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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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REMARKS OF THREE CHILDREN ON PERSECUTION * To the Editor of the Monthly Repository * Sir , Reading in your useful publication , an account of some persecutions , which-took place in this country , ( Wales , ) in
connexion with the life of Vavasor Powel ^ it brought to my recollection the following anecdote , which if not improper , you may insert in one of your numbers . It applies at once to the above spirit of intolerance ; discovers a striking variety of natural temper ; with also the pleasing openings of reason and reflection in the youthful mind .
I had invited three young persons from school , about the ages of eight , ten , and twelve , to spend an afternoon with me . Chandler's History of Persecution , accidentally lying on the table , I took it up , to entertain them with the cuts . This led to inquiry , and to a short explanation . I told them , that some of them represented persons whom the blindness and superstition of the times had condemned to be burnt at the stake , for their conscientious adherence to their own opinions ; others re *
presented the tortures they underwent in prison j and one or two of them , solemn processions of priests , &c . previous to the burning of some of these persecuted servants of God , After a short silence , he of ten years old said , with not a very
improper sceptical hesitation , " Surely , Sir , it could not be true \ " to which I replied , that there was not any doubt to be entertained of its truth ; nor had the writer any inducement to impose upon the world . The youngest then , with a flushed countenance , said , It was a shame to treat them so ! " when the eldest , who had
hitherto been silent , with a mildness and complacency of countenance which I shall not soon forget , made in his turn the following observation , Happy England ! where everj * man may choose his own religion / ' The above were strictly their words ; aind I shall be much mistaken , if the first ever admits of any thing , but upon sufficient evidence , and if the second be not ardent in whatever he undertakes : and respecting the last ,
he will much disappoint me , if he ever entertains any sentiments of religion ^ but such as shall be in perfect agreement with Christian benevolence and charity . Sincerely wishing that liberality of sentiment and expansion of heart may be constantly increasing , I remain , Sir , Your obedient servant , A Constant Reads * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1806, page 187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1723/page/19/
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