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« who , proud , at the commencement of the Gbristiaia era , of your recently imported Gnosticism , perverted by its Cystic doctrine the simple tenets of Christianity . It was you who , ever preferring the improbable and the marvellous to the natural and the probable ,
have contended for taking- in a literal , and therefore * in an absurd sense , a thousand expressions which , in the phraseology of the East , were only meant as figurative and symbolical $ and it was you who have set the baneful example of admitting in religious matters , the most extraordinary deviations froin the course of nature and from
human experience , on such partial and questionable evidence as , in the ordinary affairs of man , and in a modern court of justice , would not be received on the most common and probable occurrence /'
Father Ambrogio , who conceived that every reflection upon the Greeks must be in favour of the Romans , was delighted with this speech , and , as he went away , earnestl y recommended to me to treasure up in my memory all the sagacious sayings of the wise man whom I had the happiness to serve .
But it was not long before he changed his mind . The very next day , when I called on Eugenius , I found padre Ambrogio in most angry discussion with him about the doctrine of Divine clemency , which the friar could not abide . Eugenius at last was obliged to say in his laughing way , that since the father appeared scr incurably anxious for endless punishment , all he
could do for him , was to pray that , by a single exception in his favour , he at least might be damned to all eternity . Father Ambrogio , who never laughed , and who hated Eugenius the more for always laughing , upon this speech left the room : but the next time he met
me alone , he very seriously cautioned me against 6 n £ wferi , he was stire , must be a devil incarnate . ' T " . " £ ' w »» j * - t . "fetish » little o $ i g $ J k , 9 i ^ »}^ liu ctomynon a meje . ieasehoW , n ^ tead of a perpetuity /? , Meai * wltfle I resolved not to be too sure , and , wheft Eugewus totfk off l ? is clothes , watched whether I could perceive the cloven fodt . Nothing apjpearing at all like it , and « is disposition seeming gentle , oblig-
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ing and humane , I began to be fond of his company , —until , from , liking the man , I unfortunately by degrees came not to dislike some parts of tile doctrine of which he was the apostle .
Eugenius differed in One respect from his brethren of the new school . While they wished to subvert all former systems in toto , ere they began to reedify according to their new plan , he , on the contrary , only contended for the appeal to reason on points of internaf faith , and urged , in external practices , the propriety of conforming to the established worship : —and this , not from selfish , but philanthropic motives ; " for / ' said he , " while the vulgar retain a peculiar belief , they will close their eyes and hearts against whatever practical good those wish to do them who join not in their creed ; and should they , in imitation of their
betters , give up some of their idle tenets , —unable immediately , like those they imitate , to replace the checks of superstition by the powers of reason , they will only from bad lapse into worse , let loose the reins to their passions , and exchange errors for crimes /* Now , in conformity to this doctrine of my masters , what could be clearer than that it behoved me , where the Koran was become the supreme law , —as a quiet , orderly citizen , zealous in support of the establishment , —with all possible speed to become a Mohammedan ? Should there happen to be any personal advantage ' connected with this public duty $ should my conforming to it open the door to places
and preferments , from which I otherwise mu ^ t remain shut out ; should it raise me from the rank of the vanquished to that of the victors , and enable me , instead of being treated
with contempt by the Turkish beggar , to elbow the Greek prince , was that my fault ? Or could it be a motive to abstain fi ^ m what was right , that it was also profitable !
The arguments appeared to me so conclusive , that I had only been watching for an opportunity to throw off the contemptuous appellation of Nafczarene , and to become associated to the great aristocracy of Mamisroi sbin , e time before the rair Esm 6 lent the peculiar grsice of her accent to r tile AHah Illah Allah of tKe Mohammedans i and though , for the credit ofcmfy
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/ - r- . - • • nitiatton of a Moslemin . 81
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VOL . xv . m
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 81, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/17/
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