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straBifth with puberty , declined in old age , Sad was annihilated in death . This was not a work containing the doubts of a sceptic , but asserting t&at of which it said there wasnortioabt . It stated , that unless you were prepared to admit that an immaterial principle existed in the & mi&erty , declined in old
whole class of animals , down , to the animalcule , you could not ascribe it to man . He did not go on to inform his pupils , that although zoological reasoning did not enable them to ascertain this principle , yet they might learn from revelation what it was impossible for the imperfectiou of human science to discover . Had
the book made such a reservation in favour of the doctrines disclosed in Scripture , then , indued , it might be said to contain what had been called by his fearned friend Mr . Shad well , the antidote to the poison But that was not
{ he case . He denied the authenticity of Scripture , and scoffed at religion , rather than made a reservation in its favour ; abstaining from any where stating that " that which was inconsistent with
zoological reasoning , existed , nevertheless , theologically . Mr . Shadwell had quoted a passage from p . 7 , which he ( Mr . Wethercll ) had abstained from reading in his opening of the case out of delicacy to Mr . Lawrence ; as he thought it was sufficient to charge him with what he had directly asserted , without alluding to that which bore a doubtful construction . But
since Mr . Shadwell had used the passage for the purpose of shewing that it contained a corrective to the offensive passages , he ( Mr . Wetherell ) should be allowed to use it also . [ The learned counsel then read the passage alluded to , which spoke of the theological doctrine of the immortality of the soul as depending upon a different authority from that
of natural reason , and calling it a sublime doctrine ; and one , the introduction of which , as it had existed in all age . s , and amongst all nations , &c , was not suited to that place . ] He contended that this passage was not meant to create respect towards the authority of revelation . The word ** sublime" seemed rather to he used in a sense of ridicule than
otherwise , for it was put in antithesis with the powers of the anatomist and the physiologtst , by which the immaterial being could not be discovered , and that there- ^ fore the doctrine was too sublime to be true . Its introduction not being " suited to that place , ' * namely , the theatre of the College of Surgeons , seemed also to be meant as a sneer . He should have gone
ori to state , that * what we cannot demonstrate is made clear by divine revelation . " He did not do ao ; hut rather Put the Bible on the shelf altogether ; ar * d therefore the passage contained none
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of the antidote ascribed to it by Mi ^ Shadwell . And then as to the passage in which he denied the truth of the deluge , and the peopling of the earth by the descendants of Adam and Eve as being zoologically impossible ; there , also , he refrained from stating that it might have taken place by miraculous interposition of the antidote ascribed to it bv Mr * .
of the Deity . There was also another passage in the work which he ( Mr . Wetherell ) was compelled to say , so far from its reserving a saving to revelation , was intended to revile religion . It spoke of the peculiar virulence of religious controversy as being proverbial , and said the odium theologicurn was a fiend that should not be suffered to intrude into the fair
garden of science . Now , although the words odium theologicurn might , taken abstractedly , be said to apply to the controversy , yet , when coupled with what went before and what followed , it was pretty evident that they were intended
to apply to the dogmas themselves , as constituting the ugly fiend whose admission would deface the beautiful parterres of the modern garden of science . The passage that followed , also , in which Churchmen were railed at for the
abusive epithets they were in the habit of pouring forth upon their controversial antagonists , when placed in contact with what went before and came after it , particularly when contrasted with the term " sublime , " shewed what sort of corrective was intended for those parts of the work which impugned the doctrines contained in revelation . Mr . Shadwell had
quoted passages from the works of a long list of eminent divines . He ( Mr . Wetherell ) was not a little astonished to hear the wames of Butler , Locke , Paley , Warburton and others , cited in support of the doctrines contained in this work . There certainly might be some terms in the holy writings which had engaged the attention
of great and learned men , as throwing some doubt upon the state of existence iu the intervening period between the death of a body and its resurrection ; but they had never said that it was therefore to be inferred that the annihilation of the soul took place with that of the body . The term ekoimethesan 9 as used bv St .
Paul , Mr . Wetherell contended , had not the meaning imputed to it by Mr . Shadwell . It was used in a neuter , not a positive sense , and did not imply the extinction of the soul , but was meant to express the intermediate state , whatever
that state might be . So the word psyche , which was used in the Septuagint , as occurring in the book of Genesis , did not , merely because it had a comprehensive sense , therefore imply an immaterial principle in the brutes and fishes , as well as in man . An allusion had been made
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Intelligence—Law Report : ' Lawrence v . Smith * 3 Sf
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 387, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/67/
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