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Untitled Article
their fortune , their state of health , the climate jmder which they live , aiid a thousand other things , will always have such an effect upon their habits , associations , apd general ipodes of thinking , as not merely ; to preclude all idea of such ail universal agreement on all subjects , but , perhaps , even to render it impossible for any two to think exactly alike .
This insuperable bar to a complete uniformity of sentiment upon speculative points , there are those who will deplore ; but , as it seems to me , with very little appearance of reason . If such be the case , would it not be wiser
to s $ t ourselves to examine whether tlie advantages attending this constitution of things may not be more than sufficient to compensate for all its inconveniences ; and to endeavour to trace here the iharks of the same kind
providence , by which the constitution of the hmman mind has been , in other respects , so admirably adapted to the situation in which it is placed I We may depend upon it , that a sort of union and
harmony , as it is termed , which the Author of our being has rendered utterly inconsistent with the constitution he has given us , is not in any respect essential to our happiness or improvement-He is much too wise to make
the welfare of his creatures depend upon impossibilities * I would go further still , and maintain that this harmony is so far' from being necessary , that it is in no degree desirable ; that it would bea very lamentable circumstance ,
and wotild deprive this life of roany of its enjoyments . This diff erence of opinion , fqr which a provision is thus made in the very constitution df our natures , call
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it heresy , schism , or any other of the black names that have been invented for it , is nevertheless one of the most effectual means em *
ployed by Providence for securing a constant attention to the mosf : important subjects of humaii ia * quiry . Though curiosity or the desire of knowledge be in itself a
very powerful principle , it is not always sufficient to incite t © those exertions in its pursuit which are necessary for its attainment . Far this purpose it is often requisite that the attention sliould he
forcibly drawn to the inquiry , and a strong sense of its importance impressed upon the mind By incidental circumstances ,. Hence it follows that a difference of opinion which necessarily excites discussion , awakens an interest
in the subject , which stimulates attention and inquiry , and thu * leads die minds of men to a rainute examination of many subjects of the highest importance , which
otherwise perhaps would have been altogether overlooked or neglected . The history of every branch of human knowledge may furnish us with numberless ex >
amplesof this efficacy of discussion in promoting the discovery of truth . The disputes which have so much occupied philosophers during the last fifty years respecting the comparative merits of the
theories of chemistry which have been brought forward , have very much contributed to the improvement of that science , by directing " the attention of able and ingenious inquirers to the subject , and
by inciting them , in order to the illustration of obscure , or the es * tablishment of disputed positions , to proseciite experiments and iii vestigations , often expensive , difficult * or laborious . ' The contro
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Onthe jAcpodntages arising from Sects and Parties * 27 J
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1811, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2415/page/15/
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