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Untitled Article
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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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Untitled Article
Nay , he had much ado to express himself , and it wa $ a hard matter to make him speak , though 1 ear *
nestly desired him to be more free , and sent for him , and made him dine with me now and then , and took all possible care of him * Which we ascribed to the ill
success he had in a Synod of the Isle of France ^ whither he had been sent with a testimonial and recommendation of the church and
academy of Sedan , notwithstanding which , he did not appear sufficient ly qualified for the ministry . After lit had enticed vwiy that young man , he writ several letters to me ,
vrherein h « . expressed a great grief for it ; and in all of them he used many word * , which shewed his mind was very much dejected , being above all things sensible of the reproofs he had received for it . So that I thought myself
obliged to write to him now and then , to clear his mind of those needless scruples , and of such an unreasonable and dangerous vexation , and to exhort him to apply himself to study with chearfulness , and a resolution to do better for
the time to come . It is , therefore , highly probable that his melancholy has been heightened by those
cloudy thoughts , and likewise by the poverty and want of many things , into which he fell soon after , and whereof he complained to me in his letters , so far as to
mention the temptations , under which Iris mind was almost ready to sink . To this , I may add , the nature of bis studies bent upon the Old Testament , on which he writ to
me , that he was drawing up a concordance . However , though those things were not the true cause of bis illness , you know , gentlemen , that there is a sort of melancholy .
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in which the physicians acknowledge Sgiovn , which is neither a crime nor a divine punishment , but a great misfortune . Certainly , that which he lies under is verydeplorable ; but , gentlemem , I think I may say that , though nature is the instrument of God ' s
providence , yet all accidents ought nor to be looked upon as punishments , or sign * of a wicked life , nor the madness of that poor wretch , as a foi mal chastisement for his * error ; there being so many reasons to believe that it proceeds from the disorder of the brain .
and from melancholy . His mad . n ss soems to be only an exorbitant fit of melancholy , which being allayed by remedies , he appears now in his former state r and , though he errs only in the single ' point , for which he is prosi cuted , there is no reason to
infer from m , th ? M he speaks in cold blood , and wjth a sound mind . For it is the property of that sort of melancholy , to have but ofce object , leaving , the mind free in all other things , as you know better than I . There are some who
speak upon any subject , with great learning and oedateness , and have but one grain of madness , whidh they discover only by intervals , 10 those who hit upon it . I . am the more willing to compare that unfortunate man to them , because .
in that very thing wherein he pretends to be wise , he appears most ridiculous ; for he says what he would be ashamed of out of his fit , though he were , no Christian ; since he denies , as I . hear- what
the very Heathens and Jews acknowlege . And , therefore , it is not a heresy , but a blasphemy , which proceeds from a mind rather distempered than perverted * His
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412 Tie JLtfe and Trial of Nicholas Anthoinc .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 412, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/4/
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