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of Mr . L / s paper , but for a-veiy sin gular reference to scriptural authority , which deserves to be cited as a re > - markable example of the folly of the practice too common among all classes , of quoting from Scripture sentences and half sentences , as detached
aphorisms , without regard to argument or connexiota . € t Why presume , " says he , " on this system of favouritism , when the very authority on which so large a portion " of mankind rests its belief ,
has declared that * one event happens alike to all ? ' " Whether your correspondent is competent to undertake & commentary on the difficult book he has here quoted , I know not ; but I think no one who reads the whole of
the passage out of which these few words are selected , ( Eccles . ii . 12—1 ' 7 , ) will fail to be forcibly struck by the thoughtless precipitation with which the querulous discontented complaints
of a man dissatisfied with himself , satiated and disappointed with worldly ^ pleasures and mere worldly business , are made to pass for indisputable maxims of divine truth . ** We have
it from the same : source , " he continues , " that * not a sparrow falieth to the ground without otir heavenly Father , and even the hail ' s of our heads are all numbered . * " No , says Mr . L ., the hairs of our heads are not
numbered ; all that is meant is , that Omniscience is capable of numbering them ! In this manner does a fallible mortal presume to explain away the express words of our Lord , and set limits to the Divine Omniscience !
And why ? Because it derogates from the dignity of the Supreme Being to suppose liim to be " occupied" with sucn petty details ; because Divine pjower must be fatigued , if every motion and every atom Is to be guided by $ uch < c incessant and watchful regulations !"
After all , there is one point of view in which this passage of Mrs . C&ppe ' s Memoir may possibly be thought liable to some exception- The correctness of the philosophical principle is . in
my opinion , unquestionable ; but how far it was judicious to connect it with the detail of & . variety of minute particulars is a matter of taste , on which some doubts naay perhaps be Started . There are , imfortuhately , many persons who are ready efrotfgfi to acknowledge an important maxim ,
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so long as it is stated fit the abstract or veiled in dry and barren general ties ; but whose imaginations , v ? hen we attempt to apply it to a particular example , are instantly carried avvay by some of the minor and accidental details , and they lose sight of , or hesitate
to admit the general principle . This is more remarkably the case , w hen any of the circumstances rhay be turned into ridicule , or are connected with low and ludicrous images . In the present instance , it is to be feared
that some readers have been more occupied by the minute particularities of the " gristle of a breast of veal , " "the glass of cold water , " &c , thaa by the important and instructive practical lesson which the author
endeavours to deduce from the incident . To such minds I do not wonder that the whole should appear to savour of the ludicrous or burlesque . Doubtleas , if Mrs . Cappe had been writing for persons of such refined taste and susceptible imaginations , she would have abstained from all mention of
these petty and vulgar details . But I suspect her more sober readers would have been losers rather than gainers by this sort of fastidiousness . We are none of us , perhaps , sufficiently aware how * much of the force and
value of correct general principles is lost , by neglecting to apply them habitually and constantly to particular cases . The cases themsei * vea may be minute , and , if taken separately , may appear trifling and insignificant ; but the habit of mind which is thus
cultivated , and which can thus alone be brought to perfection , is often of the highest importance . Sometimes , as in the instance before us , the details may be such as to excite , in those who have not accustomed themselves to view the hand of a Sovereign Dis poser in all the events and
circumstances of their lives , nothing * but lo \ tf and ludifcrous associations ; but there are others , I trust , who will be actuated by sounder principles and better feelings . For mfself , replete with instruction ti 9 is the whole of this
valuable work , I do not ? hesitate to declfcr 6 tSiait those parts of it appear to tae pre-eminently so , In whieh-the writer endeavours , m > m those circumstances of'ti 6 r life which might otherwise * h * We feeeii considered as ^^ teresting- to the public , ti > deduce
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4 d 4 Air . W . Turner ' s Repht t # * ' * Remarksion n Particular Providence . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1823, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1786/page/36/
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