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    ing , No imagined interest even of morality could induce him to affect an opinion he did not entertain . On many points of important speculation he would say nothing , and the friends who mosf honoured him respected his silence . It is possible that what Lord Clarendon said of John Hales was true of MrR

    . .. that he was silent from principle , conscious that he entertained opinions which he thought might injure others , though they had not injured him . We are not aware of anv other

    nroduction of Mr . Robinson ' s pen , with the exception of articles which nave at intervals appeared in the Monthly Magazine and iu the former series of the Monthly Repository . It is a recollection of these latter articles which has encouraged the present writer to expatiate more at length on his friend ' s character and writings , than he should have ventured to do in

    any other publication ; aware as he is , that the actual exertion of the rare powez * s of Mr . R . ' s mind had fallen far below their capacity , and that he will live chiefl y in the recollections of his personal friends and associates , Mr . Robinson ' s connexion with the Monthly Repository began by an article

    of singular acuteness and ability , which excited great attention at the time , and generated no slight ili-wiil among some leading men of the Unitarians . In Vol . III . p . 184 , appeared " Arguments to prove that Unitarians are not Rational Christians . " This article drew down

    upon its author the severe comments of Mr . Belsham , Castigator , A Rational Christian , A Unitarian Christian , and Mr . AUchin . The controversy wa « continued till the late respected Editor of the Repository deemed it necessary , like the judge at an ancient tournament , to declare the combat at an end .

    A brief enumeration of articles subsequently written by him may be accept able to those who possess the miscellany . Vol . IV . p . 601 , " Reasons for being a Churchman / ' in which the opposition between practical and speculative religion is strongly marked . Vol . VI . p . 149 , signed D . D . has been ascribed to him . The article expresses his opinions ,

    but not in his peculiar style . Vol . VII . p . 425 , " On Creeds . " Except in Lord paeon ' s Essays it would be difficult to find ao much wisdom In a single page . But the article is spoiled by a clumsy attempt at humour ( in which Mr . It . was generally unhappy ) in the invention of the term wetdtie . But the appellation should be forgiven for the sake of the portrait . One feature is , " They may

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    OlMuary , —Anthony Robinson , Esq . 291

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    that even the Atheist is not without a principle of virtue . Indeed , Lord Bacon had long before observed , that Atheism " leaves a man to natural piety . " In his bitter strictures on the supposed doctrine of the malevolence of Deity he apparently aims a blow equally at Hobbes , who asserts , " that in God power

    constitutes right , and at the doctrine of the " sovereignty of divine grace , ' * as maintained by high Calvinists . " What conduct will such a religion produce ? To invent protracted means of torment —and after torturing the body , to agonize the mind by drawing the picture of an eternal hell , would be the legitimate practice which such a religion would introduce . *'

    It appears from this account of Mr . R . ' s writings , that , though attached to religion , he contemplated with an eye of hostility its ordinary ministers , . the priests of the established religions . He therefore readily concurred in trying the experiment of " a school of mutual instruction for adults . " We borrow a

    term since invented . In 1796 , he assisted in founding a small society which met on Sunday evenings for conversation , first in Crispin Street and then in Colman Street ; no one of the ordinary attendants came near him in ability . At that period of alarm it excited the attention of the magistracy who interfered , and the society dispersed . They

    came within no law or regulation of police \) Mt the period was critical . With similar professions other societies have sprung up in later days , with which Mr . R . could have no concern , for he was alike repugnant to the insincerity which has marked some , and the violation of decency and good manners which has distinguished others of these societies . The writer of this memoir does not feel

    himself called upon to deliver any opinion of such experiments , the expediency of which must depend on circumstances of time , place and person j nor could he with impartiality on this occasion ; for it was at one of those humble meetings that he formed an acquaintance with Mr . R ., which in due time ripened into a friendship to be terminated after a

    duration of tjiirty years by that event which puts a period to all our enjoyiments . After so long and intimate an acquaintance it becomes him to say of hip departed friend , tha > as he scarcely ever knew hie equal in colloquial elo ^ - quence , in acutcness and skill , and promptitude in delate , » o foe never H » ew his superior in candour and sincerity ; he Jpvfi truth sincerely and witfeput waiver-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 291, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/59/