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    the clamour of foes , that cause might seem for a while' to be put irt jeopardy , that could induce him to conceal any conclusion at which he arrived , and of the correctness of which he was satisfied , or could prevent him from expressing it in the most appropriate language at his command . It was not possible to apply his principle to all the points and bearings of all the subjects included in the difficult and contested

    field of legislation , government , and morals ; to apply it as he applied it ,, acutely , searchingly , profoundly , unflinchingly , without consequences at first view startling , if not appalling , to strong minds and stout hearts . They startled not , they appalled not him , mind or heart . He had confidence in his guide ; he was satisfied that he might go with unfaltering step wherever it led ; and with unfaltering step he did go wherever it led . Hence his singleness of purpose ; hence , in aU his voluminous writings , —in all the multiplicity of subjects which have

    come under his investigation , as well those which he has exhausted , as those which he has merely touched ; as well those which are uncomplicated by sinister interests and the prejudices which grow out of them , as those . which are associated with innumerable false judgments and wrong affections : hence , in regard to not one of them does a single case occur in which he has swerved from his principle , or faltered , or so much as shown the slightest indication of faltering in the application of it .

    * That he might be in the less danger of falling under the influence of any wrong bias , he kept himself as much as possible from all personal contact with what is called the world , ttad he engaged in the active pursuits of life—money-getting " , power-acquiring pursuits—he , like other men so engaged , must have had prejudices to humour , interests to conciliate , friends to serve , enemies to subdue ; and , therefore , like other men under the influence of such motives , must sometimes have

    missed the truth , and sometimes have concealed or modified it . But he placed himself above all danger of this kind , by retiring from the practice of the profession for which he had been educated , and by living * in a simple manner on a small income allowed him by his father : and when , by the death of his father , he at length came into the possession of a patrimony which secured him a moderate competence , from that moment he dismissed from his mind all further thought about his

    private fortune , and bent the whole powers of his mind without distraction to his legislative and moral labours . Nor was he less careful to keep his benevolent affections fervent , than his understanding free from wrong bias . He surrounded himself only with persons whose sympathies were like his own , and whose sympathies he might direct to their appropriate objects in the active pursuits of life . Though he himself took no part in the actual business of legislation and government , yet , either by personal communication or confidential correspondence with

    them , he guided the minds of many of the most distinguished legislators and patriots , not only of his own country , but of all countries in both hemispheres . To frame weapons for the advocates of the reform of the institutions of his own country , was his daily occupation and his highest pleasure ; and to him resorted , for counsel and encouragement , the most able and devoted of those advocates ; while the patriots and philanthropists of Europe , as well as those of the New World , the countrymen of Washington , Frankliu , and Jefferson , toge-

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    Critlcal Notices . —A Lecture , &c . 709

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 709, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/59/