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    wjbich . I .. have quoted are . the most easy of access , and the most familiar in explanation .. In every instance in which I have been charged with assertion

    without proof ( and reiterated indeed has been this charge ) , I be . lieve I could exculpate myself with equal facility * But the detail would be tedious and

    uninteresting . With one previous general remark , therefore , and with a reply to a few particular charges , I shall throw myself and my cause , not upon the candour but the justice of your readers .

    Thp media of proof which I adopted , by whatever character they may be denominated , are as accessible to others as they were to myself : and it has always been understood that the knowledge

    which is acquired by the slow and laborious process of analysis and induction , may be communicated by the easier method of synthesis : or toexpress the idea without

    having recourse to terms of logic , the knowledge which is acquired by long and patient investigation , when all the intervening steps are pointed out , may be imparted to others , as the result of such

    investigation , without exposing a person to the charge of the assumption of infallibility , I did not begip to build without a foundation . At the commencement of my

    undertaking , I laid down this scriptural declaration as my first principle , not suspecting that it could be controverted ; and knowing that it , could not be shaken : ** God is "love .

    With respect then to this charge , and indeed every other which has been brought against me , I submit to the decisipn of every scholar whether I am not ' * a nian

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    more sinned against than signing . " But some notice , I finid , must be taken of the words expressly and inferentiaUy , which obtrude themselves upon me in every direction . I confess I have no partiality fpr them , or for any words of a similar import . I did not know whither they might lead

    me . I knew that they must lead me from the important subject before me . I wished to be actually doing something , and not to spend my time in disputing about thie manner in which this something is

    to be done . Indeed , Sir , the shortness of my period of active exertion and the apprehension of the failure of sight before ev £ ri S ¦ ^ O ¦ ¦¦ ¦ - . : ¦ ' ! J- * i the expiration of that pgriaq , force me in all circumstances in

    which duty calls upon me to act to be prompt as soon as f am decided ; and if I only punctuall y perform what cannot conscientiously be omitted or delayed , I have no time left for the puerile purpose of personal altercation .

    As , however , I am not riov * addressing a congregation or proving a doctrine , but writing a familiar letter to you from the country , I will encounter these two formidable words with all the courage of which I am capable .

    I did not know before that truth admitted of degrees , or that the information which is derived from reasoning , or the exercise of the faculty of reason , was not to be received with as unhesitating an assent as that which is conveyeel

    to the mind by other channels of communication . Perplexing indeed is my sittfation . When I prove a doctrine by reasoning , if is said , that I insist solely on ikf erential evidence ; when I giVe the words which include it iti

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    Dr . J&tfMmj ^ Reply to 2 lfr \ Mgrsom , qn Future Punishment . 47 §

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 479, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/31/