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Untitled Article
QUESTION . What meaning is to be affixed to the following rejection inade by Dr . Jortin ? " If there were no God , we should have no father , but only a cruel step-mother called Nature- " See Doctor Jortin ' s Tracts published in two volumes after
his death t voL 2 , page 532 , under the head of Maxims and Reflections . IT has occurred to me , gentlemen , after much deliberation with myself , that the most eligible method of treating the question now before you , will be to make Dr . Jortin undergo by proxy , an interrogatory respecting the queries suggested by the reflection under consideration : this will of course throw
what I have to offer into the form of a dialogue . ; which seems susceptible of more animation than an essay wherein a single speaker appears . I must however utterly disclaim the attempt of assuming the lively and pointed style of the author of Remarks on Ecclesiastical History , whose epigrammatic turns often remind his readers of Voltaire ' s happiest manner . To
personate a man of distinguished parts belongs only to genius * Do not then impute to me the presumption of endeavouring ^ under the name of Jortin , to present you with an image oi this ingenious writer : it is not his wit and spirit , but only his sentiments I aim at exhibiting ; it is not the doctor in persoa
I pretend to bring before you , but merely an humble substitute whose sole business will be to explain the doctor ' s meaning . Permit me without further preface to enter on my dialogue . Pray , Doctor Jortin , give us leave to ask you what made you say , that were there no God , we should have a step-mother called Nature . In case there existed no God . is it not evident
Nature would be our parent ? Nature would then be the original cause , the producing power whence all things are derive d * Why , gentlemen , this is so obvious that I thought I might , without fear of being misunderstood , use , instead of the proper term mother , the appellation of step-mother , thereby
to intimate the disposition of this parent towards her offspring-. Perhaps I borrowed the expression from the elder Pliny ^ who after observing that Nature has assigned to man the first rank iu the animal world , and seemingly formed every thing else for his use , adds , that she has had the cruelty to make him pav so dear for these her favours , that it is not easy to ascertain whether she has exhibited towards man more of the tenderness of a parent , or ipore of the unkindness of a mother-in-law : his words are , Magnd steva mercede tontra tanta sua mimera ; ut
Untitled Article
Be&ection of Dr . Jortin * $ . t $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1806, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1720/page/15/
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