < e the judge of the kind or degree of sorrow which in any <^ ase is salutary ; or that it
is in his power to measure it out to himself . If painful emotions are withim the power of the will , why are they ever experienced ? it it were within human choice whether or how much to grieve , who wouild grieve at all ? It is for God to administer sorrow , and for man , by investigating its proximate and final causes , to aid and direct its operation . liccause Franklin acquainted himself witih the philosophy of Electricity , did he imagine that the wonderful elennent could b < :
On The Retrospective Faculty * To The Ed...
created at liis bidding ? While physicians who have suffered from the plague investigate the causes and consequences of the disease , do they suppose that it will vanish and reappear at their comini and ? While Newton tracked the planets in
their ( courses , did he fancy that he was guiding them ? Because we find in our sorrows our principles of guidance to a serener state , does it follow that they were originated or are administered by ourselves ? Who can ever have supposed so ?
What utility , therefore , there may he involved in sorrow for sin , it is for faith to > discern , and not for the will to preordain . By that faith we perceive that if there be utility there must also bo beauty . I not only say , with your correspomdent 5 that 46 there is such a thing in morality as the beautiful , as well as the useful ; and that these two will at
length be founid to coincide ; " but 1 go farther , adding- that they do already coincide , and may and must be perceived to do so ; since the perception of the mutual adaptation of various elements , of the harmony of many purposes , of uniformity amidst diversity , is the same thing as the perception of beauty . For
the same reason I differ from your correspondent as to the possibility of carrying our love of utility ( in its true sense ) to an excess ; and also as to sorrow being no more than ac a beautiful and graceful appendage to repentance . " 1 would exalt it to the rank of a prime constituent of repentance .
As lor the worldly , the careless , the hardened , it as so true that they ' * require to be . made sick at heart" before they can enjoy sound , spiritual healthy tfiiat II would call in ( he physiciais to them without delay , But I should expect their cure from his ministrations , and not from
any c ' self-torment" which your correspondent would advise them to apply . The " art of self-tormenting" cannot ( as he- proposes ) be considered by itself , and without reference to every class of character ; and it would . surprise us as much to hear of any class to which in could be useful as of a race of men whose health
could be benefited by Mcourglngs and hair-shirts . l can discern nothing of the iS bittcr-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 858, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/58/
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