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they none . Eichhorn , who , in the Memoir to which I have referred , has exposed the false reasoning of Semler with great clearness and energy , subjoins , [ p . 176 , ] " It is very true , no state can allow its subjects , by doubts and opposition , to make those
principles fluctuating and uncertain on which the peace and virtue of mankind rest . No care can be superfluous to protect practical religion from every possible danger , and to promote ignorance on many points in those classes to whom it is beneficial , and to whom to be
enlightened on these points would be injurious . But it has no right to force ignorance on those classes to whom illumination is necessary , arid to whose peace it is indispensable . We take the sword from the child that he may not wound himself : we restore it to
the man that he may use it for his defence > and we train up the child that he may learn to use it when his time comes . And thus it is the duty of a nation to provide instruction for ever } class of its citizens , and so make them constantly susceptible of higher degrees
of illumination , but never to subjugate the mind by oppressive decrees / ' Metaphors seldom run on all-fours ; and we fear that if governments are to decide who among their subjects are arrived at an age to be safely trusted
with edge-tools ,, it will be only in some of those German principalities , whose extent has been so pleasantly described by Mr . Canning , that ministers of state will have leisure for such an investigation . Most of them , we believe , would
think it a shorter and better way to allow no sword to be forged but at a royal manufactory , nor sold but by a special licence . We are very sure that Kichhorn did not mean to include professors in the universities among those for whom too much illumination is not
good ; yet the governments of Germany have shewn of late that they by no means rejoice in the light which some of them emit . The professors of
Gottingen are too prudent to make it necessary for the Hanoverian government to teach them their duty to the state by violent means ; but some of their neighbours appear to be less discreet . One of the measures which the
Congress of Carlsbad devised for the tranquillity of Germany was to establish a commissioner of government in every university ; who should especially
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watch over the conduct of the professors . Their first care was of course to be , that no democratic doctrines should be taught ; but theological heresies were also to be carefully watched . The following is an extract from the instructions to the commissioner at the
University of Heidelberg , dated Dec . 2 , 1819 . After a preamble , professing that nothing which follows is designed to check the progress of scientific knowledge and real illumination , it goes on , " The superintendence of public instruction shall consist not only in inspection of the manuals and
compendia , according to which the Lectures are avowedly delivered , but the commissioner may satisfy himself , in other ways , that the professor does not in his oral instructions depart from what lie has traced in his manual , and infringe upon the principles which have been laid down . If he should find that this
is done , he is to admonish the professor of his misconduct , and if he does not alter it , he is to report him to the Minister of the Interior , that he may be deposed for contumacy . This rigid superintendence is to be exercised particularly over the departments of
theology , philosophy and history , and the commissioner is especially to take care , that the nowious spirit of innovation be banished from the Eocegesis of the Scriptures , which must be founded upon the inviolability of the established doctrine , and limits be set to mysticism ; that philosophy do not presume
to enter into the province of what is positively taught and enjoined by divine authority , nor inspire a pernicious scepticism by inquiries into subjects which lie beyond its province and its reach—a scepticism which philosophy is unable to tranquillize , and for which
it can give no compensation . " We doubt exceedingly whether the ingenious works which have placed Eichhorn at the head of the present race of theological scholars in Germany , would be found upon examination to respect the inviolability of established doctrines ; we fear that his Exegesis might
appear to the higher powers to l > e animated by a noxious spirit of innovation 3 and would he not think it hard to be compelled to suppress his own opinions out of deference to the ignorant prejudices of a commissioner or a minister of the interior ? And yet if the government should think , as some
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Biographical Sketch of J . S . Semler , 71
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 71, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/7/
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