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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.
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not hastily suspect or impute bad motives ; but 1 must be permitted to say that there is some appearance of envy about his strictures . He indirectly confesses it was the character given of the sermon as * ' acute , able and eloquent , ' * that provoked his reproaches > and 'without considering the abatement made in the
concluding remarks of the Review , he reluctantly and grudgingly admits of any excellence by saying , ** whatever may be thought of the argument which , though clear and simple , does
not strike me as peculiarly ingenious or novel . ** If this be not the language of envy it is so very like it as to be in danger of misleading common understandings . I have a higher opinion of the talents of the writer than to
suppose he cannot rise to honourable distinction by the native buoyancy of his own genius ; or that he must attempt to pull down the reputation of surrounding talents lest his own should be overshadowed and concealed . But
why does he not abstain from the very appearance of ignoble motives ? He complains loudly and bitterly of uncourteousness and uncharitableness ; yet he can be very uncourteous and uncharitable in his turn \ * which is something like ( to use an old vulgar saying ) Satan reproving sin . In the
small space of a short letter the reader will find a great many hard words ( though the arguments be soft and slippery ) well barbed with personal reflections . In this respect , at least , the accuser has outdone the accused ; and I hope to convince him that however hot and ^ violent I mav be when
I have no one human being in view , I can use the gentlest words in the English vocabulary when repelling a personal attack . I do not object to the words applied to me or to my sermon : they are as truly respectable as the hypocritical misnomers and slavish inuendos rendered to the
arbitrary laws and despotic fashions of modern etiquette are mean and contemptible . But I have a right to meet people on the ground which themselves have chosen , and to demand consistency between their professions
and their practice . I am sorry to speak unhandsomely of one , who gives himself the airs of a . gentleman ; but I must tell the unprovoked assailant in question , thtut he does not come forward as an honourable chal-
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lenger , but rather attacks in the manner of one whom I shall not name , lest I should be be uncharitable enough to shock his ears and hurt his delicacy ; for he need not be told what class of men wear a mask and
shoot from ambush . There is a sort of wild justice and generosity to be met with at times even among them ; but was itjustorfair in your correspondent to pretend he was criticising my sermon when he was only quoting from the notes appended to it >
I am unwilling to consider his ingenious , original and classical allusion of the philosopher ' s tub in the light of splendid poverty . It is always easier to repeat than to invent ; but lie
is surely not necessitated after such a wide range of reading to bedeck his compositions with the worn-out finery of fabulous traditions . Does he really believe in the Tale of a Tub ? Did it
never occcr to him that Diogenes was calumniated like our own Hobbes ; and that merely because he had sagacity to discern and courage to ridicule the nonsense of such popular philosophers as Socrates , Plato and Aristotle , the holy trinity of classical idolatry ?
But these are pnly circumstanceslet us come to the matter of the indictment . It may be resolved into uncourteousness , uncharitableness and contemptuousness . The ears of your correspondent have been long
accustomed to the language of scripture else they would be shocked with the specimens of Christian courtesy which might be selected from the speeches of Christ and ) tiis apostles . I intend no reproach-to his understanding by
remarking that , it is of ' great importance to reflect carefully on the nature of things and meaning of words ; especially on such words as are ever sounding in our ears ; for without much attention , our roting begets a silly habit of repeating after repeaters as the jay cfrattereth English . Charity ( as I understand the term ) means benevolence ; and therefore to the charge of uncharitableness I plead not guilty ; for I sincerely wish those whose opinions differ from mine all the blessings of the life that now is , and of that which is to come . But ,
ifp as I suspect ; your correspondent means by charity , what the French ( from whom we borrowed it ) call the art ofplearino amf the art of U *
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90 Mr . Gilcfa * ist in Reply to A . A .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/26/
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