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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1822, Edition 1 of 1, Page 359, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      No . CCCLXXXVII . Progressive Improvement of Mankind . To such of my readers ( says Condorcet ) as may be slow in admitting the possibility of this progressive improvement in the human race , allow ine to state , as an example , the history of that science in which the advances

      of discovery are the most certain , and in which they may be measured with the greatest precision . Those elementary truths of geometry and of

      astronomy , which in India and Egypt formed an occult science , upon which an ambitious priesthood founded its influence , were become , in the times of Archimedes and Hipparchus , the subjects of common education in the

      public schools of Greece . In the last century , a fewyears of study were sufficient for comprehending all that Archimedes and Hipparchus knew ; and , at present , two years employed under an able teacher , carry the student beyond those conclusions which limited

      the inquiries of Leibnitz and of Newton Let any person reflect on these facts : let him follow the immense chain which connects the inquiries of Euler with those of a pr iest of Memphia , let him observe at each epoch HOW ffPnino niifn ^ Hinn 4- V » ^ x rvrnoAnf o < r a now genius outstrithe present

      ps age , and how it is overtaken by mediocrity m the next ; he will perceive that nature has furnished us with the means ° f abridging and facilitating our intellectual labour , and tkat there is no reason for apprehending that such ^ amplifications can ever have an end

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      nOtv adopted , of his own accord , the very identical usages which he forsook the Church for imposing . It will be the game with a newer and not less dangerous sect . The next generation will perceive Aof rnnscience cannot call upon them to

      quarrel with the words of the Bible—and when they hear from those who are learned in the Journals of Parliament , that a Bill was introduced into the House of Commons , in 1822 , for the purpose of

      compelling a Clergyman to curtail the rites of his Church , they will say that the Unitarians of such early times had more zeal than discretion , and strained at a gnat while they swallowed a camel .

      Untitled Article

      He will perceive that at the moment when a multitude of particular solutions , and of insulated fact 3 , begin to distract the attention and to overcharge the memory , the former gradually lose themselves in one general method , and

      the latter unite in one general law ; and that these generalizations , continually succeeding one to another , like the successive multiplications of a number by itself , have no other limit than that infinity which the human faculties are unable to comprehend .

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      Gleanings . 359

      Untitled Article

      No . CCCLXXXVIIL Osorius on the Persecution of the Jews in Portugal . Jerome Osorius , Bishop of Sylves , in his History of Emanuel , King of Portugal , speaks of that King * s cruel

      persecution of the Jews in the following generous and exalted language , particularly remarkable from a Portuguese Bishop : " Fuit quidem hoc nee ex lege nee ex religione factum . Quid enim ? Tu rebelles animos nulla

      que ad id suscepta religione constrictos , adigas ad eredendum ea , quae summa contentione aspernantur et respuunt ? Idque tibi assumus , ut libertatem voluntatis impedias , et vincula mentibus effrsenatis injicias ? At id neque fieri potest , neque Christi

      sanctissimum numen approbat . Voluntarium enim sacrificium , non vi et malo coactum ab hominibus expetit , neque vim mentibus inferri sed voluntates ad studium verae religionis allici et invitari jubet . Postrcrno quis non videt ita religionem per religiouis simulationem indignissime violari

      ?"—" This was neither lawful nor religious . Dost thou compel men hostile to Christianity to believe those things which they most vehemently reject ? Do you assume to yourself the right of hindering the freedom of the will , and casting chains upon minds which are free from bonds ? But that is not

      possible , nor does the most holy . divinity of Christ approve it . He seeks a voluntary sacrifice , not one forced from men by violence , nor does he command us to do violence to the minds of others , but to attract and invite their will to

      the study void love ot true religion Who does not see that by persecution religion , through the pretence of reli gion , suffers the most unworthy vio lence ' ?"

      Untitled Article

      GLEANINGS ; OR , SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL . READING .

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 359, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/39/