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Untitled Article
that of employing missionary preachers in going over new ground . Independentl y of the disinclination which I apprehend exists in a great portion of the Unitarian body to this species of proselytism , ( and which -would , therefore , render it unfair to apply too large a portion of the common fund to an object not universally welcome , ) the great cost at which trials of this sort can alone be made , and the degree to which such exertions must often
l ; e mere experiments and absolutely fruitless , render it , as it seems to me , for wiser to assist in ministering to the wants of actually associated individuals , whose existence , necessities and value are ascertained points , and with whom that is in positive action which , in untried spots , you are only speculating upon the possibility of creating . There seems , in my judgment , to be no comparison between the advantages which the same sum as must be annually paid to a missionary , who may or may not be successful , will
produce in assisting a small society of inquiring minds actually associated upon conscientious conviction , to enjoy the comfort and day-by-day advantage of acceptable worship and instruction . In the outset , a considerable expenditure of the speculative sort may have been worth hazarding ; but I am persuaded that when the ground has been gone over and the probable
results ascertained , the most efficient employment of means will be to assist and render respectable , institutions which have given reasonable pledges of permanency and utility ; especially when we take into the account to what an extent almost all the good of missionarizing may be effected , in a more permanent way , under the third head of the Society's operations , namely , the publication and distribution of books .
In this department of the Association , at present two classes of objects are professed to be pursued . The one is the original object of the old Book Society , which , perhaps , is not now sufficiently kept in view , —I mean that of keeping within the means and reach of inquirers , books of value and research , which , from the limited nature of the demand or from other circumstances , the usual channels of bookselling and publishing are not likely to
find it worth while to keep upon the market . The design of this branch of the book department should not be to turn the Society into an Unitarian bookseller ' s shop , however convenient this might on many accounts be . It is neither politic nor useful to monopolize any part of the trade which mere commercial principles are sufficient to keep alive , and supplied , through the ordinary organs .
The second division of the Book department has become more important since the junction of the Societies : I allude to the production , in a cheap and popular form , of short tracts and pamphlets ; 1 st , of a controversial character , in recommendation of the opinions of the body for the purposes of proselytism or defence ; and 2 d , of tracts of a moral and practical character ;
under which last head the Christian Tract Society ought surely to be united to the Association , and to proclaim itself openly and directly to be , what it is , and what it alone can be , the institution of Unitarians , desirous of finding suitable reading for the young and the poor , free from the dogmas which with other sects are considered more or less essential .
But there is a third division in which books ought to become the means of usefulness on the part of the Society , and as to this I must be allowed a little previous explanation . There can be no doubt but that , to such a society as I am wishing to see the Unitarian Association become , the means of education and the cultivation of every means for increasing the intellectual character of its members , and especially of its ministers , must always be a
Untitled Article
Unitarian Association . 403
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/11/
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