On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
over the inquiry itt which > ye are en- * gaged . The passage which I have taken from the opening of the grandest poem in our language , contains a prayer which I can heartily adopt ; and as the author was a man of deep piety , and , moreover , held Calvinistic
opinions , I presume you can feel no objection to unite in it * The circumstance of its being expressed in metre aught to be no hindrance to you , since the pious king of Israel and the prophets were poets . It really will not be amiss to # ive
our minds an airing . Polemics liave the effect of confining and cramping the intellect , so long as the object be to dispute about the import of terms ; and as we shall be obliged to bestow some time on this sort of employment ,
it may , perhaps , cheer and strengthen us if we first take a little excursion , and ascend a height whence we may catch a prospect of the country , after which we will descend and apply ourselves diligently to our work
Let us plant ourselves in imagination on the highest summit of the Andes . These immense ridges appear to be the back-bone of the earth . We see around us on every side u Mountains on whose snowy breast The Jab ' ring clouds do ofttimes rest . "
How insignificant an animal does man become when stationed on these giddy eminences ! But no wonder that we should thus feel while we are placed at a distance from human habitations , and from large assemblies of men . Let us shift the scene and
ily to Mount Cassius—whence we perceive an army advancing with banners spread , and all the pornp and circumstance of war : they approach a dark and extensive moor . Turn your eyes another way for a few minutes . Now look again . Where is the army we
saw so lately ? Not a trace of it remains ; yes , on more minute observation I perceive a few soldiers struggling to pet out of a morass . Alas ! they are the sole relics of that grand army . The rest are swallowed up in that Sirbonian bog . Again , how insignificant a creature is maul Hie
we to a city—the haunt of busy man —here surely he will appear to more advantage—here he displays the effects of collective exertion . YVe will go to Aaitioch , where the followers of Jesus
Untitled Article
were first palled Christians- This beautiful hill twill command a view of it * Here are temples and palaces , streets and squares , and swarms of human beings , engaged in the pursuit of business or of pleasure . What numbers of horses and carriages ! How durable are the works of man 1 Some of these
magnificent buildings have stood for ages ; perhaps they may last as long as the very hill on which we stand . But the clouds are gathering , we shall be caught in a storm . Now it rages * Surely the earth shakes - yes , indeed * r that lofty tower which we were
admiring , topples—it falls . Temples , palaces and mansions are laid in the dust , and the people are buried beneath the ruins . Alas , for man ! in bis proudest state he is but vanity . Hie we to some distant plain . We are now in Chaldea—famous for its
astronomers . Having seen so much to humble us , in our own planet , we will lift up our eyes and contemplate the host of heaven . The words of the royal . Psalmi 3 t come to our
remembrance—* ' When I consider thy heavens , the work of thy fingers , the moon and the stars , which thou hast ordained ; O Lord , what is man that thou art mindful of him ? and the son
of man that thou visitest him VLook where we will , this truth of the weakness of man , and of his entire dependence upon the power and mercy of his Omnipotent Maker , forces itself upon the attention . " Now , if nature
should intermit her course , and leave altogether , though it were but for a while , the observation of her own laws —if those principal and mother elements of the world , whereof all things in this lower world are made , should
lose the qualities which they now have —if the frame of that heavenly arch , created over our heads , should loosen and dissolve itself—if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions , and by irregular volability turn
themselves any way—if the prince of the lights of heaven , which now , as a giant , doth run his unwearied course * should , as it were , through a languishing faintness , begin to stand and to rest himself—if the moon should
wander from her beaten way—the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture—the winds breathe out their last gasp—the clouds yield no rain—
Untitled Article
A Friendly Correspondence between en Unitarian and a Calviaist * 2 Jf
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1824, page 277, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2524/page/21/
-