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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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386 Protest agmnst the Marriage Service .
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Nor moral Excellence , nor social Bliss , Nor Law were his ; nor Property , nor Swain To turn the Furrow , nor mechanic Hand Harden ' d to Toil , nor Servant prompt , nor Trade Mother severe of infinite Delights !"
Servant prompt is in the edition 1730 , Sailor bold , an instance of the author ' s minute attention to the phraseology of his poem . Such are the materials for comparlnor t . Vi p first nnrf Intpr p . riitinns of Sum .-
m ^ r which are offered to any of your readers who have leisure and inclination for such pursuits . To borrow the language of a critic on the Seasons , whom I before quoted , they will , I think , " easily perceive that most of the changes which the poem has
undergone are happy improvements , " that ** the disposition of the parts has been altered for the better , " and that "it has been improved in symmetry and grace , without losing any part of its original dignity and vigour /' I am not aware that Thomson ' s great attention to the revision of the Seasons has been noticed by any of his
biographers , except Dr . Johnson , who says , " These poems , with which I was acquainted at their first appearance , I have since found altered and enlarged by subsequent revisals , as the author supposed his judgment to grow more exact , and as books or conversation extended his knowledge and opened his prospects . " Yet ,
though " improved in general , " he doubts " whether they have not lost part of what Temple calls their race ; a word which applied to wines , in their primitive sense , means the flavour of the soil . " Waller has somewhere said , that " Poets lose half the praise they would have got , Were it but known what they discreetly blot /'
However this praise may have been sparingly bestowed on Thomson , of a higher , and also a justly deserved reputation , he has not been defrauded . In the prologue to Coriolanus , acted after the author ' s death , in 1748 , for the benefit of his sisters , the poet's friend , Lord Lyttleton happily says of Thomson ' s Muse , that she " cm ploy'd her heav ' nt aught lyre ,
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None but the noblest passions to inspire Not one immoral , one corrupted thought One line , which , dying , he might wish to blot . " VERMICULUS .
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Cheetwood , near Manchester Sir , July 19 , 1822 . HAVING frequently found your page 3 devoted to the consideration of the inconveniences which attach to Unitarians in the solemnization of Marriage , on account of their being obliged to conform to the ceremony instituted by the Established
Church on that occasion , I have presumed to address you upon that subject , —not indeed for the purpose of pointing out any farther objections to it , but to impress upon Unitarians in general , the propriety of adopting a method which I conceive would be
the means of exciting more attention to the subject , and would have a favourable tendency in promoting the alteration which the Society for protecting the Civil Rights of Unitarians are endeavouring to obtain .
It has been often said , that Unitarians in general are indifferent as to this matter , because they have hitherto ( with a few exceptions ) submitted in silence to that ceremony ; and I must confess that the charge is apparently too well founded . I therefore conceive it to be the duty of all
Unitarians , entering into the marriage state , solemnly to protest against the performance of a ceremony which inculcates doctrines directly opposed to the principles of Unitarianism . By thus publicly and firmly expressing their dissent to such a violation of their religious opinions , the
Legislature will perceive the propriety and necessity of some alteration in the existing laws relating to Marriage . Surely , the consideration that thus a considerable portion of English subjects are compelled to submit to so great a degradation as that of openly
admitting a doctrine the truth or which they deny , ought to have great weight with Parliament ; but whilst so much indifference is manifested in silently submitting to such fi proceeding , it is but reasonable far their opponents to infer , that to thfyn it is a
matter of but little importance . Therefore , when instaoces . of individuals go protesting for conscience'
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1822, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2515/page/30/
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