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Untitled Article
numerous correspondents ; I request your insertion of the inclosed , leaving it to the free exercise of your discretion , whether to admit or reject it . If I am ricrht in my speculations , why
should you or I hesitate to divulge them , admitting the subject to be of the highest importance ; but if wrong * , how can you render me or the world a greater service than by means of your liberal pages to invite the public to their scrutiny or refutation ?
I have just finished the perusal of the Memoirs of Mrs . C . Cappe , and I feel no hesitation to declare that I scarcely ever met with a work which commanded more of my unqualified approbation . Such a galaxy of worthies as is there displayed , is a
redeeming grace to the errors and enormities too fatally subsisting * in the ? moral and political world . It is highly gratifying to find the delinquencies of public life , so counterbalanced by the energies and virtues of domestic retirement ; and we have here a noble
display of the power of sound principles , to enable their possessors to make every sacrifice for the internal delight of an approving- conscience , and the plaudit of an omniscient and merciful God . The leading features in the author ' s mind , as she herself wished it to be observed , are an unbounded , constant and cheerful
reliance on the wisdom and benignity of Providence ; and well did this confidence animate her to sustain a noble and distinguished character , in the grand and interesting drama , sacred to virtue and pnblie utility . From such prolific and matured fruits , who can doubt the excellence of tke
culture ? Who will call in question the soundness of the principles that produced such results ? What mind could even frame the wish to have changed or weakened those opinions that formed so ardent and benevolent
a character—so worth y of imitationso commanding of universal love and esteem ? If the great end of intelligence is viTtue , and the moral means imist ever be subservient to the perfection
of character , those means which produce the effect , however inadequate <> r imperfect they may appear to casual observation , must be the best for the given purpose . la feet , the doc ^ trine of 9 , particular providence is the polar star of her confidence and joy 5
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but error may supply delusive hopes or feelings , as well as they can be communicated by demonstrable truth 5 and in spite of iny warm admiration of her general principles and character , I think that in this opinion she was
wrong . Not , however , with the view of taking advantage of the impossibility of her reply , was this particular case chosen , but because I cannot divest myself of the feeling , that it betrays a weak place in the argument advanced , almost bordering on the ludicrous . Had the same incidents been
recorded and animadverted upon in the same manner by Voltaire or Carlile , would not the common opinion of the world have attributed them to the spirit of irony or burlesque ? And
the circumstances of their being committed to the public in her name , or in any other , must allow their being a subject for public discussion , without any regard to individual reply .
That I may not be suspected of intentional or careless misrepresentation , I shall transcribe the whole of the passage to which I mean particularly to allude , and then , Sir , your readers will best judge how far I have given the subject feir play .
" Dining at a gentleman ' s house in Wakefield , I swallowed a piece of gristle of a . breast of veal , which stuck in the throat so as entirely to compress the wind-pipe , and * prevent the possibility of breathing . It happened that Dr . Hard , of Leeds , had
accidentally called upon the family , and been prevailed upon to stay dinner ; and the thought struck him , whilst all the rest of . the company were running for assistance in various directions , to dash a quantity of cold water into my mouth , which producing a sudden
contraction , gave instant relief by dislodging the griatie . In a minute or two more all would have been over , and 1 verily believe that this was the only expedient that could have been effectual . Dr . H ., therefore , was the agent , under Providence , to whom I waa indebted for the preservation of
my life . Had the accident happened the day before or the day after , both of which I spent in the country , my death had been inevitable , likewise that it must have been equally fetal , occurring when and whore it did , had not Dr . H . that day called upon the family , and been prevailed on to stay
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Remarks on a Particular Providence . 287
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1823, page 287, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1784/page/31/
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