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    acquisitions , in advancing their own improvemen ts , and in training up new operators upon the same plan . - But # s time advanced , many began to shew symptoms of their former propensity , to consult fancy and to followits wayward dictates , rather th in heir

    understandings , in adhering to the plain course which had been pointed put to them . Not ' - ' content with the gracious intelligence which they had received , they were fond of mingling certain imaginary discoveries of their own with- it : and even sometimes

    conceited themselves that these fancies , for their obscurity and inconsistency plainly shew that they were no other than fancies , were the immediate suggestions of the genius himself . This was a kind of lazy amusement , which they found easier than a well directed application of their powers in

    substantiating and circulating the genuine intelligence , and applying its principles to practice , which was a work of considerable though salutary exertion . - These ., vain imaginations

    soon , began to affect the minds of the operators * Hike a mist and darkness , obscuring the light of heaven . Amid the gathering mist , the genius , and the distinguished operator whose ma ^ chine he had re-constructed , and who

    was now pursuing his employment in the most gloriously beneficial manner , became absolutely -confounded in the view of the gazing multitude . And even the invisible influence of the genius seemed occasionally , to assume the appearance of a third person distinct

    from / the genius himself . With" i : hese phenomena some were mightily pleased ? and sq much was this strange confiiaed phenomenon preferred to a oistioct view q £ the genius , and of this eserying object of his beneficence , each in his proper person , character and : relations , that it soon came to be

    regarded as the height ; of presumption to attem pt the la&ec ; and nothing would < jo , bat every body iHust . me . a contradictory , or at VvasV an unintelligible assemblage ~ of vsrords , in-describing JJ | tnptic presentation 'ih which T ^ fe toried . $ t vftii Moreover report-2 ? W s ^ me ^ ic -ie ' nt' logfends ; thai ? ^ J fr&Wft eF Bfessed' a / k inherent ! ^ mW $ * t $ \ . J ^ s ' pnly tfe jTSpv ^ -- ui > r , .-n fr » - ¦ TS ^ Ts " ' 7 ~ . > ^^ . fjl imtT ^^ C ;^^ i f »» 9 rtW * y ^ inJK ^ ^ ;« &ijw *** in + * km $ ?*\ > «¦« # * of tte defunct , whieh J * re pre-

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    outward case , or visible frame work which would be broken and dissolved , and tha . t though after this their movements would be imperceptible , yet that they would be more efficient than ever . Uniting with ibis notion the figurative idea of ajiery tricd \ contain * ed in the instructions , they fancied they continually saw , in the mist in

    wnt ^ d more particularly to the rude uncultivated mind , particularly in dreams and reveries . What is the whole history of ghosts , but the detail of the workings of the " untutored * ' imagination , mistakingits fancies for realities ? And what is the doctrine of the separate existence of the soul or percipient principle , after that the

    vital functions have ceased , and man is ** returned to his duMy" but the same creature of the imagi nation , attempted to be realized by metaphysical refinements , but which iu fact eludes the grasp of reason , and by refining vanishes into a nonentity , devoid of all those properties , which are

    essential to our very idea of existence ? Can there be any two opinions more opposed to each other , than that of the Psalmist , that in the very day in which man ceases to breathe his thoughts perish , and that of Psychologists , that the soul *< will never die V Does not Christianity 4 * bring life and immortality to light , " by

    ' * abolishing death , ' not by representing " that the soul remains untouched by the fatal stroke ? By forgetting that the same fate 4 * befalleth the dons of men -which befallcth beasts 9 " that ' * all are of the dusty and ail turn to dust- again , " have not dead men been represented M as ( rods ** * ' usurping er sharing the throne of

    the Creator , or as demons" and ** fiends incarnate" destined to a state of end ) e $ s burnings ? While the Scriptures constantly hold forth the doctrine that man is , dust , aad that Jehovah is ** the only living ana true Cod , " who at his appointed day will raise all men up from the Xi dust of death " rnt ? b which they are sunk to the " glorious

    Iig'htof * renewed ** Kfej" how have man * kind been troubled with mere phantoms Of life and immortality and with " chimeras dire , " while biblical truth in its simplicity has . been in a great degree hidden from their eyes L Who can doubt the beneficent designs of that Goxl who after wiping '

    away sin by death , its ** finishing stroke , at length proclaims an universal abolition of this " king of terrors" and brings lift * and immortality to light ; and yet further reveals to us lhat our gr « at •* adversary ** sin ,, with his angels , deatt ^ and his at tendants ; shall be cast into the lake uf dtfstructtda ? I F . f' 1 Peter iv . 1 $ . ' Sec also Matt .. *** . 41 *

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    Mechanism y an Allegory * 389

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    * - XI . ' a F ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1816, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2454/page/17/