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. REMARKS ON MR. BENTHAM'S VIEW OP THE EVIDENCE FOR IMPROBABLE AND SUPERNATURAL FACTS. -
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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.
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Mr . BenT : HAM ' s Treatise on Judicial Evidence , as arranged b y his ingenious and skilful editor M . Dumont , is one of the most valuable contributions to this department of practical logic which the present age has produced . Its intrinsic merit entitles it to a very high rank , and the reputation of the author ( a reputation which we may venture to predict will be much
more general and firmly established when the questions of party polities shall have passed into oblivion , with which alone , in the minds of many , his name is at present associated ) cannot fail to secure to such a work a powerful and lasting influence on the sentiments of mankind . Th £ practical rules which are laid down are , in most cases , excellent , and founded upon correct principles ; and many important general questions are discussed with great ability and judgment . Among others , the chapter on the morality and
expediency of Oaths displays the hand of a master , and has , I think , exhausted the subject . It is impossible that so complete and unanswerable an argument should be altogether v / ithout its effect on the public mind . For a while , it is true , the prejudices on which the present practice is founded will continue to prevail apparently unchecked ; but we should consider , and
it is a circumstance most essentially conducive to the happiness and im * provement of the human race , that these , like all other prejudices , are affections of mortals , while the work in which they are exposed is immortal , or at least must endure and be the object of increasing attention as long as political science and the laws of the human mind shall continue to be studied among men .
In proportion to the general excellence of such a work , and the benefit which may be derived from other parts of it , is the mischief of which it may be the instrument if any considerable or important part is erroneous ; and in this case , the more we admire the performance as a whole , the more we feel it to be our duty to expose the fallacy of such reasonings as may be likely
to mislead the unwary . This character I cannot but appl y to one very elaborate discussion , in which the author proposes to lay down rules for estimating the evidence adduced in favour of improbable and impossible facts , including among these duch facts as claim to be supernatural . The
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THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY i . AND REVIEW .
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NEW SERIES , No . VI . JUNE , 1827 .
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VOL . I . 2 D
. Remarks On Mr. Bentham's View Op The Evidence For Improbable And Supernatural Facts. -
. REMARKS ON MR . BENTHAM ' S VIEW OP THE EVIDENCE FOR IMPROBABLE AND SUPERNATURAL FACTS . -
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/1/
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