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Untitled Article
turn of mind , indisposed for investigating truth by tlve ex-ertiou of their own talents and powers ^ &c . " * Such , Mr , Editor ^ were former classes of Eclectics , since the Christian sera . From the motto
to the review before me , I learn that those of the beginning of the present century , disclaim all of the above schools : they have borrowed the title from Cicero , who , according to Watts , was of the Eclectic sect , and ** chose out of
each of the various opinions of philosophers ia his age , such po « sitionsas , in his judgment , came nearest to the truth / ' Did not this sentence " glitter in their van , "
I confess that I should have supposed them to have taken the name ,.-as indicative of a distinotion , which , perhaps , more than any other , characterises their
undertaking , I mean their selection of the productions of one set of religions professors , for the purpose of bestowing on them almost uniform commendation , and of those of a different set , for the purpose of censuring them , if passible , to proscription . I speak with th « more freedom on this
topic , because personally I have no matter of complaint against them . Their work I have occasionally ) and not un frequently read : and in no publication of the kind , except the Antijacobin Review , have I miftwithso many examples of unworthy criticism . Amidst all our differences , why must we forget what we owe to ourselves , as those who aim , or ought to aim ,-at being gentlemen , scholars , and the votaries and advocates of Christianity ? Even
* E . H . voL i . 37 , 171 . v . 85 .
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in the fiercest warfare some weapons are forbidden : the arrows which we use must not be poL soned arrows . And criticism is , in truth * debased , when it can deal in unkind allusions to the in *
dividual , or domestic or professional situation of authors who , on some ground or other , arc obnoxious to the critic The writer of the article to
which I confine my strictures , tells us , that u the party which , with exemplary modesty and logical justice , assumes the title of c rational' and < Unitarian , ' has , within a short period , put < Sn appearances of zeal remarkably the reverse of that -comparative torpor for which it was formerly distinguished , " and . that the I . V . is Ci one of the symptoms of this change of character . " For
myself , Sir , as , on the one hand , I have no desire to be an irrational Christian , neither do I wish , on the other , to claim , exclusively , the title of rational ^ which yet is , at the least , as humble , as the self-conferred epithets , evangelical and orthodox . And if this reviewer declines not to profess himself a Trinitarian , why may it not be allowed me to call myself an Unitarian ? Whether the zeal of the Unitarians be of recent date or nor , I sijull particularly rejoice in it , whiie it is directed to the diffusion of the Christian Scriptures in a genuine text and a correct translation . In this path they will , I trust , u bear right onward ; " though by some they an * reprehended for too much zeal , by others for too much torpor * Give me leave next to lay be-
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18 O Estimate of Strictures on the Improved Version * — Letter 1 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1810, page 180, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2403/page/20/
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