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dread the consequences of that extreme fondness for abstract speculations , with which they reproach the Germans , often without properly understanding their character , —that there is always in their minds a fund of moral principle , and in their researches a love of truth * and- a respect for virtue and humanity > which preserve them , if not from all error ,
at least from dangerous aberrations . Their philosophy never tends to degrade mankind , and to confound therti with material beings ;——their morality is never the apologist of self-love and sensuality . Perhaps its fault rather is , that it is sometimes a little too lofty , and seems better calculated for a being all spiritual , than for a mixed nature like that of man . But of the two extremes , it is at least more honourable
to man , and assuredly less dangerous , to make him a god than a machine * . ' Reinhard , in the course of his letters ^ alludes to several circumstances of his early life , which had a decided influence on his
future character and studies . The following particulars furnish the principal outlines of his brief and simple biography -f . He ' was the son of a Protestant clergyman , and born in 1753 , at Vohenstrauss , in the duchy of Sulzbach . His earliest education was received in his father ' s house , whence he was removed to the
Gymnasium at Ratisbon . In 1773 he entered the University of Wittemberg , where he filled successively the chairs of philosophy and theology , and soon acquired celebrity as a preacher . H 13 distinguished name procured him an offer of the office of courtpreacher at Dresden , which he accepted in 1792 , and continued to discharge , with growing reputation , till his death in 1812 .
' Till the age of fifteen , ' he observes J , * I had no other instructor than my father , —a man , whom I should always have honoured though he had not been my father , and who was considered one of the best preachers of the country . One of the characteristic merits of his sermons was the justness and regularity of their arrangement . Yon may judge how natural and easy this was , from the fact , that as early
as the age often or eleven years , I could follow a sermon as I heard it , preserve it in my memory , and , on returning- home , give an account of it in Writing-. Finding this exercise pleased my father , who read over and corrected my analyses , I constantly employed myself in this way on the Sunday , and acquired such skill , that none of the principal ideas of a sermon eRcaped me .
* Thus the conception of a sermon , well arranged , and of which the principal heads follow in an order easy to retain , was early and lastingly imprinted on my mind with all the authority and attraction of paternal example . From that time forth , every sermon , which was wanting in arrangement , and of which I could not seize the plan , has been lost upon me ; and chiefly for this reason , I have been so seldom satisfied with those that I have heard . '
Owing to peculiar circumstances , the course of his studies—* Pref . du Trad > p . xi * S 6 e Pref , du Trad ., ap . d Conversations-Lexicon , article Reinhard , J JLetti e U . p . 8-9 .
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On the Studies m&Publtd Ministry , fyc . ? 35
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/15/
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