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    son ' s critical principles , we must pronounce the present work to be premature . We appeal to their warmest admirers , and beg leave to ask if it be in any degree probable , that Mr . E . should have

    completely succeeded in establishing and applying a set of canons , by which all the spurious parts of the received canon are to be

    separated from the genuine , and these all left . In fact , the Pre

    face contains a justification of our censure , —a letter from Mr . Evanson ' s brother , in which two other passages of Luke are specified as probably spurious , ( viz , ch . xxii . 24—38 . * and vs . 49—51 . ) and reasons are assigned which appear to us as satisfactory as most of those advanced in the Dissonance .

    We admire the vigour and penetration of Mr . E / s understandings the ardour of his zeal in the Cause of truth , and the disinterested integrity of his conduct ; but from his writings , and we have had no other means of

    knowledge , we have never been led to think highly of the extent or soundness of his critical skill , of the clearness of his conceptions , or of the comprehension and accuracy of his judgment . It has never appeared to us * that he sufficiently possessed the cast of mind requisite for his undertaking . With a sincere veneration ior truth , an eager desire to obtain it , and an undaunted firmness in the avowal of what he regarded as

    such , he did not unite the patience and correctness of research

    Untitled Article

    and examination , the discrimination in the balancing of probabilities , the skill in the analyzing of evidence , and the humility and caution in the formation of his

    conclusions , which are necessary on a subject of such great importance . It appears to us both from what we observe in his writings , and from the impressions which we have derived from them

    as to the character of his mind , that he was capable of dwelling upon difficulties on the one side , till he totally lost sight of difficulties on the other ; that he generalized with uncommon rapidity ; and thai when he had once

    formed a conclusion , slight presumptions in its favour were magnified into proofs , and the strongest op . opposing presumptions deemed

    scarcely deserving of notice . He would have been a powerful auxiliary to the reformers from popery : its obvious and injurious absurdities he would have seen

    and made others see at a glance , and would have exposed them with , all the enthusiasm of feeling , the rapid energy of reasoning , and the severity of language which mark his Dissonance ; but the object of that work was of a different

    description , and required different qualifications ; and we are much mistaken if the reasonings of the author ever did more than perplex

    those whom they did not convince at first sight . In fine , the Dissonance appears to us to afford a melancholy instance how much even an ardent love of truth may

    * The writer says , " Would it not be proper , therefore , to go from the end of ? . 34 . c . xxii . immediately to v . 37 . "'' but this is probably a mistake of the

    Untitled Article

    MeDiew . —ftTezo Testament ; on the Plan of Mr . Evcmson . 3 $

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1810, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2400/page/35/