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    toglmons on the style of this section of the . doctor ' s essay : some considering it a remarkably elegant and chaste composition ,

    abounding in epigrammatic point , and conclusive iii reasoning ; others ( sceptics , I suppose ) thinking it flippant , acrimbnious , full of absurd { and vulgar antitheses , of distorted argument and false

    reasoning" Who shall decide wten doctors disagree , And soundest casuists doubt i But , whatever may be theopitiions on this subject , the fact is , that t ) r / Beattie acquired great ,

    and no doubt deserved fame , for thus nobly arid disinterestedly stepping forward in defence of u - common sense" against ' * perplexing sophistry , " and meritoru ously refuting the atheistical Hume ; whom , from the head of the Church t 6 the tail—from the

    king upon his throne , and their graces , the most reverend fathers in God , the archbishops , upon theirs , to the beadle and the

    grave-digger , it was the fashion of the day to abuse or refute ; which words , I understand , are with some ( otherwise very pious ) theologians synonimous .

    I have , Sir , already assured you , that I am rib metaphysician ; and I think you will not accuse me of having been in any danger of becoming one from reading Dr . Beattie ' s Essay . —I do not believe it has had that effect . *

    Other writers , I ani informed , sueh as Dr . Reid iatid Dr . Gregory , have discussed the subjects of liberty and necessity , but I did not tbillfc it w 6 uld be proper to treat Dr . Beattie WitK the disrespect of £ ot trusting entirely ' to him ; for he has taken great pain * to show , ¦ VJl ¦ ¦¦ '

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    what a person like myself , npt skilled in metaphysics , \ ipi gh $ otherwise , perhaps , ha ^ e double ! , ' that wq cannot do some tl ^ i n ^

    , but have . it m our power to dq others : tliat I can , ei g . take up ^ my statF from the ground , b ut cannot lift a stone of a thopis ^ ci weight ; that I cannot ascend to the clouds , nor sink downwards to

    the centre of the earth ; that when a man asks me a qiiesti ^ n , I have

    it m my power to answer or ^ sileht ;^ and other like gray ^ find metaphysical truths . He has also proved or affirmed , ( which , I suppose , in the language of this science to me | an the same , ) that th ^

    doctrine of philosophiqaL neces s ity is neither j more nor le ^ s ; thaij u ^ ate f and that a pbiiosqp ^ iic ^ l necessarian i ^ of course a u V& * talist , ^ by vyhich he must mean on « who believes in 4 t a blind

    fate and a fatherless , deserted world . " Now , all thiY was Bew to me ^ for I had heard it . said , that a necessarian does believe in a God t and I had also understood that

    his creed is the same with that of the Roman poet , ** Deus est ubicunque movemur ; '' but in this , perhaps , niy informant was mistaken , from not being sufficiently

    well acquainted with the doctrine he undertook to explain , And J am the more induced to tliipk so * from a passage in . ^ very Sensible letter in your Repository , . fpjr

    October , signed E . N , (\ yh < J apipears himself to ; be a

    metaphysician ^) wherein I fincl the ^ re ^ tjre '" violent ass < ertors of n ece ^ i ^ . I * Previous to reading tliis , I di 4 Wt think there wep ^ or , incjeedjj dould be such persons ; beqause . # * y friend ^ afep ipferin ^ d ; m $ 9 Jh $ t nec « 3 sarian » beUeved the foxm&P ¦

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    Doubts on ihe ^ Subject of l ? ree * Wili . 28 *

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    YOI ^ 'V . ' l - * ' * £ V ' ' ' ' ^

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1810, page 289, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2405/page/17/