On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    tion of verbal truth , it follows that it tnust be as variable as the opinions erf the speaker . Thus , when Luther iti his youth , declared his belief in the divine origin of the papal authority , his declaration was a verbal truth ;—but had he done so in his old age , it is manifest that the same declaration would have been a falsehood or verbal

    untruth . In all verbal truths , words are the signs , and thoughts the things signified . 2 d . Of physical truths . These are evidently of a very different nature from verbal tnrths . The latter has

    been shewn to be variable , so much so , indeed , that what is a verbal truth in one man to-day ^ may perhaps be a falsehood , if expressed by the same person , to-morrow ; whereas , what is

    a physical truth to-day must be a physical truth to-morrow , and must always remain such , so long as the thing , with which it is connected , is suffered to exist .

    If we take a survey of the bodies b y winch we are every where surrounded , we cannot avoid observing the variety of their appearances ; and , on a closer inspection , we discover that each appears to possess many different properties , some of which seem to be

    peculiar to it , and these serve to distinguish , it from all other bodies . Now , i £ the ideas which we form respecting the properties of any body agree * in every jespect with the properties , which that body does in reality possess , we haye formed true or correct nations of

    it . —Consequently the . expression of those properties would form a true physical proposition ; and : the . agreement of our ideas of the properties njith the properties themselves would

    constitute a physical truth . It , therefore , necessarily follows , that so long as the properties remain unaltered ^ so lqng must that proposition , which was once true , continue to be true . rBut it , is manifest that ; the properties of

    bodies will remain unaltered / so long aa the great Creator of all things is p leased to continue this system in exigence . Hence it appears , that physt £ Hl ctrutfes are as fixed and unchangaW ^ as the nature of things , and must b

    and tK ^ properties body tbgifci * \ n we now ex « Wui * e tte Oirtjtlm

    Untitled Article

    stances which pfecede our assfent to any physical truth , we shall find that this assent rests entirely on our belief in the testimony ofour senses ,- for all our experiments to discover fhe properties of any ^ body are nqthkig , more than observations made through the medium of one or more of ouTr senses ; and on these observation * alone is our

    belief in the existence of such properties founded ; and , consequently , our belief in any physical truth must be founded on the same authority . 3 d . Of mathematical truths . That

    all men , in all ages , who understood them , should have given their unequivocal assent to truths of this kind , is a circumstance so remarkable , that

    it cannot fail to strike every one who pays any attention to the subject , and naturally suggests the idea , that the evidence which . has thus carried irresistible conviction to tbe mind of every one who attended to it , must be very

    different from that . which gains our assent , oc produces belief in us , in other cases . I shall , therefore , endeavour to point out wherein this differ * ence consists , and what it is that gives this . kind of evidence its peculiar

    cogency . It is manifest that mankind , ey ^ n in the earliest ages , must have been under the necessity of noticing the various properties of such bodies as they had occasion to use—they must have perceived that ; the for wand , magnitude of I many of them were

    essential , to their utility ; it is , therefore , evident that form and magnitude are two properties which would , in many cases , attract their attention in an eminent degree . It must likewise have been frequently requisite to have more than one thing of the satnekind , so that , number iwould then have to be

    taken into consideration , as well as farm and magnitude : hence the origin of mathematics ^ When any individual wa ^ thus , by his wants , compelled to pay attention to the peculiar propert / 5 ^^

    ties of any ^ artici ^ itt : a . circle for example , it is natural to suppose , that mere curiosity ; w < xtdd induce him to , continue hia resettfcjies ; buU it i * evident , that with such rude and impejnfi 3 Ct circles m < he would then be abl « tPfforrp ; lmc ( mld dil ^ ke Jit . tJe ,

    progtpss ; y he mmtfci thej : efor ^> have l&d rfceiwr ^ q ^ o ac ^^ . toore / cyr ^ e ^ KNwi ultitoudi ? < a uch cm&Gi - a «( . ' Jp »

    Untitled Article

    214 & $ sdtf on Truth .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1823, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1783/page/22/