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4 £ 2 Review . ' —Chalmerss Astronomical Discourses
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contented with stigmatizing an ofcn jection 9 s visionary , but he must give it a visionary answer . He is resolved to have a monopoly of phantoms : and he actually supposes that he can vanquish infidelity with the ever * shifting machinery of a dream I The third Discourse entitled , ** On the Extent of the Divine Coadescen * sion , " is intended to support the second proposition , which we should have thought admitted of easy proof . Fortunately for the admirers of Dr . Chalmers , we were again- mistaken- The Sermon consists of a
continued series of declamations , intended to shew that the insignificance of our world , only serves to display more strikingly the goodness of God in providing for the interests of those who inherit it . We are referred to the discoveries of the microscope , as evincing that his power is as clearly
to be traced in the formation of the meanest insect , as in the most stupendous works of his hands : we are loaded with accumulative proof that an Almighty Being is no ^ subject to weariness , and oppressed , with illustrations of the newly discovered truth
• r that benevolence to a whole , does not exclude attention to its most obscure parts . There is aot a word in all this which can be disputed , and scarcely one that bears upon the question * The difficulty is not that we should be within the view of an all-seeing eye , wot that we should be
provided for by the goodness of the Universal Parent , not that the Maker of all worlds should be able to regulate the concerns and to watch ofrer the happiness of each ; but that he should unite himself to our nature and . die to redeem us . To this , amidst all his profusion of eloquence .
Dr . Chalmers , has giveu no answer . His tinsel degrades the noble subjects on which he touches * He tries ; to illustrate great first principles * which nature lias stamped upon all our hearts , by the petty objects of time and sense- Why must we be
perpetually taught by microscopes and microscopic reasoning , that the ** tender mercies of God a , re over all his works" ? - Our author has now , to his own satisfaction at least , demonstrated his two proposition ^; and yet it should ' seem that infidelity has not received
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its mortal wound * for we are not arrived at the middle of the volume . His fourth Discourse ,, " . On the Knowledge of Man ' s Morar History in the Distant Plac e * of the Creation , " exhibits a bolder flight into untried regions than any which precedes it .
It , therefore , appropriately begins by rebuking all daring speculation , and exposing the folly of those who desire to be wise above that which is written . The author is resolved , at least , to start from solid ground ; for
he sets out with informing us that *« while man keeps by the objects that are near ( how can he do otherwise }) he cmn get the knowledge of them conveyed into his mind through the ministry 7 of the senses . " This proposition
which , " oft was thought but ne ' er so well expressed , " is briefly illustrated by reference to the uses of the touch , the smell , the taste and the ear ; hut the eye is reserved for a more magnificent encomium , since it is the most important ** of all the
tracts of conveyance which God „ has been pleased to open up between the . mind of man ai * d the theatre by which he is surrounded . " We are told , however * that there is a limit beyond which it cannot penetrate ; and , therefore , a due humility ought to
check our inquiries . The philosopher is exhorted * ' not to forget that he sees not the landscape of other worlds ; that he knows not the moral system of any one of them ; nor athwart the long and trackless vacancy that lies between , does there fall upon his listening ear the hum of their-mighty populations . "
All . this * however ingenious , does not seem exactly to bear on the proposed thesis . At l ^ st we approach } th e . mighty subject —* but softly and by > regular steps * After it is established that we cannot see what i $ taking place in other worlds , it i& suggested
that asigels might , if so commissioned , supply this defect of our telescopes . The Bible too , may have given ttd some hints respecting distant systems ; though , as we are * not directed' to the precise- chapter ,, we are unai > le to ?
judge of their clearness * But po&si ~ bilities are enough * for our author . He- swroises- that perhaps the- inhabitants of other worlds are yet sinless ; that , if so , angelfr probably visit them as they did our : first parents in Eden ;
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/46/
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