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sesried < a t dignitary , unknown elsewher e in the west , a Patriarch , and this dignity was of course sustained by immense revenues . The office is now abolished ^ and the vast riches attached to it appropr iated to national uses . Church-property , in general ,
has been taken into the hands of the Cortes ,, l > ut has not yet been brought to the hammer : in other respects the reform of the Portuguese Church corresponds to that of the Spanish . With a population of 3 , 000 , 000 of souls , all of the Roman Catholic religion , this
country has 3000 places of worship , and , including dignitaries , 4 , 465 clergymen , whose united income , graduated according to the Spanish scale , is 287 , 300 / ., being at the rate of about 100 , 000 / . per million of worshipers .
Here the numerous and miscellaneous claims upon our pages compel us to pause for the present month . Our readers will pardon us for introducing the new study of ecclesiastical statistics . What has been said with more
smartness than sobriety of the doctrine of the Trinity , may be certainly said with truth and gravity of the expediency of national churches , viz . that it ; i 3 a question of arithmetic : and since so much has been advanced from
the pulpit and the press concerning the worth of these political establishments , ( for . political they are more than religious , ) and some Dissenters have looked with so wistful an eye towards them , it is really necessary to inquire what they have cost : and when the bill is fairly made out against them , the several Christian
communities will , we doubt not , stand aghast at the sight of the sum-total , and then begin to inquire by what sorceries they have been bewitched out of so vast a portion of the fruits of their industry ?
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Art . II . —Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions ^ SfC ( Concluded from p . 558 . ) r I ^ HE Second of these Essays in JL " On the Publication of Opinions . " Taking for granted that belief is an involuntary act or state of the mind , which it was the object of the first Essay to prove , the author proposes to inquire hpw far the promulgation of belief is allowable ? To decide this , he appeals to the test of vol
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utility . The first Section i | ^ utr ^ du ^ tory * a statement of the question : the second is ** On the Mischiefs of Error and the Advantages of Truth . " The Essayist here boldly opposes the seep *
tical philosophy , and , adhering to his proposed test of utility , maintains both that the ultimate problem to be solved in metaphysics and morals is , What is most conducive to the real
happiness of mankind ? and that it would be a palpable absurdity to suppose that we could be benefited by mistakes relative to the means of obtaining happiness . Errors , it is allowed , may produce accidental benefit ; and the discovery of truth may
occasionally resemble in its effects the invention of mechanical improvements , which , on their first introduction , sometimes beget injury to individuals , and even transitory
incQnvenience to society : but partial and temporary evil is no solid objection to schemes which embrace general and permanent good . The welfare of the many is not to be sacrificed to the convenience of a few . If errors are
ever useful , they are less useful than truth , and therefore are absolute evils . But may there not be pleasant delusions ; falsehoods which delight while they do no harm ? May not the fond theory of the perfectibility of man , for instance , impart more gratification than a more sober and just estimate of the constitution of human
nature ? The author doubts whether romantic speculations ever yield more solid pleasure than philosophic views of mankind . But granting the contrary , it could happen only in the case of a few individuals ; and in their case , the expectations being formed on
insufficient grounds , as by the supposition they must be , that insufficiency would be liable occasionally to throw the mind into doubt . And the direct pleasure which such delusions , how flattering soever to the imagination , could afford , would be no compensation for the ultimate evils attendant
upon them . "None of the dreams of enthusiasm are destitute of some bearing on practice However remote they may appear from the present scene , and from the conduct of life * inferences will not fail to be drawn and applied from one . tQ 4 Jieo ^ h $ i \ Tk ^ se sanguine creations and celestial visions will be linked to the business of the
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£ levieib * ' -- Efimvs ' on the Formation and Publication qf&pinions . 62 &
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. xvii . 4 c
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 625, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/41/
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