On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
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 ¦ ¦¦ '
Untitled Article
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 ¦
Untitled Article
Doubts on ihe ^ Subject of l ? ree * Wili . 28 *
Untitled Article
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/
-