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It is obvious from _ Abelard * 3 own account of his life , that an ardent vanity , and an ungovernable vivacity of mind , were his prevailing qualities . That he rushed in " where angels fear to tread , ' is most true . ** Those awful" topics connected with the divine nature * which the Greeks were as fond of agitating as if they had concerned a mineral or a bird * which they could examine as they pleased ,
and of which they had full and visible knowledge , he was eager to discuss and proud to revive , His presumption brought again into fashion those pernicious exercises of the mind , which only end in new collocations of words , new absurdities , and new resentments . His rashness made others
vindictive . He provoked persecutions , discreditable to those who used them , and always ineffective to cure the evil they seek to remedy , but of which
Bernard goes on to say , that all eyes were turned upon him , to go out to meet him . Abnui turn quiapuer sum ; et ille virbellator ab adolescentia . Ep . n . 275 . This
letter to the Pope closes with that vindictive feeling , which has disgraced so many disputants of the Romish church . He calls his opponents vulnes , and declares they should be exterminated with a strong * hand . He even tells the Pope , that God
made him great from a small condition , ut eve Has et destruas , p . 274 . But the age was an age of violence . 33 St . Bernard ' s letters , from 271 to 294 , will shew the opinions on which he was conflicting- with Abelard .
34 The world was then so ignorant of natural philosophy , that Abelard failed to perceive the great distinction which enlightened reason will always make of the things , which we can minutely scrutinize and thoroughly understand , and those of which , although equally certain as to their existence , we sball never in this world
attain particular knowledge . The nature of the Sun and Stars is , and will here remain , as unknown to us as that of the allgracious Deity . But Abelard was anxious , de omnibus reddere rationem , even of the things which are , supra rationem ; and to believe nothing which be oould not ratione
attingere ( Ep . p . 277 ) ; and by thus abusing a noble principle , from not justly discrimination its applicability , he consumed in vanity and vexation those talents , which , directed to the : mathematical or physical sciences of the Arabians , might have advanced tbe march of knowledge perhaps two centuries . * I remember to have heard Mr . Fox M&fin the H « Ufe of Commons , I thought ,
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his own intemperance must be fair ] considered as one of the excitin g ea ^ J We now find that these dangerous subjects on which Abelard so eagerly employed himself , have no connexion with the improvement of knowledge or the progress of society . 36 Science and literature have at last agreed to leave them to the silent and rev erent meditation of the pious hour , with
which the public ought never to be disturbed . But the world had not attained to this wisdom in the days of Abelard ; and therefore the mighty talents of himself and his brother schoolmen were as uselessly , but less
harmlessly employed , than if they had " wasted their sweetness on the desert air . " 37 But his mind improved with sobering years ; his final opinions are expressed with modesty , temperance , and an anxious assertion of his
sincerity and good intention , which every candid reader will peruse with sympathy and respect . ( To be concluded in our next Number . J
with great truth—" . I declare , I do not know how to fight opinion ; "but this I am
sure of , that neither swords nor bayonets , racks nor dungeons , can extinguish or prevent it . " History sufficiently shews , that erroneous opinions , if left to themselves will naturally expire as society improves
Persecution gives them vitality , activity , diffusion , and a dangerous venom , whose operations usually terminate in tne destruction of the persecuting' power , as well as of the persecuted individuals .
36 Abelard could sometimes see the foll f of the abuse of mind , which he certainly practised himself ; for he says truly of others—Cavenda est libido rixaodi , « t rmerilis quaedam ostentatio decipiendiadap
versarium . Suntenim multa ^ qusc peliantur sophismata , falsce concliistonea ratio * mini , et plerumque ita veras imitantes , tit iion solum tardos , et ingeniosos etiam minus diligenter attentos decipiant . Ep
iv . p . 239 . 37 1 will never apologize for persecution , because I am satisfied it is unwise as well as wicked ; but I cannot wonder at it , *^ I read of such unprincipled egotist * as »» - mon Churnai , a doctor at Paris in IWh who , having acquired great P P ~* T * and applause for an eloquent and o rthodo lecture on theology and the Trinity * . ** , foolish as to exclaim , " O little J * ** how g-reatly have I confirmed and exait » your law . —If I had chosen to have »«** £ it , I could have destroyed it by much stronger reasons and objections . " Rtat . Par , P- ' ** See his Apologia aeu Confess , w 333 .
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138 History of the Scholastic Philosophy .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/10/
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