On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
the fMitigfft&l govcrntneiit of Louis XVtfr , sirnamed by court flattery , le bie $ i ~ aim 4 9 the well-beloved . They ware * then , it seems , at the mercy of a soldiery , who acted under the influence of priests , and at the command of revenue exactors . Such a
condition might well justify the exclatttatiera which soon follows the verses I have quoted : fee warn'd , ye nations round \ and trembling see Tkhe superstition quench humanity .
I have , in lively recollection , a different condition of the French peasantry , to which they attained under the republican and imperial governments , and which you described ( p . 72 ») from Mr . Birkbeck ' s Journal , as he found them on the fall of
Napoleon , who seems , as Waller said of the Church of England , to have " a'trick of rising again . " From such capable inquirers and credible reporters , as Mr . Birkbeck and his fellow-traveller , Mr .- Flower , we ascertain one mighty and incalculable benefit , resulting from numerous evils , while we lament to think what havoc does
ambition make ! I am , I trust , as little inclined as any one to excuse that vice which a poet celebrates as The glorious fault of Angels and of Gods , though I am not so heedless as to
overlook the royal and imperial Deliverers of Europe , who , by their own projects of partition and aggrandizement , have sanctioned the worst practices they justly charged on Napoleon .
. Now my pen has rambled into France , give me leave to relate what occurred to me yesterday , after listening to the extraordinary rumours of the day , the theme of every tongue . I designed to amuse myself with the jffenriade , when the lines which first presented themselves were the following , uv 4 \\ e 3 d Canto .
La France dans son sein vit alors deux Monarques . Z ' un iTen possedoit plus que les frivoles marques , ' IS mitre portant par-tout Pesperance et VeGroi , A peine avoit besom du vain titre de voi .
This adventure reminded me of the classical divinations called Sortes , though by them the inquirers always aooght and sometimes , as in tihe inatauce of Charle * I . tan 4 Jjorfl Falk-
Untitled Article
land at Oxford , anticipated their own future fortunes . I thus translated the lines : France saw two Monarchs in h * r land , that day , By one possessed , the powMess forma of
sway : Before the other , Rope , or terror cauae He scarcely needed a rain , royal name . The characters here contrasted by the poet were the short-lived hero .
Guise , and Kenry III who \ rocured his assassination , and as f » just retribution , soon . perished , in his turn , by an assassin ' s knife . ^ The Antitypes of Guise and Valois in this eventful day ,
Big * with the fate of Gallia and the world . are too obvious to require a description . IGNOTUS-
Untitled Article
£% 6 On Mr . B . Flower ' s Language towards Unbelievers .
Untitled Article
44 Hard names , such as heretic , *< & !« - tnatic , hiasphemer , which are so frequently bandied atwmt ia controversy , not only imply ill-temper , but are also an assnmption of infallibility ; that arrogance , which is wholly inconsistent with Christian
virtue , and which the Reformation has in vain put downr in a visible head of the church , if it be sufi ' ered to grow up in the mind of every individual believer . Let us , on all sides , but feel persuaded that we may be wrong , and we shall readily admit that our opponents may be right . Let us judg * e oursel ves faithfully , and We shall judge others charitably . "
AsplaiiiPs Plea for Unitarian Di ## « tters . 8 vo . 1813 . pp . 92 , 9 & Sir , March , 1815 . WAS much surprised to see that I great champion of civil , and I had
always thought religious , liberty , Mr . B * Flower ' s Answer to Chiron and Thomas , [ pp . o / 2—95 . ] respecting the persecution of unbelievers , — and I wish to refer him to the extract I
have chosen for my motto , which particularly struck me on first reading it * and I marked it at the time , and if Mr , F . is of my opinion , I cannot think he can reconcile his frequent use of th word Infidel as an invidious term , ( in which sense he certainly does use it ) and which at best is an obscure and indefinite term . D issenters are Infidels * to the Church at
# I mean in the same way th » t u *^" lievere are called Infidels , a « beuMjf " j faithful to the religion of Christ , & " think ih % t tern * mwh more * w li »* m
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/20/
-