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peasants of Ireland are neither such ardent pupils , nor so soon to be weaned from their ancient sentiments , as our Protestant zealots would have us to believe : and if time would permit , I might demonstrate , from some
pregnant narrations of their own speakers , and even the most successful of their own ^ dacjAmeSLfev thaLj ^ m- ^ m ^ safc ciently admonished to abandon a scheme at once so equivocal in its morality , so uncertain in its progress , and so precarious in its end .
' Well , then , the work has yet to be begun . But arduous though it be , let us not be dismayed . Much there is to accomplish , but much also to encourage and elate . For ourselves , we estimate beyond all price the
privilege we would fain extend to our brethren . "We regard with amazement beyond the power of words to utter—almost beyond the power of thought to imagine , — -the pretension of mortal man to do irreverence to
the image of his Maker , and put chains upon the intellect , which only can be great in proportion as it is free , and only can vindicate its heavenly lineage in proportion as it has power to analyse the works , and to search into the ; mind of the Divinity I ' But if we cannot transport to the
same elevation of knowledge or of feeling with ourselves , the multitude who are wandering below- —at least it is something that they , are willing to begin the ascent . It is something at least that , they do not repudiate the alphabet . — Give them then , by all means , this alphabet ! It is a
wonderful , almost , a mysterious implement . In the compass of four-and-twenty little symbols , ail human knowledge is comprised : and while we deposit this intellectual seed , we know not with what forms of beauty or exuberance of growth it may shelter and adorn the national mind in no very distant times .
' We say then , est qu 6 dam prodire tenus ;—if they will not defer to our Fotestant sentiments of liberty , at mt . ft i& ^ Qmettaig , I jtfpeat ; , ttafi
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they reverence the alphabet . If they cannot be brought within hearing of the same pulpits , at least it is some- ! thing that they will meet us on the floor of the same school . If they cannot approach to the same views , or enjoy , with the same conviction ,
the great and ennobling truths which we discern in the sacred page ,- —it ia something , surely , that they acknowledge , on the same authority , and em * brace with a like assurance with you , that " true religion , and undefiled before God and the Father , is this /* &a *
It is something surely that they hold with you , that " the grace of God hath appeared to all men , teaching them , " &c- —And finally , it is something surely that they no less believe , that " the hour is coming , and now is , in the which , " &c . !
* Having , then , these momentous con- * vietions to rest upon , may we not wait for all that is to follow ? If , ulterior to these , or intermingled with these , any new or exceptionable matter be thought to be important , can it be so important as to justify the suspension , or the partial application , of our labours , until the Catholic mind of Ireland has been coerced or coaxed
to regulate its credence according to our Protestant conceptions ? Or rather , where , out of Ireland , where , out of that land of bigotry and blunders , would it not be deemed the duty of benefactors to their country and their
kind to consign such questions co the future capability of the national mind to deal with them , confiding in the efficacy of the principles already admitted , and forward to improve the opportunities possessed , without disquietude , and without disunion V
Mr . Armstrong here adverted to several objections to the plan ; and thus continue ^; 4 How persuasive , for example , to four- fifths , of the people of Ireland , the following invitation to coalesce with the writer in tfye heavenly work of appeasing sectarian jealousy , and promoting , the benevolent designs of a society in whose behalf such a chajn >
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mmTAfti&N cnnxyrnvvBi 79
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1832, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1813/page/15/
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