On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    having submitted to the considera ^ tipn of those gentlemen who have already favoured your readers with their ideas , if you think these remarks of sufficient importance

    to nil a column or two of your valuable Miscellany . I hope I agree with these gentlemen , in sentiments of gratitude , that our hopes of life and immor . tality are placed on , a more solid foundation than the issue of a

    metaphysical dispute . That light is feeble indeed , which the most vigorous minds , * ince the day * of Socrates , have been able to throw Qti y this subject ; and it would argue an unwarrantable confidence in the deductions of human reason ,

    to compare these scattered , rays to the day . star which has arisen upon the Christian hemisphere . But iix the prospect of soon descending into that Jordan , which separates Us from the promised land , individuals may be , at least innocently , cpaployed in attempting to discover in our natures , a more buoyant principle , as an additional security against the terrors of that over * whelming flood .

    ; lhe philosophers of antiquity , though they held the thinking part of man to be a distinct principle , do not seem to have propagated very refined notions on the nature of spirit . The seal was considered

    a , more subtile kind of matter , suited , to the higher functions of intelligepce , mysteriously united to ; a body , which it used as an instrument ; but so far from being

    involved in its destruction at death , it merely escaped tfre clog of a grosser substance a ^ nd assumed tjio § e energies peculiar to itself . ^ M ^ sy stei ^* for a loij ^| fim ^ ? atfsfie ^ *} tk ? Mt ii f ^ mm&B &k imagination ; till ; advancing upon

    Untitled Article

    the same idea , subsequent refine * punt * declared : the soul absolutely immateriaUandjConSecjuenti yVwith ^ out any relation to place . These notions of mind and matter hav «

    ing thus gradually receded to this immeasurable distance , the impos * sibiliry of conceiving a mutual action ; -between them forced some philosophers to deny the existence of marur , others that of spirit , and some , I believe , the existence

    of both . The two former oi these opinions , certainly gain ground with that class who have not learned to limit > heir \ . retinementi | to that ju » t degree , suited to fortify their creed , without entirel y eluding the powers of conception

    The materialist appears to take strong ground , by refetting his opinions to the simple and tmbias * sed decision of his senses : since thought is found , uniformly to accompan y a certaia organization , why not conclude that this a ^ range men t of matter is the natural

    means of producing that effect ! He may well urge the improbaVi ^ lity , that such a magnificent apparatus should be provided , in the material world , for the iccpintrip * dation and ehjbyrneht of injlelligenj ; teirigs , if they froiirt their ve r ^

    Bature , . were so far removed froni the sphere of its action ; and a $ unworthy the ; nouotib yfe ought to entertain of supterne wi | tj ^^ t& represent any ipiLtt of creatidp incapable of fulfilling h $ v cJcstiW <| purpose , viithout the aid of ft

    perpetual ini racle . NotvMthstanding the seducing simplicity of this d 6 ctrjne , it in *« volyes ditiiculties , atAe ^ t , equally serious with those , ft propqses % 9

    remove . t If forbidden to go afty & $ hr Jum prgan ^ ati oii ; j ^?{\ jfj source of thought , the i muuten 4 list

    Untitled Article

    7 IS On the Controversy concerning Matter and Spirit 9

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1811, page 712, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2423/page/8/