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Untitled Article
World in the same way that the motions of the heavenly bodies , which Werfc &t first matters of mere curiosity to a few shepherds , were soon connected by the imaginations of men with human affairs , and rendered subservient to gross and wretched superstitions . The influence of delusions will be always detrimental to
happiness , inasmuch as they have a tendency to withdraw men ' s attention from those subjects in which their welfare is really implicated , and lead to eccentric modes of action , incompatible with the regular and beneficial course of duty and discretion . They are liable , too , to be exalted into sacred articles of faith , and
to swell into an imaginary importance , which rouses all the energy of the passions in their support . It is thus that discord and dissension , intolerance and persecution , have sometimes been the bitter fruits of what was , at first , an apparently harmless and improbable dream . Nor is
it to be forgotten , that delusions of this kind could never prevail without some weakness of understanding or imperfection of knowledge , incompatible with a thorough insight into the means of happiness , and therefore inconsistent with the highest state of felicity . A belief in
them would necessarily involve logical errors , the consequences of which could not be confined to a single subject , but would extend themselves to others , where they might be highly injurious . The
same fallacious principles which deluded mankind on one occasion , with perhaps little detriment , would carry them from the direct path of their real interest , in affairs where such aberrations might be Of vital importance /'—Pp . 110—112 .
This subject is continued in the Third Section , in which the author meets the question , Whether his posi - tion of the advantages of truth and the mischiefs of error is corroborated b y the experience of mankind ? Opinions , it is alleged , can have but a
feeble influence on the happiness of private life . Beyond the circle of common knowledge , which is forced on every mind , says the objector , truth ana error can be of importance only to speculative men : the results on a large scale are much the same , whatever men believe or disbelieve .
< c But if he reason thus , he will overlook a thousand points at which the state of moral , theological and political opinions , touches on public welfare and private happiness . Knowledge of truth is essential to correctness of practice ; , and this is true , not only of individuate , but of communities . Tke prevalence of terrer
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H&tjV therefore * be expected to m&alfest itself in absurd and pernicious practices and institutions ; and we hare only to look into the history of superstition and barbarism , to see its effects on the hap .
piness of private life . Although that happiness may essentially depend on the qualities of individuals and their peculiar circumstances , is it of no importance that it should be secured fVom the violent interference of others ? that even the
charices of evil should be lessened ? Is it no advantage to be free from the gloomy fears of superstition , to be absolved from the burden of fanatical rites , from absurd and mischievous institutions , from oppressive laws , and from a state of society in which unmeaning ceremonies are substituted for the duties of virtue ? Is
unrestrained liberty of innocent action , and security of property and existence , worthless ? Is it nothing to be removed from the risk of the dungeon and the stake , for the conscientious profession of opinions ; to be rid of the alternative of the
scaffold on the one hand , and , on the other , ( of ) the sacrifice of conscience and honour ?"—Pp . 115 * 116 . " Let huii that is sceptical as to the vast importance of truth , cast his eye down the long catalogue of crimes and cruelties which stain the annals of
the past , and examine the melioration which has taken place in the practices of the world , and he will not again inquire into the nature of those advantages which follow the destruction of error . All the liberality of thinking which now prevails , the spirit of resistance to
tyranny , the contempt of priestcraft , the comparative rarky and mildness of religious persecution , the mitigation of national prejudices , the disappearance of a number of mischievous superstitions , the abolition of superfluous , absurd and sanguinary laws , are so many exemplifications
of the benefits resulting from the progress of moral and political truth . They arc triumphs , all of them , over established error , and imply , respectively , either the removal of a source of misery or a positive addition to the sources of happiness . " —Pp . 117 , 118 .
The author pertinently refers * in further illustration of his principle , to the evils that have flowed from false notions in political economy , and from the capital error in morals , before exposed , that guilt may be incurred by mere opinions .
Section IV ., is < On Freedom of Discussion as the Means of attaining Truth . " Admittjttg the pernicious ness of error , it folloWB , as a necessary consequence , that the sole end of
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626 Review .- " -Essay 8 on the Forinatioh and PuiHeatkm of Opinion *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 626, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/42/
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